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The Adventures of Grace Mary Berry WRAF

In June 1918, at the age of 22, Grace Mary Berry joined the Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF). In her diary, “My Adventures as a M.T. Driver in the Royal Air Force” she vividly describes her life as a Motor Transport driver with 44 (Home Defence) Squadron at RAF Hainault Farm.

Selected for display in the Royal Air Force Museum’s ‘First World War in the Air’ exhibition, I was required to digitise the diary. Through scanning and transcribing each page, I became fascinated at how active Grace’s life was at this time and was enlightened by her stories. She is very honest in her diary, humorously describing driving mishaps and her frustrations with her Crossley Tender called “Tin Lizzie” which is constantly breaking down and in need of repair.

Other than driving in and around London, she describes in detail the other tasks she has to do:
“Today I have spent cleaning Tin Lizzie’s engine with petrol and paraffin and scraping carbon from the cylinder jacket, cleaning spark plugs etc, so it has been terribly dirty work and I should think I have washed a dozen times and am still dirty.”

Although she provides amusing insight into her role, at times Grace highlights the hazardous nature of the job:
“It was dark returning and I had no headlights and only one side lamp which was most awkward and exciting along the narrow winding country lanes, but fortunately we arrived back safely.”
In a later, but similar episode she complains, “…it is wicked to send girls out under such bad conditions.”

Grace Berry’s diary, to me, provides a rare but vital perspective on the changing boundaries for women during the First World War. Grace thrives on the independence her role as an MT driver provides, however, still comments that some of the difficulties she faced should not be endured by young women. Grace continued her service with the WRAF until she was demobilised in June 1919. Her last entry of 1918 begins:
“The last day of the year – What an extraordinary year it has been for me, full of adventure.”

Our ‘First World War in the Air’ exhibition is supported by BAE Systems and the Heritage Lottery Fund

17 July 2014
More Ugly Duckling Than Sparrow

The Jack Bruce Collection, while providing an in-depth survey of British aircraft produced prior to 1919, includes a number of unusual aircraft, of which the AD Scout, known as the Sparrow, was one.

This unhappy-looking aircraft was designed by the Air Department of the Admiralty in 1915, just as the ‘Zeppelin Menace’ was beginning to spread alarm and despondency. Charged with the defence of Great Britain, the Admiralty chose to design an aircraft around the recoilless Davis gun, in which it was then interested. This weapon simultaneously fired not only a shell forwards but also a projectile of the same mass, made from lead balls and grease, backwards, thus cancelling the effect of recoil. It was clearly hoped, not without reason, that the effect of such a shell upon a German airship would be devastating. However, after much experimentation, the gun was abandoned in 1918.

Despite its name, the resulting aircraft was most un-Sparrow-like. In the words of Jack Bruce, ‘an enormously tall undercarriage was necessary, but the track of the wheels was absurdly narrow’. While the pilot’s position in the nacelle granted him an excellent all-round view, entry was, by necessity, via a ladder, while exiting appeared to be accomplished by leaping from the cockpit.

Somewhat surprisingly, four of these aircraft were ordered, although only was completed and flown. Perhaps this was a blessing, as the aircraft was considerably overweight and, powered only by an 80hp Gnome rotary engine, performance was disappointing. It was also reported as being ‘tricky to fly’. If the aircraft had seen service, it undoubtedly would have operated by night. This would have presented a host of problems, not least of which would have been landing with such a narrow track undercarriage in darkness.

The AD Scout was, Jack Bruce noted, ‘quickly abandoned.’

18 June 2014
Identifying Historic Aircraft Joysticks

The RAF Museum Research Department is regularly contacted by members of the public wishing to know more about historic aircraft components found in attics, recovered from aircraft wreck sites or bought at car boot sales. Where the Museum has similar objects in its own three-dimensional collections it is usually quite easy for us to help.

However, in some cases we have to rely on the information contained in reference books held by our Library to find out what these items are and which aircraft they were fitted to.

For example, over the last few months I have been involved in identifying a number of unusual aircraft control column grips – better known as joysticks – and I am going to review here some of the published sources at our disposal.

We have a large collection of technical publications dating from the First World War to the present day, which include illustrations such as this one showing the control handle of a British fighter from 1918.

This type of joystick was fitted to several types of RAF fighters in service from the end of the First World War and into the 1920s. One of these aircraft was the Sopwith Snipe as can be seen from the illustrated in parts list for the Snipe, as seen below.

Typically, enquirers send us a photograph of an aircraft component together with details of any letters and numbers stamped onto it. If we are given a maker’s part number for an RAF joystick we can sometimes identify it from a copy of the appropriate RAF stores vocabulary list. Our Library is lucky enough to have a few copies of these vocabulary lists for section 27J “Aircraft Gun Firing Buttons and Ring Control Handles”. The sample page seen below shows both the RAF stores numbers and maker’s part numbers for several RAF joysticks from the late 1940s.

However, if we are unable to trace the control column through a part number, we can turn to a very useful series of manuals for individual RAF aircraft types known as Pilot’s Notes. They were published from the early part of WW2 until the 1960s and usually contain very clear black-and-white photographs of the aircraft’s cockpit. A typical example of a Second World War Plot’s Notes photograph showing the cockpit of a Saro Lerwick flying boat with the control column clearly visible can be seen below.

As well as the Pilot’s Notes, the parts lists for aircraft can also be useful. These identify parts of an individual aircraft type by number and in some cases they also include illustrations. This is a good example of an illustration from the Schedule of Spare Parts for the Hawker Typhoon.

In our collection of manufacturers’ publications we hold two very nice examples of catalogues published in the 1950s by the Aviation Division of the Dunlop Rubber Company Limited showing the wide range of their products, which included firing control handles fitted to control columns. The detailed photographs in these catalogues are much clearer than those in the Pilot’s Notes and used in conjunction with other sources they can be of great help.

The number of well-illustrated commercially published books on aircraft cockpits has increased noticeably in recent years and some of the titles held by the Museum’s Library are shown here. They include “Fighting cockpits 1914-2000: Design and development of military aircraft cockpits” and “The Aircraft Cockpit” by L.F.E. Coombs, “Famous Aircraft Cockpits” and “Famous Aircraft Cockpits 2” by Hiroshi Seo,“German Aircraft Interiors 1935-1945” by Kenneth Merrick, “German Aircraft Cockpits 1911-1970” by Peter Cohausz , “Cockpits of the Cold War Cockpits” by Donald Nijboer and Daniel Patterson and “At the controls: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum book of cockpits” by Tom Alison and Dana Bell.

As I hope I have been able to demonstrate, the Museum’s Library holds quite a lot of information on joysticks as it does about many other types of RAF aircraft components and equipment and by using the various sources at our disposal we are often able to identify an item and link it to the type of aircraft it is associated with.

29 May 2014
Behind the Scenes – Diving for the Dornier

Work is progressing to recover the Dornier 17 from the seabed at Goodwin Sands in Kent. Following on from the recent Blog entry from Seatech we thought people would like to see a short video of how the diving teams operate on board the GPS Apollo.

In the video you can see how the divers work together for this complex and delicate task. The divers work in teams and rotate every 40 minutes. As you will see from the footage the weather conditions at sea can change very quickly in a short space of time.

View the footage here :

And for further information see the video below:

30 May 2013
Handley Page Hampden Restoration

The Hampden in the Michael Beetham Conservation Centre, P1344, was built at the Handley Page factory at Cricklewood and was released to service in December 1939.

P1344’s first posting was onto 14 Operational Training Unit and consequently the aircraft didn’t fly on any operations. When the aircraft type was withdrawn from front-line duties, some of the Hampden fleet went through a major conversion program to allow the aircraft to carry a torpedo; these aircraft were designated as TB1.

Following its TB1 conversion, P1344 was posted to 144 Sqn which was stationed at RAF Leuchars and came under Coastal Command. The aircrew practiced for their new role by carrying drain pipes filled with sand to simulate their new payloads. Whilst on 144 Sqn, P1344 flew its only ‘op’ to Christiansand but the target was not spotted, so did not release its torpedo.

P1344 was tasked along with 31 other Hampdens (15 from 144 Sqn and 16 from 455 RAAF Sqn) with transiting to the Kola Peninsula in Northern Russia to carry out Fleet protection duties for the Arctic Convoys. On the night of the 4/5th September 1942, the 32 Hampdens left Sumburgh in the Shetland Isles for the 8 hour ferry flight. The crew onboard PL-K (K for Kitty) were Pilot Officer Perry (pilot), Flight Sergeant G E Miller RCAF (navigator), Sergeant James Robertson (wireless operator and air gunner) and Sergeant Daniel Garrity (air gunner). The aircraft also carried a technician on the flight – engine fitter Corporal George Shepherd.

During the transit flight the outside air temperature plummeted and the aircraft started to experience icing problems and was struggling to maintain height. This caused a problem; they found that the aircraft didn’t have sufficient altitude to fly over the mountains in Sweden. The pilot changed course to fly over lower ground but unfortunately they ended up too close to a German airfield at Petsamo in occupied Finland. Whilst encountering ground fire they also witnessed two Messerschmitt Bf109s take-off and then engage them. The navigator, Flight Sergeant Miller, who was positioned in the nose of the aircraft, was conversing with the pilot, giving instructions on how to best avoid the incoming hostile aircraft. The Hampden was not a match for the German fighters and it did not take long before the pilot declared he was losing control and would be trying to land. During the air battle Sergeant James Robertson and Sergeant Daniel Garrity lost their lives.

The aircraft eventually ended up crash-landing in a wooded area in the Kola Peninsula. Due to the narrowness of the Hampden design the navigator found it impossible to move out of his position in the nose; Flight Sergeant Miller RCAF died during the crash-landing.

Pilot Officer Perry and Corporal Shepherd both survived the air battle and crash and were eventually captured, with both spending the remainder of the war as PoW’s.

After nearly 50 years sat inside the Arctic Circle, the aircraft was eventually found and was recovered to the UK via Rotterdam. The Royal Air Force Museum took ownership of Handley Page Hampden P1344 in 1992.

The project was first started at the RAF Museums Restoration Centre at Cardington and the aircraft has been in the MBCC for the last seven years. The rear fuselage section is the first component to undergo major restoration. Structural integrity of this section is nearing completion and the majority of the port internal skin has had corrosion treatment carried out, followed by an application of the final surface finish. Current projects include restoring the sidewalls of the bomb bay, structural and skin repairs on the starboard rear fuselage section and in-depth logging and photographing of the starboard internal framework, fixtures and fittings.

Following on from an email sent to the RAFM, some Hampden spares in Canada have become available for use on the project. Currently, the RAFM is in the process of taking ownership of these items.

Since our aircraft is only one of three known projects, planning is in the early stage for looking into carrying out a more in-depth restoration and conservation programme on the aircraft. Things being looked into include a Management Plan which will establish an end date for the project and identification of major components that the project is deficient of.

16 December 2010