102 Ceylon Squadron Forum

Among the many, many things sent to us by Joyce Kiddel were three letters sent to her husband Ken by a lady named Marion McCord Mooring.

I am hoping to talk to Tom about this lady some time soon, but in one of her very long letters she adds a photo of her husband's crew. The strange thing is that there are not seven people in the photo, there are nine!
We seem to have a few too many air gunners, so who is who I am not quite sure. I'll list the names and say that according to Marion the photo was taken on the 6th October 1944 and the duties they did are as it appears on the back of the photo.

F/T Edwin (Ted) Mooring - Pilot
P/O Dunnill - Nav - DFC
F/S Davey - WOp
F/O Hickson - F/E - DFC
F/S Anderson - R/G - DFM - Believe this could be A.F. Anderson, Gaz 21st May 1945 (Chris Goss book pg 210)
P/O Dunsford - A/B - DFC - Believe this could be P.R. Dunsford, Gaz 13th Feb 1945 (Chris Goss book pg 209)
P/O Lynwood - A/B - DFC - Believe this could be C. J. Lynwood, Gaz 19th Jan 1945 (Chris Goss book pg 209)
F/S Parsons - MU/G
Sgt Johnson - M/under G. (I know, there is no such thing as a mid under gunner, at least not in a Halifax)

Be grateful for any ORB's of this crew

Thanks

Chris

Chris - on 06/10/44 crew were flying Halifax MZ772 on Ops to Scholven. The crew were Mooring/Dunhill/Dunsford/Davey/Anderson/Parsons/Hickson - haven't had a chance to look at others yet.

in Relation to the Ventral Turret, Boulton Paul did design one for Handley Page, I believe that although few were produced some did make it onto Operational Squadrons (I believe armed with 2 X .50 Cal, not sure if there were any .303 produced) - maybe 102 was one of them (I have a suspicion that I have seen a reference to a mid under gunner somewhere else in the Squadron ORB)

Neil

It appears also that a version was manufactured by Preston Green

Neil

Hi Neil,

Wonderful that you have shed light on this.. something else I didn't know about.. .

I'll wait for you to get back and get more info on the ops they did and then I'll make a page for the crew.. I have been in contact with someone related to Ted Mooring, and hope to be able to gat a lot of stuff from them in the coming weeks.

Cheers again

Chris

Chris - don't suppose that you have had contact with an armourer from 102? wpould be interested to know if they had the Turret?

Thanks

Neil

Hi Chris,

Herewith a link to a page on the Halifax website which gives details of the Halifax armaments including the Boulton Paul Type R Ventral Turret complete with pictures and the Preston Green under defence mounting Mk2. Only 27 type R's were produced apparently.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/hphalifax/guns.htm

Hope this is of interest in this context.

Cheers,
Dave.

Just a thought . . . B.C. should have used a few of these on each squadron - to counter the 'Scourge' Musik fighters. These slanted chaps were responsible for many B.C. losses.

OK guys....

Hold onto your hats.. no really.. I mean it...

Ron Parsons, Mid upper Gunner.. is still alive and well.

Spoken to his son and crossing our fingers.. we will see them both at this years reunion..

Which means.. we can ask all about this here gun..

Man I love this web site...