Bristol Beaufort anomalies

[Andy Marden]

Beaufort DD879 appears in the Air-Britain serials book as:
1 OADU Engine cut; crashlanded at Maidaguru, 15.4.43
"The Beaufort File" says:
ADUME Crashed in forced landing after engine failure near Takoradi, 15.4.43

Apart from the difference in location (the first one is in Nigeria (should read Maidugiri), the second in Ghana), this aircraft was in a batch delivered between March 1942 and either July 1942/September 1942 (depending on which book is read).
So should the date be 15.4.42, or was this aircraft hanging around in Africa for a year or so?

[Resmoroh]

Maiduguri is 977nm from Takoradi on the way to Khartoum on the WW2 W African reinforcement air route, so while it is not exactly “near” Takoradi, it is nearer Takoradi than Khartoum! Or do I pick nits?
HTH
Peter Davies

[Ross_McNeill]

F1180 raised on 15/4/43 for DD879 and DW879

DW879 from 47 Sqn F/O Painter 119247 engine failure on take off, non op day air test, Misurata.

DD879 from ADUME AC1 A B Paton 577926 engine failure in flight - no other details on edge codes or info boxes, Takoradi

Ross

[Andy Marden]

Gents,
Thanks for the responses. So the date is indeed correct, and this aircraft spent a year or so without apparently seeing any squadron service.
I presume ADUME stands for Aircraft Delivery Unit Middle East?
Andy

[Ross_McNeill]

Yup, did wonder about Paton given his rank for a flight test but see that post war 1949 he gets commissioned in the Equipment Branch so suspect it was something like Taffy Holden and Lightning XM135 of a qualified pilot but doing engineer duties when it all went to hell in a hand cart.

Ross