Hampdens to Russia in Sept. 1942

[dfuller52]

One of the losses I am looking into involved the transfer of several Hampdens to Afrikanda, Russia, near Murmansk. I have read somewhere that these aircraft were being sent up for convoy protection duty and were in the end given to the Russians, who didn't thank the RAF for them as they were already outdated by that time.

Can anyone point me to a more detailed discussion of this subject?

I have the info on my Hampden that was lost on the mountain in Sweden, which was the topic of a previous thread.

http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3623&highlight=Hampdens+russia

thanks.

[CZ_RAF]

Hi David, few bits and pieces from A-B book serials AD-AE

AE130 144 Sq Damaged by russian fighters and crashlanded near Afrikanda, N. Russia, 4.9.42
AE156 489 Sq, AE158 144 Sq, AE194 AE231 455 Sq - Left in Russia 12.10.42
AE307 455 Sq to russian navy 12.10.42
AE356 144 SqShot down by Russian fighter in the sea near Murmansk, 4.9.42

Pavel

[CZ_RAF]

Unfortunately the most links are in Russian so if you do not know to read cyrillic I am afraid I am not able to help you:(

An example of one page about Hampdens in the Soviet Union:
http://www.airpages.ru/uk/hp52su.shtml

Pavel

[dfuller52]

Thanks Pavel, my cyrillic is 'nada' so I had to rely on the Bable Fish translation, which didn't work too badly.

Seems the Hampdens were mistaken for Bf110s and jumped by the Russians in the fog.

The original intent was for the RAF detachments to fly convoy protection, but the plan was changed because the return flight was too long (and I guess they had already discovered how dangerous it was). So the planes were donated to the Red Army and flew their first mission with Red Stars on Nov. 8.

[CZ_RAF]

another bits and pieces:

AT109 455 sq hit by flak and crashed near Vardo, Finland, on ferry flight to North Russia, 24.9.42
AT138 144 sq shot down by Bf109s over Finland on ferry flight to North Russia, 4.9.42
AT145 540 sq to Russian navy 12.10.42


Pavel

[CZ_RAF]

Hi David, for sure not because they thinks they were not of any use.
I do not know what is the your idea about fighter pilots BUT a Czech pilot serving in Soviet air force over Slovakia was in 1944 attacked by American fighters and also are known examples of Russian fighters attacking American planes by mistake...

From my point of view Hampdens were unknown to them and if you want to survive the war it is better "to fire at first and then to ask".

So I suppose it was only mistakes.

Pavel

[dfuller52]

Yes, I'm sure mistakes even more likely up there between two different countries, given that even the RAF shot down some of its own from time to time.

I was just kidding about the other part - although it was true that Stalin was unhappy with just about everything Churchill gave him. He wanted a second front.

[CZ_RAF]

Last serials I found:

P2095 X2976 X3022 X3053 455 sq to russan navy 12.10.42
P2122 144 sq russan navy 12.10.42
P2126 455 Sq damaged in air raid, Pachenga, 27.9.42 and left in Russia

[Graham Boak]

Try "The RAAF in Russia", by Geoffrey W. Raebel. Specifically 455 Squadron.

[AL90]

Details of 455 Squadrons trip to Russi are held at the National Archives Australia. The link to the search page is below. Under "item barcode" enter 1359207 which will link to the digital copy. Details of the detatchment to Russia start at page 168 and end around page 190.


http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/SearchScreens/AdvSearchItems.aspx