Grumman Goose, 1 AAU

And now for our second 1 AAU type page for today, this time the:

Grumman Goose: http://www.adf-serials.com.au/goose.htm

I am still trying to tie up the correct CN (probably 1212) and given it's very short life, I have little hope of finding a photo.

I presume that it would have appeared very similar to MV993 pictured below, which incidently has been confused many times in the past with 1 AAU's HK822.

Your comments and suggestions are of course welcome.

Cheers

Brendan

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Grumman Goose – ADF Serials
Information based on 2 References:
Ref [1] – Succour From The Sky – Leonard Barton
Ref [2] – RAAF Air Ambulance and Medical Air Evacuation Units – John Lever

Ref [2] has Ref [1] in its bibliography so some common information in Ref [2] may be inherited from Ref [1]

Well, not much to say about a type which experienced one of the shortest (if not shortest) careers in the RAAF.

The only real addtions from the books above are as follows:

Besides the flight crew mentioned in the serial history, the passengers are also listed in both references. They are:

FO O'Donnell,
LAC's G R Richards, J Richards, G (or C) Allen
and AC.1 W Milburn RAF.

All survived the crash and escaped to a rubber dinghy. They were located by PO Carson and PO Meldrum in A31-7 the next morning and rescued by ship (Ref 2) or Walrus (Ref 1) in the afternoon.

The location of the crash varies in the references and in the adf serial history.

Ref [1] has the location as 15 miles NW of Benina
Ref [2] has the location as 24km NW of Benghasi

Next, how about a real challenge and we try to identify the Martin Maryland loaned from an RAF squadorn and operated by 459 Squadron in their early ops to shadow the Italian fleet :D

Cheers

Michael

This post has been edited by Michael Louey on Jun 13 2012, 02:12 PM

Hi Thanks Michael,

I'll update the page with that information.

I'm with you there on the Maryland!

I remember posting a question on that very topic on this message board years ago - but we have not gotten to the bottom of that one yet.

On 1 AAU, I still have the SAAF Lodestar 1371 to add as well as updating our DH.86 page.

Cheers


BC

Gordy,

To pick up on the Goose which has been a bit of a puzzler for a while:

Some sources quote HK882 as being Lord Beaverbrook's G-AFKJ CN 1049 and others state that this aircraft in fact went on to become MV993 with 24 Sqn, RAF at Hendon.

Correspondence in the 1 AAU files at NAA refer to their airframe variously as a Grumman Widgeon, Grumman Amphibian and Grumman Goose.

One document from the ACF dated 20/04/1942 refers to "Grumman Widgeon 1212".

A later document list it as HK822 with Wasp Junior engines (as fitted to the Goose).

There's still a little way to go to tie up the loose ends on this one.

BC

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Clearly, 1 AAU didn't know what to do with it!

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And when received by 1 AAU, it looks like a Goose (called Amphibian) HK822 with Wasp Juniors!

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This at least confrims that the aircraft was allotted ex Sea Rescue Flight on 06/11/1942 and was still referred to as the "Grumman Amphibian" and fills in the gap in time between the ACF trying to give the aircraft to 1 AAU and it's eventual receipt and demise in December 1942.



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Some reporting of it's loss:

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The RAF were unclear about who owned it and other airframes!

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And the brass were not impressed with the standard of record keeping for airframes and engines!

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Hi All,

I've finally completed a major re-write of this page including an actual image of HK822!



(IMG:http://www.adf-gallery.com.au/_data/i/upload/2021/11/03/20211103055018-78c75bbd-la.jpg)

Grumman Goose: http://www.adf-serials.com.au/goose.htm

BC

Well done Brendan!

That said, I'm now uncovering new information including images of the Goose being handed over in the USA!



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And Another

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And another!

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