Stradishall – Coventry

The January moon period has ended; the last night on standby was the 20th.

F/Lt Keast flies Whitley P5029 to the Armstrong Whitworth’s factory at Baginton, on the south-east outskirts of Coventry). He takes five crew. (The airfield was built on the site of Whitley Abbey Farm, hence the aircraft’s name; nothing to do with Whitley Bay.)

There is no recorded explanation for the trip. Maintenance and repair/replacement of a Whitley’s normal equipment – engines, etc. – would have been carried out at an RAF base operating Whitleys, but almost all of these are in 4 Group, based north of the Humber. The exception is the training base (No. 10 OTU) at RAF Abingdon. RAF Stradishall is in 3 Group, and its resident squadron (No. 214 Sen) operates Wellingtons. The SD Flight therefore uses Abingdon’s facilities for maintenance. This trip to Baginton would have been necessary to fit or modify non-standard kit, such as a shroud to cover the tail wheel (to prevent parachute canopies from snagging), or to modify and test the parachute cable mounting points inside the fuselage. It is also possible that two or more long-range tanks are fitted to extend the range; although part of a Whitley’s range of optional equipment, fitting them is a non-trivial task, well outside the capabilities of the Flight’s ground-crew. Abingdon’s fitters might be unfamiliar with the procedure, as long-range tanks are not required on a Training base.

Sources

FJB Keast logbook