NASAM Update as of the 31st May 2022

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In This Edition of Updates

First up are a collection of information snippets received during the past week from various Volunteers around the museum. These cover a number of weeks of activity on the museum site. So in no particular order:

RAF BBMF Lancaster Flypast – 22 May 2022

Firstly in this edition of the Online Flier, we have a short update from John S in Engineering Workshops who sent through his view of the RAF BBMF Lancaster flypast on the Aviation Art and Model Show Day (Sunday 22nd of May 2022). This has been combined with the videos supplied by Brian J into the short clip viewable below.

The Lancaster video clip from John was previously published of its own in a previous blog posting. The video below now contains the originally posted flypast followed by two videos showing two flypasts taken from a different position at the Museum. My thanks to John and Brian for these videos. This combined video is now posted on the Museum’s YouTube channel where you can see a number of videos taken in the past.

The YouTube channel can be found @ Go To NASAMYOUTUBE CHANNEL

(Video) RAF BBMF Lancaster Flypast – 22 May 2022

RAF BBMF Flypasts in Bungay

Also, continuing with the flypast theme, John S reported that “If you missed the Lancaster flyby here’s another chance, plus Spitfire and Hurricane. Details of Bungay’s Jubilee flypasts can be found @ Battle of Britain Memorial Flight – daily flypasts over Bungay

40s Themed Day at the Museum

Looking back a few weeks, Pam had some photos of the 40s Themed day passed to her by the company that took the ones shown below. VeneziaPhotos have given its permission for the blog to publish these photos. They have a good number more photos taken on the day (Sunday the 15th of May 2022). I have shown four of these photos below, but there are many more professional shots of the people, events, vehicles and the RAF BBMF Hurricane flypast. The photos can be found @ VeneziaPhoto Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum. This collection of photos may be worth a look to see if you can spot yourself or your vehicle amongst those that attended on the day.

(Photos) 40s Themed day from Venezia Photo

Phantom gets new aircrew

Next up, is a note from Peter W who said that whilst “On Valetta duty last Saturday in breaks between visitors I managed to snap a blue tit commuting with food to the Phantom drag chute housing directly opposite where I was sat on the steps”.

I don’t know how he did it, but he managed to get a shot of the “phantom crew” departing on another sortie for food.

(Photo) Phantom Crew off on another Sortie

Drone view of the Museum

Lastly in these snippets of info, we have some drone footage taken at the Aviation Art and Model Show (Sunday 22nd May 2022). Adrian who had his drone airborne during the model aircraft displays took this overall view of the museum. Adrian gave us permission to use this footage on the blog and we have also posted this to our YouTube Channel.

The YouTube channel can be seen @ Go To NASAMYOUTUBE CHANNEL

(Video) Aviation Art and Model Day

So after that brief excursion through some past events, we move on to the updates from the various teams at Flixton. In this edition, we have updates from John S in the Engineering Workshops, from Barry and Mark K in the Painter Team and lastly but by no means least another from Graham in Archives. Read on ……

Pete S

From the Teams

Engineering workshops

There is not a lot to report from engineering this week.

We await the possible arrival of a Percival Proctor, but the owner is in hospital, so it is “no go” right now. In the meantime, we’re repainting the floor and throwing out unwanted items. The scrap man cometh.

Sunday’s model plane event was very well attended, with a large number of motorcyclists attending as part of their rallies. NAAFI takings were greatly enhanced by this influx of motorcyclists.

John S

Painters Update

24/5/22 – Newton’s Laws of Motion!

With rain forecast for most of the day, it was decided that the Whirlwind would have to wait at least another week for its final patches of primer to be applied.

Over on the ‘Flat Iron’, there were some initial overnight dry patches, so Gwen started her day by cracking on with a bit more sanding (see Javelin Repaint 04).

With Barry having ‘gone ape’ this week (quite literally, in the middle of Thetford Forest), that left Cliff, Ian and Mark to wash the roof lights on Bomber Command. Access was tricky with the curved building ruling out using a vertical scaffold tower. Propping a ladder on the side also looked like it would be ready to ‘see-saw’ if loaded above the point of contact with the building. After a bit of head-scratching, the team dug deep to recall their ‘A’ Level maths theory. Working out the opposing forces required to keep the suspended mass (see Bomber Cmd Cleaning 01) stable, this roughly translated into 1 x Cliff leaning and cleaning up a ladder above the point of intersection with the building = 1 x Ian + 1 x Mark ballast required at the bottom of the ladder, applying their force inwards, pushing towards the building.

The forecast rain duly arrived mid-morning, at which point Gwen re-joined the rest of the team, who moved on to cleaning the lower sides of Bomber Command (see Bomber Cmd Cleaning 02). Much hilarity ensued as first Ian, then Gwen and finally Mark took turns in recreating various water scenes from that old kids’ TV favourite, Tiswas, with Cliff taking on the role of being the unwilling prank victim. But despite that, and some further showers, the building was cleaned (see before and after Bomber Cmd Cleaning 04), the drains were flushed out, and even the roof lights on the ladies’ loos were given a quick rinse.

After a well-earned afternoon cup of tea, Cliff then went on to give the display cabinets inside Bomber Command a good wipe over. The problem with cleaning the roof lights is that more light is then let in, which in turn shows up even more dust!

Barry & Mark K

(Photos) Painters Update

From the Archives – 26/05/2022

At a time when the average earnings for a working man was a little less than £250 per year, and with an inevitable war about to erupt into the UK from Europe, spending a penny of ones hard-earned on a daily newspaper could be considered something of a luxury. And yet those pennies were spent, the papers were the most comprehensive source of news at the time, and knowing what was happening across the theatre of Europe was becoming more important to the British people each day.

Recent excavation in the Magazine Store has unearthed a handful of such newspapers – all priced at 1d, with dates ranging from May 1940 through to November 1944, and those found so far seem to cover many of the key events of the Second World War. For those of you struggling with the maths – these papers are about 82 years old, and in surprisingly good condition despite the recent rains forcing their way into the store – and into the electric sockets. Thanks must go to Brian and David for making us safe again.

Some of the stories those papers carry are worth an airing. This first selection covers May 1940 to January 1941. I have no doubt there will be more to come.

Stories are taken from the front page of the DAILY EXPRESS No12,487 Friday, May 31, 1940

TENS OF THOUSANDS SAFELY HOME ALREADY

Many more coming by day and night

SHIPS OF ALL SIZES DARE THE GERMAN GUNS

Under the guns of the British fleet, under the wings of the Royal Air Force, a large proportion of the B.E.F. who for three days had been fighting their way back to the Flanders coast, have now been brought back safely to England from Dunkirk.

First to return were the wounded. An armada of ships – all sizes, all shapes – were used for crossing the Channel. The weather which helped Hitler tanks to advance has since helped the British evacuation. Cost to the Navy of carrying out, in an inferno of bombs and shells, one of the most magnificent operations in history has been three destroyers, some auxiliary craft, and a small steamer.

In a move seemingly intended to reduce the chances of German agents operating in the UK being able to receive instructions from home, another front-page story announces that:

50,000 car radios to be removed

FIFTY THOUSAND radio sets, now installed in motor-cars in Great Britain, will have to be dismantled soon and removed. A new Emergency Powers (Defence) Regulation, issued by the Postmaster-General yesterday says: “No person shall use or have in his possession or under his control any radio receiving apparatus installed in any road vehicle.”

The carrying of portable radio sets in cars is also forbidden. For the purposes of this regulation a radio set is deemed to be installed even if it is not fixed in position “in circumstances in which it can be readily adapted for use.”

The exact date on which car radios must be dismantled is not fixed.

In a scene which was probably repeated across many a Borough Council, across the country Hampstead were embarrassed to have to admit that:

Seven Germans in London ARP

Councillor H. E. Arnholz, chairman of Hampstead, N.W Emergency Committee for Civil Defence, said at a meeting of Hampstead Borough Council last night that seven Germans or Austrians were ARP wardens in the borough, that four Germans were air raid shelter marshals, and that a sixteen-year-old German girl was a canteen worker.

The question of their dismissal he said, was being considered.

However, it’s good to know that some things just don’t change!

Guinness Advert from the paper at the time.

Nearly three weeks after this copy of the Daily Express hit the newsstands, the Evening Standard carried news of what it called the beginning of the Battle of Britain. Published on the 19^th of June, it is a little before the timing of the Battle that we accept today but, when you’re being bombed, a few days either way probably isn’t going to matter much. It was evidently the sign of things to come.

Stories are taken from the front page of the EVENING STANDARD No 36,127 Wednesday June 19, 1940:

7 GERMAN PLANES SHOT DOWN IN GREATEST RAID

11 Killed in Row of Houses, 14 Hurt

Seven German airplanes were shot down in bombing raids over the Thames Estuary and Eastern England, which lasted nearly four hours, early today.

One of the raiders crashed in Essex, another on the Norfolk Coast, a third in the sea off the East Coast, and a fourth in Cambridgeshire.

Bombs were dropped in a number of Districts in East Anglia, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

On a lighter note, the uncertainty about using Germans in Civil Defence took a step towards resolution, at least in Bethnal Green:

DEPUTY ARP Chief

Bethanl Green Borough Council have appointed Mr E Jolly, the borough electrical engineer, ad Deputy ARP Controller.

All aliens in the local civil defence services have been suspended.

One of the stranger newspapers in the batch is the January 17^th 1941 copy of the Daily Worker where the banner headline that day howls:

4,000 AIRCRAFT MEN WIN BIG GAINS IN STRIKE

Four thousand men at the great Handley Page aircraft works in the North London area have ceased work for two days and have won a number of striking victories over the management.

This fine militant action by the men comes at the very moment when the Select Committee on National Expenditure has published a menacing report containing recommendations for compulsory transfer of munition workers – with an obvious threat to wages involved.

On the eve of this Report’s appearance, the men at Napier’s aircraft factory had also won a fine trade union victory by threatening immediate stoppage of work if compulsory transfer of men to another town at lower pay rates was attempted.

One can only wonder how chuffed these same men would be to be called up into the services later in the war, possibly even having to surrender their jobs to the ladies – and quite what Churchill would have made of the story had he subscribed to the Daily Worker.

I have no doubt that the Collection of Everything will continue to throw up surprises as we dig deeper – we only know all these stories because they’re in the Archives…

Graham

The Repeat Info

The repeat information is still here I’m afraid, and I make no apologies for keeping his section in our blog. We are a charitable organisation relying on monies from the public to keep us going. Any help we receive is gratefully accepted and enables the museum to continue in our mission “To conserve, preserve and promote the history of aviation in East Anglia, whilst providing a fun, family-friendly and interactive museum, promoting education and remembrance of the events of the past“.

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