F/O Instructor Allister Maycock 162989

Discussion in 'The War In The Air' started by em02ma, Nov 27, 2018.

  1. em02ma

    em02ma New Member

    Can anyone help me find out what happened to Alastair’s plane?

    He died in a flying accident on the 2/8/1945 over Palestine. He was training up a new crew to relieve his with RAF Training Command. The type of plane he was flying in would also be very useful.

    He was a Navigator, so would he have been training the new Navigator or the whole crew? I thought training happened only in the UK, so why was he killed over Palestine?

    Any help would be gratefully appreciated! :)
     
  2. dp_burke

    dp_burke Junior Member

    See this post on RAF commands.

    2/8/1945 - Ramleh

    We suggested he was on that Liberator on a Ferry Flight.
     
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  3. em02ma

    em02ma New Member

    Thank you so much for this! Do you know how accurate the date is? His burial details clearly state that he and 6 of the other men listed there were killed on the 2nd August.
     
  4. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966, 1973-1995
    Name: Allister Maycock
    Death Date: 2 Aug 1945
    Death Place: Coventry (as the original poster already knew that he was killed in a flying accident "over Palestine" and has the intelligence to join our site and post I am sure she [assume shes a she] knows that his death did not occur in Coventry. I respect that she has enough grey matter to work that one out)
    Probate Date: 24 Jan 1947
    Registry: Birmingham, England
    32858_636672_2410-00318.jpg

    I note the different spelling of Allister/Alastair

    Global, Find A Grave Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current
    Name: Flying Officer ( Instr. ) Allister Maycock
    Death Date: 2 Aug 1945
    Cemetery: Ramleh War Cemetery
    Burial or Cremation Place: Ramla, HaMerkaz (Center District), Israel
    Has Bio?: N
    URL: https://www.findagrave.com/mem...

    TD

    https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22750210
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2018
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  5. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Those buried at that Cemetery who died on 2nd Aug 1945

    Results

    TD

    I note they also have his first name as Allister - might be useful to others searching for more details on him
     
  6. dp_burke

    dp_burke Junior Member

    Burials of 14 people in Ramleh are dated 2nd August.

    C christies Appendix lists tge date of crash as 3rd August but this I'd guess is a reporting error from Middle East to Ottowa.

    Christie lists thoses names without question marks. Those with question marks we offered up as suggested passengers.
     
  7. dp_burke

    dp_burke Junior Member

    Please note care with transcriptions of the

    England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966

    On ancestry dot com

    They blindly quote the probate office as "place of death" whereas in the scan its 'Died on war service'. Best to not copy that line as its just misleading.
     
  8. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    I understand that but am just showing what the official record shows - 1 or 2 people have come back to question that point on other threads at which point I explain the situation, its also why I always upload an image of the page so that members can work it our for themselves as well

    TD
     
  9. dp_burke

    dp_burke Junior Member

    The transcription is not "the record" and thus you can simply refrain from pasting that line. Or at least explain the problem in ancestry database. Thus negating these last three messages!


    C Christie names 11 RAF airmen in his book appendix. He listed Houghten thru Meanley.

    It came down then to Maycock and Hollett being KOAS casualties and not DOAS such as Jenkins and Ogden.
     
  10. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Might be easier to just delete my posts in this thread

    TD
     
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  11. dp_burke

    dp_burke Junior Member

    No. Just edit the conflicting Coventry reference and fix the link to findagrave... didn't seem work earlier, it may have become truncated. Seems to end at mem....
     
  12. dp_burke

    dp_burke Junior Member

    em02ma.

    Are you a relative of A Maycock and have you his service record? Might help explain his presence on aircraft.

    The station ORB for RAF Lydda in the national archives might be worth a look too.
     
  13. em02ma

    em02ma New Member


    He was my grandmother’s fiancé so not a direct relative, but yes I have his service records. The last entry before he was killed is ‘Indel Flight UK India Train Cmd’ and he was the instructor training the new crew coming to relieve his. The entry about his death says ‘accident to aircraft’ suggesting that yes he was on the plane, and that’s what we as a family have always understood.
     
  14. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    there is a way of suggesting without appearing a tad condescending
     
  15. dp_burke

    dp_burke Junior Member

    Emma.

    Thanks thats great info.

    The line you typed "and he was the instructor training the new crew coming to relieve his" is that from an official RAF document or is that the family held belief?

    Can you check or maybe take a digital image of that line or the service file so we can see the text?
    Indel Flight UK India Train Cmd

    It looks like he was on a posting to India.. so he may not have been in his training position yet.

    What were his previous postings prior to being in Lydda. Had he been there for some time or was he only passing through on that aircraft. It'll all help to build picture.

    You can email me a photo at irishwarcrash@yahoo.com if uploading here is an issue.

    No need to quote messages. Ill know what your replying too. Cheers
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2018
  16. dp_burke

    dp_burke Junior Member

    I've dropped an email to the DHH in Canada, to see if they have any 45 Group details of the crash. But, given that the aircraft was not apparent.

    You could request that the pages from RAF Lydda be copied for you by a company like https://www.arcre.com, they are very reasonable, or a member of the forum migh tbe on site in Kew, or you might be able to visit in person. Though looking on the UK TNA website, there may not be a ORB for August 1945, suggests the records end in Feb 1945
    LYDDA | The National Archives

    And another option might be 155 RSU
    155 Repair and Salvage Unit, Lydda, Middle East (RSU). | The National Archives
    Strangely this being a file for August 1945 only.
     
  17. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

  18. dp_burke

    dp_burke Junior Member

    DHH in Canada checked all they could but they had no info on this incident. This is a classic example of an aircraft that falls between some stools. Hard to tie down what part of airforce it and its crew were assigned to due to its being in transit.

    But if you can share scans of the service file postings we can interpret that.
     
  19. em02ma

    em02ma New Member

    Hi, sorry I’ve been a bit busy. Here’s the scan.

    I checked the two books you referenced ^ and one says the flight was enroute to India, which matches with Alastair’s service records. Do you think he was travelling from the UK to India and had stopped in Palestine or was he going directly from the ME?

    Also another article http://www.rquirk.com/fail/acsea/acsea.pdf says the plane was delivering 6FU to ACSEA. Could this help re finding out where he was travelling from?

    In addition, if you have any information about Flight Instructors, who they trained (pilot/whole crew/navigator as Alastair was a navigator himself?), and what they did in Liberators, that would be super useful too!

    Many thanks for all your help so far!
     

    Attached Files:

  20. dp_burke

    dp_burke Junior Member

    OK, so this extract from I suppose his officers service file, I expect the 40 Sqn posting indicates that he received his commission while posted there. His airman's service record will detail his postings and training before that.

    And that matches the date of his commission as an officer in the London Gazette,
    https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/36323/supplement/214/data.pdf

    And that was published in January 1944, so, looking at the Oct 1943 ORB for 40 Sqn he is there listed on page 4 of 20 on two bombing raids.
    http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8411598

    So if you surf back from Oct 1943 and forward to January 1944, you should get a listing of his missions, use these links
    http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r/7?_q="Squadron number: 40"&_srt=3


    The list of 1944 postings is rather confusing, seem to be not in order and don't really help to explain what he would have been doing for the rest of 1944.

    In chronological order, they seem to read.

    Unit -- area -- with effect from
    3 BPD -- MAAF -- 22 Feb 1944
    Explaination of what a BPD was
    RAFCommands :: Old Forum Archive
    it would be basically a holding administrative unit, some where to post people when they temporarily weren't needed at a particular unit (I believe), and a means of maintaining them on the books, for pay, rations and accommodation


    HQ MAAF -- MAAF -- 4 March 1944

    No 203 Group -- ME -- 22 April 1944

    ME Pool -- ME -- 26 April 1944

    The above then, kind of defeats me for explanation, but I think the posting to Middle East Pool, meant he was posted maybe to adhoc places as needed, maybe to assist ferry aircraft, or act as instructor. Might need to see more of the officers file.

    The line reading posted to 40 Sqn on 6 Oct 1943, should be read in terms that, he was a Sergeant at that time with the unit, and had been posted in sometime before that maybe, the NCO service file will tell us that. His posting out of the Squadron in Feb 1944 is not recorded in the ORB so he might not have been notified of the promotion at the time of the posting.
     

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