Flying Log interpretation - The Cooks Tour?

Discussion in 'The War In The Air' started by wibs, Dec 20, 2015.

  1. wibs

    wibs Junior Member

    Hi All,

    Some of you may be aware I've been researching Brian Saunders Butterfield DFM and have posted a couple of questions on here previously.

    I'm on the last stretch of understanding his flying log but have hit a couple of bumps and am hoping you can help interpret one particular page with two items show on the page that I've uploaded from the log:
    1. The Cooks Tour
    2. Y / X country flights

    The entry on 29th May 1945 is titled the "Cooks Tour" for ground crew............. it lists a flight through 23 locations that Brian had previously flown to on operations whilst at 635 Squadron. Does anyone know what this is?.......... it's 3 weeks after VE day and a fortnight after his last repatriation mission........... I don't know how best to describe this but would I be wrong in assuming it would be some sort of 'sightseeing' tour where the crew of the Lancaster took a couple of their ground crew on a flight across mainland Europe as some sort of thank you to show them where they'd been in the past 12m?

    Secondly there are lots of entries in his log which are noted as Y or X country flights...... I assume this is a generic term used for training or transportation type flights and not combat operations but again have no idea...... and help appreciated.

    As usual, any and all help appreciated.

    Regards,

    P.

    Butterfield, BS Log.jpg
     
  2. KevinBattle

    KevinBattle Senior Member

    I'm not RAF or of the right generation to be adamant on this, but you have grasped the essence of what is meant.
    After VE Day I'm sure many ground crew would have better understood just what the aircrew had to deal with in flying to and from Germany, even with flak or fighters.
    For the surviving aircrew the opportunity to actually see their targets in daylight and perhaps see how effective their attacks had been (or not) or not have the muck sweat of continually searching the sky for a glimpse of a night fighter must also have been a relief that they had come through the ordeal.
    "Y" flights I believe were navigational exercises (a version of from A to B?) and X country might just be cross country in flying from one point to another.

    Until an expert comes along, I hope that helps
     
  3. alieneyes

    alieneyes Senior Member

    The Y in quotes is most likely the code on the side of the aircraft ie. F2-Y. Some aircrew would write the aircraft's serial in their logbooks, while others would do what seems to have been done here.

    The cross country exercise was just that. Sprog crews would be given a list of places to flying to, just to see how they all worked together. I'm reminded of one that had the crew fly all over the UK and then up to northern Scotland where weather kept them stranded for a few days. Here's a good article on training with a new crew:

    https://bombercommand.wordpress.com/bomber-command-training-1942-3/

    Cook's Tour, named after the travel agency. Good article here, with photographs http://www.lancaster-archive.com/photo_cookstour.htm

    Regards,

    Dave
     
  4. wibs

    wibs Junior Member

    Thanks both for the replies.............. Dave, quality link for the 'cooks tour' re the ground crews, thank you........... backs up what my suspicions were.

    Many thanks,

    Paul
     
  5. barnsley

    barnsley Junior Member

    Hi, previous posters are correct about 'Cooks Tours' for the ground crew and X for cross country Navigation Exercise but I think a Y Cross Country is a Navigation exercise using H2S ground mapping radar (in the dome under the Lancaster's belly). This was often referred to as 'Y' for security reasons. there was a 'Y' officer attached to every Station who supervised H2S training. The aircraft letter would usually be written in the ' aircraft type and number' column on the left hand page. That said I could be wrong!
     
  6. wibs

    wibs Junior Member

    Cheers Barnsley............. all good stuff.
     
  7. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    I think that the Y flights referred to flights where the aircraft was in exercise with the RAF Y Service function.This was a system whose scope was to break ground to air codes as used by the Luftwaffe RT.The first DF station with other sites developed from it,was at RAF Cheadle which had the task of picking up Luftwaffe long range transmissions.Co-ordination was then set up from Btetchley Park.

    As X country navigational exercises were carried out by OTUs as part of their training,they would also be tasked to carry out Y Service exercises in conjunction with the listening post DF stations.These exercises were also carried out by operational squadrons on occasions when they were stood down from operations and conducted refresher training....fighter affiliation being one of the main exercises carried out in order to reduce losses from enemy air defence fighters.

    It has been claimed that prewar, at a time when the Luftwaffe did not officially exist (and that must have been circa 1935) a DF station at RAF Waddington picked up radio transmissions which suggested air activity as appropriate to military formations.

    H2S was never used as a navigational tool.The PPI (scope) had 3 ranges with a maximum coverage of 5 miles, if I remember correctly postwar (H2S4A). In wartime use it was only switched on when the run in to the target commenced....It was ascertained that H2S transmissions were readily picked up by the Nazos receiver fitted to their Luftwaffe fighters making it easy to intercept H2S equipped aircraft after being vectored on to a bomber stream.It was therefore a matter of discipllne by a crew to reduce their transmission radiation to a minimum,knowing the serious disadvantage of the gear.

    It was also claimed that the German Korfu apparatus on the continent could pick up H2S transmissions on RAF airfields and thus have some early warning when a large raid was being planned by the level of transmission radiation intensity being picked up when the gear was being pre flight tested........the Luftwaffe, it has been claimed had early warning of the disastrous Nuremberg raid of March 1944 from pre flight testing of the H2S gear.
     
  8. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    I have just found a reference to "Y runs" being described as "Cross country training flights using H2S radar" which agrees with your post.However I cannot see the gear being used as a navigational aid and the training may have been associated with picking up targets along the cross country route using H2S.

    Incidentally,10 years after the introduction of H2S,the RAF introduced the Blue Shadow radar system which gave a sideways plan position of both sides of the aircraft's track.It was fitted to B.C Canberras and regarded as top secret in that the aircraft were guarded during non operational hours.I never discovered if it was a success,having not served on Canberras or from research since.
     
  9. KevinBattle

    KevinBattle Senior Member

  10. snailer

    snailer Country Member

    Hi Harry,

    I spotted this in: “One Wing High” Halifax Bomber-The Navigator’s Story by Harry Lomas.

    “ The latter part of our conversion course was taken up by more navigation exercises, using the new H2S equipment. This was supposed to be operated by the bomb-aimer, sitting alongside me at the navigation table, but Ken again demonstrated that with the best will in the world he was just not cut out for the job. The illuminated blotches on the screen, which represented built-up areas on the ground, had to be tied in with towns as marked on the map, and could be a tricky business. Time and again, as a result of misidentification of towns, I was fed inaccurate fixes, with chaotic results to the navigation. Something had to be done. Duff fixes whilst flying over England was one thing: their consequences when we came to fly in a bomber stream over Germany I hardly dared to contemplate”

    Rgds
    Pete
     
  11. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Kevin.

    Thanks for the links.

    As I said BS was thought to be the vanguard in radar development so much so the aircraft were guarded out of operational hours.The Canberra was first conceived as a two man crewed,unarmed bomber following the Mosquito concept but dependent on radar for bombing but changed at the prototype stage to a three man crew with the visual bombing station in the nose.Blue Shadow was an add on intended to improve the aircraft's capability and it looks like that in practice it was used to map an area at the greater height before descending to the target area.

    I was at Hemswell but on another squadron at the other end of the airfield, at the time when the two Canberra squadrons were there.Their aircraft ( No 109 and 139 Squadrons) were B2s and I see from the link that 109 was the first squadron to have the BS mod fitted in early to mid 1953 which agrees with my recollections of events.

    Having followed the development of H2S, I was aware of the use of H2S Mark 9 for the Vulcans,I suppose it was fitted to all the V Force for their V role....By then,H2S was a far cry from the rotating belly scanners of the earlier versions.
     
  12. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Pete,

    Your note reflects the difficulty that aircrews had in operating the H2S gear.....like all engineering systems,it required experience in handling the gear and using it to some effect.Apparently it was not uncommon for air radar mechanics to be ready in a signal van to give assistance to the nav/bomb aimer and eliminate snags while the crew were on the peritrack and sometimes on the runway thresthold awaiting the Very signal to get off on an operation.The fact that the gear was being run well before being required for the bombing role indicates the awareness of the operators to ensure that no snags were apparent. By January 1944,BC had decided to fit the gear as standard to all bombers and it must have posed a problem for the responsible crew of the aircraft to quickly assimilate to the new gear.While the appropriate groundcrew received structured training,as I see it,the H2S operator training for aircrew would be delivered more or less on the job.

    On of the early problems recognised may have been the transmitter which in my day was contained in an air pressurised unit in order to prevent internal flashovers....may have been a wartime mod in light of experience. From my recollections,I would say that transmitter snags appeared to have been the main reason for the failure of the gear. by this time the H2S radar operators were very experienced in operating the gear and diagnosing snags, unlike a decade previously when it was first introduced as a leap forward in bombing aids and carried the usual teething problems as experienced in the introduction of new technology.
     

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