raf hurn records
In addition to the Air Ministry Documents concerning the loss of JP137, discovered by our expert researchers, we are fortunate they were also able to locate and copy pages from the Operational Record Books (ORB) kept as part of the records of RAF Hurn.
These are part of the records of 'No. 3 OADU' (Overseas Aircraft Dispatch Unit) which had been based at Hurn from the beginning of 1943.
By the spring of 1944, RAF Hurn was an extremely busy station, dealing with all sorts of activity as part of the build up before D-Day, but the arrangements for the dispatch of various aircraft - particularly to the Mediterranean Allied Air Force based in North Africa - continued to be a vital part of their operations.
Examples from the pages are shown below. As is common with this type of document, there are a number of errors - but they do indicate in detail the activity that took part in the very early hours of the 21st March 1944.
Was JP137 destined to join the other Halifax (JP107) that took off immediately afterwards, and was eventually posted to 614 Squadron?
Or was JP137 to join, as we currently believe, 624 Squadron in Algeria?
Even though we have been very fortunate in discovering a substantial amount of documentation, there are still many questions we simply don't yet know the answers to....
(click on the pages to see more detail - use your back button to get back to this page)
Page from the Operational records Book (ORB), showing the entries for the period 20th and 21st March 1944
JP137 entry highlighted
ORB report of the crash details from the 25th March. Note the date of the crash is wrongly reported as '25th' and not the '21st'