"somewhere in England" … part of a RCAF Halifax Squadron

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Just to be clear. The three RCAF Squadrons I mentioned in my previous post are by no means the only ones to ever fly the Halifax Mk III. Several were equipped with the Mk III prior to transferring to other theatres and at least one was a training unit somewhere in Yorkshire. It is interesting, however, that most Canadian Halifax Squadrons spent some time at bases in Yorkshire.

On that note, I looked into the licence plate on the photo Dennis posted. In the pre-1951 British Registration system, the 'BV' Plates were issued in Preston, Lancashire, just North of Manchester and not far from the Yorkshire border. Tholthorpe, Yorkshire was a common RCAF Halifax Base and underwent a large rebuild in the early 1940's which the RCAF was involved in. Also, if you look the base up on Wikipedia, there is a photo there of some of the abandoned buildings. One is a long, low brick structure that is a good fit for the ones in the Bedford photos. And Tholthorpe is not that far from Manchester.

David

David,
To narrow the search down a bit you need to look for evidence in the photos regarding date period. Firstly regarding the car, which I think is a Hillman with the rad grille missing. The registration BV was for Blackburn , Lancs. BV1 -BV9999 reg numbers cover a registration issue period from 1930 to 1939, and at a rough guess the car was probably registered about 1933-35.

Now the Bedford QLT Troopers, I can narrow them down as they have hub sling plates introduced at Chassis no. 26372 and cab hip ring introduced at Chassis no. 29117. QL production records show that 1943 ran from Ch.no. 18162 to 30340, so these wagons were probably photographed in 1944 or later as they have to have been built in last couple of months of 1943. Also some photos show the QL with no headlamp mask and also illuminated 'Coach' sign on the top, so these would be taken post-VE Day by my reckoning, same as car with no headlamp masks.