On 72 pages we find the entire beginning of this plane, which may surprise how it looked in the beginning. 105 interesting photos and pearls for fans of this plane, which was very good in the 1930s and used until 1945! I recommend ^^ 2/2
A Consolidated PBY Catalina of 209 Sqn Royal Air Force.
Originally equipped with the awful SARO Lerwick, Number 209 Squadron converted to these very 'useful' American built boats soon after leaving RAF Pembroke Dock in January 1941 and they would never return to PD again!
A classic image from the 1950s of Royal Air Force Pembroke Dock with the town and surrounding countryside behind.
A great number of veterans tell us that (despite its rather remote location) they really enjoyed their posting to the flying boat station.
The flying boat intended to replace the Short Sunderland...the mighty Short S-35 Shetland.
Just imagine RAF Pembroke Dock having two squadrons of this type based here in the 1950s.
Sadly for us, the Shetland was cancelled with the end of hostilities. A civil version also failed.
A Short S-23 Empire flying boat, at Short Bros in 1937.
This boat came to a very tragic end in 1942, whilst in the Pacific. It was shot down by a Japanese bomber, killing all four crew members and eighteen women and children passengers, who were being evacuated to 'safety'.
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2023!
This is HMS James Watt, one of the first Royal Navy vessels to have both sail and steam power.
She was built at the Royal Pembroke Dockyard between 1850 and 1853.
The SS Empress of Britain receives an escort of three Supermarine Stranraer flying boats in early 1940.
She was torpedoed on 28 October 1940 by U-32 and sank. At 42,348 tons, she was the largest liner lost in the Second World War and the largest ship sunk by a U-boat.
The tragic sight of Short Sunderland (NJ267) which crashed off Angle Bay on March 3rd 1954.
Sadly seven crew on board the aircraft perished in the crash, this image shows the remains of the aircraft ashore on the beach at Angle, awaiting investigation and possible salvage.
The Saunders Roe A.37 Shrimp was a small British (scaled down) experimental flying boat from 1939. It was built as part of a development programme for the Saunders-Roe S.38 (a never built) four-engine patrol flying boat, intended as a replacement for the Short Sunderland.
The Saunders A.3 Valkyrie was a large three-engine biplane flying boat with a wooden hull, built to an Air Ministry specification in 1926.
Trials of this prototype persuaded the A.M. that the future was with metal, rather than wooden hulls, with their water absorbing properties!
One of Pembrokeshire's lesser known RAF airfields of WW 2...RAF Talbenny.
A detachment of 248 Sqn Bristol Beaufighters gave fighter support to the Vickers Wellingtons of 311 (Czech) Sqn, also stationed there.
Today, it remains one of the best preserved airfields in the county.