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Paul Bellamy
4/24/2010 6:21:18 PM | Some scans of photos I took of Deenethorpe's tower many years ago........
Ground floor:
Met Office, with teleprinter room on the right:
Duty Pilot's rest room:
Watch Office, used as the crash crew's rest room by the 401st:
Pyrotechnics (flares) Cupboard steel door:
Switchgear room, with veterans' signatures on the wall:
I'm afraid I can't get the closeup photo of the signatures to scan properly at the moment.
However, I can read the following seperate inscriptions on the original photo:
Robert F Sullivan. 401st Bomb Group
March 21, 1963
Shot down Sept 11, 1944
Lt Wm Mercer (unclear)
Lawson
Paul Bellamy
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Paul Bellamy
4/24/2010 6:24:54 PM | Moving upstairs....
Control Room. The tower telephone exchange stood in the far corner:
 )
Stairs to the roof:
1950s ROC aircraft observation post on the roof.
It was the weight of this which ultimately caused the tower to be demolished on safety grounds.
The crack in the ceiling in the Control Room photo above shows just one of the stress fractures caused to the structure of the control tower, which was effectively being crushed. Other towers with additional structures added to the roof had concrete columns installed down to the foundations, to distribute the load:
Outline of the (Seco?) greenhouse built sometime between February and May 1945:
Anemometer base:
Paul Bellamy
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Paul Bellamy
4/24/2010 6:43:01 PM | Photo taken on VE Day showing the rooftop "greenhouse" and the Flying Control lettering:
And a photo the tower in 1973 kindly provided by Dave Smith:
The small brick shed on the right is the Balloon Filling Hut, where the 18th Weather Squadron Detachment would inflate weather balloons to ascertain wind speed etc.
The photo also shows a new fence around the underground Royal Observer Corps nuclear strike observation bunker, built in front of the tower to replace the aircraft observation post on the roof. This buried ROC post opened in June 1958 and finally closed in September 1991.
I know a number of the final crew personally, and through them hold many of the contents of the bunker until such time as they can be put on public display.
All the best,
Paul
Paul Bellamy
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MaryAlice
4/25/2010 7:29:45 AM | Great pics, love it!
Hey Paul, I am sure you know this, but who owns Deenethorpe these days? Is it still private land?
What is being done with it today? Plans for the future?
and last but not least, do you have pics where the guys bunked/slept/living quarters? In particular, where my Grandpa (if memory serves me correctly, Site #8) stayed?
Derrick Morris, Grandson of S/Sgt Engr/Top Turret William "Dale" Sartor, 615th BS 401st BG, "Mary Alice"
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win-win
4/25/2010 6:31:46 PM | Hi Derrick:
There have been several threads on the Forum about Squadron Quarters - Building types, photos and locations. The trick is finding them.
One of them 'Squadron locations at Deenethorpe' (initial posting by Phoenix on Mon 17 Dec 2007 9:31 pm; latest posting by Paul Bellamy on Sun 27 Jan 2008 8:38 pm).
Another thread (I have yet to identify) noted the three building types for (613Sq.) living quarters:
- - Quonset: The familiar corrugated metal Quonset;
- - Laing: A wood-frame/building paper siding gable roofed, long-narrow 'barracks' lookng, with entries at both ends; and
- - Pre-cast concrete: These are flat-roofed, and deveral remain in the 613Sq. area, south of the Base, near Yokehill farm.
Sorry I can't get 'right to them' for you. I think most of these threads are on the 'New Forum' -with photos and maps.
Win Bryson
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EDanaII
4/25/2010 11:44:13 PM | All right, this tears it! This has gone on far too long, and it's about time I did something about it! (And I mean this in the nicest possible way.) 😉
With the sudden rash of photos to this forum, I've been thinking this is a perfect opportunity to add to our photo galleries. Unfortunately, I have too many distractions to be able to do the job, and since I've been arguing about and for volunteerism for the group, it's time to do something about it.
First order of business: Paul, I assume that either these are your photos or those of a friend. Are they available to be placed on the web site? Two: are you willing to make the time and effort to prepare them for the site? And, if not, are you willing to let someone else prepare them for the site?
To all: if Paul is willing, but unable to put these photos together for the Gallery, is there anyone out there willing to do this job?
Regardless of who takes up the task, I will happily instruct them on how to accomplish it, but before we can go forward, _we need to know_ that we can go forward. So, Paul, what are your thoughts?
BTW, just to make sure I'm clear, I'm not just referring to these photos in this thread, but to all of the photos that have made an appearance on this site lately. There have been a number of them that I think would be well suited to our Gallery.
Volunteers? Inquire within.
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MaryAlice
4/26/2010 7:24:56 AM | "win-win":
Hi Derrick:
There have been several threads on the Forum about Squadron Quarters - Building types, photos and locations. The trick is finding them.
One of them 'Squadron locations at Deenethorpe' (initial posting by Phoenix on Mon 17 Dec 2007 9:31 pm; latest posting by Paul Bellamy on Sun 27 Jan 2008 8:38 pm).
Another thread (I have yet to identify) noted the three building types for (613Sq.) living quarters:
- - Quonset: The familiar corrugated metal Quonset;
- - Laing: A wood-frame/building paper siding gable roofed, long-narrow 'barracks' lookng, with entries at both ends; and
- - Pre-cast concrete: These are flat-roofed, and deveral remain in the 613Sq. area, south of the Base, near Yokehill farm.
Sorry I can't get 'right to them' for you. I think most of these threads are on the 'New Forum' -with photos and maps.
Win Bryson
No need to apologize, THANKS for teh info!! Will look into it, thanks!
Derrick Morris, Grandson of S/Sgt Engr/Top Turret William "Dale" Sartor, 615th BS 401st BG, "Mary Alice"
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MaryAlice
4/26/2010 7:28:16 AM | "EDanaII":
All right, this tears it! This has gone on far too long, and it's about time I did something about it! (And I mean this in the nicest possible way.) 😉
With the sudden rash of photos to this forum, I've been thinking this is a perfect opportunity to add to our photo galleries. Unfortunately, I have too many distractions to be able to do the job, and since I've been arguing about and for volunteerism for the group, it's time to do something about it.
First order of business: Paul, I assume that either these are your photos or those of a friend. Are they available to be placed on the web site? Two: are you willing to make the time and effort to prepare them for the site? And, if not, are you willing to let someone else prepare them for the site?
To all: if Paul is willing, but unable to put these photos together for the Gallery, is there anyone out there willing to do this job?
Regardless of who takes up the task, I will happily instruct them on how to accomplish it, but before we can go forward, _we need to know_ that we can go forward. So, Paul, what are your thoughts?
BTW, just to make sure I'm clear, I'm not just referring to these photos in this thread, but to all of the photos that have made an appearance on this site lately. There have been a number of them that I think would be well suited to our Gallery.
Volunteers? Inquire within.
Well, I can and will offer my services. Even though I am not a computer guru by any means, I do know how post pics and such. So, if Paul does not want to (or should day, does not have the time to do so, as we KNOW Paul would do anything for the site), I can always save them to my Photobucket account, and then post them where ever it is you want me to EDana. Just let me know Paul, if you are OK with me doing that with your pics, and if so, EDana, let me know where and when, and I can do it.
Derrick Morris, Grandson of S/Sgt Engr/Top Turret William "Dale" Sartor, 615th BS 401st BG, "Mary Alice"
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donaldbyers
4/26/2010 1:46:54 PM | I'm afraid I can't get the closeup photo of the signatures to scan properly at the moment.
However, I can read the following seperate inscriptions on the original photo:
Robert F Sullivan. 401st Bomb Group
March 21, 1963
Shot down Sept 11, 1944
Lt Wm Mercer (unclear)
Lawson
It could be possible the last name Lawson was 2nd Lt. R.S. Lawson the Co-Pilot of the Mary Alice!
Don
Sgt. Donald C. Byers, 613th Bomb Squadron, Togglier, 42-97344 Carrie B II, KIA 08/24/1944.
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Paul Bellamy
4/27/2010 5:42:42 AM | "EDanaII":
First order of business: Paul, I assume that either these are your photos or those of a friend. Are they available to be placed on the web site? Two: are you willing to make the time and effort to prepare them for the site? And, if not, are you willing to let someone else prepare them for the site?
All the recent photos, other than the one from Dave Smith, are mine.
Those I post that aren't mine will tend to be credited as such from now on, others are in the public domain, or are my enhanced scans from the Blue Book.
Feel free to use any of my photos I post here, as they are intended for 401st use.
How would you require them to be prepared for use on the site?
All the best,
Paul
Paul Bellamy
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EDanaII
4/27/2010 7:18:16 AM | The process is pretty straightforward. High Level: with a template created by me, you would simply use Google's Picasa to create a web based album. After that, modification of each web page is required to add captions and other information to each photo. It's pretty simple and straight forward, it simply requires someone take some time to do it.
Ed.
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MaryAlice
4/30/2010 7:59:06 AM | "donaldbyers":
I'm afraid I can't get the closeup photo of the signatures to scan properly at the moment.
However, I can read the following seperate inscriptions on the original photo:
Robert F Sullivan. 401st Bomb Group
March 21, 1963
Shot down Sept 11, 1944
Lt Wm Mercer (unclear)
Lawson
It could be possible the last name Lawson was 2nd Lt. R.S. Lawson the Co-Pilot of the Mary Alice!
Don
Now that would be REALLY neat/cool if it was Don! Paul, keep us updated if you will on the pic/scan..thanks!
Don, side note....@ Disney World right now, will be back on Monday, and will give Mr. Byrom a call when I get back.
Derrick Morris, Grandson of S/Sgt Engr/Top Turret William "Dale" Sartor, 615th BS 401st BG, "Mary Alice"
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EDanaII
5/2/2010 11:44:31 AM | @ Paul
So, Paul, were you willing to do this for us? If you're too busy, it's not a problem, I know how that can be. 🙂 But I have a number of volunteers willing to take this task on, so... let me know so we can move forward.
Ed.
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win-win
5/2/2010 6:07:59 PM | Paul & Ed:
I have a few 'Tower' photos, too - 1980s, inside & out, taken by a friend of mine. They may be 'candidates' to join these, if interested. Let me know.
Win
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EDanaII
5/3/2010 12:47:08 AM | I don't have a problem with adding additional photos to the album, Win. I'm all for it, although I'll only caution about making the album too big. That said, I don't think there's any danger of that here. Obviously, you'll have to coordinate with Paul.
Ed.
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win-win
5/3/2010 11:18:08 AM | Ed (& Paul):
OK, cool, I'll E-mail the photos to Paul, then 'dealer's choice' whether to include/not. Works for me.
And will E-mail you-uns directly, too, (on my learning curve) - no need using-up Furum space.
Win
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