It is a busy Autumn for the Army Flying Museum at Middle Wallop with lots of great activities for children and families in the October half term week, but also an intriguing talk by one of the Museum’s very own Trustees – Paul Edwards.
In his presentation – Operation Time-Line, Paul will tell the story of RAF Dakota KN630 which took off from Changi Airfield in Singapore on the 25th August 1950 on a target marking sortie for Lincoln bombers tasked to destroy Communist insurgent camps. After one successful sweep, the aircraft went down in the high jungle of Malaya, crashing into a ravine killing all twelve on board, including the RAF crew of three and four Royal Army Service Corps despatchers. Due to the prevailing security risk and the inhospitable terrain, a rescue party took several days to reach the site and was forced to bury the remains in makeshift graves close to the crash site.
For over sixty years the remains of the crew laid deep inside the Malaysian jungle in a shallow grave, but thanks to the misdirection of a letter to the Malaysian tourist office in November 2007 and a significant twist of fate, hear with this first-hand account, including film, of how and why 100 soldiers, fifty policemen and others launched into the high jungle of Malaysia fifty-eight years later.
Join Paul either in the Museum or online and find out more about how Dakotas were utilised during the period? What was it doing there? How did it crash and where? Who was on board? What came next? Why was it “lost”? What led up to the search and what was the outcome?
Thanks to sponsorship from Landmarc Support Services, the Museum continues to provide an interesting and informative range of talks for people to attend both at the Museum and online and by keeping the programme wide and varied, hope to encourage new audiences through their doors. Future lectures include ‘An Officer Not a Gentleman’ presented by Mandy Hickson and ‘Double-Crossed’ by Brian Wood.
This special event at the Army Flying Museum will also be live streamed on the Museum’s website. A live Q&A session will take place following the talk with both Museum and online audience members able to participate.
Visit the event page Here
