Thanks for a very good article on a great aircraft. A few little corrections and maybe additions.
1) RAAF 10 Squadron served at Mount Batten, Plymouth UK for most of the war and not at Point Cook. They never fought the Japanese. 10 Squadron were successful submarine hunters and operated often in the dangerous Bay of Biscay area where they also had a number of encounters with Ju88′s also.
2) The fitting of P&W 1890 Twin Row Wasp engines to Mark III’s was first done by 10 Sqn in conjunction of 460 RAAF, its sister Squadron at Pembroke Dock.
3) 10 Sqn and 460 Sqn also jointly developed the fixed “Deck Brooms” as they were called to either side of the nose. These were Browning O.5 MG’s as these packed a far greater punch. In fact they upgraded all MG’s to 0.5mm Brownings
discarding the Lewis ‘Gas guns’ of earlier models.
4) A further development by these two Squadrons were 0.5 Brownings in two galley positions similar to the waist gun positions on B 17′s etc., except they had a hatch arrangement to close them for take off and landings.
All these mods became standard on the MK V, which became a formidable aircraft indeed as a result!
Lastly a question do you know what Mk etc the Ju88′s the Sunderlands often fought were? I’ve been wanting to model one for some time.
Cheers
Neil