I'm pretty sure this is the first time since August 1943 that this Rolls Royce Merlin engine from Halifax HR871 of the Canadian 405 Squadron has sat the correct way up! The aircraft was ditched due to a lightning strike and sat at the bottom of the Baltic sea off the coast of Sweden for almost 80 years...... Ran fine when last used ! It's with great thanks to the Bomber Command Museum of Canada and Halifax 57 Rescue that this ''Golden Gem'' of history can be displayed at the RAF Snaith Museum
2024
MWO, The Reverent (Retired) Herb Townsend celebrates his 90th birthday with 405 Squadron
HR 871 Engine Recovered
HR 871 Engine Recovered
April 23, 405 (Long Range Patrol) Squadron, based at 14 Wing Greenwood, celebrated its 83rd birthday with a celebratory cake. Pathfinders gathered, as Lieutenant-Colonel Dan Arsenault, right, and Chief Warrant Officer Duane May got ready for cutting and serving duties.
405 Squadron was the first Royal Canadian Air Force bomber squadron, formed in England April 3, 1941. June 12, 1941, saw its first bombing operation. Elite and experienced bomber crews continued to serve through the Second World War. In 1950, the squadron reformed at Greenwood for maritime patrol work. In 1955, the war-time Lancaster was replaced by the Neptune and then, in 1958, the Argus. The CP140 Aurora arrived in 1980 and, through several modernizations, remains Canada's essential long range patrol and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, at home and abroad.
Ducimus!
Photo: Sergeant R. Beers