Beschreibung:

World War II. RAF logbook of special operations in south-east Asia, 1943-5, belonging to Robert P. Lewis, flight engineer, aircraft type mainly Catalina, also Dominie and Lancaster, 959 hours logged (of which approx. 100 carried over, and 50 relating to post-war exercises), describing training exercises at RAF Killadeas, escort flights, then transit to Madras via Africa with 240 Squadron, operations commencing in February 1944 and including reconnaissance flights, sightings of Japanese submarines, and special operations ‘Balmoral’ (6 September), ‘Barn Owl’ I-III (2, 4, 27 October), ‘Biff’ I-II (29 & 31 October) and ‘Influx’ (30 January 1945), stamped and signed throughout by flight commander, various documents pasted in, including a typescript notice signed A. G. R. Garrod as deputy commander-in-chief, south-east Asia, offering congratulations for the success of the special operations, contemporary tan cloth binding, spine and front board lettered in manuscript, 8vo (20.5 x 13.5 cm), together with: original typescript reports of operations Balmoral and Barn Owl I-II (7 foolscap sheets), and 2 further logbooks from Lewis, one a copy logbook recording Lewis’s transit across Africa to India, the other dated 6 October 1942-28 October 1943 and including gunnery training at Barrow-in-Furness in a Defiant, and training exercises at Killadeas in a Catalina, signed by course commander (flight lieutenant), one section loose (Qty: 4) Robert P. Lewis appears to have held the rank of leading aircraftman in October 1942 and to have been promoted warrant officer by 1944, though he is identified in the accompanying typescript reports on operations Barn Owl and Balmoral as holding the commissioned rank of flying officer, and names himself on the coer of his logbook as a flight lieutenant. According to the typescript reports the object of secret operation Barn Owl was 'To proceed to Bentinck Island ... in the Isthmus of Kra, and collect eight Japanese prisoners, who had stumbled on four British agents, under Capt. Nichols, of the Kachen Levies'; that of Balmoral was 'To proceed with two U. S. Army Lietuenants, and one Malay guide, and drop them on Davis Island, 16 miles to the S.W. of Victoria Point, on the Burmese Siam border. They were to send back movements and strength of Japanese convoys moving between Singapore and Rangoon. Secondarily, to chart the waters around the local islands and recco them with a view to future landings'.