The 'Introduce yourself' Thread

Just to add a little to what kebecker wrote above , this link is for Sgt Harpers Commonwealth War Graves Commission entry ;
www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2714...ER,%20ROBERT%20HENRY

Perhaps the best way forward would be to contact the Canadian Veteran's organisation via the link in Post#3 ?

A bit of a long shot but a quick internet search found the Port Credit Library and a contact email address for it's manager . Worth a try as he may be willing to make some basic enquiries or even check out the local Harper listings ? Details here ;
www.mississauga.ca/portal/residents/portcreditlibrary

Via the Help and Feedback section on the library page are these 20 Harper families in that area some on social media which may make contacting them easier if you use social media too ;
www.canada411.ca/search/?what=Harper&x=8...ssauga&stype=si&src=" "

Welcome Timc63

Good to see you one here and I'll look forward to seeing your posts on here as I am sure you can add alot of interesting bits to the forum. Shropshire is a great county as well and there is plenty to look at in your area.

All the best

Richard

Hello Everyone,
I am a researcher of 196 Squadron in WWII. I have a book, which i wrote, being published and should be out in the shops about May 2013. It is about my father and his crew in 196 Squadron and is called "SHERLOCKS SQUADRON". I am at the moment researching my second book which i hope to be a concise history of 196 Squadron. If anyone has any info at all i would love to hear from you. The one side of my research to date i have not looked into realy is the airfields where our squadron was based, so if anyone has any stories, facts, figures or photos i would love some info. Thanks.

Now to start browsing the site

Regards

Steve Holmes

I note that there is a war memorial in Port Credit, no detailed pictures as far as I know but it may have Sgt Harpers name on it. The Legion branch 82 in Port Credit may be able she'd some light on the memorial

Been posting here for a couple of weeks without introducing myself - sorry guys.! I'm Clive I live in East Malling in Kent. I'm a dedicated amateur military historian with a great interest in Kent's rich military history in particular. I'm here to learn and contribute as much as I can especially with regards to the airfields of Kent. I lived in West Malling for 15 years so I have a special interest in RAF West Malling.

cliveh

Welcome to the site i used to live in East Malling my local was the King & Queen i used to love their curry night on wednesdays i now live in Staplehurst.
Not much left of the old airfield at west malling now, runways i mean, in fact not a lot left of many of former WW2 airfields in kent. Exept the usuals Manston etc
I love anything military old airfields, barracks, dockyards, this is an excellent forum for finding out facts theres always someone who knows something you want to know about, have fun.

You ain"t missed much.

Hi everyone, I have just joined, and thought you ought to know who I am.

At school in SE London I was very active in 665 Squadron Air Training Corps.

Aged 17y 6m 3 days, I joined the RAF in November 1961, & went to RAF Bridgnorth for basic training, followed by 6 weeks at RAF Cranwel waiting for my training course.

From March 1962 to April 1963 I was training to be a ground radar fitter, at RAF Locking, Somerset.

In April 1963 I was posted to an active radar site RAF Bawdsey Suffolk. The officers mess was the old maor house where much of the development of the Chain-Home radar was done. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_Home

In September 1966 I started a digital computer course, much of it at the manufacturer Elliot Automation in Hertfordshire.

May 1967 found me on the edge of RAF Wattisham Suffolk, completing acceptance trials of a transportable defence system.

In August 1967 I went to Penang Island Malaysia, also known as RAF Western Hill. On the top of Penang Island we built a defence system of one 3 dimensional radar TPS-34 with 6 digital computers, and a back up 2D radar. We controlled all the airspace around the airfield RAF Butterworth for a range of 200 miles.

In May 1970 I left Penang and returned to RAF Bawdsey, which was now a training camp for radar operators.

I left the Royal Air Force in November 1970 and found work at RAF Orfordness Suffolk. There we installed and tested a new over the horizon radar which was designed to look at most of the Soviet Union. We were plagued with technical problems caused by the amount of detail we were receiving from the ground echo in Russia. We brought in a large computer and analysed the raw data: we were seeing russian train movements in 1972! We would have like to improve the system and make this data available online, but as a trade off in the SALT negotiations the site was closed in 1973. OTH radar is used today in US and Australia to control the movements in large unpopulated areas of the world.

I am now retired and happily living in Switzerland.

Welcome to the forum, Alan, think you'll find plenty to interest you on here, especially the RAF Locking thread. Look forward to any info/pics you have to post.

Pete

Thanks Tally Ho! I use the King & Queen too tho' not for curry nights! You're right about WM airfield. It's such a soulless place now.

cliveh