Jack 'Johnnie' Walker

[AJW]

He was my Grandad and flew 10's bacl in the 70's.

Don't suppose anyone on here knew him?

Thanks

AJW

[ICM]

Yes, I knew him, and remember him well. John was the Captain on my first operational trip as a brand new Navigator with 105 Sqn, flying the Argosy at RAF Khormaksar (Aden), in September 1966. He returned to the UK soon after that, as I recall, for his VC 10 conversion as one of the early Captains on 10 Sqn. We did business again from 1973-75 at the Air Transport Force HQ at RAF Upavon, when he was the Senior Ops Controller and I was the force tasking officer. I then went on to 10 Sqn as Flt Cdr (Ops). On 21 December 1976, with his retirement imminent, he was invited over to Brize to fly the aircraft one last time, and I took the Nav seat for a 1hour 15 minutes local sortie. John was in the lefthand seat, and operated like he had hardly been away. And that, I think, was his last flight in service - all really quite impressive. You may very reasonably be proud of your grandfather.

Thanks to the piece about his being shot down in 1944 that appeared in the most recent 10 Sqn Association Newsletter, I've just sent a contribution including most of what I've said here to the Editor, so it may appear in the next edition.

[Jelle Hieminga]

Some 10 Squadron newsletters are online here: http://www.10sqnass.co.uk/10sqnHome.html
Is the article you mention included in these?

[ICM]

Jelle: No, the latest, very recent, Newsletter is Number 43, and I see that the online archive stops at 37. What is of some additional interest is that the article was a translation from the work of a German researcher, Rüdiger Kaufmann, rather than a story being told by a RAF survivor. And it would appear that he had managed to contact Johnnie Walker's son (AJW's father?) to obtain a list of the Stalags, or prison camps, where his Dad had been held after capture.

[AJW]

ICM, thank-you very much for that! It is wonderful to hear stories from people who served with him. He had a stroke in 1997 (at the time I was only and I never had any chance to ask him about anything he did before then. He never really talked about his career with my Dad, especially about the war.

He sadly passed away in september 2004 and my Dad sent in an obituary shortly after, although I don't have that particular newsletter to hand.

My Dad managed to make contact with the german researcher through the internet and he send my Dad (Johnnie's son) the article that was published.

The researcher also sent us some remains of my Grandfathers crashed Halifax after he visited the area where the aircraft crashed with his metal detector and a shovel. The remains that he sent us are now in the 10 Squadron museum at RAF Melbourne.

[AJW]

I have just found the tribute that my Dad wrote for the newsletter. It is in newsletter 35 on page 40 onwards.

Andrew

[Magnum]

I am new to this site but browsing through I instantly recognised the name.

My dad flew with him many times. They were together at 70 Squadron where dad was on Hastings and Valetta, and at 114 Squadron on the Argosy. Then again at 10 Squadron.

Richard

[petet16]

I'm sure my dad would know him, he flew with 10 sqn between 1967-73.

I'll take a look through dads log books.

[AJW]

Fantastic stuff!

What are the names of your Dad's Richard and petet16??

[petet16]

Ken Scott

[AJW]

XV102 - Feb 10th 1969 - BZN to Muharraq
XR806 - Feb 11th - Muharraq to Changi
XV105 - Feb 15th - Changi to Gan
XR808 - Feb 16th - Air test
XR808 - Feb 17th - Gan to Muharraq
XR806 - Feb 18th - Muharraq to BZN

All the above:
Captain - Self
2nd pilot - Flt Lt Scott

The only entry I can see where Anyone by the name of Scott flew with him!

[petet16]

Excellent find

All those long forgotten RAF bases.

[ICM]

Not entirely forgotten by those of us who learned our trade "East of Suez," of course - but I know what you mean!

[Magnum]

Flt. Lt. Faint

I really must get up in the loft and get his log books down.

[ACLVC10]

I would love to see those Magnum