550 Squadron Photos

S/Ldr Edgar Pickles DFC* and Crew

S/Ldr Pickles DFC* flew with the following crew, posted to 550 Sqdn in December 1944:

S/Ldr Pickles was Flight Commander "B" Flight: 04 Jan 45 - May 45.

The picture below shows S/Ldr Pickles and crew. Thanks to Edgar Pickles and Gary Brooks for helping to put names to faces.

	Photo as follows: L-to-R: S/Ldr Edgar Pickles (P), "Pete" Spindler (Nav), "Taffy" Evans (B/A), Johnny Graham (W/Op), Alec Gow (F/Eng), Leonard Brooks (MU/AG), Joe Pascoe (R/AG) Information courtesy of Edgar Pickles and Gary Brooks (son of Leonard Brooks)
	Leonard Brooks (MU/AG) in the rear-turret "Mary-Ann"

Pickles, Spindler, Evans and Brooks all transfered in from 1656 CU on the same date, 4th December 1944. Graham transfered in from No. 27 OTU also on 4th December 1944. Pascoe transfered in from No. 29 OTU on 5th December 1944. Gow transferred in, with the F/Sgt Hopman RAAF crew, to 550 Squadron much earlier on 16th July 1944 from No. 1 LFS.

This was a second tour crew with three of the crew (Spindler, Evans and Brooks) having flown togther on their first tour with 51 Squadron.

Crew Photos

Thanks to Peter Spindler for providing the following pictures and much information related to the pictures and documents.

Photo	Description
	S/Ldr Pickles Crew and Ground Crew Rear Row: L-to-R: F/O Graham (W/Op), F/O Spindler (Nav) F/O Pascoe (R/AG), F/O Evans (B/A), F/O Brooks (MU/AG), F/Sgt Gow (F/Eng) Front Row: 3rd from the left: S/Ldr Pickles
	S/Ldr Pickles Crew and Ground Crew on Lanc "M" - Mike
	F/O Joe Pascoe (R/AG), "at the office" - rear turret of "M"
	Crew photos taken before take-off on ops, 1945 Clockwise from top left: F/O Brooks (MU/AG), F/O Evans (B/A) F/O Brooks (MU/AG), F/O Pascoe (R/AG) at rear turret L-to-R: F/Sgt Gow, F/O Brooks (on motorcycle), F/O Evans (?), F/O Graham, S/Ldr Pickles, F/O Pascoe (?) L-to-R: F/O Pascoe(?), ???, ???, ???, F/O Evans(?), ???, F/O Brooks (the four unidentified may be ground-crew) F/O Brooks on mid-upper turret F/O Pascoe, F/O Graham (W/Op)
	F/O Johnny Graham (W/Op) On Lanc "M"
	F/O Joe Pascoe (R/AG) on a Thunderbolt
	Peter Spindler (Nav) outside Parliament Buildings, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, 1942

Decorations

Edgar Pickles DFC*

Photo	Description
	Medals L-to-R: DFC and Bar, 1939-1945 Star, Air-Crew Europe Star (France and Germany), Defence Medal (1939-1945), War Medal (1939-1945), Australia Service Medal (1939-1945) Photo taken at the 2012 reunion in North Killingholme (thanks to Matty Cruddas for making the picture available)

Peter Spindler DFC*

Thanks to Peter Spindler for making the following pictures available.

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Peter Spindler, January 1942

Peter Spindler DFC

Peter Spindler DFC and Bar

Leonard Brooks DFM

Front	Reverse	Description
		Medals L-to-R (Front photo): DFM The 1939-1945 Star The Air-Crew Europe Star (France and Germany) War Medal (1939-1945) General Serice Medal (Palestine). Information courtesy of Gary Brooks (son of Leonard Brooks)

Maps of German City Defences

Photo	Description
	Map of German City Defences (used by navigators) Red areas indicate flak, blue search lights Thanks to Peter Spindler for making the document available

Photos Taken on Ops

Photo	Description
	Top Photo: Taken by R/AG. A Lanc hit by flak in it's bomb bay whilst on daylight raid over Essen, 13th March 1945 Bottom photo: part of Krupps munitions works at Essen, 1945
	Radar photo of target area at Lutzkendorf 4/5 April 1945

Propaganda Leaflets

There follow below a number of Propaganda Leaflets dropped by Bomber Command crews while on operations. These examples are in fact from a period before 550 Squadron was formed.
Thanks to Peter Spindler for making the pictures available (from period while he served with 51 Sqdn).

Photo	Description
	Paris 18/02/43 Peter notes: "This leaflet came from a "nickel" operation used as a kind of final OTU exercise - we were in a Whitley from 10 OTU at Abingdon - there were also Wellingtons involved - I believe there were a total of 9 aircraft one of which failed to return. We suffered some minor flak damage!"

Wuppertal 24/6/43	Nurnberg 10/8/43	Berlin 23/8/43

Photos Taken on Cooks Tours

Dortmund, 1945	Wesel, 1945	Cologne Railway Station, 1945

Documents

Navigation Logs

Politz Raid 8th February 1945	Dortmund Raid 20th February 1945

Pforzheim Raid 23rd February 1945	Essen Raid 11th March 1945

Special Order Of The Day, V E Day

Special Order of the Day by Air Chief Marshal Sir A T Harris to all Bomber Command personnel on V E Day.
Thanks to Peter Spindler for making his copy of the document available.

Other Group Photos

Front	Reverse	Description
		Course 47, No. 32 ANS, Charlottetown, Canada 1942 Peter Spindler: Top row, extreme left

Photo	Description
	550 Sqdn Navigators, October 1945
	Bunch of Instructors at 1656 HCU Lindhome, Aug 1944 (C W/C Sturgess DFC, Nav. Ldr F/Lt Headings) Back Row (standing) 5th from left: P H Spindler

Recent Photos

Photo	Description
	John Arnold with Edgar Pickles. March 2015

Photo	Description
	Left Peter Spindler. Right Edgar Pickles. 22nd April 2018 Together again for the first time 72 years after their tour ended
	Peter and Edgar looking through old photos and documents from their training and tour with 550 Squadron By this time both men were very hard of hearing, indeed almost deaf. So the meeting was extremely loud and even required writing on a notepad to aid conversation!