AVENGER - OTHER PHOTOS
avenger_maggie_3e_only_s.jpg Taken on 10 February 1951, the photo shows HMCS  Magnificent with a load of 826 Squadron TBM-3E's only. A mere two months later, the Squadron was flying with a mixture of -3E's and the first of the AS-3 variants. Click to enlarge. (Library and Archives Canada photo)

 
 
avenger_tbm-3w2_cockpit_a.jpg
TBM-3W2 cockpit. Note the APS-20 slave radar scope in the upper right corner. At the bottom left is the hood for the scope sitting atop the storage rack. (Louis J. Leblanc DND/PAC/PA-136522) 
avenger_gdropper_a.jpg
Avengers were used in the search and rescue role., employing the Air/Sea Rescue  "G" dropper mounted on the port mainplane by means of a light bomb rack. These kits contained life rafts, survival rations and aids. They were designed to open automatically upon contact with sea water when dropped near survivors. Here the wing is in the stowed position. (Donald Peeling DND/PAC/PA-136527)
avenger_ordanance_a.jpg
Avenger ordnance: shown here are ten Mk 7 smoke and flame floats that burned for seven to eleven minutes (metalllic cylindrical objects with fins, in foreground); 3-in rockets with inert heads; 50-calibre machine guns and ammunition; l l.5 lb practice bombs (four of which are standing behind the machine gun); No.2 Mk 2 smoke and flame floats, which burned for 45+ minutes (flanking the practice bombs); No.1 Mk 4 parachute flares, which burned for four to five minutes (located right next to the No.2 Mk 2 floats); sonobuoys (sixteen are shown here -- they are the numbered cylindrical objects); and four 250-lb depth charges. The smoke and flame floats, collectively called marine markers, sonobuoys and flares could all be launched via the 5-inch chute located in the Observer’s Mate's action station.  The practice bombs and depth charges were carried in the bomb bay, as were homing torpedoes (not shown here). Editorial note: In the caption of the photo on p. 50 of Leo Pettipas’ book “The Grumman Avenger in the Royal Canadian Navy,” it is stated that sonobuoys were carried in the bomb bay.  This is an error; the word “sonobuoys” should read as “homing torpedoes.” (L.J. Leblanc DND/PAC/PA-136570)

 
avenger_bomb_carrier_a.jpg
Looking directly up at the bomb bay. A miniature 8 position bomb rack such as this could be fitted into the Avenger's bomb bay.  (DND/Public Archives of Canada/PA-137954)
avenger_aps4_repair_a.jpg
Chief Petty Officer Robert (Bob) James Budd (left), and Petty Officer Ron Woolf (right), service this AN/APS-4 radar aboard HMCS Magnificent during NATO exercise New Broom IV on October 10, 1955. (Photo by R. Orell. DND/PAC/PA-136584)
avenger_castoff_event_a.jpg
9 May 1952. There is a tugboat strike in Halifax and HMCS Magnificent needs to cast off and get underway. What does one do? Just tie down two rows of Avengers to the flight deck and throttle up the engines to full power and let the prop wash do the rest. The roaring engines had almost everybody in town wondering what it was all about. (Photo by E.D. Manuel  DND/PAC/PA-140246)

 
avenger_magnificent_02.jpg
HMCS Magnificent. (RCN photo from the collection of Gerry Curry)

Credits and References:

1) Leo Pettipas <lpettip(at)mts.net> Associate Air Force Historian. Air Force Heritage and History 1 Canadian Air Division.
Winnipeg, Manitoba.
2) André Guibert  <a_guibert(at)yahoo.ca>
3) Gerry Curry <gerry(at)currysystems.com>
4) Donna Budd <donnabudd(a)telus.net>
 

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Aug 12 /12