Ken Crankshaw Air Gunner DFC DFM

[pjw4118]

In searching for more details on the upcoming Thomas Frederick Duck exhibit, Ken Crankshawes family have been very helpful and have a lot of material. Here is a bit of it I found of interest.





Officers of 75 Sq





Ken flew with Sgt Gurrs crew





After a spell with the Central Gunnery School he joined 156 PFF Squadron on Kearns crew before transferring to Jack Wrights flying Thomas Frederick Duck





Ken was famous for hill bell ringing on op. The bell is currently with his widow, on her porch in Sydney



The TFD art and associated display will be unveiled during April.

Are there any more photos on crew details out there?

[Dave Homewood]

Fantastic stuff Peter!! Thanks for sharing this.

[waynem]

Fascinating photo's Peter.
Most I haven't seen before.
Thanks for posting.

[fwx]

Thanks for sharing these Peter, great to have so much material on this famous crew. Good photo of Olson and his two Flight Commanders.

"Achtung Anzac" (according to 'Forever Strong', "with dripping blood and the word 'Tovarich'") was the Curr crew's regular Wellington at 75 (probably X3597, AA-C?). L-R: Kennedy, Crankshaw, Frankie Curr, Hull, Sullivan.

The "Thomas Wedge School" life raft photo is the Kearns crew while at 156 PFF Sqdn, with Terry Kearns third from left, and his Bomb Aimer Jack Moller fourth from left. I think that is Ken Crankshaw far right?. Three of the Kearns crew were ex-75 (NZ) Sqdn (by the time Crankshaw joined them), Kearns, Moller and Barclay, so I'm sure they and the Wright crew all knew each other well.

The life raft had been donated to the Squadron by a local school, which had run a penny trail.

Cheers,
Chris

[pjw4118]

Thanks for the feed back , it will make for a great display. I will put a post on the NZBCA page when a date for dedication has been confirmed.

[nuuumannn]

Terrific, Peter. The log book entries of Ken's time as a Defiant gunner with 264 Sqn are interesting. At the time on the pages, the unit was at RAF West Malling, Kent. The aircraft lised are predominantly Defiant Mk.IIs in the 'AA' serial number bracket, AA371 which suffered a crash landing. Interestingly, this incident is not listed on AA371's RAF aircraft movement card, details of which can be found in Alec Brew's book The Defiant File (saves going to the RAF Museum to look for Daffy fates), although that aircraft did in fact suffer another forced landing in India in 1944 as a target tug whilst flying against a Vultee Vengeance. This one was a result of running out of fuel. It suffered Cat B damage and was not struck off charge until 1947, however.

The first machine listed on those pages is N3377, a Defiant Mk.I.

The picture of the Defiants was from that commonly produced photo shoot of 264 Sqn aircraft, of which images have appeared in the forum before. The middle aircraft, N1535 PS-A was Sqn Ldr Philip Hunter's personal aircraft, in which he and his gunner failed to return on 24 August 1940.

[pjw4118]

Interesting comments , thanks very much. Ken served on 264 from Sept 41 until April 42, if you would like copies of his log book entries for this time PM me with your email address.

[crankshaw2]

I wonder if you could let me know when that display is on this year, don't have any details,

Regards, Peter Crankshaw, Ken's son in New Zealand

[pjw4118]

Peter , the paintings are with the conservators and we will be looking at an early July unveiling but I will let you know by email. I hope the Aussie branch come over to give the bell one last ring.
It wont be the same as we lost Nick Carter the last crew member a month ago.

[pjw4118]

The display is being put together now with an August dedication.
We are still trying to contact any family relatives. I know that there are Kellys out there. Does anybody have a contact please .

[Dave Homewood]

Did you see the IWM interview in the Terry Kearns thread, in which Kearns talks about flying with Ken Crankshaw? Quite amusing.
www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80009092