Alan M Peart DFC - research

[drew37]

Hi all,

Hope you are all well and keeping safe.

My name is Drew Brown and I am doing some research into Alan McGregor Peart DFC, RNZAF/RAF 1940-1945.

I am a 53 year old Scot living in Dunblane, Scotland and am an avid WW2 aviation fan, reader, model-maker and amateur historian.

I first came across Alan Peart in John Nicol's excellent book 'Spitfire'. Of all the stories told Alan's stuck with me. So I started to look into him and was astounded to see that his Wiki was just a basic profile with some references to his passing. For the last 6 months I have spent a great deal of time collecting information on Alan from his own memoirs and various books such as 'Aces High', 1994, Classic Warbirds Vol 12 and Osprey's 'Spitfire Aces of Burma and the Pacific'. I am currently waiting on a couple of Norman Frank books, 'Spitfire over the Arakan' and the 'Air Battle over Imphal'.

I have been very grateful to several people in NZ for sending me photos, audio and other information. I have also been in touch with Larry Hill who was close personal friend of Alan's and we have been exchanging emails and again he has been very helpful with information. 

I have been updating his Wiki for a few weeks now and will have more time over the holidays. I work full time managing a busy technical office so my time is limited.

My only motivation is to see a fitting, historical and accurate Wiki record of Alan's life in the RNZAF, RAF and some post war history. I am not in this for any sort of personal gain.

I would be very grateful if anyone could help me with further reading recommendations, sources of photos or other information that would help me. 
Please post below or send me a message.

Take care.

Drew Brown
Dunblane, Scotland. 



  

[Dave Homewood]

It was me that put John Nichol in touch with Alan back when he first started researching for his book, along with a few other Kiwi Spitfire pilots.

Have you got or read Alan's own book, "From North Africa To The Arakan"? It's a brilliant book.

[pjw4118]

Hello Drew , it was Larry Hill who introduced me to Alan , and over a number of visits , copied many of his photos and some " action " pages of his logbook. Happy to share them with you.

[drew37]

Dec 16, 2020 14:31:55 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

It was me that put John Nichol in touch with Alan back when he first started researching for his book, along with a few other Kiwi Spitfire pilots.

Have you got or read Alan's own book, "From North Africa To The Arakan"? It's a brilliant book.

Yes I have it and reading through it again for the second time. Just mapping out his journey. He was quite a character! I also have 4 hours of audio interview he gave to Ventura Publishing and transcribing that is taking time.

Appreciate your reply.

[drew37]

Dec 16, 2020 14:48:53 GMT 12 pjw4118 said:

Hello Drew , it was Larry Hill who introduced me to Alan , and over a number of visits , copied many of his photos and some " action " pages of his logbook. Happy to share them with you.

I have some photos and log book pages via Larry and Malcolm Laird but always on the look out for more. I use Dropbox or Onedrive if that helps or you could email me?

[Dave Homewood]

Alan was a friend of mine and a friend of this forum, in fact I am pretty sure he used to read the forum too. He attended several of our WONZ Forum Meets. He spoke at a couple. You can hear a talk from a forum meet on this very early Wings Over New Zealand Show episode here:

cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZShow/2011/12/episode-7-alan-peart-dfc/

[drew37]

Dec 16, 2020 21:19:42 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Alan was a friend of mine and a friend of this forum, in fact I am pretty sure he used to read the forum too. He attended several of our WONZ Forum Meets. He spoke at a couple. You can hear a talk from a forum meet on this very early Wings Over New Zealand Show episode here:

cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZShow/2011/12/episode-7-alan-peart-dfc/

I will download that, many thanks.

[drew37]

Hi,

I have this photo of a crashed Spitfire and it is claimed to be one of Alan's Mk.VIII Spitfires. Can anyone confirm or comment please?


(I cant get Flickr to show photo so will come back later!!!)