USA Volunteer Reserves - HMT Orcades - Embarkation in Halifax

[Temujin]

George, again while looking for other information, I spotted these USA Volunteer Reserves nominal roll on embarkation to England.

I’m not sure if these were American Volunteers in the RAF.....or where American Service Personnel......the Enlisted Serial Numbers don’t seem to be US, And it lists some of them as “Sergeant Pilots” And the Officer’s as “Pilot Officers” which would tell me they were American Volunteers in either the RAF or RCAF

the records say they were coming from 31 PD (31 Personnel Depot) = 31 RAF Depot (formerly 31 Personnel Depot). Formed at Moncton (Canada) in October 1941.

I thought they may be of interest to you

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This was the transport they were on, and are listed in the General Numbers of RAF/RCAF/RAAF/Norwegian AF personnel proceeding to England

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[Temujin]

Follow UP.......I check the first one on the Sgt Pilot list, Leonard Taylor Hays, and indeed he was a RAF Eagle Squadron Volunteer, here is his US Draft Card that confirms this

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[georgetanksherman]

Temujin, I started on the top section of the P/O, looks like all but one started in the Royal Air force and when the U.S. officially joined in the war they transferred over to USAAF

P/O J. Floyd Andrews RAF transferred USAAF, survived, helped start up P.S.A. Airlines

P/O Mason Lively Armstrong - still researching

P/O Harold Eugene Bangerter, RAF No. 112 Squadron transferred to USAAF 148 Ftr Sqdn

P/O Charley Mack Blakeney was with RCAF No. 428 Sqdn as a Flt Lt, and was awarded a DFC

P/O Archie Warren Chatterley and P/O Richard Ververs Douglas were RAF Eagles transferred to USAAF 334th Squadron

P/O Forrest Martin Fisher transferred to USAAF but stayed on detachment with RAF No. 105 Squadron was killed in action flying Mosquito LR506

P/O Baylis Earle Harriss stayed RAF attained the rank of Sqdn Ldr awarded DFC

P/O Dixie Green Jackkson, RAF Transferred to USAAF KIA July 14, 1943

P/O William Edwards Jeavons, an aircraft crash on the station he was assigned and he was severely injured, still researching more on him,

The story continues ! will do the rest in a bit for those that might be interested !

[Hxkey]

George & Temujin:
I stumbled across this blog which includes information about my grandfather Leonard Taylor Hays. I can confirm that he was in the Eagle Squadrons, but I don’t have very much information about his time in the war! I was very excited to read about him in the information you posted and see his Registration Card. Do you have any more information on this unit? He didn’t want to discuss his time in the war.
Thank you!

[Temujin]

George & Temujin:
I stumbled across this blog which includes information about my grandfather Leonard Taylor Hays. I can confirm that he was in the Eagle Squadrons, but I don’t have very much information about his time in the war! I was very excited to read about him in the information you posted and see his Registration Card. Do you have any more information on this unit? He didn’t want to discuss his time in the war.
Thank you!

Welcome to our site, and I’m glad you found us. Another one of our members does a LOT of research on American’s who joined the Commonwealth Forces (RCAF, RAF, RAAF, RNZAF etc). I’ll pass your message on to him, and he may have more information.

I have more on the Eagle Squadrons, and I’ll find it (sorry, I have a LOT of files, so I have to go look for it) and then either send it to you, or a link for you to download the information directly

Welcome, and if you have any other questions, please ask us, we’re here to help

[Temujin]

Here are some on line sites that have more information on Eagle Squadrons, their were 3 of them in the RAF, 71, 121, and 133 Squadrons

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/PDF/M ... 7eagle.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Squadrons

https://books.google.ca/books?id=JkAEAA ... &q&f=false


https://books.google.ca/books?id=Bf1yCg ... &q&f=false

[Hxkey]

Thank you so much Temujin for taking the time to provide that information and would appreciate any other info and/or referral to the other member of the group!! Can’t express how appreciative we are!!

[Temujin]

Follow UP.......I check the first one on the Sgt Pilot list, Leonard Taylor Hays, and indeed he was a RAF Eagle Squadron Volunteer, here is his US Draft Card that confirms this

A038AEEB-2B72-4105-9AF8-D03730EFA46D.jpeg

A follow up on the information on his US Draft Registration. Note he was in the RAF at Polaris Flight Academy, Lancaster California. Here’s a link to information on that

https://www.militarymuseum.org/WarEagleField.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Eagle_Field

https://sites.google.com/site/12squadro ... /no-2-bfts

http://airfields-freeman.com/CA/Airfiel ... m#wareagle

http://www.4thfightergroupassociation.org/

[Temujin]

A Video on the Eagle Squadrons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z2fVNnI6ms

[Temujin]

I did not find his name in the Rolls of personell who served in any of the Eagle Squadrons. Link below to see the info

https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA264 ... 3/mode/2up

But, I note in “what we know”, he went to England in May 1942 and then I have records that he enlisted (or transferred) to US Forces the 1st Nov 1942, so he may have not spent any time in the Squadrons. But that is just a guess. He “may” have been assigned to one of the other RAF Squadrons, but that would be unusual as the men who enlisted as US Volunteers in the RAF normally would have gone to an Eagle Squadron.

Still looking to see if I can find anything else