User talk:GrahamBagnall

File:Douglas Rivers Bagnall Photograph.jpg"

I note the discussion regarding copywright on the above.Unfortunately,I have no means of contacting the author.It is a photo in my father's records,which he passed down to me.It is a private photo taken by a fellow officer taken in 1942 outside my father's tent when he was based in N.Africa.That is all I know. I do have a drawing by Pilot Officer A.B Read of my father dated April 1942. This was published (on page 230)in a book called Sweeping the Skies by Prof.David Gunby. From whom would I need to obtain permission to publish this photo on Wikipedia ?

Rgds Graham Bagnall

GrahamBagnall (talk) 20:16, 26 December 2017 (UTC)

I would like to amend the Career section in Wikipedia (bibliography of my father,Wing Commander Douglas Rivers Bagnall) with following entry (which was taken from the Daily Telegraph obituary posted online on 03/01/2001 :

Bagnall survived more than 70 sorties, many of them against heavily defended positions. For his part in an attack on the marshalling yards at Battipaglia in 1943, he was awarded an immediate DSO, to add to an earlier DFC. The citation described him as an inspiring leader whose bombing was outstandingly accurate.In 1943 when his squadron,no.40,became part of the U.S.15th Air Force under General Carl Spatz,he was awarded an American DFC.

The tenacity with which Bagnall hurled his obsolescent Wellingtons against strategic and battlefield targets was further illustrated two months later, in November 1943, when his Squadron, No 40, attacked a railway viaduct linking two mountain tunnels at Recco, east of Genoa in Italy. The viaduct was so far from the squadron's base at Kairouan in Tunisia, that they had to refuel in Sardinia. Arriving over the target in the dark, they dropped flares to illuminate the scene, and Bagnall was able to direct a 4,000lb bomb slap on to the viaduct.

But the flares caused only alarm to his rear gunner, who was suddenly able to see how perilously close to the towering cliffs of stone the aircraft was,and reported that trees rooted therein were flashing by his turret.

Accepted in 1937 for training as an RAF pilot, he was commissioned the next year. In May 1939, he was posted to No 216, a bomber transport squadron flying Vickers Valentia biplanes at Heliopolis in Egypt. Bagnall appreciated the obsolete Valentia for the fine views of African wildlife he gained from its open cockpit. After the outbreak of war, however, No 216 was re-equipped with Bristol Bombays which combined transport duties with bombing.

Bombing from a Bombay could be somewhat unorthodox. During General Sir Archibald Wavell's desert campaign in the New Year of 1941 Bagnall lobbed grenades on Sidi Barrani from the cockpit. He also took part in the ill-fated operations in Greece and Crete. During an enemy attack on Heraklion airfield his aircraft was machine-gunned on the ground; while under fire he managed to save valuable stores from the burning aircraft. In August 1941 Bagnall joined No 108 Squadron which was forming with Wellingtons at Fayid in the Canal Zone. The posting placed him within two hours' flying time of the fluctuating war in the Western Desert. The following February he took over as a squadron leader. For three months he commanded a large detachment of the squadron as an independent unit operating from advanced landing grounds in support of troops and armour.

From June 1942 Bagnall was rested on a combined services course at the Haifa staff college in Palestine. That November he received an operations staff post at headquarters in Cairo, which did not appeal. "I was living in the fleshpots of Cairo," Bagnall remembered. "The Long Bar of Shepheard's Hotel was adjacent, as well as the Gezira Club, but apparently I was not satisfied as I kept agitating for a return to operational flying."

In March 1943, he obtained his wish. Promoted to wing commander at the age of 24, he was posted to take over No 40 Squadron and its Wellingtons from Wing Commander Norton, a fellow New Zealander. For the next 12 months the squadron, which became part of the US 15th Air Force in General Carl Spaatz's North West African Air Force, supported Allied troops in the final Tunisian battles. They then moved on to the Sicilian and Italian landings and campaigns.

Shortly before the D-Day invasion of Normandy, Bagnall returned to Britain to help with planning at Headquarters Allied Air Expeditionary Forces. He subsequently served at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force.

After the war, Bagnall elected to remain in the RAF, reverting briefly to the rank of flight lieutenant. He was also able to resume the enthusiasm for rugby he had developed at school and university, playing regularly for Wasps. Following a spell at Defford, Worcestershire, as a radar experimental pilot he was posted to Singapore as an intelligence officer.

He returned in 1953 to take part in the planning of the Coronation Review, and the next year served with the US Air Force's 20th Fighter Bomber Wing. Resuming staff duties in 1957, he was posted successively to the Vulcan V-bomber base at Scampton, Lincolnshire, bomber operations at the Air Ministry, and the Lightning station at Wattisham, Suffolk.

And to amend the section Personal Life to read :

In the course of his career Bagnall had flown 56 types of aircraft, including most jets of his era. He retired in 1965 as a wing commander and, accompanied by his wife, for the next 16 years cruised the world in their 60-foot ketch Tirrenia II. Eventually, he settled in Herefordshire and enjoyed his golf. He retained a link with the service as President of the 205 Group Association. He married, in 1945, Caroline Welham, who survives him with a son and a daughter.

Kindly confirm that I may edit source in each of these 2 sections so they read as above.

Rgds Graham BagnallGrahamBagnall (talk) 13:38, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

Managing a conflict of interest
Hello, GrahamBagnall. We welcome your contributions, but if you have an external relationship with the people, places or things you have written about on Wikipedia, you may have a conflict of interest (COI). Editors with a conflict of interest may be unduly influenced by their connection to the topic. See the conflict of interest guideline and FAQ for organizations for more information. We ask that you:


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Also please note that editing for the purpose of advertising, publicising, or promoting anyone or anything is not permitted. Thank you. Theroadislong (talk) 16:51, 2 January 2019 (UTC)