1/72 Halifax

Here is a special model for me. It shows the Halifax that my wife’s grandfather flew as bomb-aimer in for most of his duty during the Second World War. I only met John “Jack” Emmett Kelt once, and briefly, at Christmas 1999, not long after I started going out with Sarah. He died several months after.

This photo was published in the Daily Sketch on April 22 1943, showing the crew on their return from a raid on Stettin. Jack is third from the right. All we knew of the aircraft came from this photo, coded L for Love. From this, with the the help of many people all over the internet, I deduced that this aircraft is a Halifax B.II (Special) JB926 fitted with a Tollerton or ‘Z’ nose.

I looked further, and from 78 Squadron’s records discovered that the entire crew was lost flying a different aircraft, shot down by a nightfighter over Holland but Jack was not aboard the aircraft for reasons unknown. Other records suggest he might have been the lead bomb-aimer for the squadron, often ‘guesting’ on other crews. I think he may have flown as part of another crew prior to this, and was resting on the night in question.

I built the Revell 1/72 Halifax B.II, with the Freightdog improvement set, that mostly deals with getting the engine nacelles to a more realistic shape. I alos added the basic Eduard cockpit interior, just to add an impression of more complexity.