Frank A Robinson  Squadron Leader DFC                   Information from John Cook

 Frank, distinguished himself in later life as the Mayor of the Royal Borough of Maidenhead and Windsor. He died in 1998.

Robinson's  diary (32pp), August - November 1943, describes his command of a detachment from No 543 (PR) Squadron RAF flying Spitfire IVs from the Murmansk area, USSR.  It  includes: the arrival in Vaenga, September 1943; reconnaissance flights looking for the German battleships LUTZOW, SCHARNHORST, and TIRPITZ, in Norwegian fijords, September - October 1943.

Handing over and departing to the UK, October - November  1943; and mentioning the conditions; life in Russia; his off-duty entertainment; the weather; operations; and Admiral Sir Ernest Archer, SNO, North Russia.

Also included are the Squadron’s ms Sortie Record Book (28pp), Vaenga, September - October 1943, in which pilots recorded their flights.  Reports from Russian intelligence (3pp) on German naval units in Norway, August - October 1943.

Correspondence and 3 maps in Russian (8pp; translation, 2pp) and English (1p) between Major General E A Preobrazhensky, Chief of Staff, Northern Fleet Air Force, and Wing Commander J A S Harpham, SRAFO, North Russia, Grasnaya, about Soviet flight regulations, September 1943.  A list (in Russian, 2pp; ts translation, 1p) of the equipment, including 3 Spitfires, handed over by Squadron Leader Robinson to the North Fleet Air Force, October 1943.

2 undated ms lists (2pp) of photographic spares given to the Soviets and the Squadron’s activities; and 16 aerial photographs taken by the Squadron, September - October 1943.