The Shuttleworth Collection's Westland Lysander IIIA V9367 took off from its Old Warden base on December 3 for a flypast over a new memorial at Tempsford, Bedfordshire, where two special 'ops' units were based during World War Two. The memorial, unveiled on the day by HRH The Prince of Wales, bears the names of 75 women from 13 different nationalities, who worked as saboteurs, wireless operators and couriers with the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The monument was built following a successful campaign led by Tempsford resident Professor Tazi Husain to recognise the achievements and sacrifice of the women involved. The Lysander, painted in the colours of a Tempsford-based 161 Squadron machine, was flown by the collection's chief pilot Roger 'Dodge' Bailey. The aircraft was built in Canada in 1942 and used by the RCAF as a target tug. After the war it entered civilian hands, arriving in the UK in October 1971. Following restoration, it flew again as G-AZWT in December 1979, painted as V9441, a Lysander of No.309 (Polish) Squadron. Grounded in 1986, it was purchased in 1998 by the Shuttleworth Collection and has since been fully restored, repainted and fitted with a long-range dummy fuel tank and ladder to represent V9367 'MA-B' of 161 Squadron.
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