Back after ten months of hospital treatment

[Arthur John Harvey]

BR235941 This recent posted thread appears to have been lost due to the downtime hence I have re posted. Arthur j,hARVEY



R235041[/B] Have been in hospital for four months and receiving treatment which has taken me out of circulation for ten months. In January this year I went in for a spinal operation which left me unable to walk or to free stand, hence I am in a wheelchair; according to the surgeon I was supposed to be only one night stay in hospital and then discharged fit; however something went wrong and left me with a dead right foot, unable to walk nor balance; solicitors investigating as to possible legal action.
During the WW11 I served on three tankers one of which was the Gro.W.McKnight (Anglo American oil company) she one of the biggest at the time being 12500 tons, I was always told that if we got home then we had enough high octane for a 1000 bomber raid on Berlin, always assumed it was true but recently having time on my hands I contacted the RAF MUSEUM at Hendon and received the following reply so all those who served on tankers during that period your efforts were appreciated.
Dear Mr HarveyThank you for your enquiry. A Lancaster had a total fuel capacity of 2154 gallons, and would need most of that to reach Berlin and return. It would appear that 100 octane petrol has a density of around 5 pounds per gallon, so a fully-fuelled Lancaster has 10,770 lb. (4.8 tons) of fuel. If your tanker held 12,500 tons, that would seem to be enough for 2.6 raids on Berlin by a thousand Lancasters!
Yours sincerely
Peter Elliott

[Ivan Cloherty]

Thank you Arthur for your post, sorry to hear of your misfortune and we can only hope that things improve for you, I feel sure that ALL on site wish you well and are glad of your return onboard and we'll try to look after you to the best of our ability.

[gray_marian]

#1, Thank you for re posting Arthur, like Ivan and the others who posted before the upgrading of the site, I too wish you every good health. Hopefully if not too presumptuous, you might share some of your memories if and when time allows.

[Richard Quartermaine]

Yes indeed Arthur, experiences such as yours deserve airing. I think the teller and the reader are both rewarded. May you obtain the best results in your medical situation.
Richard