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Zatoichi_Sanjuro

06-22-2010, 08:52 PM

Channel 4 next Tuesday.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-untold-battle-of-britain

Clip: http://vimeo.com/10304911

winny

06-22-2010, 09:01 PM

It's heading towards the 70th anniversary of the BoB so hopefully there will be loads of stuff like this through the summer.

Should be good.

mattd27

06-23-2010, 12:48 AM

So I guess no chance that'll be on in the ol' USA?

Balderz002

06-23-2010, 02:38 PM

I will be watching!

Matt, check the channel 4 'on demand' website after the showing next week.

Gilly

06-23-2010, 02:51 PM

So I guess no chance that'll be on in the ol' USA?

Channel4 now put most shows up on YouTube once aired. The superb ' fighting the red barron' was up the day after!

flynlion

06-23-2010, 03:41 PM

Channel4 now put most shows up on YouTube once aired. The superb ' fighting the red barron' was up the day after!

Maybe not in the USA. I got this response from the channel 4 website:

"This video contains content from Channel 4, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds."

A pity. BBC documentaries always seem to have more class than USA produced ones. Seems like the BBC targets an older audience without a lot of gung ho "Rambo" type BS.

Davedog74

06-23-2010, 04:07 PM

bbc yes ,flynlion,but not itn.
listen to the sound of them there jets http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F3VlFFNjtU&feature=channel

flynlion

06-23-2010, 04:35 PM

bbc yes ,flynlion,but not itn.
listen to the sound of them there jets

Ha! Now that's funny :grin:

Reminds me of "Airplane" where a 707 sounded like a DC3. At least then it was intentional.

It's actually pretty common to mix up sound tracks, especially since a lot of gun camera footage was silent with the sound added later. Most films nowadays would have you beleive that every airplane in a dive sounded like a Stuka.

Gilly

06-23-2010, 05:47 PM

Maybe not in the USA. I got this response from the channel 4 website:

"This video contains content from Channel 4, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds."

A pity. BBC documentaries always seem to have more class than USA produced ones. Seems like the BBC targets an older audience without a lot of gung ho "Rambo" type BS.

Why I said YouTube as I'm aware that both channel4 and the BBCiplayer (which us English get on our ps3's just to rub it in!!)are not available outside of the uk. They usually post them for approx a week after transmission. Alternatively try and find a uk based proxy as I think it's related to ip addresses. Then there's always the dodgy route....

Zatoichi_Sanjuro

06-23-2010, 06:49 PM

Are they using footage from the 1969 film? It's been so long since I seen it.

winny

06-23-2010, 07:17 PM

Are they using footage from the 1969 film? It's been so long since I seen it.

I thought the same thing when I saw the trailer for this.. looks very BoB with some CGI cut into it.

flynlion

06-23-2010, 07:43 PM

Are they using footage from the 1969 film? It's been so long since I seen it.

It's available on DVD, at least in the states. BoB and Airplane are the only DVDs that I ever watch LoL.

FOZ_1983

06-23-2010, 08:05 PM

Are they using footage from the 1969 film? It's been so long since I seen it.

Some of the footage is the BoB film, other footage appears to be from "dark blue world"

Soviet Ace

06-23-2010, 08:48 PM

They should really find people, who still know how to make a WW2 Warbird as they would have back in the 30s and 40s, and then use them for the movies. (Engine, Frame, Controls, etc. would all be realistic to the time period. It'd be great I think.)

Gilly

06-30-2010, 09:46 AM

What an absolutely superb program this was. A real nice mix of war footage, reconstructions and interviews with surviving members of 303 squadron.
If you do get the oppotunity to see this then I highly recommend doing so. The story of Josef Frantisek was brilliant- he was given special dispensation to 'hunt' alone after he broke formation and chased some HE111's back to France! He racked up 17 kill during the BOB and was sadly killed whilst landing during early October.
A group of real men who once the war was over were sadly forgotten about by the allies. They did not even get to march in the victory parade as the allied feared this would upset Uncle Joe Stalin.

I for one will never forget their sacrifice
My eternal thanks and may your wings carry you through the heavens

It seems this was quite the norm for them!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXf1bhEEXd0&feature=youtube_gdata

Balderz002

06-30-2010, 10:06 AM

It was a great docu. Alot of it I have already read about in the book 'For your Freedom and Ours'. Recommended reading to all of you! Nice footage taken from the BoB film, and I would say Dark Blue World - both great films!

Davedog74

06-30-2010, 10:59 AM

a good show,the polish were great fighter pilots,ruthless and brave
my only gripe is,and all due respect to frantisek ,yet again eric lock didnt get recognition for the highest scoring allied pilot(20 kills)this has been known for 10 years,
must of used wikipedia for research.

Zatoichi_Sanjuro

06-30-2010, 02:40 PM

Yeah, I agree. I was somewhat cautious of the style of it from the clip but it turned out to be really well put together. Very moving at the end too.

bobbysocks

08-15-2010, 09:15 PM

not trying to highjack your thread ZS. but its BoB stuff and i thought this would be the best place to put it. found this today....think it changes each day. is from the RAF benevolent fund.

http://www.1940chronicle.com/

bobbysocks

08-15-2010, 09:27 PM

if you are near london on friday you might want to see this!!!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1302264/How-Battle-Britain-Memorial-Flight-keeps-spitfires-Lancasters-air.html#ixzz0wexWoyci

bobbysocks

08-15-2010, 09:38 PM

another cool BoB site...a day by day account.

http://battleofbritainblog.com/

edal86

08-20-2010, 07:01 AM

Hey guys, just saw the complete documentary, it is a very well done piece. Thanks for bringing it up to light, I hope they make more and if they do keep us informed please.

I have not yet put my hands on a "Dark Blue World" I really want to watch it, is it a good film??

Anyway, just wanted to say hello :)

For those who have not seen this documentary here are the links (12 mins. each, 4 parts).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Bloody Foreigners"Part 1 of 4 The Untold Battle Of Britain,Poland's pilots of 303 Squadron
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a61_1277853853

"Bloody Foreigners"Part 2 of 4 The Untold Battle Of Britain,Poland's Pilots of 303 Squadron.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b0f_1277855289&c=1

"Bloody Foreigners"Part 3 of 4 The Untold Battle Of Britain,Poland's Pilots of 303 Squadron.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a1d_1277856793

"Bloody Foreigners"Part 4 of 4 The Untold Battle Of Britain,Poland's Pilots of 303 Squadron.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8e2_1277858019

Enjoy!

It appears as "video not found" but it works, just click on the link on top on the media player window

MACADEMIC

08-20-2010, 08:59 AM

Gilly

08-20-2010, 12:49 PM

Dark Blue is an awesome film Edal, I'll second Mac on that.
The thing that impressed me most about the documentary on 303 squadron was not only there overiding desire to just shoot down Germans but their complete disregard for our 'british' rules and regulations- josef frantiseks story is just amazing and tragically sad in that he died in the way he did. It does make the scene in the film BoB much more amusing now that I know that's basically what they did on every sortie!!!!
Repeat Please..........

edal86

08-20-2010, 10:50 PM

Did the links work for you guys??

I could not find a copy of "dark blue world" in any American store around my area. Looks like they are only available online for $22 or more, fortunately, I live near the border with Mexico and I just found a Region 4 copy in a Mexican store for just $5 :) Cant wait to watch it, thanks for the recommendation.

bobbysocks

08-23-2010, 07:01 PM

While memories of the Battle of Britain remain fresh in the minds of The Few who flew, and the staff who supported them, veterans fear its significance could soon be forgotten by others.

Seventy years ago the RAF was locked in a life and death struggle with the Luftwaffe in the skies over England.

The three weeks between mid-August and early September in 1940 were decisive for the Battle of Britain.

The bravery of the RAF pilots was captured in Winston Churchill's speech on 20 August when he said "never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few".

Those left of The Few, as those pilots became known, are now in their 90s. Some of them fear they will soon not be around to remind people of the events that summer.

Tom Neil was a 20-year-old Hurricane pilot during the battle. He was often scrambled four or five times a day, flying 141 times in all.

"As soon as the scramble order came, you'd have to get off the ground in three minutes," he said.

"You're concentrating like mad, looking for the enemy as you get above the clouds.

"The adrenaline is racing… flak is bursting all around you, everything was exciting.

"When you get back on the ground, you feel like a piece of chewed string. You think Christ, that was rather nasty."

"The Spitfire was a beautiful plane to fly. When you were sitting in it you really were part of the plane," said Spitfire pilot William Walker, now 97.

But while the Spitfire came to symbolise the battle, the workhorse Hurricane was also held in great affection.

"It was the Hurricanes which won the Battle of Britain," Mr Walker said. "They outnumbered us two to one."

The pilots' days ran from dawn to dusk - sometimes from 0330 until almost 2200. A pilot had to be able to fall asleep in an instant, in the brief respite between flights.

Tom Neil flew so many times because he was never seriously injured, or burned, a common hazard for Hurricane pilots.

His friend James Nicolson once described to him "how he smelled like pieces of roast pork, how he could see pieces coming off his arm" in the cockpit.

Nicolson had stayed in his burning craft that day, August 16 1940, to shoot down a Messerschmitt 109.

He managed to bail out in time, and became the only fighter pilot during the Battle of Britain to be awarded a Victoria Cross.

The British planes had little ammunition - only about 30 seconds' worth - and they were firing 7mm machine gun bullets while the Germans had 20mm cannon.

The trick was to get in position - fast - and fire as quickly as possible before getting away. British planes could turn more sharply than the Messerschmitt 109s but otherwise they could not outmanoeuvre them.

One ace, "Ginger" Lacey, told the BBC he had had to bail out nine times in 16 weeks.

Peter Ayerst, who trained Spitfire pilots, said it was impossible to tell who would survive and who would not.

Pilots were kept in the air thanks to the bravery of ground crew, whose job it was to check, patch holes, refuel and re-arm the planes.

They too were risking their lives, particularly between August 15 and September 7, when the Luftwaffe targeted RAF airfields.

Ronald Tooke, then 19, was an engine mechanic for a busy Hurricane squadron.

He remembered the aerodrome being attacked on a sweltering summer day, when he went to sit in the shade by the hangar after testing a plane with a colleague.

"You can't sit there," said his friend, "our planes are coming back".

But the engine noise he heard was a Messerschmitt.

"That was the last I saw of him," said Ronald Tooke. He dived for cover, but his colleague was dead.

What is more, if the pilots had not known exactly where to go, they could not have fought at all.

Radar operators and the observer corps spotted German planes and relayed the information to the operations room, where it was plotted on a huge map.

Peter Ayerst, who trained Spitfire pilots, said it was impossible to tell who would survive and who would not.

Pilots were kept in the air thanks to the bravery of ground crew, whose job it was to check, patch holes, refuel and re-arm the planes.

They too were risking their lives, particularly between August 15 and September 7, when the Luftwaffe targeted RAF airfields.

Ronald Tooke, then 19, was an engine mechanic for a busy Hurricane squadron.

He remembered the aerodrome being attacked on a sweltering summer day, when he went to sit in the shade by the hangar after testing a plane with a colleague.

"You can't sit there," said his friend, "our planes are coming back".

But the engine noise he heard was a Messerschmitt.

"That was the last I saw of him," said Ronald Tooke. He dived for cover, but his colleague was dead.

What is more, if the pilots had not known exactly where to go, they could not have fought at all.

Radar operators and the observer corps spotted German planes and relayed the information to the operations room, where it was plotted on a huge map.

Peter Ayerst, who trained Spitfire pilots, said it was impossible to tell who would survive and who would not.

Pilots were kept in the air thanks to the bravery of ground crew, whose job it was to check, patch holes, refuel and re-arm the planes.

They too were risking their lives, particularly between August 15 and September 7, when the Luftwaffe targeted RAF airfields.

Ronald Tooke, then 19, was an engine mechanic for a busy Hurricane squadron.

He remembered the aerodrome being attacked on a sweltering summer day, when he went to sit in the shade by the hangar after testing a plane with a colleague.

"You can't sit there," said his friend, "our planes are coming back".

But the engine noise he heard was a Messerschmitt.

"That was the last I saw of him," said Ronald Tooke. He dived for cover, but his colleague was dead.

What is more, if the pilots had not known exactly where to go, they could not have fought at all.

Radar operators and the observer corps spotted German planes and relayed the information to the operations room, where it was plotted on a huge map.

Peter Ayerst, who trained Spitfire pilots, said it was impossible to tell who would survive and who would not.

Pilots were kept in the air thanks to the bravery of ground crew, whose job it was to check, patch holes, refuel and re-arm the planes.

They too were risking their lives, particularly between August 15 and September 7, when the Luftwaffe targeted RAF airfields.

Ronald Tooke, then 19, was an engine mechanic for a busy Hurricane squadron.

He remembered the aerodrome being attacked on a sweltering summer day, when he went to sit in the shade by the hangar after testing a plane with a colleague.

"You can't sit there," said his friend, "our planes are coming back".

But the engine noise he heard was a Messerschmitt.

"That was the last I saw of him," said Ronald Tooke. He dived for cover, but his colleague was dead.

What is more, if the pilots had not known exactly where to go, they could not have fought at all.

Radar operators and the observer corps spotted German planes and relayed the information to the operations room, where it was plotted on a huge map.

Hazel Gregory was 18 in 1940 and working as a plotter at the Headquarters of Fighter Command in Uxbridge.

The plotters would hear information through their headphones and instantly start placing Bakelite arrows on the map, adding to it at a rate of about one a second.

She recalled Winston Churchill visiting on September 15 - later seen as the decisive day in the Battle.

"You're too close to it to realise exactly what's happened," the prime minister said. "But you will later and one day you'll tell your grandchildren about it and the part you played in it."

Most of the veterans I spoke to said the Battle of Britain was no longer as well known as it used to be.

School children study World War II, but they usually learn about the evacuations and the Blitz, which affected many millions.

Ronald Tooke recently went into a shop near his Hampshire home, wearing his Battle of Britain badge.

The young shop assistant asked him what it was, so he told her. "And which Battle of Britain would that be?" she asked. And it was not a joke

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11004370 spitfire

bobbysocks

08-24-2010, 09:23 PM

this guy deserves any honor bestowed and then some...got this from another site amd is a mix of several posts.

The RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (Lancaster and one of the Flights Spitfires) had a fly over in salute to Fl Lt Nicholson who 70 years ago on Monday this week (16.8.10) won the VC for his incredible act of bravery. (the ONLY Fighter Command VC in the Battle of Britain and entire war)

He was flying a Mk1 Hurricane from RAF Boscombe Down (where I work) in a flight of three A/C ...Red flight...and was engaged with a gaggle of Me110's over the Solent when his Hurricane was hit by 4 canon shells from '110. One shell caused an injury to his foot, one shattered the canopy and caused cuts and bleeding to his eye and two went into the gravity tank in front of the cockpit (Only a Brit would design a fighter with a petrol tank sandwiched in between the motor and the pilot !). Obviously, it got a bit hot with tank on fire so he decided to jump.

Just as he's about to go over the side, he see's a 110 fly right by in front of him, and in sheer bl**dy mindedness, he climbs back inside the burning cockpit...and promptly shot the 110 down !. Then he jumped, badly burned.

All was well until he was just about to land, when a member of the LDV (Home Guard) shot him in the b*m !. He spent more than a year recuperating from his burns, but by September 1941 was back in the air and in 1942 was posted to India. Between August 1943 and August 1944 he was a squadron leader for a unit stationed in Burma (27 Squadron, flying Bristol Beaufighters over Burma. During this time he was awarded the DFC.). He was killed when an RAF Liberator in which he was flying as an observer caught fire and crashed into the Bay of Bengal. His body was not recovered. His medals are in the possession of the Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon.

His two wingmen, both with surname King, were also badly shot up by the 109's who had joined in the dogfight, one managed to fly his crippled Hurricane back to land but the other bailed out only find his parachute had been shredded by canon fire and it failed. He did'nt make it back home.

At Boscombe Down, we have a memorial to Nicholson ...sorted by our very own Rocketeer !!!...and have some of the armour plate form Nicholsons Hurricane in the Museum.

video from the day...

http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675046738_Victoria-Cross_Wife-of-heroic-pilot-shows-his-burned-shoe-and-flight-gear

bobbysocks

08-29-2010, 04:57 PM

Battle of Britain veterans take to the skies again
Fourteen Battle of Britain veterans are taking to the skies in a special memorial flight.

A chartered airliner is flying over parts of England and the English channel that saw some of the fiercest aerial combats.

The British Airways Airbus is being accompanied for part of the way by a Spitfire and Hurricane from the period.

“This is going to be real pleasure, a great day”

Said William Walker ,Spitfire fighter pilot.

The battle for air supremacy between the RAF and the Luftwaffe in 1940 was a decisive chapter in World War II.

The daily dogfights in the skies of southern England saved Britain and averted a German invasion.

Important battle

Bill Bond, of the Battle of Britain Historical Society, who organised the two-hour flight, said that with just a few remaining veterans still alive he wanted to mark the 70th anniversary celebrations with "something a bit special".

He told the BBC that with the Hurricane and Spitfire flying alongside the British Airways Airbus, it "would be the first time that any of the veterans had flown in formation since the end of the war".

One of the veterans, Wing Commander Bob Foster, said the flight was an important reminder to those who were not born at the time as it "would bring home to (them) what happened way back 70 years ago".

"This is what we trying to get over to the younger generation, the importance of the battle fought then."

'Wonderful flight'

Flight Lieutenant William Walker, the eldest of the veterans who was shot down by a German fighter plane over the Channel, said the flight was going to be a "real pleasure".

Speaking before boarding the plane, he said: "This wonderful flight with a few friends who I flew with is going to be a great day.

"I've just had my 97th birthday and this is going to be like having an additional birthday celebration."

The plane, which is also carrying 15 widows of Battle of Britain pilots, will fly across the Home Counties, the Isle of Wight, northern France, the Netherlands and parts of the North Sea.

These areas were the main arenas of the Battle of Britain. It was over the English channel that Flt Lt Walker was shot down in 1940.

Bailed out

Based at an airbase in Surrey, Flt Lt Walker was often sent up two or three times a day. On one such mission he, along with two other planes, was scrambled to meet the enemy. They soon came under attack and his Spitfire was shot up by a Messerschmitt 109, the main German fighter plane.

"My leader was shot down and badly burnt, my number two was killed and I got a bullet in my leg and my plane was shot to pieces. I bailed out at 20,000 ft," he recalled.

As he gently descended he removed his boots, blew up his Mae West life jacket and landed in the water close to a wreck on the Goodwin Sands just off the Kent coast.

He was rescued by a fishing boat and taken to Ramsgate, where he was met by a crowd.

"They cheered as I came ashore and a dear old lady gave me a cup of tea," he said.

Suffering from hypothermia, he was taken to hospital where he underwent an operation to remove a bullet from his ankle. When he woke up, a doctor was by his side.

"He had a bullet in his hand and told me that when the surgeon prised it out of my ankle it flew out and hit the ceiling. He gave it to me and I still have it as a treasured possession," he told the BBC.

FOZ_1983

08-29-2010, 05:58 PM

bobbysocks

08-31-2010, 06:06 PM

Surprise garden find leads to tales of the lives lost in the region’s skies
from the nothern echo

‘I HAVE dug that border two or three times a year for the last ten years and I have never spotted anything,” says Joe Bench.

“Then I came out one morning and there it was, sticking up out of the soil.

“It’s such a coincidence, with this being the 70th anniversary of the Spitfire in the Battle of Britain.”

Joe discovered a mini- Spitfire. It’s less than 2in long and appears to be made of lead. It could be a toy; it might have been a large tiepin.

As well as being the anniversary of the Spitfire’s heroics in keeping the Luftwaffe at bay, there’s another coincidence. Joe made the find near his shop, Catterick Village Pet Supplies in Low Green, which was once beneath the Spitfires’ flightpath… THERE are 52 airmen buried in Catterick Cemetery. Each headstone tells a different version of the same story: young men being drawn from all over the world to die in this corner of North Yorkshire fighting for freedom.

The story begins in 1914.

Work was just beginning on the huts for the nearby garrison which would become the largest in Europe; the military railway was being extended over the Swale from the Richmond branchline. The airfield opened on a flat, grassy strip to teach the first Royal Flying Corps’ pilots how to fly early bi-planes.

The fatalities soon followed, the unfortunate Second Lieutenant Maurice Thornely being the first on December 3, 1916.

The following August, another four airmen – one from Dublin, one from Melbourne, another from New Zealand and the fourth a British captain – died, probably in two accidents involving the rudimentary flying machines.

All five deaths occured before the Royal Air Force was officially formed on April 1, 1918 – this makes RAF Catterick one of the oldest military airfields in the world.

After the First World War, the grass was allowed to grow for a little, but as the Thirties wore on, the base was modernised, and in August 1939, the first Spitfires arrived.

The Spitfire is the symbol of Britain’s determined and stubborn resistance in 1940 (although the less glamorous Hawker Hurricane was the true workhorse of the Battle of Britain). It was designed by Reginald Mitchell – “the first of the few” – and entered service on August 4, 1938.

A year later, Spitfires reached Catterick, and their first kill was on October 17, 1939, when pilot Albert Harris helped bring down a Heinkel bomber 20 miles off Whitby. Two days later its pilot and observer became the first German prisoners captured on British soil, when their inflatable liferaft drifted ashore at Sandsend, near Whitby.

But by then Sergeant Harris, a Canadian, was dead, as the following day a bomber in which he was travelling crashed. He is buried in Berkshire.

Harris’ attack fulfilled RAF Catterick’s crucial role in providing fighter cover for the North-East. Equally important, it was a resting and re-equiping station for the fighter squadrons which had been in the heat of the Battle of Britain over the south of England.

Catterick was important enough to have its own decoy airfield – near Kirkby Fleetham, to attract the Germans’ aerial attention – and its own satellite, at Scorton.

SCORTON airfield opened in October 1939. Initially it was an emergency landing strip so Catterick’s planes had somewhere to land should the Germans have bombed their runways in their absence (as happened in mid- June 1940).

Soon, Scorton had its own contingent of Blenheim bombers. In 1941, its runway was enlarged to 4,800ft so it was longer than Catterick’s 3,300ft – the Swale on one side and the Great North Road on the other preventing Catterick extending – and it had its own decoy airfield near the village of Birkby.

Catterick and Scorton airfields were multi-national.

In 1942, Canadian nightfighters – “we kill by night” was their motto – were stationed at Scorton followed by 422 Squadron of the American IXth Air Force, which was equipped with sinister black Black Widow planes.

There were Canadians at Catterick, too, accompanied by a Czech squadron of Spitfires and a Norwegian squadron of Hurricanes.

And so Catterick Cemetery is a multinational place. The majority of the 52 airmen’s graves are British, but 12 are Canadian, four are New Zealand, three Australian, one Swedish and one Czech.

The Swede is Flight Lieutenant Ole Bechgard, 31, who died on October 7, 1943, when his 604 Squadron Beaufighter from Scorton crashed during an airtest half-a-mile south of Catterick.

The Czech is Sergeant Josef Gutvald, 29, from 313 (Czech) Squadron, which was formed at Catterick. He died on May 27, 1941, when his Spitfire crashed into farmland at Uckerby, Scorton, and its fuel tanks exploded creating a 10ft crater.

With peace in 1945, such stories came to an end.

Instead, Catterick starred in a fictional war story: it was the setting for many parts of the film The Way to the Stars (see previous Memories), starring John Mills and Renee Asherson.

Because its runway was too short for modern aircraft, Catterick became a training base, particularly for the RAF Fire Service. In 1994, it became part of the Army’s garrison complex.

The Americans left Scorton in July 1944. The Ministry of Defence, fearful of the Cold War, kept it until 1958 but gradually agriculture and quarrying took over its land and its buildings. Now there is very little left, apart from a tall pole from which its windsock once hung.

Later this year a plaque is going to be unveiled detailing all the squadrons which served there.

THERE were once two more graves in Catterick Cemetery.

They contained the bodies of the first German airmen to die on British soil during the Second World War.

They were the victims of a Spitfire flown by Group Captain Peter Townsend – then a Flight Lieutenant – who later became noted for his doomed liaison with Princess Margaret.

On February 3, 1940, Townsend led the attack on a Heinkel bomber which had been strafing an unarmed trawler off Whitby.

The Heinkel crashlanded near a farm four miles north of Whitby, killing two of its four-man crew.

The German attack on the trawler so angered the seafaring folk of Whitby that it was considered too dangerous for Observer Rudolph Lenshacke and Flight Engineer Johann Meyer to be buried in the town.

Their bodies were sent to Catterick, as it was the nearest airbase cemetery, where they were interred on February 6, the uncomfortable funeral captured by a Northern Echo photographer.

In 1960, the two were exhumed and taken to the Cannock Chase German War Cemetery in Staffordshire, which had just been opened.

ANOTHER Catterick first: the first active US serviceman to die in Britain during the Second World War met his end in Catterick airspace – before his nation had even entered the war.

Lieutenant Follett Bradley Jr is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC. The Arlington website says he was 24 when he died on June 22, 1941, “in an airplane accident near Catterick, Yorkshire, England”.

It adds: “No details of the accident that caused the young officer’s death were made public.”

Echo Memories understands that Lt Bradley was the son of Major-General Follett Bradley, who was a pioneering flier in the First World War and who was awarded a Distinguished Service Medal in 1944.

Follett Jr was a junior officer observer who came to Britain surreptitiously in April 1941 – eight months before the Americans were formally bombed into the war by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

It is believed that Lt Bradley was taking part in a highaltitude research flight in a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. Established aerial combat tactics said that the fighters – Spitfires, Hurricanes and Messerschmitts – should get higher than the heavier bombers and then dive at them out of the sun. The research flight was to find out how high a bomber could go.

Lt Bradley and the six-man crew set off from a Suffolk airbase, and by the time they were over North Yorkshire, they had reached 31,000ft.

There they flew into a terrible thunderstorm. The Flying Fortress was struck by lightning and plummeted 20,000ft, where it disintegrated.

The only survivor was Flight Lieutenant KW Stewart, who was one of two medics on board testing airmen’s reactions at high altitude. He baled out before disintegration.

Parts of the plane rained down on the Catterick area, scaring the residents. The Boeing’s engines crashed near Catterick Bridge. Lt Bradley’s remains were discovered near Scorton Grange.

THERE were at least 20 air crashes over this corner of North Yorkshire during the Second World War, accounting for many young lives.

Here’s a final war story. On June 9, 1943, bad weather prevented a Lancaster bomber from landing at its home base of RAF Thornaby. It was diverted to RAF Middleton St George but for an unknown reason the pilot, Sgt Francis Haydon, requested to land at Scorton.

At 2.45am on his approach, he turned too steeply, stalled and crashed into farmland near East Lingy Moor Farm.

All four aircrew – two British, two New Zealanders – perished.

■ With thanks to, among others, Colin Stegeman and Tony Pelton. Many thanks also to everyone who has been in touch regarding Gatherley Castle. More in a few weeks’ time.

scottyvt4

08-31-2010, 09:07 PM

The Battle of Britain

For many centuries before World War II, aggressors had attempted to invade and conquer the island nation of Great Britain. The last successful invasion, however, had occurred almost 900 years earlier, when William the Conqueror conquered Britain in 1066 at the Battle of Hasting. In 1588, Spain tried to invade the island, sending the greatest naval fleet of the time against the British. But the Spanish Armada was defeated by the well-organized British Navy which, although smaller than the Spanish, was aided by a communication system of beacon fires across the country to signal fleet locations. This was a history lesson that Adolf Hitler chose to ignore when, fresh from victory in France and the Low Countries, he targeted England as his next conquest. He prepared a mighty force but, in the end, was defeated by a small air force and another system of "beacon fires," this time composed of radios and radar.

Hitler assumed that with the surrender of the mainland Allies, England would be unable to continue fighting. To conquer England, he planned an invasion, which would be preceded by intensive aerial attacks by the Luftwaffe intended to destroy the Royal Air Force (RAF) and gain air superiority. The plan was named Operation Sea Lion and its launch day was termed Aldertag (Eagle’s Day). Until then, the Luftwaffe would attack shipping in the English Channel, hoping to draw the RAF into skirmishes and begin to deplete their strength. Although the Luftwaffe was spread thin by a large war theater and constant battles, it still possessed almost 2,000 airplanes, many more than Britain’s 675. The German aerial fleet included the Messerschmitt Bf.109, at that time the most feared airplane in the world. But the British boasted the Submarine Spitfire and the Hawker Hurricane, two previously little-known airplanes that came into their own as the fighting over England got underway.

Despite appearances, the British were ready to fight. In June 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had promised the world that even though his nation now stood alone, it was ready to fight the Battle of Britain to save the world from defeat and a new Dark Age. He encouraged his country to "brace ourselves to our duties, and men will say, ‘This was their finest hour.’" Fighter Command, led by Air Marshall Hugh Dowding, was ready, having been preparing for such an event since 1937. They had a well-developed radar system and the Filter Room at Fighter Command--a central operations room that coordinated observer and radar reports and allowed for early warning and attack of incoming German forces. Plus, the British had home advantage, as a downed British pilot could hop on a train and be back to his unit in time for the next mission, but a downed German pilot became a prisoner of war. The RAF had also performed well covering the evacuation of Dunkirk in France, gaining confidence.

The Battle of Britain began on July 10,1940, when the Luftwaffe began attacking shipping in the English Channel and limited bombing missions against RAF bases. Although Germany suffered greater losses than England in this period (248 vs. 148 ), the British were quickly losing experienced pilots. On August 1, Hitler issued Fuhrer Directive No.17, which read: "I intend to intensify air and sea warfare against the English homeland...The Luftwaffe is to overpower the Royal Air Force in the shortest possible time." Operation Sea Lion officially began on August 8 with orders for intensified attacks directed at airfields and radar stations. Aldertag, originally planned for August 10 but delayed because of bad weather, was August 13. On that day, the Luftwaffe flew 1,485 sorties; losing 39 airplanes while the British lost 15. The Germans also knocked out a number of radar stations, shutting off the eyes of Fighter Command. Although most of these belonged to Coastal Command and the few that did belong to Fighter Command were repaired quickly, the Luftwaffe still maintained an edge for the next several days. Commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering made several adjustments in tactics and for the remainder of the month, the RAF, although winning on paper, was losing aircraft and pilots faster than it could afford. It was three weeks away from defeat.

But the RAF was saved by a simple mistake. On August 25, the pilot of a Luftwaffe Heinkel He.111 became lost and accidentally bombed central London, despite standing orders not to do so. Churchill ordered a retaliatory strike on Berlin, sending 81 RAF Hampden bombers to Berlin the next night. Although the attack was ineffectual, it struck right at Hitler’s ego. He immediately gave a radio address, promising, "If the British bomb our cities, we will bury theirs" and, against the advice of his generals, issued orders to institute a merciless bombing campaign against London. On September 7, the London Blitz began. Initially, the bombing was during the day, but as Luftwaffe losses added up, it became a nighttime bombing operation.

Although difficult on the civilian population, the Blitz gave the RAF a much-needed break. Air bases and factories could be repaired and plane inventory could be replaced. With its increasing strength, the RAF continued to deal the Germans horrendous losses, until the Luftwaffe could no longer absorb the punishment. On October 12, Hitler officially canceled Operation Sea Lion and Great Britain emerged undefeated.

Germany could easily have won the Battle of Britain, but it committed too many costly errors. The German government failed to emphasize aircraft production and did not replace downed planes quickly enough. Adjustments to current production were not made to increase the airplane range, although auxiliary fuel tanks had been developed during the Spanish Civil War. A Messerschmitt Bf.109 had only enough fuel to remain over England for 20 minutes and bombers were often left unescorted. But most importantly, German military intelligence was deplorable. Its sources said radar stations were unimportant and should not be targets. It also misreported strength, weapons, and losses. At one point, Hitler complained to Goering that "you have apparently shot down more aircraft than the British ever possessed." The faulty intelligence resulted in poor strategy.

Fighting for its existence, the underdog British managed its campaign better. Under the supervision of the Minister of Aircraft Production, Lord Beaverbrook, resupply and maintenance became a national priority. Housewives donated pots and pans to be turned into Spitfires (it is unknown if the factories actually used the donations) and whenever a squadron needed a replacement airplane, it soon appeared.

The Fighter Command communication system helped save airplanes and the country as well. As the Filter Room received reports of enemy strength and location from radar stations and the Observer Corps, it sent out only the exact number of fighters needed to the exact location, sparing unnecessary sorties. And in a controversial decision, Dowding ordered Fighter Command to concentrate on attacking bombers going to the target and ignore all other German aircraft. His goal was to prevent German bombing from occurring but not to expose his pilots to unnecessary risks. As a result of this unpopular decision, as well as political battles below him, Dowding was forced to retire two weeks after the end of the Battle of Britain.

The citizens of London became used to the nightly bombings of the Blitz until the following May. But as inconvenient and harrowing as the bombings were, they did not complain because they knew that Fighter Command had saved them from invasion and defeat. In a speech before Parliament in August, Churchill remembered the brave men of the Fighter Command:

The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day"

--Pamela Feltus < owner of the original doc.

References:

Clayton, Tim and Craig, Phil. Finest Hour: Battle of Britain. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.

Collier, Richard. Eagle Day: The Battle of Britain. London: Cassell Military Publishers, 1966.

Corum, James S. The Luftwaffe: Creating the Operational Air War: 1918-1940. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1997.

Gunston, Bill. History of Military Aviation. London: Hamlyn, 2000.

Lopez, Donald S. Aviation: A Smithsonian Guide. New York: MacMillan USA, 1995.

Great Air Battles: Battle of Britain: http://wings.buffalo.edu/info-poland/britain/airbattle.html

Imperial War Museum: Battle of Britain: http://www.iwm.org.uk/online/battle%20of%20britain/intro.htm

Museum of London Blitz Web Exhibit: http://http://www.museum-london.org.uk/MOLsite/exhibits/blitz/intro.html

RAF Battle of Britain History Site: http://www.raf.mod.uk/bob1940/bobhome.html

Winston Churchill Homepage: http://www.winstonchurchill.org

Additional Recommendations:

Churchill, Winston. Their Finest Hour. Volume 2 of Second World War. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1986.

Hough, Richard and Richards, Denis. The Battle of Britain: the Greatest Air Battle of World War II. London: Hodder & Stoughton: New York: Norton, 1989.

Mosley, Leonard and the editors of Time-Life Books. Battle of Britain. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1977.

Overy, Richard. The Battle of Britain: The Myth and the Reality. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001.

Wood, Derek. The Narrow Margin: the Battle of Britain and the Rise of Air Power 1930-40, Rev. ed. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1990.

McQ59

09-01-2010, 09:38 AM

Great post.
Just a little flaw in there Scotty...

Quote: 'But the British boasted the Submarine Spitfire and the Hawker Hurricane, two previously little-known airplanes that came into their own as the fighting over England got underway.'

A submarine Spit would certainly been nice, but I don't think Pamela Feltus got it quite right there.

bobbysocks

09-01-2010, 04:59 PM

hats off to this great gentleman... Lord Hugh Dowding watching a film shoot of the BoB ( in first pic below). would give anything to see the images flashing in his mind at that moment!!

Dowding was born in Scotland in April 1882 and educated at Winchester College and the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. Dowding served in Ceylon, Gibraltar, Honk Kong and then for six years in India. When he returned to Britain from this tour of duty, Dowding took up flying and received his flying license in 1913. Following this, he joined the newly created Royal Flying Corps and fought in World War One where he commanded 16 Squadron. During this war, he clashed with the head of the Royal Flying Corps - General Hugh Trenchard - over the issue of rest for pilots exhausted by constant flying sorties. As a result, Dowding was sent back to Britain. He was promoted to brigadier-general, but took no more active part in the war itself.

After the war, Dowding joined the newly established Royal Air Force becoming a vice-marshal in 1929. In 1933, he was promoted to air marshal and in 1934, Dowding was knighted.

It was in the 1930's that Dowding made his real mark. He was a believer in research and development and pushed hard for this aspect of the RAF to be adequately funded. He knew that the days of the bi-plane were numbered and pushed for a fast fighter. The led to a competition that ended with the construction of the legendary Supermarine Spitfire. By 1937/38, Dowding became convinced that a war with Nazi Germany was a real possibility and the Nazis had done little to disguise the growth of the Luftwaffe. In April 1937, the Luftwaffe had demonstrated its ability to destroy an undefended city with the bombing of Guernica in Spain. For this very reason, Dowding believed that Britain had to be in a position to defend itself from German bombers - hence his part in pushing for the development and manufacture of both the Spitfire and Hurricane. Dowding also pushed for the development of the radar - to give the British an adequate warning of an enemy attack.

In 1938, Dowding believed that Britain was not able to adequately protect itself against the Luftwaffe. For this reason, he advised Neville Chamberlain to pursue a policy of appeasement at Munich. Whereas Chamberlain has been criticised for 'giving in' to Hitler and not making a firm enough stand against him, Dowding believed that he needed more time to develop Fighter Command to enable Britain to defend itself.

In 1940, Dowding played his part in providing what fighter cover he could give to the men being evacuated at Dunkirk. However, both he and Winston Churchill believed that any full use of what resources Dowding had would be reckless, especially for what many considered to be a lost cause. In this, Dowding proved to be correct.

Dowding's resources as head of Fighter Command were about to be given a massive test - one which they could not fail. In the Battle of Britain, the men of Fighter Command were pushed to the limit. As in World War One, Dowding clashed with other senior officers in the RAF over tactics. Men like Air Vice Marshal Douglas and Air Vice Marshal Leigh-Mallory wanted the pilots of Fighter Command to engage the Luftwaffe before they crossed the English coastline. Dowding rejected this approach as he believed that any British/Allied pilot that parachuted out over the English Channel was more liable to be drowned. Any combat over the mainland that led to a pilot parachuting out, meant that the pilot had a greater chance of survival. Dowding knew that Fighter Command was not short of fighter planes. But it was short of experienced pilots and he resolved that Fighter Command could not lose any more. Hence why he engaged the Luftwaffe on 'home' soil.

The victory in the Battle of Britain ended any hope of Hitler launching "Operation Sealion". In recent years, some historians have re-assessed the importance of the battle, claiming that Hitler's heart was not in an invasion of Britain and that he was fully focused on the an attack on Russia. However, no-one in Britain would have known this in August/September 1940 and no chance could be taken that the barges on the French and Belgium northern coastline were there only as a threat.

Dowding has been given the credit for the victory in September 1940 - along with the "few". For this he was awarded the Knight Grand Cross. However, his career did not end in the glory many feel it should have done. Air Chief Marshal Portal, the chief of air staff, did not agree that Dowding had used the right tactics and in November 1941, the man who had masterminded the victory that was the Battle of Britain, was forced to retire from the position as head of Fighter Command. Age was not an issue as Dowding was only 59. Dowding was replaced as head of Fighter Command by one of his chief critics - Air Vice Marshal Douglas.

Dowding was given 'special duties' to do in America involving aircraft production. However, he retired from the Royal Air Force in July 1942 and was awarded a baronetcy in 1943.

Dowding died on February 15th, 1970.

Xiola

09-05-2010, 12:05 PM

this guy deserves any honor bestowed and (Only a Brit would design a fighter with a petrol tank sandwiched in between the motor and the pilot !). Obviously, it got a bit hot with tank on fire so he decided to jump.

The reason it was there, at least on the Spitfire, was because that point was exactly over the wing and the centre of gravity. Which meant the plane had exactly the same performance characteristics with a full or empty fuel tank. Other planes with the fuel tank elsewhere had different handling whether the tanks were full or empty.

So it was done for superior performance and handling reasons, but obviously had disadvantages if it caught on fire.

bobbysocks

09-05-2010, 07:15 PM

look at the picture below before reading the article...

I know everyone has their demons that hinder and slow us down and make our lives weary... however I simply cannot help but look at this picture and feel that my life is hardly all that difficult. Pictured here is newly promoted Squadron Leader Brian John Edward Lane, Officer Commanding of No. 19 Squadron of the Royal Air Force. Take a good look at this picture and try to guess how old he is.

He is photographed during the height of the Battle of Britain, September of 1940 at the helm of the aforementioned historic No. 19 Squadron, having received his post following the death of the previous squadron leader. At this point in the battle, Lane had fought in the Battle of France that May and June, helping protect embattled British and French soldiers during the harrowing evacuation of Dunkirk. The Allies lost the Battle of France. By this point to many, including the still neutral USA, it looked like they were going to lose the Battle of Britain as well. I on the other hand, look at this face and I don't see defeat. I see strain, I see hardship etched into every line of his prematurely aged face, but I don't see defeat. Instead I see determination, I see grit, and I see sadness.

There are no smiles here. Men just returned from another hard fight, almost always with less planes coming back than went out. That was the reality these men lived in for almost a year, from the late spring of 1940 through spring of 1941. The enemy they faced, the German Luftwaffe, outmanned them, outgunned them, and had a years' worth of combat experience under its belt. This was the great test in that moment of history; after Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Norway and France had all fallen, and Italy being part of the Axis and Spain under control of a Fascist regime every bit as ruthless as Germany's, all eyes were on Britain. The war for the soul of Europe for that one year rested solely on their shoulders. We here in the USA offered little help. We sent no planes, we sent no pilots, we sent no ships, and we sent no soldiers. Britain was seemingly a force alone.

Forget fanciful images from films like "Pearl Harbor", of American volunteers risking criminal prosecution and lost citizenship back at home to gallantly help the beleaguered Great Britain to victory, the total amount of US airmen who flew during the actual Battle of Britain was between seven and ten. Our sole contribution to the actual fighting. Almost 150 Polish airmen fought in the battle however, even after England failed utterly to live up to its promise to assist Poland in the event of a German invasion. One in every eight pilots in the RAF during the battle was Polish.

We in the US, however, were neutral and would remain so for nearly another year and a half. The first full squadron of volunteer US pilots in RAF uniforms didn't become active until February of 1941, well after the majority of the fighting of the battle had wound down as the Germans prepared to invade the Soviet Union instead. The squadron itself was formed and being trained in September 1940, at the time this picture was taken. We have no right to take any pride from Allied victory in the Battle of Britain, or even pretend we do. But really, Britain was not alone. Apart from the Poles, scores of Czech, French, Norwegian, Belgian, Danish, and other pilots had all escaped to Britain. In fact the highest scoring RAF unit of the conflict was No. 303 (Polish) Squadron, which only entered combat on the final day of August 1940. On top of that many pilots from around the Commonwealth, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, all flocked to the homeland in its hour of need.

It would be over another year from when this photograph was taken before the US signed the Lend-Lease Act and started sending aid to Great Britain in earnest in exchange for Caribbean naval bases. It would be another year and a half almost from this photograph until we actually entered the war, and almost another two years from this photograph before we started sending our army air force in earnest to England to carry out the bombing campaign against occupied France and Germany. And even then, we were woefully unprepared to carry our weight. We talk of American victories and American military might when without Great Britain it never would have happened. They gave us staging areas, they taught us tactics and took us under their proverbial and even literal wings.

This was a different conflict, a different time. These were desperate and dedicated young men. Our soldiers on the ground today do not face the same struggles that Lane and his comrades did. No one but those who were there and then in that shining moment can have any idea what it possibly felt like; those of us alive today can only taste it. Fighting to keep anything resembling morale as your airfields, factories, and finally cities are all bombed mercilessly for months on end and no matter how many times you go up and how fewer and fewer of you return every time the enemy never seems to break or lessen their assault. Yet they held, they held strong and they kept fighting. And in the end that determination paid off in victory that I think won the war in Europe. Without a British victory in the Battle of Britain there would have been no launching point for a Normandy invasion, nowhere for the streams of Allied strategic and tactical bombers to break down the German war machine and fighting spirit bit by bit. This moment and these young men were the ones who beat Germany; they kept the light going and the door open for the future.

Let’s go back to the picture now. This was the face of that battle; very weary, very young, but very determined young men. Whatever your guess was at his age from the beginning, he was only twenty three at the time of this picture. He's not photogenic. The lower half of his face is markedly paler than the upper half from being covered by a flight mask after spending much of every day flying. The frown-lines between his eyebrows are very pronounced, he even appears to have bit of a wandering left eye if you look close enough, and you can. But he looks back at the camera, right back at you, and he's unwavering, isn't he? This is the face of Brian John Edward Lane, and this is the face of the Battle of Britain. Lane was not the highest scorer of the battle, not by a long shot. In fact he just barely made 'ace', which is to say he shot down 5 or more enemy aircraft, with a final score of 6. The man to his left, our right, George Unwin, downed over twice as many as Lane. And unlike Lane, Unwin survived the war. Lane on the other hand finally met his fate in combat over the North Sea in December of 1942. Yet it is Lane who we remember today. Because Lane didn't have a low score because of lack of ability, he had leadership thrust on him at a young age and carried his torch well. He dedicated himself to leading his men and the success of the unit over personal glory. The photo shows Lane as he was; a hard-working, no nonsense leader who wanted to win.

Look hard at this photograph. This is the face of a hero. Of a common man who fought a grand fight. And even if it claimed his life, he has in fact survived until today, hasn't he? Even knowing that he only lived two years beyond this photograph, maybe it's just me but I don't see death in Lane's face... do you? I see someone determined to keep going, even if it does kill him. That's a powerful thing, a force of will we all should have, don't you think? It's decidedly missing in today's world, the drive, the desire to win and keep going no matter how long the odds. I know some may argue that our enemies have it today, blowing themselves to smithereens in desperate attempts to kill us, but that's not the same thing, not by a long shot. Fighting to defeat your enemy even if it kills you will always win over killing yourself to kill your enemy. It didn't work for the Japanese in World War II and it won't work now. We should all learn something from this picture, learn something from this small moment in history and move forward with our lives, and keep fighting, even if it kills us, but with a hope for a future all the same. In that way we can all be heroes can't we? We can help keep the spirit of the "Few" alive. We can make sure that the sacrifices of those like Lane don’t go forgotten, or those who're putting their own lives on the line today. The very soul of our modern times depends on it.

Author Nathan Klein.

bobbysocks

09-05-2010, 07:44 PM

WWII German bomber to be recovered from Goodwin Sands

A rare German WWII bomber which has been buried in a sandbank off the Kent coast for the past 70 years is to be raised, it has been announced.

The twin-engined Dornier 17 was shot down over Goodwin Sands, near Deal, during the Battle of Britain.

The Royal Air Force (RAF) Museum said it had worked with Wessex Archaeology to survey the site since the bomber emerged from the sands two years ago.

It will go on display at the museum in London once it has been recovered.

A spokeswoman for the RAF said the aircraft was part of an enemy formation which was attempting to attack airfields in Essex when it was intercepted on 26 August 1940.

'Unprecedented survivor'

The bomber's pilot, Willi Effmert, carried out a successful wheels-up landing on Goodwin Sands but the plane sank.

Mr Effmert and another crew member were captured but two other men died.

The aircraft, nicknamed the flying pencil, is said to be largely intact with its main undercarriage tyres inflated and its propellers showing crash damage.

Air Vice-Marshal Peter Dye, director general of the RAF Museum, said: "The discovery of the Dornier is of national and international importance.

"The aircraft is a unique and unprecedented survivor from the Battle of Britain.

"It is particularly significant because, as a bomber, it formed the heart of the Luftwaffe assault and the subsequent Blitz."

He added: "The Dornier will provide an evocative and moving exhibit that will allow the museum to present the wider story of the Battle of Britain and highlight the sacrifices made by the young men of both air forces and from many nations."

Work to prepare the Dornier for display at the Battle of Britain Beacon project will be carried out at the RAF Museum's conservation centre in Cosford, Shropshire.

The museum, with the support of English Heritage and the Ministry of Defence, is drawing up a plan to recover the aircraft.

pic 1 The aircraft, nicknamed the flying pencil, was shot down on 26 August 1940

pic 2 The twin-engined German wartime bomber is said to be largely intact

bobbysocks

09-06-2010, 07:30 PM

London Blitz 1940: the first day's bomb attacks listed in full

London's Blitz is recorded in meticulous detail by London Fire Brigade records. See - for the first time online - how they showed September 7, 1940, the first 24 hours of attacks

The London Blitz started quietly. Less than 100 incidents reported by the London Fire Brigade up to 5pm on September 7, 1940. Only a few weeks after the British victory in the Battle of Britain, what came then must have been a terrible shock for Londoners. You can read the original Guardian archive report of the night here.

At 5.30pm, some 348 German bombers escorted by 617 fighters pounded London until 6.00pm. Guided by the flames, a second group attacked with more incendiary bombs two hours later, lasting into the next day.

full story with maps, stats and pics here...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/sep/06/london-blitz-bomb-map-september-7-1940#data

bobbysocks

09-07-2010, 01:11 AM

Interesting piece published in The Telegraph. Uk DW.

British pilots relied on German sea rescue service during Battle of Britain
RAF pilots shot down over the Channel during the Battle of Britain had to rely on German search and rescue services to save them from drowning, new research has unveiled.
By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent

An estimated 80 per cent of downed pilots died over the sea whereas the rate dropped to 50 per cent over land Photo: PA
The problem became so severe that British aircraft were ordered to try to avoid travelling over the sea because too many being drowned, it has emerged.
Amid the 70th anniversary commemorations this summer it can be disclosed that at least 200 pilots died “needlessly” in 1940 after bailing out over water.

The discovery came to light as a result of research into a new account of the battle by the military historian, Dr Richard North.
Once they hit the water there was very little chance of survival with only the occasional flier being picked up by a passing destroyer or fishing boat.
The German service, that had been set up in 1935, became so effective that RAF chiefs ordered fighters to shoot down the Luftwaffe Dornier 24 seaplane that were unarmed and painted in white with a large red cross. However, it is thought that the Germans might have been using the aircraft for illicit reconnaissance missions.
“This was one of the most shameful and disgraceful episodes of the entire war,” said Dr North, author of ‘The Many’ to be published next year.
“For an RAF airman to be shot down over the sea was an almost certain death sentence if the German rescue services were not close at hand.
“Many a good fighter pilot was lost who would have been invaluable in the days that followed.”
An estimated 80 per cent of downed pilots died over the sea whereas the rate dropped to 50 per cent over land. On Aug 8 it is believed 15 out of 18 airmen who bailed out were lost at sea.
Frustrated at the poor rescue effort a New Zealand pilot, Flt Lt RF Aitken, “scrounged” a Walrus flying boat from the Fleet Air Arm and saved 35 British and German airmen over the summer.
Air chiefs had assumed that the high volume of shipping in British coastal waters meant that downed airmen would be spotted and recovered.
But by August 19, Air Vice Marshal Sir Keith Park, who commanded the fighter group in the south east, ordered his flight controllers not to vector pilots over the sea because “too many were getting drowned”.
The critical shortage of pilots came very close to costing the British the campaign and it was only when the dogfights were fought over land did the tide begin to turn.
It was not until 22 August when an emergency meeting was held under the chairmanship of Air Marshal Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris to explore the shortcomings of air sea rescue provision. Only in late 1941 did the Air Sea Rescue Directorate become functional and by the end of the war the RAF went from 18 rescue launches to 600 plus squadrons of dedicated aircraft.
On the day that celebrated Winston Churchill’s speech on “the few” on Saturday the RAF were once again without a full-time search and rescue service with its Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft mothballed to save cash.

Gilly

09-07-2010, 08:15 AM

Colour footage of the Life during the Blitz was released yesterday after laying in an attic for 70years. The footage is available to watch on www.westendatwar.org.uk

Soviet Ace

09-07-2010, 07:15 PM

bobbysocks

09-07-2010, 07:44 PM

Battle of Britain: without the hurricane the battle would have been lost
When we think of the Battle of Britain, we think of the Spitfire, but in this extract from his book Hurricane: The Last Witnesses, Brian Milton honours the Hurricane and its pilots.

In the Battle of Britain, Hurricanes scored the highest number of RAF victories, accounting for 1,593 out of the 2,739 total claimed. By the beginning of 1941 German pilots had their measure. It did not do for a [Messerschmitt] Bf 109 to get into a dogfight with Hurricanes because the Hurricane could out-turn it, but the Bf 109 pilots’ “dive and zoom” tactics put Hurricane pilots at a severe disadvantage.

Yet those crucial months in 1939-40 were everything. Without the Hurricane, the Battle of Britain would have been lost. A total of 1,715 Hurricanes flew with Fighter Command during the period of the battle, far in excess of all other British fighters combined. Having entered service a year before the Spitfire, the Hurricane was “half a generation” older, and markedly inferior in terms of speed and climb. However, the Hurricane had proved itself a robust, manoeuvrable aircraft capable of surviving fearsome combat damage. Unlike the Spitfire, it was a wholly operational, go-anywhere, do-anything fighter by July 1940

The crucial tactic in how Fighter Command approached the battle was exactly how to engage the massed formations of German aircraft. Hurricanes were generally directed at the bombers; they were a steady gun platform, and had a speed difference over Do 17 and He 111s that they did not have over Bf 109s. The Spitfires were directed at the German fighters.

“Last Witness” Bob Doe explains: “An average pilot could get more from a Hurricane than from a Spitfire. But if you were good you could get more from a Spitfire. A Hurricane was like a brick-built s---house. It was sturdy and reliable, and it did not leap about when the guns were fired.

“I did get bashed around in the first year of the war, and I was very lucky. My official Battle of Britain score was 14½ – the ½ meant you shared a kill with another pilot.”

[Hermann] Göring claimed there were two main aims, to destroy the RAF and stop seaborne supplies. A key to both was the use of the fearsome Ju 87 Stuka, the dive-bomber which played such a large part in the defeat of France. It was planned to attack specific English targets with Ju 87s, forcing the RAF fighters to defend, and therefore enticing them up to be destroyed by Bf 109s. Göring believed that not only the Hurricane but the Spitfire was inferior to the Messerschmitt Bf 109. The Germans wanted to engage, fighter to fighter, but the RAF would not waste time doing this, going instead for the bombers. A downside for the Germans was that, caught by either a Hurricane or a Spitfire having burst through the protective German fighter screen, Stukas were easy meat. Young RAF pilots talked of “Stuka Parties”, and relished getting into a fight with them.

''Last Witness’’ Mike Croskell was early into the fight: “On August 11, flying with 213 Hurricane Squadron, I chased a Junkers 88 and got a good old burst of shot into it. The chaps got out of it, sat on the wing and then slid off with their parachutes, which opened, and the aircraft went down.

“Then I got tied up with five 109s, all chasing around in circles, until I got into the inner circle and shot the last one down. They all buzzed off but I was out of ammunition anyway. We only had 10 or 12 seconds firing. I was confident that in a scrap with Bf 109s, the Hurricane could always out-turn it. What the 109s used to do was stick the nose down good and hard, and dive down. We had the old float-chamber carburettor in those days, and the engine used to go 'phut’ when you stuck the nose down. Until we got the new carburettor we could not really follow them.”

The problem Croskell faced plagued Spitfires and Hurricanes in 1940 using the Merlin engine, fitted with an “SU” carburettor. When they went into negative G by pitching the nose hard down, fuel was forced to the top of the float chamber. This starved the engine, which lost power for two or three seconds. If the negative G continued, the carburettor flooded and drowned the supercharger with over-rich mixture. This could shut down the engine completely, not the sort of thing you wanted in a fight to the death. German fighter pilots, whose engines were fuel-injected, did not suffer this problem.

On September 7 the Blitz began, with German bombers heading for London and other cities, a process set to horrify Londoners over 57 consecutive nights. It was probably the single silliest thing Hitler did at that part of the war.

''Last Witness’’ Bob Foster, flying Hurricanes with 605 Squadron, moved down from 13 Group on September 7: “We landed at Croydon, having flown in from Scotland and refuelled at Abingdon, and we saw London burning. That was our first sight of the real war.

“I remember Bunny Curran say, 'Oh God, we’re really in for it now, if this is what it’s like.’ I didn’t fly for a couple of days. We had a full squadron, that is, 20-odd pilots and 12 Hurricanes in operation at any one time. We had our first casualties then, a chap called Jack Fleming was shot down in flames. He got out but was burnt badly, finished up in [the pioneering plastic surgeon] Archie McIndoe’s for 18 months. He was weaving behind the squadron – we flew in tight formations still, with weavers at the back – and old Jack was a weaver. He saw some 109s and was alerting the squadron. He didn’t see the other 109s behind him.

“The weavers often got caught, and as a tactic, it was no good at all. With hindsight, I think we stuck to our tight formations for far too long. Despite all the casualties, we still flew in these nice tight 'vics’ [V formation] of three, four sections of three to make a squadron. Sometimes it was three sections and one at the back and two weavers. These were not effective because you lose your weaver sometimes and then who is looking after your back?

“The tactic for going into bombers was probably all right, line astern, each of us having a go. But it ignored the fact that we were probably being jumped by 109s at the same time. The theory of the tactic was great. Before the war there was an Air Ministry publication showing you how to attack enemy bombers. It was a series of little drawings where the bombers were flying along. The first drawing you had a section of three aircraft going in the other direction, then they all turned around and all lined up behind the bombers – and when your flight commander said 'Open fire’ you opened fire. And in the pictures, all three bombers are shot down. It never happened like that but that was the official way of attacking bombers.”

On September 15 came one of the heaviest days of fighting in the whole battle. It is now recognised as “Battle of Britain Day”. Mike Croskell was shot down, although with an unexpected silver lining to a near-death experience. “I went out and found a lone Dornier flying towards the docks in London. I didn’t get right down into the best position to have a shot at it, and all of a sudden there were three or four loud bangs behind me. These two Bf 109s had put four explosive cannon shells into me. These shells were a deadly weapon – we didn’t have anything like that, they were very effective – most of the tail disappeared and down I went, completely out of control.

“I went down and down and down and couldn’t get out, couldn’t get the hood open because the cannon shells jammed it. Eventually, in desperation, I undid my belt, crouched on the seat with both feet, and pulled with both hands. All of a sudden it came open and I was flung out. I seemed to be only 200ft [61m] up, and the parachute opened as I hit the ground. A copse of young trees broke my fall. I had not the foggiest idea where I was.

“I just had a good swear, and was found there by some New Zealand anti-aircraft blokes. I was bleeding all over the place, particularly in the left foot. They were determined to cut my shoe off but, being a mean Yorkshireman, I said, 'No, you’re not going to.’ While I was arguing, they cut the other shoe off. And then I got whipped into hospital and was there for three or four weeks. I finished up in a military hospital, Halton.

“All these years later I cannot have an MRI scan because there are still too many bits of metal in me. They are small bits, but I also have bits in the back of my knee and my foot and my shoulder. I also cannot have an operation to remove the shrapnel in my head because two of the bits are too near my brain… which probably accounts for a lot.

“But while my mates continued with the Battle of Britain, I chatted up the Nursing Sister, Mollie Davies, married her, and lived happily ever after.”

Bob Doe, having made his first 13 kills on a Spitfire with 234 Squadron, was one of only three unwounded survivors by early September. He had been fighting continuously for 28 days, when he was sent back with the squadron remnants to Cornwall to get new pilots and train them. “I was posted to 238 Squadron on September 27 on Hurricanes, where I got three more. I was posted in as a flight commander, but never got the rank. I was a pilot officer, the lowest commissioned rank, and I was actually CO at one time.

“I did two hours flying on Hurricanes before I went back into the battle. Whereas the Spitfire was a musician’s aeroplane, a dream, the Hurricane was a very efficient workman’s tool. The Hurricane needed brute force. I don’t like putting the Hurricane down because I spent most of the war flying Hurricanes, but it did not have the finesse of the Spitfire.”

Taken from 'Hurricane: The Last Witnesses’, by Brian Milton.

Brian Milton's book, published by Andre Deutsch Ltd, is available to buy from The Telegraph Battle of Britain Bookshop for £16.99 plus £1.25 p&p

bobbysocks

09-07-2010, 08:25 PM

a pretty long read but worth it.. and an excellant site..

http://www.battleofbritain1940.net/contents-index.html

Saturday September 7th 1940
The Aftermath
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As the first light of September 8th 1940 started to break through, the picture of the experiences of the late afternoon bombing and the continued onslaught throughout the night began to emerge. The East End probably suffered the worst, but serious damage was done to areas south of the River Thames as well as the outer city areas between Aldgate and Ludgate Hill.
Fires were still raging in bond stores and the dock areas around North Woolwich, nothing escaped the tons of bombs and incendiaries that were dropped. The Royal Albert Dock, Queen Victoria Dock and King George V Dock were burning infernos, ships were damaged and the industrial areas of Custom House, Silvertown and Canning Town were still burning fiercely as raw materials added fuel to the timbers and structure of the many buildings. Places like John Knights (Soapworks), Tate and Lyles (Sugar refiners) and Silvertown Rubber Works were among the factories badly hit. Others included an ink factory, a tarpaulin company and a fuel depot. On the other side of the road, now called Silvertown Way that separates the industrial factories from the residential areas, homes were demolished and others so badly damaged that they became uninhabitable. The damage went as far inland as Barking, East Ham, West Ham and Bethnal Green, areas that were highly populated and classed as residential.

South of the Thames, the situation was almost as bad, and what made this worse, was the fact that most of the south side was residential until reaching Deptford. Again, as north of the Thames, houses were demolished, others became unrecognisable as walls and roofs lie in shambles in back gardens and in roadways.

We got the red alert as was often the case when an impending raid was approaching from the Thames Estuary. But the usual practice was for the bomber formations to split up near the Isle of Sheppy and they then set course for the RAF aerodromes north and south of the Thames the we would revert back to a yellow. But in this case we was under a 'red' for longer than usual and messages started to come in that the bombers were seen coming up the Thames. Well, I went up and I have never seen anything like it. A thick blanket of black bombers which must have been two miles wide following the Thames.
Our station was almost at the road junction that now goes down to the Woolwich ferry and we had an excellent view of what was going to happen. I think the first bombs were dropped just before the dock areas and the right side of the formation would pass right over us. We could do nothing but get back to our posts and pray like mad. The sound was deafening, the building shook and dust from walls and ceilings started to envelope our desks, we could do nothing while the raid was on although a few phone calls came through, 'this street got it' and 'so and so building has got a direct hit. Then silence, slowly the phones died, lines had been cut and we knew that once it was all over we would have to rely on messengers.

William 'Bill' Thompson Civil Defence Woolwich
The huge pall of smoke bellowing from the warehouses and docks could be seen for miles. Fires raged right up to London's Tower Bridge where the St. Katherine's Dock which lies almost adjacent was engulfed in flame. The area of Wapping where hundreds of bond stores and shipwright stores are built on top of each other separated only by a network of narrow streets. Firemen and ambulance men had a terrible time in this area as many of the streets had been blocked by fallen brick walls and burst water mains.

[ Document 46. How a Daily Telegraph Reporter saw the Scene ]
.
After a sleepless night, while their Anderson shelters rocked with the explosion of bombs and the crash of guns, the people of East London carried on to-day with their usual amazing spirit. Several hundred began their search for new homes as soon as the “all clear” sounded. Whole streets had been destroyed and many other houses demolished. But people gathered their possessions together and piled them into perambulators. With children in their arms, they started their walk to friends or relatives.
Their morale was astonishing. As they were walking to their new homes many were laughing and joking among themselves. Some families took care of children whose parents were dead or injured, and made long journeys across London to escort them to the homes of relatives. Women went on preparing the Sunday dinner, even though they had no water or gas. They borrowed water from more fortunate neighbours and lit fires to roast the joints. One of them, Mrs. W. Johnson, who had spent the night in a shelter, was preparing her meal in a house where the dividing wall between dining-room and drawing-room lay in chunks across the floors.

In a dockland tavern, where every window had been blown out by a bomb which fell across the road, they were collecting for a Spitfire fund. The licensee of a hotel gave up his saloon bar for housing people whose houses were no longer tenable. In several streets neighbours were making a whip-round for those who had lost their belongings.

“It was an experience far worse than the Silvertown explosion in the last war,” Mrs. Cook, who with her husband and five children escaped injury, said to me. “The heat from the fires was terrific. We do not intend moving from the district, despite this ghastly raid.” The morale of the people was summed up in the words of one Mayor, who said: “They have taken it on the chin.” [1]

Tulip Street between Custom House and Silvertown, was a street that housed the typical working family. Most were regarded as poor and lived from one day to the next. The houses could only be regarded as slums, being with earshot and sight of the industrial dockland area. A number of houses had been hit during the earlier raids in late August, but this September day was the last that was to be heard of Tulip Street. The long rows of terraced houses stood as nothing but empty shells, roofs had disappeared leaving a wall standing alone with a broken staircase rising leading to nowhere. Upstairs floors were dangling in space being only fastened to one of the half demolished walls. Beds and bedroom furniture hung precariously waiting for the floor to give way, up the street bedroom furniture and long tin baths littered the roadway amongst the rubble and debris. Not one house was left standing and soon Tulip Street would be gone forever, never to be rebuilt.

“On the Saturday afternoon, the Luftwaffe decided to come to London and bomb. We had been called to the top of Pepys Road and were putting incendiaries out that had fallen on houses. We had finished and were walking by the side of our appliances shouting Any incendiaries to put out?’
Quite a number of the elderly people, mainly women, had lost budgies or canaries and we had done our best to console them. They were very shaken.

We got back to 40Y and were just in time for tea. I can remember having a piece of egg and bacon when the bells went and my appliance, a heavy unit, was called to Surrey Docks. It must have been about 5.30pm. We arrived at the docks and had to put out about four large stacks of burning timber. It was useless because every time we put them out and went to another stack, the first came alight again.

The most amazing thing I saw was the roadway. The roads were lined with tarry wooden blocks. and these were floating on top of the water which we had put thereabout, some 12” deep, all in formation as they had been in the road.”

Bill Ward AFS Fireman London

SHELTERS AND THE BLITZ (280Kb)

“Saturday September 7th was sunny with a light westerly breeze. At 4pm, we on our Emergency Fireboat were ordered down to Tilbury. As we approached Tower Bridge we saw vast volumes of smoke on its eastward side rising white into the sunlight. We passed under Tower Bridge and soon were on the edge of an inferno. Everything was alight tugs and barges were flaming and sinking in the river. All the timber of Surrey Commercial Docks was blazing furiously.
The sun had disappeared and darkness was as of night. A strong wind was whipped up by the great fire heat which caused small flaming planks of wood to be blown about like matchsticks, and the river itself was as turbulent as a whipped-up small sea. Small crowds of people were here and there at the water’s edge crying out for rescue. Warehouses and all sorts of buildings were burning on both sides of the river. Not until we were near Greenwich did we see the sun again and then only as a pale disc through the great ceiling of smoke. There I saw a gasometer alight. To my surprise it did not explode but went as one great blue flame, like an enormous gas jet lasting only a minute.”

George Wilkins AFS Fireman London
There would be thousands of stories to come out of London on the first day of intense bombing. Stories of courage, and stories of hardship. Some would tell of bravery while others could only mention despair. What wonderful deeds and acts of courage were performed by members of the Civil Defence, the Ambulance Service which then came under the London County Council, the Auxiliary Fire Brigade and the London Fire Brigade. But courage and determination was also shown by those in the air. The pilots of Fighter Command.
"It had been an easy flight up from the Thames Estuary and along the Thames. There was no opposition and we felt that we had the whole sky to ourselves, we were at 5.000 feet. The docks at Woolwich stood out almost as if beckoning for us to release our bombload. Through the glass canopy I could see tall cranes and the long square shape of the three main docks, I lined them up carefully, and as I pressed the release button I looked elsewhere at the huge mass of buildings and warehouses below then just caught a glimpse of the sticks of bombs as they kinked from side to side as they fell towards earth.
Helmut Staal, of the leading fight of bombers of II KG/76
THE DAY AS SEEN BY FIGHTER COMMAND

Squadron Leader A.V.R (Sandy) Johnstone who was flying out of Tangmere with 602 Squadron was one of those brought up from the south coast to give protection to London. He had the surprise of his life when he first saw the vast armada of bombers heading for the capital:
All we could see was row upon row of German raiders, all heading for London. I have never seen so many aircraft in the air all at the same time. . . . The escorting fighters saw us at once and came down like a ton of bricks, when the squadron split up and the sky became a seething cauldron of aeroplanes, swooping and swerving in and out of the vapour trails and tracer smoke. A Hurricane on fire spun out of control ahead of me while, above to my right, a 110 flashed across my vision and disappeared into the fog of battle before I could draw a bead on it. Everyone was shouting at once and the earphones became filled with a meaningless cacophony of jumbled noises. Everything became a maelstrom of jumbled impression — a Dornier spinning wildly with part of its port mainplane missing; black streaks of tracer ahead, when I instinctively put my arm up to shield my face; taking a breather when the haze absorbed me for a moment . .
Squadron Leader A.V.R (Sandy) Johnstone, 602 Squadron, Sept 7th 1940.
All day, Squadron Leader D.R.S. "Douglas" Bader had waited for action as he had done on many occasions before. But it looked like that on this bright sunny Saturday he was not to see much action at all. Like most other squadrons scattered around southern England, he had resigned himself to the fact that the Saturday was to be a 'no contest'.
On 7 September, following Hitler's declaration that London would suffer as reprisals for Bomber Command raids against Berlin, Goring switched his bombers from RAF sector stations, and other airfields, to London and its sprawling docks. Towards five o'clock on that evening, more than three hundred bombers, and many hundreds of fighters, arose from their airfields across the Channel, swarmed into a dozen formations and, without feint or decoy, crossed the straits in two broad waves and headed for the capital. Because of their height, above 20,000 feet, and a stiff headwind, the bombers took a long time to reach London, but although RAF controllers found it easier than usual to intercept, the enemy fighter escorts seemed bigger than ever.
There were so many enemy fighters, layered up to 30,000 feet, that a Spitfire pilot said it was like looking up the escalator at Piccadilly Circus. ‘Near Cambridge the Duxford Wing of two Hurricane and one Spitfire squadrons had been at readiness all day and Bader, anxious to lead thirty-six fighters into action for the first time, had been agitating for hours about getting into the air. At last they were scrambled...

Pilot Officer J.E."Johnnie" Johnson 616 Squadron from his book Full Circle
It was at 1655hrs that the Op's room telephone rang at Coltishall. "Scramble" came a voice out of the window and a body of pilots ran towards their waiting Hurricanes including S/L Douglas Bader. The aircraft thundered across the grassy airfield and as they pulled their sticks back the noses of the Hurricanes started to point skywards and the Duxford station commander Wing Commander A.B.Woodhall called over the radio "Hello Douglas. There's some trade coming in over the coast. Orbit North Weald. Angels ten, and if they come your way, go for them." . Bader thought that 10,000 was a little too low and disobeyed Woodhall's instructions and made 15,000 feet as "100 bandits to your 10 o'clock" message came through. The enemy was coming from the River Thames and heading north at about 5,000 feet higher and Bader instructed the 'wing' to gain height at full throttle then requested permission to engage the enemy. There was a mixture of Do17s and Bf110s in a mixed formation with Bf109s at higher altitude waiting to pounce.
Squadron Leader B.J.E.Lane led 19 Squadron towards North Weald where anti-aircraft gunfire indicated enemy action was evident. Soon, the Spitfires of 19 squadron were weaving and twisting amongst a number of Bf110s.

A 110 dived in front of me and I led 'A' Flight after it. Two Hurricanes were also attacking it. I fired a short burst as well as the other aircraft. Two baled out, one parachute failing to open. Enemy aircraft crashed one mile east of Hornchurch and one crewman landed nearby and was taken prisoner of war.
Squadron Leader B.J.E.Lane, 19 Squadron, Sept 7th 1940
The 'Wing" was trying in vain to gain height, most of the Spitfires were lagging a little behind as they did not climb as well as the Hurricanes. Only Sub-Lieutenant R 'Dickie' Cork was up front, and this is what happened as soon as they closed in on the enemy formation:

Attacking in a straggle from below with the 109’s on top. No chance to break them up. No time for tactics. He closed fast and the flanks of the Dorniers were darting by. A quick burst, but the Dornier had only flashed across his sights. Turning under the tails of the rear section, streams of tracer were streaking at him from the rear gunners. Cork was with him—then ”Crow “—the others well back. He lifted his nose and a 110 floated in his sights. A quick squirt. He fired again and his eyes caught the yellow spinner of a 109 in his mirror. A second to spare for one more quick burst at the 110 —triumph as smoke streamed from it, and then a horrible jarring shock as cannon shells slammed into the Hurricane and jolted it like a pneumatic drill. Instinctively he broke hard left as fear stabbed him, horrible paralysing fright like an ice-block in the chest. Crashes and chaos and the cockpit suddenly full of reeking smoke. For a moment he was frozen rigid, then thought and movement switched on—he was on fire and going down! His hands shot up, grabbed the twin handles of the cockpit hood and hauled it back. Must get out! Straps first! He yanked the pin of his straps and suddenly the cockpit was clear of smoke—sucked out by the noisy slip-stream. No fire. Must have been only cordite smoke. No panic now. He was all right, but furious at having been frightened he slammed the hood shut and looked back, hunted and sweating. No Messerschmitt behind.
The Hurricane was in a screaming diving turn and he eased her out. A 110 was sliding below and he peeled off in chase. It seemed to move towards him as he overhauled it and fired three sharp bursts. The 110 fell away on one wing, nosed straight down, and seconds later dived into a field by a railway line and exploded.

Paul Brickhill Reach for the Sky Collins 1954 p210
When Bader met Leigh-Mallory the next day he stated that "...it didn't come off yesterday" even though between them they claimed eleven enemy aircraft, he explained that they were too low. "Again" he told Leigh-Mallory "we got the call too late, if we had got the call earlier we would have had time to get the bombers while the Spitfires covered us from the 109s." Bader told his CO that it was no good, that they have to be scrambled when the enemy bombers are first detected over the French coast and not after they had passed the south coast of England. But Leigh-Mallory informed Bader that the call was by 11 Group, they make the decision and they think that we should wait until the Germans begin to move in.
But while Douglas Bader was displaying his anger towards 11 Group, in the south some twenty of Parks squadrons were engaged in combat with the enemy. 249 Squadron who earlier had flown out of North Weald, the airfield that Bader and his "Wing" had been instructed to patrol were in the thick of the action over Maidstone:

Fighter Command Combat Report 7.9.1940
No.249 Squadron

At 1622 hours on 7.9.40, 12 aircraft of 249 Squadron left North Weald to patrol first Maidstone and then Ashford at 15,000 feet to intercept Raid 15. They were then sent back to Ashford and ordered to intercept Raid 22.
About 30 He111s and Do17s were seen heading for London at 19,000 feet. escorted by at least 100 fighters, mostly Mel09s stepped up behind to 25,000 feet Enemy bombers were in three parallel lines of 3 vics in line astern. Our fighters attacked broadside on and one vic of three enemy bombers was seen to be left straggling behind, smoking, but it was impossible to say which of our pilots were responsible. Enemy formation turned aside from London went east, just south of North Weald aerodrome.

The original claims were only 2 Mel09s destroyed, but these have now been increased.
P/O Neil (Yellow 2) destroyed an Mel09 which broke up and turned over and went down smoking over Maidstone, although he did not see it crash.
Red 2 (P/O.Barclay) destroyed an Mel09 which emitted brilliant flames and black smoke from the cockpit. It dived steeply and pieces fell off, but he did not see It crash; this was south of Maidstone. The Mel09s were coloured yellow back to the cockpit.
Red 2 also damaged a Dol7 and an He111 He force-landed in a field, his a/c having been hit.
F/Lt Parnall finished off an He111, which two other unidentified Hurricanes had disabled, but apparently lost in the smoke. He saw it crash near Grain.
P/O Beazley (Green Section) finished off a Do2l5, which already had its starboard engine fired. It crashed near a main road south of Ongar.

Enemy casualties: 2 Mel09 destroyed
1 Do17 damaged
1 He111 damaged
1 He111 destroyed (shared with two u/i Hurricanes)
1 Do2l5 destroyed (shared with u/i friendly fighter or fighters)

Off of Folkestone, 43 Squadron who had been one of the first squadrons to take off were scrambled with Squadron Leader C.B."Caesar" Hull leading and Fl/L R.C.Reynell and Fl/L J.Kilmartin as his section leaders. By all accounts, the controller had the squadron flying all over the place. They spot about thirty Do17s with an escort of over eighty Bf109s. S/L Hull instructs Fl/L Kilmartin to engage the escort while Fl/L Reynell and himself attack the Dorniers. They climb until they are some 1,500 feet above the enemy, and as Kilmartin continues the climb towards the Bf109s Hull and Reynell take their sections down approaching the bombers from astern and each aircraft firing all Brownings. Then as the Dorniers take evasive action each of the Hurricanes pick out their individual targets. They weave in and out of the enemy formation as it makes its way across the countryside of Kent, a couple of the Do17s fall victim, but Kilmartins section is not having the best of luck as they are hopelessly outnumbered and many of the Bf109s continue to protect the bombers.
At 1645hrs as they were approaching South London, a couple of Bf109s come down on both Caesar Hull and Dick Reynell. the Squadron Leader takes a hit and his Hurricane goes out of control, it spirals earthwards but there is no sign of the pilot baling out and it finally crashes into the grounds of Purley High School near Croydon. Dick Reynell also takes a hit and a long tail of smoke bellows behind the stricken aircraft. Dick manages to get out of the cockpit and jumps moments before the Hurricane explodes into flames, but his parachute fails to open. His aircraft crashes just south of Woolwich and Dick Reynell, believed to have been wounded in the attack and may have lost consciousness as he jumped, and this could have been the reason for his 'chute failing to open. His body crashed to the ground at Blackheath.

234 Squadron goes into a deep silence when it learns that the squadrons inspirational force, Flight Lieutenant Pat Hughes had failed to return. Over Folkestone his squadron runs into about thirty Do17s and forty Bf109s. They are in front an below and Pat orders his Blue section down onto the leading bombers. He is well in front of the rest of his section when he sees one of the Dorniers lagging behind, so he makes a slight turn and with his number two behind him makes a quarter attack on the enemy bomber. Large pieces start to fly off the Dornier and as it begins to fall sideways, one of the wings crumples and tears away from the body of the bomber.

No one sees the incident except Hughes wingman who saw the bomber start to break up and then sees a Spitfire spinning out of control with half of one of its wings missing. With the rest of the section going in after the main force of the enemy formation, the wingman can only assume that it is his leader Pat Hughes. There is no sign of anyone baling out and the Spitfire crashes into the ground at Bessels Green. Nothing can really be certain in a dogfight when there are so many enemy and friendly aircraft in the air, all seemingly crammed into one little piece of sky. Dennis Newton in his book "A Few of the Few" states that the wingman inferred rather than stated that Hughes collided with the Dornier, which we can only regard as a submission, or rather it was his belief as he did not see any actual collision. Was there another aircraft in the air at the same time? or was it just Pat Hughes and his wingman? When the crash site was excavated in 1969 by the Halstead War Museum it is believed that fragments of 303 bullets, the same as those that were used by Hurricanes and Spitfires were found in the cockpit and in the seat. So this leads us to another question, was Pat Hughes shot down by a friendly aircraft? and if so.....who?

Many of the squadrons stationed way out of London had been brought in to combat the onslaught. Tangmere had released 43 Squadron and vectored them to the Folkestone area and they finished up in combat over South London. 609 Squadron based at Westhampnett was also brought up to give protection to the aircraft factories at Weybridge and Brooklands and they too became engaged in the combat over South London and the Thames Estuary. One of these pilots tells us:

I went for the nearest bomber and opened fire from about 400 yards, meanwhile experiencing heavy return cross fire from the bomber formation. After about twelve seconds smoke started to come from the port motor and it left the formation. I then waited for it to go down to 3000 feet and then dived vertically on to it and fired off the rest of my ammunition. It kept on going down seemingly still under some sort of control, until it hit the water about ten miles out from the centre of the Thames Estuary.
Fl/Lt J.H.G.McArthur 609 Squadron Warmwell Spitfires on September 7th 1940
Out of the day came many stories of pilots experience, as more and more pilots got back to their bases, even more stories unfolded. They told of how they saw many of their comrades go down, crashing to earth without a chance, or they had seen someone make a crash landing, but thought that they were alright. 'Sandy" Johnson of 602 Squadron had said that he had never seen such a blanket of aircraft in the sky all at once, another stated that he did not know how the sky could hold up so many of the blighters!!!, but most of them saw at least once, the great inferno that was unfolding from the East End to the city. Many told of how, even at great height they were flying through thick black smoke, and they described how scarlet flames were exploding within the tall plumes of acrid black smoke.
Whether or not Keith Park knew about the impending attack, he still decided to go to Bentley Priory to meet Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding. The raid commenced about forty-five minutes before the scheduled time of the meeting, but after a short conference with his C-in-C they went to the operations room and watched at the German onslaught continued during the late of the afternoon. Park was in communication with Willoughby de Broke at 11 Group headquarters who was doing an exceptional job there, but then as Park mentioned in his autobiography later, that ".....there was none better than him to be able to leave in charge, I had every confidence in him."

Park managed to reach Uxbridge shortly before the raid ended and, after a hasty discussion with his controllers about their handling of the fighters in his absence, left for Northolt, where he kept his Hurricane. From there, he flew over the blazing city to see for himself the extent of the disaster. Appalled by the sight of so many fires raging out of control, he reflected that the switch of targets would not be just for a single day or even a week and that he would have time to repair his control systems and so maintain an effective daylight challenge to enemy attack. He did not fear either a civilian panic or unmanageable and intolerable casualties in consequence of the new German policy, and yet Fighter Command was helpless at night. This was graphical demonstrated that very night.
By 8.30 p.m., not long after Park landed, the Luftwaffe had returned. For the next seven hours, wave after wave of bombers flew over London, finding fresh targets in the light of the fires started by their comrades in daylight. They bombed at their leisure, unhindered either by anti-aircraft fire (of which there was little and that ill-directed) or by night-fighters (of which there were few and those ill-equipped).

In Park’s mind, 7 September was always the turning point. Three years later, he flew to London from Malta and gave his first press interview on the Battle of Britain. He explained how close the Germans came to victory and how they threw it away by switching their main attack to London.

Vincent Orange Sir Keith Park Methuen 1985 pp107-108
It was on the stroke of 1830hrs, the sun had gone down and while most on Britain settled down to a night of darkness, an eerie red glow hung over the eastern end of London with docks, bond stores and warehouses still burning. The next wave of German aircraft need not have worried about flight paths or compasses as the were guided to their target by the raids only four hours earlier that left London burning. 250 more heavy bombers, this time there was no need for a fighter escort, made for London's East End again, targeting areas that had already been bombed. With the light now gone, only two Hurricanes of 213 Squadron that was based at Tangmere were scrambled to patrol their own airfield. The night raid was to last until 0530hrs the next day. Wave after wave of bombers came across the Channel, as one wave went back, another was coming in. During the night, a total of 330 tons of high explosive bombs had been dropped, 440 incendiary bombs added to what could only be described as a huge land based fireball. Hough & Richards in "Battle of Britain - A Jubilee History" state that 13,000 incendiaries were dropped.
Fighter Command only released a few night fighters to engage the bombers, but this was only a spasmodic affair. Just two Blenheims were dispatched from Martlesham, and a further two aircraft from the Fighter Interception Unit were also dispatched. The Blenheims of 600 Squadron at Hornchurch could not take off because of the thick black smoke that was drifting in from the London docks covered the aerodrome like a thick smelly fog.

By morning, the situation could be summed up. Thick clouds of belching dark grey and black smoke hung over the whole of the East End, fires were still raging and in the area where the Thames loops around like a huge horseshoe, the area in the middle known as the Isle of Dogs it was estimated that not a single building was not on fire, the truth was that at least 50% was still burning by morning. Even though this was an industrial area, it was still heavily populated and many people suffered as a result. A worker describes one situation:

The area around Limehouse was badly bombed during the first raids in the evening, but was to suffer again during the night attacks that followed. We were directed to go to a shelter that had been engulfed in fire during the evening raid, but we had to cease operations when the night raids got too heavy. We returned at about four o'clock the following morning to see what we could do. A number of people had managed to get out of the shelter but they reported to us that there were people still inside and that some of them were dead. As we pulled heavy beams out of the way and carefully removed large pieces of timber we were stopped once again when it was reported that someone had found an unexploded bomb. The Royal Engineers were called in and we were told that these UXBs (unexploded bombs) were actually delayed action bombs that were due to explode about ten hours after they had been dropped.
It was about midday before we again went in and tried to excavate the area around the shelter. We knew that there was now no hope of finding anybody alive, but one never knows. Stranger things have happened. When we finally got down to the shelter, we found body over body, people almost burnt to a cinder, the air smelt of burning flesh that had gone rotten, I could take no more and had to get out, I was proud of the job I was doing, but on this occasion I was not afraid to call myself a coward, I just could not do it, but like so many others I plucked up courage to go back later. But the situation was absolutely shocking.

Emma Williams nee Fredericks Civil Defence Stepney on September 7th 1940
In total, 306 people had been killed that night and 1,337 was the figure given as those seriously injured. Most were civilians, but many were firefighters, wardens and civil defence workers. But we can only ask ourselves, was the bombing of London a good move on the part of Germany. The Berlin press and propaganda machine stated that the attack on London was a reprisal attack for the British bombing of Berlin. They stated that the air raids on London of the 7th/8th September was a great success and that the British people would now be frightened into submission now that the glorious Luftwaffe not only caused a great firestorm from the city to the edge of the Thames Estuary, but during the afternoon an already depleted British Air Force was overcome by the might of the Luftwaffe.
The truth was, that although the Royal Air Force did suffer, 28 aircraft had been destroyed or crashed into the sea and about twenty had been damaged and were able to undergo repairs, the Luftwaffe suffered even worse. Even though the British press claimed that over a hundred German aircraft had been brought down, the truth was that only 45 bombers and fighters of the Luftwaffe were destroyed. It may have been a moral victory to the Germans, but there was still one thing that Germany still had to do if they wanted victory, and that was to break the will of the British people. This task would be far greater than setting fire to the dockland areas of London.

As the evening wore on, the German bombers made up from Gruppes from Hugo Sperle's Luftflotte 3, most of the daytime bombers had landed back at their bases. The commanders made out their reports which were more than favourable. The result were immediately posted to Göring, who for once felt satisfied when he learnt of the devastation that his bombers had done, and that most of London was ablaze with the report also that the East End and the London docks had been totally destroyed.

So pleased with himself, that Göring immediately telegraphed his wife Emmy and told her that "....the English have had enough, London is on fire from the city to the Thames Estuary". He also broadcast on German radio to the German people, that this being the first blow while he had been in charge of the battle, and over half of London now lay in ruins and that he had struck a serious blow...straight at the enemy's heart.

During the evening, and probably because of the heavy bombing, the signal for invasion went out. The signal for this alert is "Cromwell", a code name that was used only by the Army. And one of those Army battalions that were alerted was the 18th Australian Infantry that was based at Amesbury Abbey. The report came through at about 9.30pm. The 18th Infantry Brigade was at this time, only at about half strength because half of the brigade was on leave, many of them now trapped in London because of the bombing. But was hard to keep such a secret, church bells started to peel, road blocks were set up and even plans were put in place for the blowing up of some of the bridges.

For those that were on duty, they were told to stand by for an immediate move. By midnight, no further information or orders had been received so the men were allowed to return to their billets, but were to be prepared to move at one hours notice should the invasion be confirmed.

[1] The London Daily Telegraph September 8th 1940

Gilly

09-07-2010, 10:27 PM

See, your problem was you didn't have Yaks. If you guys would have had Yaks, the Battle of Britain would have been ten times more costly for the Germans, than for the British, Poles, Yugos, etc. But no, you have to have your Spitfires and Hurricanes. :rolleyes::-P

What about the 2,952 hurricanes Uncle Joe took under lease lend???
And anyway at the time of the Battle of Britain, Uncle Joe was entering into non-aggression pacts with Adolf!!

Soviet Ace

09-07-2010, 10:56 PM

What about the 2,952 hurricanes Uncle Joe took under lease lend???
And anyway at the time of the Battle of Britain, Uncle Joe was entering into non-aggression pacts with Adolf!!

Pfft, those old crates. :rolleyes: Nothing more than target practice, ship cover, and quick training barges. (Contrary to popular belief, that's what we had to really use them for! :P) You should have had Yaks, would have made it all much more reliable an easy. You could have hammered the last nail into one of those 109 Coffins. :cool: (Just don't buy the LaGGs, or you'll end up being in the coffin.:confused: )

Gilly

09-07-2010, 11:10 PM

Pfft, those old crates. :rolleyes: Nothing more than target practice, ship cover, and quick training barges. (Contrary to popular belief, that's what we had to really use them for! :P) You should have had Yaks, would have made it all much more reliable an easy. You could have hammered the last nail into one of those 109 Coffins. :cool: (Just don't buy the LaGGs, or you'll end up being in the coffin.:confused: )

'what we had to use them for'
Thought you were American?
Thankfully we didn't have yaks. We had the best if British and did kick adolf in the bollocks when no one else was. That is historical fact and something I'm immensely proud of as an Englishman. As it's currently the 70th anniversary of the Battle at this very moment I would tread very carefully with your wit.

Davedog74

09-07-2010, 11:28 PM

if the raf had yaks,they would of lost,most of the action toook place above 10,000 ft,more like 20,000 feet.
great stuff as ever,bobbysocks

Soviet Ace

09-07-2010, 11:30 PM

'what we had to use them for'
Thought you were American?
Thankfully we didn't have yaks. We had the best if British and did kick adolf in the bollocks when no one else was. That is historical fact and something I'm immensely proud of as an Englishman. As it's currently the 70th anniversary of the Battle at this very moment I would tread very carefully with your wit.

I am American, but I'm also Soviet Ace! ;)

Yeah, I was reading up on the BoB in one of my latest Aircraft History Magazines in the mail; had Hurricanes, Spits, 109s, etc. all cut up and showing their insides. (Drawn diagrams, not actual Spits, Hurricanes, etc. :lol: )

Still think you guys should have bought some trusty Yaks. :cool:

Soviet Ace

09-07-2010, 11:32 PM

if the raf had yaks,they would of lost,most of the action toook place above 10,000 ft,more like 20,000 feet.
great stuff as ever,bobbysocks

Then you could use some La's for top cover? ;) :lol:

FOZ_1983

09-07-2010, 11:43 PM

bobbysocks

09-07-2010, 11:49 PM

the first yak-1s started production in the early part of 1940 ( the prototype flew in 39 ) and werent war tested. at the time of the german invasion of russia there were only 400.,,and i am sure joe the benevolent wasnt about the lend lease them to anyone. so too little too late for the Bob. and like dave said the westeran air war was high altitude, 18k and up, not the best enviroment for russian planes. so if they did fly yaks they would have been one step closer to speaking german. the fins sure liked them from what i read. they were swating them down even before they got 109s in brewster buffalos no less...

ps thanks dave..

foz you must have posted at the same time as me....ditto

and as a last foot note....the brits did better at the beginning of their air war with "those old crates" than russia did when germany invaded. did the uk have1 inch of soil under a german hobnail boot?? hmmm let me think....NO!

Gilly

09-07-2010, 11:57 PM

Dave, Foz, Bobby-Gentlemen I doth my cap in your general direction.

Davedog74

09-08-2010, 12:01 AM

hoorah to the last three posts

FOZ_1983

09-08-2010, 12:41 AM

Jolly good show chaps!!

bobbysocks

09-08-2010, 08:02 AM

no gilly, my hats off to you and your country. A F'n Lone your country bore the brunt of the 3rd Reich's onslaught. politicians with less testicular fortitude would have capitulated to Hitler's conditions and sued for a peaceable solution...like other countries who gave up with out a shot fired. BUT YOUR gallant and honorable country said " I shall not yield!" THAT, my dear friend, SAVED the world. The BoB did not only save England...man, your boys saved FREEDOM! Oh yes it G'damn did!!! Had not your country stood firm against the tides of tyranny and fascism the world would be a different place today. I bow to you and those brave boys who entered the air in those "old blessed crates" ( F' the YAKS and the RUSSIANS, Spits and 'Canes took it in the face when Stalin was eating fine food and posturing for position) who leveled their lances down on the oppressor...against overwhelming odds. Because you decided not...THEY the blessed FEW decided NEVER to surrendered.. brother....never has the entire WORLD owed so GD much to so few honorable and most gallant BOYS. Freedom is not only a word but REALITY for us because of those "boys"...those blessed few..those fathers, grand fathers of us... who gave all so that we may live in peace. God bless them all. Thank you, you most gallant and brave gentlemen. Our lives are richer because of you,

Gilly

09-08-2010, 08:46 AM

Amen Bobby.
Lest we never forget.

Our 10 o'clock news recreated the news last night exactly as it was 70 years ago when the bombs first started dropping on London. Of course back then television was in its very infancy and most people actually got their news via the radio but it was still quite impressive. There was also a service of memorial at St Pauls yesterday with veterans attending. It choked me as I watched an old pilot shed a tear as the Lancaster and Spitfire flew over.

The BBC have created these sites with videos and stories.( just hope you non-Brits can see them)

www.bbc.co.uk/history/battle_of_Britain

www.bbc.co.uk/archive/battleofbritain
(awesome documentary on the spit with duggy bader and johnny Johnston contributions)

dkwookie

09-08-2010, 08:48 AM

Very well said Bobby. I didn't want to comment in this one because I find it a very emotional subject.

The way I feel is I can never repay what those young men did for us back then. I treat this dead serious always.

I remember watching Saving Private Ryan and when Tom Hanks says to Ryan "earn this" he is as much talking to us the audience. Our fallen paid the ultimate price so that we can enjoy our cushy privileges. When we start taking that for granted will be a very sorry day for society

Davedog74

09-08-2010, 03:40 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYoERWmZdZ8&feature=related

Soviet Ace

09-08-2010, 05:25 PM

Ah Soviet...

Quick to late the good old workhorse of the RAF during the summer of 1940, but you seem to forget that the crate your slating just happened to down more Luftwaffe planes than all other defences combined during the Battle of Britain.

You don't like it i know, and you enjoy disregarding it, but the truth of the matter is.... it was a very adequate fighter in 1940 and did its job.... extremely well ;) it stopped us all from speaking German.

If you want to go up in a very forgiving, stable gun platform that could take a fair bit of battle damage and a fighter than can hold its own against the best the Lufwaffe could throw at you... then you take the Hurricane.

British enginuity ;)

If we had those soviet crates then we would all be speaking German for sure!! They would never be able to get up high enough to fight the enemy. :P

Wait just a second Foz, I never said I hated or disregarded Spits and Hurricanes. I like them both just fine, and think they're both beautiful planes. But you know I just like razzing you guys a bit. If I didn't like Hurricanes or Spits, do you think I'd have put a French MS406 pic in my sig? No. Sadly, but true, the MS406 was a worse plane than either the Hurricane and Spit in a dogfight, but I still love it because it's just such an odd plane and I think it'd be fun to go up against some early 109Ds in a MS406. So I don't disregard or hate the Hurricane/Spit, they're both fine planes.

the first yak-1s started production in the early part of 1940 ( the prototype flew in 39 ) and werent war tested. at the time of the german invasion of russia there were only 400.,,and i am sure joe the benevolent wasnt about the lend lease them to anyone. so too little too late for the Bob. and like dave said the westeran air war was high altitude, 18k and up, not the best enviroment for russian planes. so if they did fly yaks they would have been one step closer to speaking german. the fins sure liked them from what i read. they were swating them down even before they got 109s in brewster buffalos no less...

ps thanks dave..

foz you must have posted at the same time as me....ditto

and as a last foot note....the brits did better at the beginning of their air war with "those old crates" than russia did when germany invaded. did the uk have1 inch of soil under a german hobnail boot?? hmmm let me think....NO!

Bob, relax man, I'm just playing around like always. Like me and Foz, how we always razz each other on a Hurricane vs. Yak-1 match, just to see what would be better? There's nothing serious behind my words, they're just for fun. I have respect for those guys flying Hurricanes and Spits, but I'm Soviet Ace, I've got to always include Soviet Planes somewhere! :P

And also, the difference between Britain and Russia, is Britain has a huge channel between them and mainland Europe, which gave them a breather before Hitler could assemble a force to cross himself. Russia does not have any of that. Sort of like the "Eastern France" at the time. Not ready, not sure it'd happen that soon, and when it did, was totally caught off guard. You can't really compare the BoB to the outset of Operation Barbarossa. Mainly because Hitler learned after the BoB, that striking enemy airfields would be key to a quick victory. (If the Luftwaffe had kept on the British Airfields, they probably would have been victorious, and Britain would be speaking German anyways.) That's why when he struck East, Russian airfields were bombed and attacked almost non-stop in the initial push, and all the way up until Stalingrad.

FOZ_1983

09-08-2010, 05:58 PM

Wait just a second Foz, I never said I hated or disregarded Spits and Hurricanes. I like them both just fine, and think they're both beautiful planes. But you know I just like razzing you guys a bit. If I didn't like Hurricanes or Spits, do you think I'd have put a French MS406 pic in my sig? No. Sadly, but true, the MS406 was a worse plane than either the Hurricane and Spit in a dogfight, but I still love it because it's just such an odd plane and I think it'd be fun to go up against some early 109Ds in a MS406. So I don't disregard or hate the Hurricane/Spit, they're both fine planes.

Bob, relax man, I'm just playing around like always. Like me and Foz, how we always razz each other on a Hurricane vs. Yak-1 match, just to see what would be better? There's nothing serious behind my words, they're just for fun. I have respect for those guys flying Hurricanes and Spits, but I'm Soviet Ace, I've got to always include Soviet Planes somewhere! :P

And also, the difference between Britain and Russia, is Britain has a huge channel between them and mainland Europe, which gave them a breather before Hitler could assemble a force to cross himself. Russia does not have any of that. Sort of like the "Eastern France" at the time. Not ready, not sure it'd happen that soon, and when it did, was totally caught off guard. You can't really compare the BoB to the outset of Operation Barbarossa. Mainly because Hitler learned after the BoB, that striking enemy airfields would be key to a quick victory. (If the Luftwaffe had kept on the British Airfields, they probably would have been victorious, and Britain would be speaking German anyways.) That's why when he struck East, Russian airfields were bombed and attacked almost non-stop in the initial push, and all the way up until Stalingrad.

Yeah i know, i just had to jump in and fight the corner of the Hurricane and the guys who fought in the BoB, especially as its 70 years ago this year, and sadly the "few" are getting fewer and fewer :( a sad sad fact.

bobbysocks

09-08-2010, 06:01 PM

SA, i know it was all meant in jest and without malice. its just that some people hold certain things in very high regard and it gets a little touchy perhaps. plus captain morgan builds a very sturdy soapbox for me on occasions...which i use to extol my passions. and he happened to have his hammer and saw out late last night. all's good.

FOZ_1983

09-08-2010, 06:05 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhPHIoPfMfY

bobbysocks

09-08-2010, 06:36 PM

The "Few" in Their "Finest Hour"

In the summer of 1940, twenty-one-year-old Pilot Officer John Beard was a member of a squadron of Hurricanes based near London. Waiting on the airfield while his plane is rearmed and refueled, Beard receives word of a large German attack force making its way up the Thames River towards London. The afternoon sun illuminates a cloudless blue sky as Beard and his fellow pilots lift their planes off the grass airstrip and climb to meet the enemy. The defenders level off at 15,000 feet and wait for the attackers to appear:

"Minutes went by. Green fields and roads were now beneath us. I scanned the sky and the horizon for the first glimpse of the Germans. A new vector came through on the R.T. [radio telephone] and we swung round with the sun behind us. Swift on the heels of this I heard Yellow flight leader call through the earphones. I looked quickly toward Yellow's position, and there they were!

It was really a terrific sight and quite beautiful. First they seemed just a cloud of light as the sun caught the many glistening chromium parts of their engines, their windshields, and the spin of their airscrew discs. Then, as our squadron hurtled nearer, the details stood out. I could see the bright-yellow noses of Messerschmitt fighters sandwiching the bombers, and could even pick out some of the types. The sky seemed full of them, packed in layers thousands of feet deep. They came on steadily, wavering up and down along the horizon. 'Oh, golly,' I thought, 'golly, golly . . .'

And then any tension I had felt on the way suddenly left me. I was elated but very calm. I leaned over and switched on my reflector sight, flicked the catch on the gun button from 'Safe' to 'Fire,' and lowered my seat till the circle and dot on the reflector sight shone darkly red in front of my eyes.

The squadron leader's voice came through the earphones, giving tactical orders. We swung round in a great circle to attack on their beam-into the thick of them. Then, on the order, down we went. I took my hand from the throttle lever so as to get both hands on the stick, and my thumb played neatly across the gun button. You have to steady a fighter just as you have to steady a rifle before you fire it.

My Merlin [the airplane's engine] screamed as I went down in a steeply banked dive on to the tail of a forward line of Heinkels. I knew the air was full of aircraft flinging themselves about in all directions, but, hunched and snuggled down behind my sight, I was conscious only of the Heinkel I had picked out. As the angle of my dive increased, the enemy machine loomed larger in the sight field, heaved toward the red dot, and then he was there!

I had an instant's flash of amazement at the Heinkel proceeding so regularly on its way with a fighter on its tail. 'Why doesn't the fool move?' I thought, and actually caught myself flexing my muscles into the action I would have taken had I been he.

When he was square across the sight I pressed the button. There was a smooth trembling of my Hurricane as the eight-gun squirt shot out. I gave him a two-second burst and then another. Cordite fumes blew back into the cockpit, making an acrid mixture with the smell of hot oil and the air-compressors.

I saw my first burst go in and, just as I was on top of him and turning away, I noticed a red glow inside the bomber. I turned tightly into position again and now saw several short tongues of flame lick out along the fuselage. Then he went down in a spin, blanketed with smoke and with pieces flying off.

I left him plummeting down and, horsing back on my stick, climbed up again for more. The sky was clearing, but ahead toward London I saw a small, tight formation of bombers completely encircled by a ring of Messerschmitts. They were still heading north. As I raced forward, three flights of Spitfires came zooming up from beneath them in a sort of Prince-of-Wales's-feathers maneuver. They burst through upward and outward, their guns going all the time. They must have each got one, for an instant later I saw the most extraordinary sight of eight German bombers and fighters diving earthward together in flames.

I turned away again and streaked after some distant specks ahead. Diving down, I noticed that the running progress of the battle had brought me over London again. I could see the network of streets with the green space of Kensington Gardens, and I had an instant's glimpse of the Round Pond, where I sailed boats when I was a child. In that moment, and as I was rapidly overhauling the Germans ahead, a Dornier 17 sped right across my line of flight, closely pursued by a Hurricane. And behind the Hurricane came two Messerschmitts. He was too intent to have seen them and they had not seen me! They were coming slightly toward me. It was perfect. A kick at the rudder and I swung in toward them, thumbed the gun button, and let them have it. The first burst was placed just the right distance ahead of the leading Messerschmitt. He ran slap into it and he simply came to pieces in the air. His companion, with one of the speediest and most brilliant 'get-outs' I have ever seen, went right away in a half Immelmann turn. I missed him completely. He must almost have been hit by the pieces of the leader but he got away. I hand it to him.

At that moment some instinct made me glance up at my rear-view mirror and spot two Messerschmitts closing in on my tail. Instantly I hauled back on the stick and streaked upward. And just in time. For as I flicked into the climb, I saw, the tracer streaks pass beneath me. As I turned I had a quick look round the "office" [cockpit]. My fuel reserve was running out and I had only about a second's supply of ammunition left. I was certainly in no condition to take on two Messerschrnitts. But they seemed no more eager than I was. Perhaps they were in the same position, for they turned away for home. I put my nose down and did likewise."

bobbysocks

09-08-2010, 06:50 PM

interesting series called 'lost evidence...the battle of britian". its in 5 parts. here's pt 1. just follow the link for the rest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeaGMRu2qnk&feature=related

bobbysocks

09-09-2010, 04:58 PM

another BoB vet....

This Bf 109 was built in 1939. it was known to have flown in battle of France and the battle of Britain as an E1. After upgrade to an E7 it was delivered to the eastern front where it was flown by the highly decorated German pilot Wulf- Dietrich Widowitz. He was shot down by a Hurricane whilst on an escort mission in 1942.He made a near perfect, forced, wheels-up landing on the ice of a frozen lake. The plane sank through the ice an came to rest on the lake-bed. Widowitz died more than a year later in another crash landing. It remaind untouched until its recovery in 2003

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-VpSDxWTnI&feature=player_embedded

bobbysocks

09-09-2010, 05:20 PM

Battle of Britain's humble WWII pilot Bill Green
By Peter Sherlock BBC News

Sgt Bill Green had been part of the Battle of Britain for nine days when he was shot down by a German fighter.

The Germans' Blitzkrieg warfare had overrun Belgium, the Netherlands and northern France in May 1940. Hitler had discussed plans to invade Britain, initially using the Luftwaffe to win air superiority over the English Channel.

On 29 August, Mr Green was an inexperienced pilot flying at a height of 20,000ft above Deal in Kent.
He said: "If you had said to me, 'Is there any chance there would be any aircraft in the sky that you haven't seen?' I would have said, 'No chance.'
"But suddenly, a hole appeared in the bullet proof windscreen in front of me and I immediately started to get covered in glycol (engine antifreeze).
"I realized I had to get out. I had got as far as taking the weight off my bottom and onto my feet when I was sucked out."
The force with which Sgt Green rushed through the air ripped the boots off his feet. He pulled the rip cord of his parachute but nothing happened.
As he plummeted to earth at 120mph, the 23-year-old's thoughts turned to his wife, Bertha.
"I had only been married for about 12 weeks and I supposed I was seeking my end - for I was sure it was going to happen - through thoughts of my wife," he said.
"I remember clearly thinking, 'I wonder if Bertha will wonder if I wondered what it was going to be like when I hit the deck.'
"I remember praying. I wasn't Christian at the time, I am now.
"I remember saying, 'Please God open this bloody parachute' and quite magically the wind got under one of the folds with some vigor and kicked me back with a jolt. The quietude that hit me had more impact than any noise I've ever heard. and with that I thought, 'My god I'm alive.'"
Mr Green likened the summer of 1940 to having a role in Lewis Carroll's novel Alice in Wonderland. He had joined the Royal Auxiliary Air Force as an engine fitter in December 1936, and shortly before the outbreak of war, he trained as a pilot. Just 11 days before he was shot down above Kent, he flew a Hurricane for the first time.
Mr Green recalled the moment his commanding officer asked him to test the single-seater fighter at Biggin Hill airfield in Kent.
"He said, 'See that one, go and sit in it, and when you feel comfortable, whack it off'", Mr Green said.
"I said, 'Hang about, I need to know a little bit about it. What speed does it lift off? What speed does it come in?'
"But I went and sat in it, and when I was more afraid to get out than I was to take off, off I went and frightened myself to death."

'Light flashing'

The day after his first encounter with a Hurricane, he was transferred to RAF Gravesend at the request of his commanding officer.
Mr Green, who is now 93 and living in Somerset, said: "I learned in retrospect we had lost four aircraft and four pilots the day before so he was desperate for people like me.
"So I flew back, was shown a bed in a hut. I had a cup of cocoa and a cheese sandwich and got my head down.
"In the early hours of the morning there was a light flashing in my face and I said, 'No, no, not me. I'm green, I've just arrived'."
But later that morning, he was transferred to RAF Hawkinge in Kent where 501 Squadron was based.
It was 20 August and Sgt Green had officially joined the Battle of Britain, one of the most crucial battles in British history.
Nine days later, he was shot down.

After his parachute finally opened, he landed on a farm in Elham Valley near Folkestone.
He said: "I sat in a field on my bottom and looked around. The field was full of thistles and cowpats and I thought, 'I've got to walk around this old trash in my stockinged feet'.
"Then two blokes came out of the farmhouse with shotguns and realized I was English. "They helped me up and I couldn't stand because I'd been hit, without knowing it, in the leg. "They took me back to the farmhouse and gave me a cup of tea and that was the end of the Battle of Britain as far as I was concerned." Mr Green continued to serve with the RAF, reaching the rank of Flight Lieutenant.

bobbysocks

09-10-2010, 07:21 PM

ok back to reality....

some quotes & stuff from BoB pilots....from both sides:

Funny this was, although I worked in banking, I had applied to get into the RCAF but it appeared that they didn't want me. With the war just started in England, I felt that I had a chance over there.
At the time the RAF were taking just about anybody they could get their hands on. They had a terrific shortage of pilots, I think half of the pilots were from the Commonwealth, a lot of us were Canadians. I applied, I got called up on a Monday, had the medical on Wednesday and sailed for England on the Friday.
Pilot Officer Alfred Keith Ogilvie 609 Squadron RAF

"Look, you've got to face it, France was a shambles. Everyone tried their best, but most of us pilots were not only new to flying in combat, we were new to flying in general. If an Me was coming towards you firing all guns, you would push the stick forward, your heart seems to go up into your throat as he he flies past you. You know he's going to make a tight turn, the Me was like that, and your ticker would be pounding nine to the dozen as you looked in the mirror, looked from side to side but couldn't see him, but you knew he was there, instinct told you he was there. For the new pilot it was panic stations, okay, we were told not to panic, but it was human nature. We learnt by those mistakes, your leader might call out over the radio that the 'hun' was on your tail calling you by your code name, but in a state of panic, it was not unusual to even forget what your code name was.
Sgt G.C.Bennett 609 Squadron. (Later killed in 1941)

"We were ordered to to attack the advancing German columns around Sedan. On the 11th and 12th May, everybody got back alright. Then on the 13th May five of our aircraft went again on exactly the same course for the third day running. Only one came back. After that it was chaos. We did some leaflet dropping at night. Those of us who were left moved from field to field, half a dozen times a fortnight. A lot of people just got lost. We ended up with two other Battles from Squadrons we did not know, alone in a field somewhere in Central France...........Our aircraft was had been damaged a good bit by then, but we found another that was missing a tail wheel, we put our tail wheel on it, pushed the ground crew in the back, and took off. All I had was a cycling map of Northern France."
Sgt Arthur Power 88 'Battle' Squadron

It was hard when word came in that one of your mates was missing, another pilot may have given a graphic account of how he saw someone go down in flames and hadn't a chance to bale out. You sort of somehow found a big hole in your stomach momentarily. But you could not afford to think of such matters, you put your mind to other things, you got drunk or whatever. You train yourself to think of only one thing, and that is the job that lies ahead."
George Barclay 151 Squadron.

"We were all amateurs. Yet the young pilots lived their lives to the full because they knew that any day they'd be dead."
Gregory Kirkorian. RAF Squadron Intelligence

"The waiting was the worst part, we'd sit around playing poker with that tension pit in our stomachs - it was almost a relief when we heard the phone ring to scramble."
Group Captain Peter Matthews.

from the LW side...no names on a few:

"We were idealists with the honor of being part of the most elite fighting force in the world"

"........we listen to the spell binding words of our leader and accept them with all our hearts. Never before have we experienced such a deep sense of patriotic devotion towards our beloved German fatherland. I shall never, never forget the expressions of rapture which I saw on the faces around me today."

"It was the first time I had experienced this. . . it was a kind of ticky, ticky, tick. . but it made me feel good that it had protected me. Anyway, what I did was evade whoever was firing at me by nose-diving. Now, I thought, I've got rid of it, so I climbed up again trying to catch up with the unit. I remember thinking, Well, this isn't so bad . . . The protection had held . . . but I was still climbing and suddenly there was a second attack from behind. It was so fast that I couldn't evade before it came . . . at least, I as a beginner couldn't. Suddenly he was there and immediately I went down again. While I was diving I thought, Well, what do I do now?
Some pilots said that in such a case you just go down to tree-top level and go home . . . but I thought, Well, that sounds too easy, so I decided to climb up again.., which was a big mistake that an experienced man would not have made. Then as I was climbing again suddenly I was attacked from below to the right-hand side. Someone who was more at home playing these games had come from below from the right-hand side. In this area there was no protective armour so it was a real problem.
The glass from the cockpit was splintering, the instrument panel splattered and now I was really hit. . . or many hits. Somehow at that point I blacked out. When I came to I found myself in a vertical dive and what I noticed was lots of noise, a kind of fluid coming from the side of the plane and what struck me was that the ground was approaching very fast. I realized that I had to catch the plane immediately and get it out of the dive. I did and in doing so my blood rushed from my head and I blacked out again. When I came to I found I was at tree-top level with little power left in the machine. It could still fly but with no power. I was now very, very low and had to look for somewhere to land. At this stage I looked around and found that there were two Spitfires behind me and they were shooting occasionally, but I guess it was difficult to shoot at me because I was going so slow and was not flying in a straight line. I don’t know whether they didn’t shoot me because they saw I was in a difficult situation....anyway, I just saw an English park-like landscape, some bushes and trees. There was a group of trees ahead of me and I said to myself, Well, gee, what I have to do is to try to get enough speed by flying directly at the trees and then hope that I have enough speed to jump over them and then go down. I did this and then blacked out once more.
Bruno Petrenko ex Bf109 pilot now living in Canada

back to the uk allies

"We learned tactics pretty quickly, but there wasn’t much time during the Battle. We learned to spread the vics. One chap was put in as ‘weaver’ — arse-end Charlie — weaving about behind our formation, keeping look-out. They were often shot down, weaving behind and never seen again.

Sailor Malan was the best pilot of the war, a good tactician; above average pilot and an excellent shot. In the end it comes down to being able to shoot. I was an above average pilot, but not a good shot, so the only way I could succeed was to get closer than the next chap. This wasn’t easy Johnny Johnson was a pretty good, average pilot, but an excellent shot.

The answer was that there were was no really successful shooting parameter above 5 degree deflection. Most kills were from behind, coming down on the enemy, or head-on, or in 5 degrees deflection. The Spitfires guns were harmonized to about 450 yards, but this was spread too far across. Sailor Malan trimmed his own guns down to 200-250 yards, and we all followed suit. At the end of the day, you had to have luck, and I had my share. Once I had my watch shot off my wrist. It was my own watch, and the Air Ministry wouldn’t pay me back for it! Another had a bullet hit his headphones. His ear was a bit of a mess, but at least he was alive.”
Air Commodore Alan Deere CBE. DSO. DFC. ex 54 Sqn, 602 Sqn and 611 Sqn RAF

from: http://www.battleofbritain1940.net/0004.html

bobbysocks

09-10-2010, 07:25 PM

more stories:

I woke as the the airman orderly tapped my shoulder and repeated, "Come along Sir, come along Sir, 4.30" in my ear. It was very cold in the hut and dark, so I wrestled with myself for a few minutes and then jumped out of bed and put on my flying kit quickly. Irvin trousers over my pajamas, sweater, flying boots, scarf, Irvin jacket......I left the hut to look at my aeroplane.

I climbed into the cockpit out of which the fitter had just stepped, "Morning Williams, morning French, put my 'chute on the tail please," I checked the instruments one by one: petrol tanks full; tail trimming wheels neutral; airscrew fine pitch; directional; gyro set; helmet on reflector sight with oxygen and R/T leads connected - in fact everything as I liked it for a quick getaway when we scrambled.

Returning to the hut I found Hathaway, the orderly lighting the fire by the light of a hurricane lamp, while Chips lay fast asleep in a deck chair, his head lolling down on his yellow Mae-West. I lay down, and immediately became unconscious as if doped.......What seemed the next moment I woke with a terrific start to see everyone pouring out of the hut.......I could hear the telephone orderly repeating: "Dover 26,000; fifty plus bandits approaching from south-east."

Horton shouted, "Scramble Bill, lazy bastard," and automatically I ran out. Parachute on, pulled into cockpit by crew who had already started the engine. Straps, helmet, gloves, check the knobs, taxi out, get into the right position in my section and take off. I put the R/T on, and only then do I wake up and realize I am in the air flying with the distance between the ground and the Spitfire increasing all the time......
George Barclay 249 Sqn - Len Deighton/ Battle of Britain p122

As the twelve Spitfires maneuvered into formation, and climbed for the east, I glanced down at my watch. Under ninety seconds. 'Not bad. Hope the old man was impressed.'
I started to wonder if we'd be too late again. Somehow the Controllers seemed slower these days. (They were - the communications network had been hard hit. But what they gave was far more accurate....well, sometimes. Everyone was learning.) "Parlor Leader, hullo, Parlor Leader. Many bandits approaching Dungeness, Angels 15 and above. Buster!"

Thin trails of smoke reached back from the exhaust ports. I looked over at my number two, "pull in Chips, pull in, your too far out....and pull up a bit.......and watch that sun, that's where the bastards will be coming from." and from Chips, I wouldn't expect anything else for a reply, "and I suppose you want me to watch me mirror too sir!!!"

I had to start thinking tactics, we should really add a couple of thousand feet to our directed height, better to be a little too high, than caught in the murderous fire raining down from the 109s.... Johnson, rehearsing in his mind his first - and only kill; a bomber nearly two weeks ago. Had it been a fluke? could he ever do it again? Chips, with five to his credit, wondering if was really true that you got the DFM for six kills.....he switched on the reflector sight, and turned the knurled knob until the brightness was exactly right. By now, a hardened veteran at 21, he knew what to expect. We were climbing higher; he set the bars to the wingspan of a 109. Chalkie Turner, on his first operational sortie, checking every dial, every setting again and again, practicing lifesaving tips he'd managed to pick up from the others. Get the head moving - check above, behind, to the beam......And Horton, humming contentedly away in his cockpit again, adrenaline pumping already, senses alive.

"Jesus Christ, it's the whole of the Luftwaffe......" Shimmering in the morning sun, wave upon wave of bombers, driving for London. Stepped above and behind, the serried ranks of Messerschmitts. Covering mile upon mile of sky, as far as the eye could see. It was at once magnificent and terrible.
"Parlor Squadron, aim for the bombers. Look out for snappers coming down.....here they come.....Parlor, break, break"

Suddenly the sky was dissolved into whirling confusion, the headphones filled with snatches of command, of exultation, of warning, of stark terror.
"He's a flamer.....Jeez, that was close.....Hey, look out!"
"Go for the bombers......more at two o'clock......"
"Hold on Hamish, I'm coming. Hold on!"
Chips was jinking left, then right, as the tracer flashed past; suddenly, a twin reared up in his sights - long glasshouse, a 110. He let fly, saw little chips float off as the Messerschmitt completed its bunt. One damaged. He dived for the protection of the haze.

I was there again, and cautiously lifted the Spitfire up again, and was once again shocked by the sight of hundreds of black-crossed aircraft in unbroken phalanxes boring for London. What had all the sweat, the turmoil, the sacrifices of the last few minutes been for I wondered. I squirted at a Heinkel, and sank below the haze as it flew solidly on. I headed east, then rose again, hoping to come on the flank of the raid. Still they were there in dozens. By now, I was quite alone, fuel was low and circled long enough to take in the sight of bombs raining down over the docks. Fires springing up from Tilbury, a vast white splash in the Thames Estuary. Hope it's not one of one of our boys, I thought. I swung for home and three 109s suddenly appeared and slanted across from the right. Instinctively, I fired at the nearest; it rolled onto its back and dived away. I couldn't hang around to watch the results, with the other two whipping round to attack. Yellow noses - did that really mean a crack unit? - the thought was fleeting. I fired - the guns clattered briefly, then stopped. Time to go. I shoved the nose down, twisted, jinked, aileron turned, and all the time the 109s clinged to my elusive Spitfire. These boys were really good. With the altimeter unwinding like a sweep second hand, I finally found sanctuary right down among the Slough balloon barrage, and threaded my way carefully to the west.
Douglas McRoberts/Lions Rampant pp97-99

I landed the Spitfire back at the home base, and bumped my way across the grass towards the hangars, throwing the hood back and filled my lungs with fresh, clean English air. I came to a standstill, and the ground staff were immediately taken to task in refueling and rearming. I jumped out onto the wing, then down to the ground, "Running on fumes now, are we Sir." said the sergeant bending down and looking at me from under the wing. "We both are," I replied pulling my helmet and goggles off and making my way over to 'the hut', "both of us are exhausted."
"That bad is it Sir." he said,
"....and its going to get worse, " I said walking away almost shouting, "the bastards are in London."

As I got near to the dispersal hut, I saw a lean figure hurriedly put his head out of the window, "B Flight, "Scramble!!!" he had hardly got all the words out of his mouth as five or six bodies that were lazily lounging around outside sprang to their feet and ran to their awaiting aircraft. If they're going where I think they're going, there going to be in for it. By the time I got inside, the place was deserted except for the despatch clerk and Horton who had already beaten me down. "Any of the others back?" I asked pouring a cup of tea from the urn.

We both walked outside and sat down in the now vacant deckchairs. "No, just me, I was back first for a change," he paused, "....mind you, if it wasn't for being low on juice, I would have gone to Margate....they tell me it's nice there at this time of year."

As we sat there, almost in a melancholy silence, the others came back one by one......Chips, Hamish, Turner, it seemed that we had all made it back, a little tired, a little weary and our thoughts were with the other flight that had gone out to take our place.

The rest that we had all looked forward to was short lived. I was just about to go and see 'the old man' when the telephone rang again, there was a short silence then "Everybody up....scramble."
There had been hardly enough time to service the aircraft, but we ran all the same, fired up the Merlins and within seconds we were bouncing across the grass with throttles open, and doing it all over again.
No Margin for Error/Author

The raid on London must be continuing as we were vectored to the same position we had been earlier. Again I started to think tactics, height, gain the advantage of height and again ascended two thousand more than our directed height.

With South London below, I catched a glimpse of a formation of enemy bombers as we turn southwest of London. I decide to maneuver our section to engage a group of Dornier Do17s from the beam but at the last instant the Germans turned so that a co-ordinated assault becomes impossible. My plan has gone astray, "Parlor Squadron, Parlor Squadron, okay boys...pick your target, break....break.....break" I instruct the men to break up and make individual attacks, I took the leading Dornier. I turned, then closed fast, I fire a four second burst before diving underneath and swinging around for a second attack from the other side. This time I fired for two seconds before banking away. The leading Dornier seems undamaged but suddenly the second bomber in the formation breaks away and falls into a dive. I turn off, and spot a single Messerschmitt Bf109 below and ahead. I follow it through the thick smoke billowing over the Thames and finally catch up with it over the Estuary. I fired for three seconds. The 109 is hit and a stream of black smoke trails behind his tail so I close in to 50 yards and fired for the last time. Pieces of the German fighter are torn away before it suddenly bursts into flames and then explodes in fire and brimstone with pieces of wreckage going in all directions.

I returned back towards London. The scene below is devastating. A huge spiralling cylinder of thick black smoke from burning warehouses near the docks billows steadily up into the clouds. The docks and warehouses are ablaze as London's East End is hammered.
The sun glints on the wings of the German bombers as they turn followed by the flak. Smaller planes dart in and out of the enemy formation, and the German planes are scattered but there are so many that they seem impossible to stop.

I make contact with Horton and Chips, we gain height where the air is a little clearer and more room to move in safety as the bombers are below us and with no sign of 109s. A short conversation and I instruct them to go in again. Horton picked a target and banked away and I lost sight of him as he went down. Chips put his nose down and headed for a group of three Dorniers, I follow him to the left and behind. "Parlor break, Parlor break, bandits two o'clock" I gathered that it would only be a matter of minutes before the 109s would be on us.

Chips is still diving down at the bombers. He is ahead of me as he closes in on a straggling Dornier. I continue to follow him down and saw him make a quarter attack on the German bomber. Large pieces fly off the enemy machine, then a wing crumples as it goes down spinning. An instant later I see a Spitfire which I assume to be that of Chips, spinning down with about a third of its wing broken off.....Has there been a collision? The Spitfire spins wildly and he has no chance to bail out. Another casualty of this wretched war.

After doing my best to forget for the time being what I saw, taking time out to wallow in my feelings for Chips could spell trouble, one does not do that sort of thing and become another target for the enemy. I turned and attacked the bombers, evaded more 109s, I get a Dornier, and a probable, and possibly a share of a 109, but with ammunition exhausted, and fuel tanks close to empty, we land back at our airfield in ones and twos. Pilots climb wearily out of their cockpits in grim silence carrying in their minds an unforgettable picture of the seemingly impregnable bulk of the German formations and of the terrible firestorm in London.
A Few of the Few/Dennis Newton pp116-117

For the front line squadrons, the daily routine varied little. Dowding had implied that each squadron be allowed one days rest a week, but this was not always possible. A normal battle day with a day fighter squadron could begin as early as 3.30am and carried on until stand down at around 8.00pm. Some flights or entire squadrons would be at readiness to take off within five minutes which, in actual practice, meant two or three minutes. Sometimes there would be a section on standby, with the pilots in their cockpits and able to be off the ground in a minute or so. Breakfast or a sandwich lunch would probably be brought to the dispersal points around the airfield.

It was now just after midday, we had flown two sorties today and that had taken the stuffing out of most of us, we were glad of the rest, no doubt other squadrons had been sent in to relieve us were over London, and we were now enjoying the rest, no matter how brief it may be. In the intervals between flights, we dozed on beds or chairs in the crew huts - or in tents for those at satellite airfields - or even on the grass. Some read, some played cards, draughts or chess. Tiredness inhibited conversation.

Periodically the telephone rang jerking us all into boggled eyed alertness. More often than not the telephone orderly would call one of us to some innocuous administrative call and the tension of another anticipated order to combat receded. That telephone played hell with our nerves. I don't think any of us pilots ever again appreciated the virtues of Mr Bell's invention. Sooner or later though, the action charged instruction came through. The orderly would pause, listen and then bawl "Squadron scramble, Maidstone, Angels two zero."

Before he'd relayed the message we were away sprinting to our Spitfires, It was on again, the sheer hell of the mornings sorties were now behind us, as was the precious couple of hours rest that we had just enjoyed, only one thing remained in our thoughts, and that was to get to those Spitfires as quickly as possible.

As we ran, the fitters fired the starter cartridges and the propellers turned with engines roaring into life as flame and a puff of smoke was emitted from the Spitfires short exhausts. From strapping in to chocks away it was just a matter of seconds. We taxied to the take off point on the broad grass airfield, and pausing only to get the last aircraft to get into position, then stopping and looking towards the operations room waiting for the signal to take off. Seconds seem like minutes as we wait, "C'mon 'Matron' we havn't got all day" I said to which I got the curt reply, "Parlor Leader, you must learn to be a little patient!!" At last I led a flotilla of twelve Spitfires that were gunning their throttles and speeding away on the take-off in a wide vic formation of flights.

As we got airborne, we snapped the canopies shut, and pulling the undercarriage lever, the wheels were sucked into their wells. I glanced around on all sides making sure that the squadron were all in position. "Rastus Parlor airborne" I called over the R/T, to which the ground controller replied "OK, Parlor leader, one hundred plus bandits south of Ashford heading north west angels fifteen. Vector 130, Buster." Buster meant the fastest speed attainable, so there was no time for sightseeing this trip, Oh for a nice easy patrol!!

We struggled to gain every inch of height in the shortest possible time we gradually emerged out of the filthy black haze which perpetually hung like a blanket over London. Suddenly around 12,000 feet we broke through the smog layer and a different world emerged, startling in its sun drenched clarity. Long streaming contrails snaked way above us from the Channel coast as the Messerschmitt high flying fighters weaved protectively over their menacing bomber formations. Our radios became almost unintelligible as pilots in our numerous intercepting squadrons called out sightings, attack orders, warnings and frustrated oaths. Somehow, a familiar voice of any one of our pilots would call out and break through the radio chatter with an urgent "Parlor leader, bandits eleven o'clock level."
Battle of Britain/ Richard Townshend Bickers pp141-143

I fastened on to the tail of of a yellow nosed Messerschmitt, I fought to bring my guns to bear as the range rapidly decreased, and when the wingspan of the enemy aircraft fitted snugly into the range scale bars of my reflector sight, I pressed the firing button. There was an immediate response from my eight Brownings which, to the accompaniment of a slight bucketing from my aircraft, spat a stream of lethal lead targetwards. 'Got you' I muttered to myself as the small dancing yellow flames of exploding 'De Wilde' bullets splattered along the Messerschmitts fuselage. Before I could fire another burst, two 109s wheeled in behind me. I broke hard into attack pulling the Spitfire into a climbing, spiraling turn, as I did so: a maneuver I had discovered in previous combats with 109s to be particularly effective. And it was no less effective now, the Messerschmitts literally "fell out of the sky" as they stalled in an attempt to follow me.

I soon found another target. About 3,000 yards in front of me, and at the same level, a Hun was just completing a turn preparatory to to re-entering the fray. He must have seen me almost immediately, he rolled out of his turn towards me so that a head on attack became inevitable. Using both hands on the control column to steady the aircraft and to keep my aim steady, I peered through the reflector sight at the rapidly closing 109. We appeared to open fire together, and immediately a hail of lead thudded into my Spitfire. One moment, the Messerschmitt was a clearly defined shape, its wingspan nicely enclosed within the circle of my reflector sight, and the next it was on top of me, a terrifying blur which blotted out the sky ahead. Then we hit, his tailplane had dug into the Spitfires fusalage just behind the canopy, what damage had been done I didn't know, but the sound of ripping fusalage gave me real cause for concern.

The impact pitched me violently forward on to my cockpit harness, the straps of which bit viciously into my shoulders. At the same moment, the control column was snatched abruptly from my gripping fingers by a momentary, but powerful, reversal of elevator load. In a flash it was all over: there was clear sky ahead of me, and I thought for a moment, "God, I'm still alive," But I could see puffs of smoke and the odd flame coming from the engine cowling,the engine began to vibrate, slowly at first, but now, with increasing momentum causing the now regained control column to jump backwards and forwards in my hand. The bugger must have managed to get in a few shots whit found their target somewhere in the engine bay. I had to think quick, I closed the throttle, and reached forward and flicked off the ignition switches, but before I could do so, the engine seized and the airscrew came to an abrupt halt. I saw with amazement, that the blades had been bent almost double with the impact of the collision, the 109. How close was that I thought.

Smoke started to pour into the cockpit, I tugged at the hood release toggle, but could not release it, how I would welcome a rush of air now, I tried again with the normal release catch, but to no avail. There was only one thing to do, and that was to keep the aircraft under control. The speed had now dropped off considerably and with a strong backward pressure on the stick, I was able to keep a reasonable gliding altitude.

Frantically, I peered through the smoke and flame that was now enveloping the engine, trying to seek out what lay ahead. I daren't turn the aircraft, I had no idea as to what other damage may have been done, and at low level, even a small turn would be out of the question.

Through a miasmatic cloud of flame and smoke the ground suddenly appeared ahead of me. The next moment a post flashed by my wing tip and then the Spitfire struck the ground and ricocheted back into the air again finally returning to earth with a jarring impact, and once again I was jerked forward on to my harness. The straps held fast, and continued to do so as the aircraft ploughed its way through a succession of posts before finally coming to rest on the edge of a cornfield. The now dense smoke blinded my eyes, and my throat felt raw, I tried to keep swallowing, but it was almost as if my tongue was being welded to the roof of my mouth. For the first time, I became frantic with fear, I tore at my harness release pin then battered at the perspex hood in an effort to escape from the cockpit which entombed me. Then at last, with a splintering crash the hood finally cracked open, thus I was able to scramble clear from the cockpit and in the safety of the surrounding field.
Based on an experience of F/Lt Al Deere

For a while I was completely disorientated, come to think of it, where was I, the field was relatively quiet, and peaceful, the sky was clear, but I could see the vapour trails in one direction, "that surely must be over London, no, wait, where did we make contact with the enemy, God I don't know....yes I do, Ashford," the sky was just one huge sheet of silken haze, but a very bright spot indicated to me the position of the sun and that was the direction of west as it was now late afternoon.

I relieved myself of my helmet, and unbuttoned my Alvin jacket and decided to walk leaving the burning plane in the empty field.

Well, for me, another day over. All I had to do was to get to the nearest airfield and I would soon be back at base. My story would be told, along with the many others that would be told that evening, maybe in the mess, maybe down at the local pub, all it wanted was for someone to come up with a suggestion. After a few beers, or a game of cards, maybe a letter to the folks at home may be written....yes I owe them a letter, oh, better write a letter to "Chip's" family.....a task we all dread, then the events of the day will soon be a thing of the past, remembered just how I want to remember them, or how I describe them in my letters. Tonight, I will sleep like a baby, lost in another world perhaps, only to be interrupted by that all too familiar call....."Come along Sir, come along Sir, 4.30"..................

from: http://www.battleofbritain1940.net/document-17.html

Gilly

09-10-2010, 07:34 PM

Quality Bobby. As much as the words convey the sentiment I don't think any of us can truely grasp what it must have been like.

Gilly

09-13-2010, 09:38 AM

British Pathe website with plenty of war footage incl BoB

http://www.britishpathe.com/results.php?search=battle+of+britain

bobbysocks

09-13-2010, 04:22 PM

Davedog74

09-13-2010, 05:30 PM

"First Light" a feature length program about the BoB is scheduled to aire on BBC2 on tuesday sept 14 @ 9pm. its based on Geoffrey Wellum's autobiography by the same name. hopefully BBC america will aire this sometime in the future. so enjoy boys...

cheers for the heads up bobbysocks,ive found this,a season of b.o.b specials,some top viewing coming up,nice 1 bbc http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/seasons/battle-of-britain-season/

bobbysocks

09-14-2010, 06:58 PM

just found out there may be a way for us non ukers to watch/listen to the BoB series programs. the bbc i-player has them after they have been presented. the link is here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/tv

bobbysocks

09-15-2010, 05:58 PM

A group of World War Two RAF pilots gathered at the Cabinet War Rooms in London on Tuesday to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. MSN UK News spoke to some of them to hear their memories of fighting and ultimately defeating the German air force.
"There was no time to feel afraid," explains Squadron Leader Nigel Rose, aged 92."You were so busy dealing with everything. There was so much to think about when flying the plane.
"One obviously missed one's friends who were lost. But you hadn't got time to mope about it. It was one of those things that happened."

Rose and other veterans were attending an event organised by the Royal Mint in association with the Battle of Britain Fighter Association and the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust.
Squadron Leader Rose joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve in 1938 and had logged 87 hours before being called up at the outbreak of war in September 1939. He joined 602 Squadron at Drem in Scotland in June 1940, just as the Battle of Britain was about to get underway.
"We were very new and raw," he recalls. "On my third day with the squadron I had my first engagement, when about 100 or so Germans were spotted coming in over the coast.

"Here was this enormous great gaggle of aircraft. I'd never seen a German aircraft before, not one, and here were 100 or so. We dived down and tried to hit the rear end of these enormous Bf 110s. I got my baptism of fire then, I really did."

Wing Commander Tom Neil DFC* AFC AE joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in October 1938 and was called up in September 1939. He joined 249 Squadron, stationed in North Weald in Essex, in May 1940.
"We became operational - fit to take on the enemy - on 4 July 1940," Neil remembers, "and in the afternoon of the same day I intercepted my first enemy aircraft somewhere out to sea. I was so intrigued by the sight of an emey aircraft that I sat there looking at it for quite some time.
"The leader of my formation, who was a bit of a halfwit, was slow to see the enemy; I was banging on my window, telling him there was an aircraft over there! He didn't get out of the way to enable me to shoot."

Four days later Neil shot down his first enemy aircraft. He recalls seeing a news report of the battle in a cinema and being bemused at how it stated the aircraft had been shot down by a Spitfire. "We were flying Hurricanes! But of course, unless you were flying a Spitfire, nobody was interested!"

Flight Commander Keith Lawrence was mostly based in Hampshire during the Battle of Britain. Asked if he and his colleagues were aware of how the wider Battle was progressing, he is blunt. "In modern day language, we hadn't a clue! All we did was concentrate on flying each day's shift. We might have to be ready at first light. We would be waiting and waiting for the telephone to ring to give us the call to go.

"We would race to the aircraft, strap on the kit, press the start button and be airborne within four or five minutes of getting the call to scramble."
Lawrence had a few close shaves during the Battle of Britain, including getting a wing shot off while flying over Kent. "A plane cannot fly with only one wing," he states, matter-of-factly. "I was ejected from my aircraft and had to get my parachute open, which was very badly damaged in the ejection. A stong wind blew me out to sea and I landed in the Straits of Dover."
Squadron Leader Rose recalls how one of his fellow pilots was shot down and landed in the grounds of a girls' school. "One of the teachers picked him up in her car, together with his parachute, and drove him to the station.
"After a few days this pilot got a letter from the head girl of the school to say they'd held an emergency meeting that night and had decided to adopt the pilot! The rest of the squadron was very jealous, as from that moment on he'd get socks and scarves and all sorts of things."
Later in the war Rose became a gunnery instructor. He remembers one of the most unpleasant tasks was not going into battle in the air, but writing letters to the parents of pilots who had been killed in action.
"You had to point out what a nice chap he was, how popular he was, what a good pilot he was; there were all these standard phrases. But you knew that parents were trying to read between the lines to see what people really thought of their son. They were really difficult to write, these letters, more difficult than flying a plane, because you could be trained to fly a plane."

Battle of Britain Day is held every 15 September: the anniversary of 24 hours Winston Churchill dubbed "the crux of the Battle of Britain" and which marked a permanent shift in the balance of power in the air in the RAF's favour.

The Royal Mint has issued a special Battle of Britain £5 coin for this year's anniversary, and has launched a virtual memorial wall where members of the public are encouraged to post a tribute to the contributions of their relatives during the Battle of Britain.

The Royal Mint will also donate £1 to the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust's Learning Centre Appeal for every person who posts a tribute on the wall between 3 September and 17 October, up to a total of £10,000.

Squadron Leader Rose is proud to be involved in this year's commemorations. "Remembering the Battle of Britain appears to be much more important now than before. It's wonderful what has been happening this year, this 70th anniversary, and how it's touched people of all ages, even little children.

"The popularity of it seems to have grown tremendously, which is no bad thing. We need a bit of national pride."

MSN NEWS

bobbysocks

09-15-2010, 06:44 PM

During the late summer of 1940 Oberleutnant Helmut Rau was Staffelkapitän of 3./JG3, based at Colembert in the Pas-De-Calais. While with Stab I/JG3, he had gained four victories in the Battle of France; a Morane on 13 May, two Curtiss Hawk 75s on the following day and a Wellington on 29 May. On 24 August he was appointed Staffelkapitän of 3./JG3.

Ronald Berry was born on 3 May 1917 in Hull. He worked for Hull’s City Corporation Treasury Department and joined the RAFVR in 1937. He was called up in June 1939, shortly before the outbreak of war. He was posted as a sergeant pilot to 603 Squadron at Turnhouse flying Spitfires and was commissioned in December of that year.
No 603 Sqn carried out defensive patrols over Scotland, gaining a number of victories. Finally, on 27 August 1940, the squadron moved to Hornchurch near London, as part 11 Group right in the thick of the Battle of Britain.
Berry was to claim 9 kills during the battle and a total of 17 during the war. He remained with the RAF after the war and served as the CO of the AFDU and 543 Sqn, flying Valiants. He retired in 1969 with the rank of Air Commodore. Ronald Berry passed away on the 13 August 2000.

On Saturday 31 August 1940, Hornchurch took a battering. The station was bombed heavily in the afternoon while 54 Sqn were taking off. One bomb detonated between three aircraft that were taking off. One, X4236, was piloted by Al Deere. All three aircraft were destroyed, but all three pilots were uninjured and were in action again the following day.
The station was again attacked in the evening. This time 603 Sqn were up and ready for the raiders. Richard Hillary and Peter Pease downed a Bf110 each. Brian Carbury claimed a Bf109 on this sortie, which made a grand total of five for the day. However, Carbury’s aircraft was hit by cannon fire, wounding him. He managed to land safely at Hornchurch.

Helmut Rau was flying top cover for the raid at 30,000 ft when they were attacked from behind by the Spitfires of 603 Sqn. Rau attempted to climb away from the attack, but saw that his wingman was in trouble. As he dived to engage the attacking Spitfire, he himself was hit.

Because of an unserviceability with his aircraft, Ronald Berry had not stayed with the rest of his unit. However, his chance came when the dogfight above him came down to his altitude. His combat report stated:

" As I had no oxygen, I had to leave the squadron at 22,000 feet and waited below in the sun for straggling enemy aircraft. After patrolling for 30 minutes, I saw a Me109 proceeding very fast. To overhaul him I had to press the emergency boost - indicated speed - 345. I caught the enemy aircraft off Shoeburyness. I opened fire at close range and fired all my ammunition until the enemy aircraft streamed with smoke and pancaked on the mud at Shoeburyness..".

Rau managed to make a forced landing on the mudflats and walked away unharmed from his aircraft. Berry made a low pass over the downed aircraft to confirm the kill and saw a defiant Rau stood on the sand, shaking his fist angrily. Rau was taken prisoner and spent the remainder of the war as a POW.

Gilly

09-16-2010, 09:29 AM

A bronze statue of New Zealand pilot Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, who played a key role in defeating the German Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain 70 years ago, will be unveiled in London on Wednesday.
At the outbreak of the World War Two, Park was commanding the Royal Air Force (RAF) squadrons that defended the southeast of England, and he is regarded as one of the key figures in a decisive early phase of the conflict.

Nazi leader Adolf Hitler attempted to gain air superiority over England and the battles involving British Spitfire and Hurricane fighters reached their height in August, 1940.

Germany's failure is widely seen as a major factor in preventing an attempted land invasion launched from the sea across the English Channel.

Douglas Bader, one of the most famous RAF pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain, once said: "The awesome responsibility for this country's survival rested squarely on Keith Park's shoulders."

Financier Terry Smith, who led the campaign to have a permanent memorial erected in London and funded the statue, said Park was an unsung hero who had been overlooked for too long.

"I think he was a New Zealander, he was an understated, modest guy and he didn't play the political game," Smith said, explaining why he thought Park had not had the recognition he deserved.

"The official history of the Battle of Britain doesn't even mention him."

London Mayor Boris Johnson and several Battle of Britain veterans are among those expected to attend a ceremony to present the larger-than-life bronze statue of the airman, which will stand in Waterloo Place near New Zealand House.

A series of events are being held across Britain this week to mark the 70th anniversary of the famous aerial battle.

Park died in 1975 aged 82.

from yahoo news

bobbysocks

09-20-2010, 07:17 PM

John Freeborn, British Fighter Pilot, Dies at 90
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Published: September 17, 2010

Seventy years ago, John Freeborn was one of the Royal Air Force’s leading fighter pilots, acclaimed for his exploits off Dunkirk and in the air above English villages during the Battle of Britain.

Of the nearly 3,000 Allied fliers who dueled with German aircraft in that battle, thwarting Hitler’s ambition to conquer Britain, none logged more combat hours than Wing Commander Freeborn. He was credited with shooting down at least 12 German planes during World War II, and he was twice decorated with Britain’s Distinguished Flying Cross.

But Mr. Freeborn, who died on Aug. 28 at the age of 90, was also a central figure in a long-remembered episode of “friendly fire” — one that brought him anguish throughout his long life.

On Sept. 6, 1939 — three days after Britain had gone to war with Germany — Mr. Freeborn, flying a Spitfire fighter, was among a group of pilots sent aloft from their base at Hornchurch to intercept what were reported to be German planes headed toward the Essex coast in southeast England.

But it was a case of war jitters. There were no German aircraft. Mr. Freeborn and a pilot flying alongside him each shot down what they presumed to be German fighters.

But they had, in fact, downed a pair of British Hurricane fighters, which had also been sent up, from the nearby North Weald airbase.

Pilot Officer Montague Hulton-Harrop, the flier shot down by Mr. Freeborn, became the first British fighter pilot killed in the war. The other Hurricane pilot shot down that day survived.

Mr. Freeborn, accused by his commanding officer of disregarding a last-minute order to hold his fire, was court-martialed. But he maintained that his commander had lied — that he had, in fact, been told to attack. He was exonerated together with his fellow Spitfire pilot, the affair attributed to miscommunication.

In May 1940, Mr. Freeborn took part in covering the British Expeditionary Force’s escape from Dunkirk when German forces were overrunning France. He shot down two German planes, but his Spitfire was later downed. He was rescued, and he returned to England.

When the Battle of Britain raged in the summer of 1940, Mr. Freeborn returned to combat with his No.74 Squadron, a unit with a tiger’s face as its emblem and the motto “I Fear No Man.”

On Aug. 11, the “tiger” squadron flew into battle four times in a span of eight hours and reported destroying 23 German planes, 3 of them downed by Mr. Freeborn, and damaging 14 others.

Mr. Freeborn came to the United States in 1942 to train American fighter pilots, then returned to England to escort bombers on missions off the French and Dutch coasts. He became one of Britain’s youngest wing commanders in 1944, overseeing a fighter unit based in southern Italy.

Mr. Freeborn’s death, in Southport, in northwest England, was announced on the 74 Squadron Association’s Web site by his biographer, Bob Cossey, author of “A Tiger’s Tale” (2002). (In 2009, Mr. Freeborn collaborated with Christopher Yeoman on a memoir, “Tiger Cub.”)

Mr. Cossey said that Mr. Freeborn was his squadron’s last surviving Battle of Britain pilot.

John Connell Freeborn was born on Dec. 1, 1919, in Middleton, England, outside Leeds, the son of a bank manager, and joined the R.A.F. in 1938.

He left military service in 1946 and worked as a regional manager for a soft-drink distributorship.

He is survived by his daughter, Julia Cruickshank, of Ainsdale, England, from his marriage to his first wife, Rita, who died in 1980. His second wife, Peta, died in 2001.

Mr. Freeborn never forgot about the British pilot he shot down in those frenzied first days of World War II.

In a 2004 interview with the author Gavin Mortimer, reprinted in the Smithsonian’s Air & Space magazine on Mr. Freeborn’s death, he recalled how that episode could have become even more tragic if another pilot had not intervened after Pilot Officer Hulton-Harrop was shot down.

“I think I would have shot down more if it weren’t for Hawkins,” he said of that fellow flier. “He got in the way, and I was shouting at him to get out of the bloody way, either shoot or let me shoot. But then he said, ‘It’s one of ours.’ ”

In September 2003, Mr. Freeborn visited Pilot Officer Hulton-Harrop’s grave in a churchyard near the old North Weald airfield.

“I think about him nearly every day,” Mr. Freeborn told the BBC in 2009. “I always have.”

“I’ve had a good life,” Mr. Freeborn said, “and he should have had a good life, too.”

bobbysocks

09-24-2010, 07:35 AM

now this is truely amazing. of all the ac built...and the few that survived to match this up....wow

Battle of Britain veteran Franciszek Kornicki reunited with spitfire at RAF Northolt

A BATTLE of Britain hero was reunited with the Second World War plane he had flown at a special ceremony in Northolt last week.

Squadron Leader Franciszek Kornicki, now 93-years-old, once again laid eyes on his old Spitfire plane after it flew in specially to RAF Northolt on Friday, at 4.30pm.

The reunion was supported by Hillingdon Council as part of a series of events to mark 70 years since the Battle of Britain.

Cllr Ray Puddifoot, leader of the council, said: "This is a great occasion to reunite a Battle of Britain airman with the original plane he flew in the Second World War.

"I don't think this can happen very often. We are immensely proud of the role that the Polish Air Force played in the Battle of Britain and we are very pleased we can be part of this celebration today."

Squadron Leader Kornicki added: "It is absolutely wonderful to be reunited with my plane. This is a wonderful bird to fly, which I first flew in 1942. It brings back lots of memories and everything comes alive again from so many years ago."

source: The Hillingdon Times

bobbysocks

09-24-2010, 07:48 AM

Squadron Leader Mahinder Singh Pujji was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery

An Indian pilot who flew Hawker Hurricanes during World War II has died, it has been announced.

Squadron Leader Mahinder Singh Pujji, 92, died at at Darent Valley Hospital in Kent on Saturday following a stroke.

Sqn Ldr Pujji was believed to be the last surviving fighter pilot from a group of 24 Indians who arrived in Britain in 1940.

He survived several crashes and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for services in Burma.
22 September 2010 Last updated at 21:27 Share this pageFacebookTwitter ShareEmail Print WWII Indian flying ace Squadron Leader Pujji, 92, dies

Wartime experiences

Sqn Ldr Pujji also flew combat missions in Britain, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East during the war.

Earlier this year he published a book about his wartimes experiences entitled, For King and Another Country.

Following the war Sqn Ldr Pujji became a champion air race pilot in India setting endurance records in gliders.

He later settled in Gravesend in Kent.

RIP.