Eric Carter video interview-last surviving pilot of RAF 81. Squadron. Link here

Mysticpuma · #1 07-20-2009, 08:05 AM

Guys here's the video I recorded of Eric Carter chatting about his experiences in WW2.

I have tried to keep the questions limited so that Eric could chat unhindered by my interruptions and think I have managed to be reasonably successful.

Eric flew Hurricane's with 615 Squadron, and then transferred to No.81 Squadron and was shipped out to Murmansk in Russia, to help the fight against the Germans, who it was feared if they took Murmansk, would have a significant foothold to strike Allied Forces.

He was later transferred to Burma and fought the Japanese and talks about the day the group he was with heard news of the Atom Bomb and wars end.

I have added some images sourced from the internet along with images supplied by Eric himself to break up the footage so it's not just Eric chatting.

I hope you find it interesting. Now, I've uploaded it to Blip TV, as the file is 1hr and 16 minutes long, and this was the only free hosting site I could find that could take such a large file.

The footage has been compressed to flv format, but the audio and video (if you keep it default size), is more than viewable (I hope you agree).

Now, the one thing I would point out is that on the morning of the interview, by tie-clip microphone broke, so I had to use by emergency backup. It's the very obvious white tie-clip microphone, which frustrated me, but it's all I had available, apologies for it frown

So, without further ado, here you go:

http://blip.tv/file/2377138/

Cheers, MP.

PS. Once I have finished the Checkertails Movie/Documentary, I will do this for each of pilot interviews I have filmed and release them on the internet.

choctaw111 · #2 07-20-2009, 01:11 PM

I have notice that this forum is generally not as active as the other place.
I must say "thank you" here as well.

Thunderbolt56 · #3 07-20-2009, 03:15 PM

What a treat.

Mr. Carter seems such a personable gentleman. If you have the opportunity, please forward our thanks to him for taking the time to actually BE interviewed.

S!

virre89 · #4 07-20-2009, 07:22 PM

Amazing job

Darbo · #5 07-23-2009, 11:15 PM

what a really nice bloke and a good interview

thanks

Snuff_Pidgeon · #6 07-24-2009, 08:34 AM

Great questions and great answers, thank you very much.

96th_Nightshifter · #7 07-24-2009, 11:58 PM

Thanks MP, very enjoyable - thank you for your time spent on this and of course a big thank you to Eric Carter for sharing his memories with you.

Cheers!

wheelsup_cavu · #8 08-09-2009, 02:58 AM

Thanks MP.
I finally got it to load.

Excellent interview.

Wheels

Cynabal · #9 08-13-2009, 03:02 PM

Fantastic video, funny thing is i live in Llandudno i was suprised when he said he used to visit on his time off

rickyoswald · #10 08-21-2009, 11:11 PM

Wow that's really amazing stuff... My Grandad used to work on airfields in WW2 and was posted in a lot of places around the UK, and in Canada for a while. My Dad has often suggested he should get a ghost writer to document his stories, when I visited him last I kept wanting to tell him I had been flying BF109s but didn't pluck up the courage (he has a lot of bad memories about the war, and I honestly I really don't know him all that well). Maybe when I got at christmas I'll talk to him about his stories...