ww2 Tomahawk/Spitfire pilot

[biltongbru]

In my quest to find surviving ww2 fighter pilots I came across Cecil Golding and did this interview at his house during November 2011.

Animation is done with IL-2

Cecil did service in the SAAF during ww2 from 1942- 1945.
He flew Curtiss Tomahawks in North Africa and was shot down claimed by Joachim Marseille. (Very much disputed rightfully by Cecil and South African historians!)

He later flew Spitfires in Malta, Sicily and Italy until the end of the war.
Cecil ended the war as a squadron leader and a DFC recipient.

Your questions to Cecil are welcome!

Edit: I traced the stuka pilot in Austria and he is also still alive. He sent me the photographs of himself that was shown in the video. An Internet connection was organised and the two gentleman had a good conversation on Sunday.
It is amazing after 70 years the amount of detail these gentlemen still remember; I suppose the happenings of that day of 3 June 1942 is fixed in their memory as they were both so close to death and lucky to have survived. (Deibl's gunner was shot dead behind him and his stuka was on fire; Cecil crash landed his plane with no controls except the trims)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbWc-dZT74c

Cecil being commissioned and got his wings in 1941





Cecil with his Spit in Italy




On leave in South Africa


1945

[swiss]

thx!

(only one vid this time...?)

[TomcatViP]

AAhhh a personal bar in the cockpit that's something only tanks drivers can enjoy

THX a lot for your vid and the IL2 re-enactment that felt very serious on the details.

[Skoshi Tiger]

Great video!

If you've got more please show!

Cheers!

[jg27_mc]

Great video. Thanks for sharing.

Regards.

[biltongbru]

Originally Posted by cheesehawk

I think it might be a sensitive subject, but when he was shot down, does he remember hearing the hits against his aircraft? Could you hear hits or the guns firing over the engine noise?

Sorry, watched the vid after I posted my question. Ask instead could they hear their own guns over the engine? What was his impression of the P-40 compared to the Hurricane/Spitfire. Were there any quirks to that plane they viewed as "what the heck are the bloody Yanks thinking?"

Hi Cheesehawk

1) He told me that the US planes had much more comfortable cockpits than the Brits. He loved the Spits very much but the very uncomfortable cockpit was a negative to him, sometimes they did long range ops of 3 hours and then it was very bad.

2) He told me performance wise the Spit was far superior to the Tommy (as he calls it) Mid '42 in North Africa there were very few Spit squadrons (think they were preserved to save the motherland?) The mainstay of Allied fighters was Hurricanes, Tomahawks and Kittyhawks all very much inferior to the 109. Cecil's 5 SAAF squadron suffered exceptional high casualty rate.....in 3 weeks, 3 successive OC's were KIA and Cecil told me he was not aware of any of his pilot mates that were not shot down at some stage.

3) The one thing where the Tomahawk was superior to the Bf-109 was the manoeuvrability in turning; but as he said the 109's never "tangled" with them, they came down in high speed sweeps and then climb up above them again, being much faster with far better rate of climb.

4) Regarding the guns; two of the .303 Brownings were accessible to be manually cocked by the pilot in the cockpit: these two fired through the prop space. He said on many occasions the browning firing sync mechanism went faulty and then the prop blades got damaged by bullets, causing a terrible vibration that shaked the whole plane.

Originally Posted by biltongbru

In my quest to find surviving ww2 fighter pilots I came across Cecil Golding and did this interview at his house during November 2011.

Animation is done with IL-2

Cecil did service in the SAAF during ww2 from 1942- 1945.
He flew Curtiss Tomahawks in North Africa and was shot down claimed by Joachim Marseille. (Very much disputed rightfully by Cecil and South African historians!)

He later flew Spitfires in Malta, Sicily and Italy until the end of the war.
Cecil ended the war as a squadron leader and a DFC recipient.

Your questions to Cecil are welcome!

Edit: I traced the stuka pilot in Austria and he is also still alive. He sent me the photographs of himself that was shown in the video. An Internet connection was organised and the two gentleman had a good conversation on Sunday.
It is amazing after 70 years the amount of detail these gentlemen still remember; I suppose the happenings of that day of 3 June 1942 is fixed in their memory as they were both so close to death and lucky to have survived. (Deibl's gunner was shot dead behind him and his stuka was on fire; Cecil crash landed his plane with no controls except the trims)

Cecil being commissioned and got his wings in 1941





Cecil with his Spit in Italy




On leave in South Africa


1945

The pictures of Cecil are speaking louder than words. Just see how much more aged he looks in 1945 compared to 1941!

Where is the hood of the Spit? Did they fly capriolet?