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IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey Famous title comes to consoles.

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Old 09-01-2010, 09:38 AM
McQ59 McQ59 is offline
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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.
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Old 09-01-2010, 04:59 PM
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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.
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Old 09-05-2010, 07:15 PM
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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.
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Old 09-05-2010, 07:44 PM
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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
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Old 09-06-2010, 07:30 PM
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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/datab...er-7-1940#data
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Old 09-07-2010, 01:11 AM
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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.
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Old 09-07-2010, 08:15 AM
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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
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Old 09-07-2010, 07:15 PM
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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.
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Old 09-07-2010, 07:44 PM
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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
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Old 09-07-2010, 10:27 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Soviet Ace View Post
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.
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!!
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