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Tizer
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21/12/2007
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11:56
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I have uploaded my first picture to the Barlick site I hope to be able to add it in this thread if/when it gets approval from Doc. It is a postcard from the 1940s entitled Winged Heroes and showing Hawker Hurricanes. (The picture is in the next post if you are on page 1 of the thread; if you are on another page you need to go back tp page 1 to see it.)
Please feel free to add your own stories, pictures or comments regarding everything to do with aeroplanes and their pilots, both past and present.
Edited by - Tizer on 11/11/2010 15:11:42
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Another
Traycle Mine Overseer
6250 Posts
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Posted - 31/08/2010 : 16:01
thomo, whilst on holiday in Norfolk I had a good browse around what claims to be the the biggest model shop in the country, link is here. Click on plastic kits and get your fill of aircraft and other models.
http://www.spmodels.co.uk/index.html Nolic
" I'm a self made man who worships his creator"   |
panbiker
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Posted - 31/08/2010 : 18:05
Thomo, you're welcome, as Wallace says "It was a grand day out". A privilege to be allowed up close.
The Lancaster has been re-fitted with it's ammunition feed rails for the rear gun turret. One down each side of the fuselage which feed the four guns in the tail from a large magazine in the centre of the fuselage. The front and upper turrets were fed independently. The front turret was rarely used as most attacks came from below and behind. Top turret was used to catch the fighters on the overshoot. Front turret got in the way of the bombadier but could obviously be used if needed. Tail End Charlie had to endure down to -40c and probably had the most stressfull job in the team, demanding absolute alertness as he was usually the first to get hit. Heated flightsuit and on your own apart from the RT, lonely job.
Tizer, clipped wingtips are indeed for manouverabilty, less air resistance in the roll, faster response. A lot of the aircraft assigned to ground attack roles would have clipped wings.
Edited by - panbiker on 31/08/2010 18:44:47
Ian |
Tizer
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Posted - 31/08/2010 : 20:19
Thomo, I'll look forward to the story, wherever you put it!
Ian, my dad recalls how the tail gunners would sometimes test their guns as the plane started to move ready for take-off. They would fire into the grass but he remembers one of them firing just as the pilot touched the rudder and he ended up strafing the toilet block. Pure luck no-one was in there at the time.
Edited by - Tizer on 31/08/2010 20:23:50
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 01/09/2010 : 16:45
My old mate Bob Jacobsen was a Tail End Charlie on B17s, 33 missions, a miracle. His squadron was almost wiled out on one raid and they were going to disband it because the theory was that once you got past a certain level of losses morale was completely destroyed. They protested and persuaded the powers that be to bring them back up to strength again. He told me some lovely but hair raising stories about the problems, things like his heated suit packing up on him and the turret jamming. Must have been the worst job in the world. He's be 19 years old at the time.....
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
panbiker
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Posted - 01/09/2010 : 17:13
The age of the crewmembers is something that is often overlooked. In bomber crews 25 was considered an old man! In the documentaries on TV now we always see the protagonists as they are now or were just a few years ago, aged men and women. I think, maybe because of some of the fashions of the day, people seemed to look a lot older than their actual age. Always the same, wars are generally started by old men and fought by the young ones.
33 missions was going some, did'nt the USAAF crews get to rotate home after 25, thinking Memphis Belle?
Ian |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 02/09/2010 : 04:56
You're right Ian on both counts. When my American students complained because I was working them too hard I used to tell them to go down to Bob's shop in Northfield and ask him what he was doing when he was their age. They were astounded when I told them. I never got the full story of why he did so many, I have an idea that it was something to do with the big losses the 100th Bomber Group were experiencing. They kept the experienced crews on and I have the certificate that his mates gave him after 33 missions. I'll post it for you.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 02/09/2010 : 05:03
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
tripps
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Posted - 03/09/2010 : 20:07
Our local paper says that the imperial War Museum at Duxford (just up the road) are having a two day show this weekend with The Red Arrows, their French equivalents Patrouille de France, and twenty Spitfires and Hurricanes. Sounds like quite a do.
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Tizer
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Posted - 04/09/2010 : 10:30
That reminds me, I was reading about old aircraft last night, the 1931 air pageant which I think was at Hendon where two Gloster Gamecock biplanes gave an amazing aerobatic display. One pilot's name meant nothing to me but the other was Pilot Officer Douglas Bader in his younger days. At another Hendon pageant (1930?) a squadron of Siskin biplane fighters took of and flew in formation whilst linked together by cables!
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 05/09/2010 : 07:00
Incredible and stupid!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
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Posted - 05/09/2010 : 16:51
I found some recent photos of buildings at what was once RAF Manby in Lincolnshire so printed copies and showed them to my dad. He joined the RAF in 1938, did his initial training at Padgate (Warrington) then was sent to 1st Air Armament School at the new Manby site. He has particular reason to remember Manby because he was standing looking out of one of the windows of this barracks when Chamberlain announced Britain's declaration of war against Germany at 11.15am on 3rd September 1939. He also remembers Manby for the lines of obsolete biplane bombers on the airfield. The world had changed dramatically in a few years.
Edited by - Tizer on 05/09/2010 16:54:01
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tripps
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Posted - 05/09/2010 : 20:21
Duxford "Sounds like quite a do".
In fact so many turned up today that roads were blocked, and they had to close the car park. Many of the eleven thousand people who had paid for tickets were unable to get in.
I only mentoned it in passing - I didn't mean you all had to go
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 06/09/2010 : 06:16
Trust the Brylcreem Boys to get modern barracks. The PBI were still in Victorian buildings in the 50s. We got Luftwaffe barracks at Gatow in Berlin and they were luxurious!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
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Posted - 09/09/2010 : 20:30
Mrs Tiz has just pointed out to me this interesting book available new on Amazon for £3.88 (inc. delivery) - I'll be buying a a copy tomorrow!
`Aircraft Recognition: A Penguin Special' [Paperback] R.A. Saville-Sneath (Author). A reprint of the 1941 book.
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panbiker
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Posted - 30/10/2010 : 11:23
This post is prompted by a comment in Thomo's Aviation thread about Bomber Command and the potential cross use of Aircraft in WWII. I will post here rather than in the other thread as it is more in keeping here:
When the yanks were developing the A bomb they realised that the new weopons were a tad on the large size and would require a large payload aircraft to deliver to target. The only aircraft at the time of carrying such a payload was the Avro Lancaster which could carry loads up to 22,000 lbs and had the most versatile and capacious bomb bay in service at the time. The USAAF High Command baulked at the offer from Bomber Command to supply the nescessary hardware saying that American developed technology would be delivered by an American designed aircraft or not at all. They then instigated a huge modification contract codenamed SILVERPLATE to convert the Boeing B29 which was the largest bomber that the yanks had to make it capable of carrying the 10,000 lb atomic weapons. A total of 32 modified SILVERPLATE B29's were produced to enable test drops of inert dummy bombs in various remote desert locations in Utah and eventually deliver the ordnance to target. More were produced after the end of the war. The engines had to be upgraded and huge modifications made to the airframes and payload bays, some of the gun platforms were stripped to conserve weight. The insistence of using an Ameriacn designed aircraft delayed the final deployment date. The engineers on the Manhattan project could have produced theatre ready weapons earlier if the delivery platform had been available. Roy Chadwick was flown to the US to advise on the modifications as he already had all the experience having done it with the Lancaster which was a ready made platform but refused point blank by the USAAF High Command. Makes you wonder that if they had used the Lancaster as offered, could the war in the Pacific theatre have been ended earlier?
Edited by - panbiker on 30/10/2010 12:27:20
Ian |
Winged Heroes
