National Geo "Spitfire"

[CINDERS]

Just watched on Bigpond Movies a doco on the Spitfire a fairly recent one there are some superb air to air shots of this magnificent aircraft because thats what it was.
You may argue with validity about the P-51 which was a junket until it got the Merlin or the P-38 which the british tried without supercharged Allison engines and gave them back.
A side note is an aeronautical designer went to Germany and was employed by the Luftwaffe returning to England in 1933 and ended up working for Mitchell.
Funny thing is the double eliptical wing of the aircraft was not new idea, a German designer came up with it around the time of WWI, they seem to think maybe this designer who came back to Mitchell was a spy from Britain!

The thing is when Britain stood alone and she truly was in those darkest of days apart from aircrew coming from her dominions the situation was most dire.
Infact some of the surviving pilots from the battle of britain said if Hitler had crossed the channel England was finished.
The candor of these veterans and pictures of them in their youth fighting a most terrible war has to be seen some were only 18 years of age hardly lived and are sent out to kill or be killed.

There is some touching moments etched into their faces you can tell when they recount certain facts but always underplayed their part in the Battle of Britain or Malta.
A very last touching point is where one of the ATA women signed a Spitfire in 1944 the last one she flew (She flew 400 Spitfires and a total 1000 aircraft during the war)
Any way the private owner has her spifire that she signed it never went to war so bore her signature to this day, they re-united her with the plane she watched it fly in & land.
It was a really a moving moment for her and well in general the owner asked her if she would sign the aircraft again which she did she was only a few month shy of a 100 y/o.

The have a gem of a Spifire in Britain the only surviving one from the Battle of Britain it is so very precious to the flight as it is irreplaceable.
One of the pilots on the end of the doco said"The generation before us had a war, our generation had a war and the next generations went through war."
We have to find a solution!

I have seen allot of docos on the Spitfire as not only a mark of respect to its designer but to those that flew them and worked on them.
But mainly because my father was a LAC Engine Fitter in the RAAF 1941 to 1945 and worked on them as well, I still have his books from his courses.
Its worth the watch just for the airshots of that plane in flight.
Cheers.

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[30Three]

Thanks for the info Cinders. The Spitfire is my personal favourite; closely followed by the Mosquito, Hurricane and Lancaster. The sound of the merlin engine is probably the most fabulous mechanical noise ever!

[BEAR]

I know very few of you will believe this but in 1966 I was attending the American High School in Bushey, London. I had to stay late because my older brother played football and he was my ride home to Harpenden. While I was doing homework in one of the empty classrooms I heard an aircraft approaching. My first thought was "That's a Spitfire!". When I ran outside there in the evening sunshine was this "glorious Spit" flying low and slow over the school. After watching him disappear over the trees I suddenly thought "How do I know what a Spitfire sounds like?" I had never seen one in flight or heard its engine.
So now I think I am a reincarnated Spit pilot
By the way some years later I found out that they were filming The Battle of Britain during this time.

[Bob Womack]

My adventurous uncle ran across the border to Canada and joined the RCAF as England found herself with her back against the wall before the Battle of Britain. He trained to be a pilot, transitioned to fighters, was posted to RAF Hawarden in Wales where he transitioned into the Spitfire. As he finished training he petitioned to be assigned to the Eagle Squadrons that were populated by Americans. He was killed in a training accident on July 1, 1941. I came across the Battle of Britain Mk.I Spitfire mentioned above, K9942, which now resides at RAF Cosford. I found its logbook posted online. It turns out that it was assigned to my uncle's Operational Training Unit and station while he was training. The OTUs were furnished with either "caned out" planes that had been overstressed or damaged planes that had been repaired but weren't considered battle-worthy. We've got uncle Harry's logbook. Spitfire K9942 doesn't appear in it, but it is nice to know that it was there on the flight line and he walked by it, and probably lusted after it like the rest of us.








Bob

[25-5]

After Cinders post last night I was able to watch the doc on Amazon Prime. I enjoyed every second and will watch it again. Loved the aerials.
Young heroes died almost in front of their families. Those few months saved the world from Herr Hitler.

[CINDERS]

There was another doco on Bomber Command its an old one it goes through the groups training in Canada before going to England multinational side of things but also interviews at that time crews from the various planes like the Whitley, Wellington, Lancaster and so on and like one pilot said in a fighter you can funk it and no one will know you did but you cannot funk it in a Bomber because of the six other crewmates with you.
At the OTU's the attrtition rate from my foggy old brain I think was in the region of 46% being killed before they qualified sometimes higher so it was more dangerous to learn their operational trade than doing the actual 30 missions the RAAF had to do for a tour of duty.
In one scene that is so tragic its a Lancaster in a vertical dive going behind some trees and the ominous black cloud of smoke and flames erupts from behind them people start running I gues out of instinct but must have known all aboard the craft must have died......

[Gil Boyd]

Bob,
Looks like he came up through the ranks the hard way like my dad. How did he finish up?

[CINDERS]

From Post #4 Gil "He was killed in a training accident on July 1, 1941"

[Gil Boyd]

Appreciate that, but no mention of his rank or indication on his service dress, was interested, because the hardest climb to becoming a pilot was through the ranks, the same in WW1 with the RFC, "not what you knew, but who you knew" was very much in the times of the day, it also helped if you had a dog...................so you now know what I meant. My Dads rise was a nightmare.........he was Irish and often punched toffee nosed idiots out of squadrons, he was always joined in the cells he told me with Canadians and Aussie pilots who found the arrogance too much to bear when all they wanted to do was kill Germans!!!!!!!

[CINDERS]

The was as much a "Class System" in England as there was in India though it was thinly vieled as Aristocracy I am not sure who coined the phrase "Glamour Boys" as I am positive 99% of those enlisting to be trained as fighter as pilots were there to fight the Hun as their fore-fathers did and the 1% were there for the ladies and what status a Pilots Wings would give them as L/O's to the girls!