War hero imposters…..are they in the UK also?

Not Pierre the Faamoose Feeeter Pilllot from Flying Legends?

Now you’ve done it. Please don’t encourage him, once was enough.

Tragically yes, Steve.

Now keep it to yourself.

PS, I wonder if Pierre ever really was a feeeter peeelot? (Steve and Kighters will get that, the rest of you ask when you see me)

Burning brandy got something to do with it…? 😉

Then there’s the other side of things, the guys who DID do their jobs and had something to be proud of, who have now turned jelly-brain, and forgotten the lot. My grandfather was ground crew in Bomber Command, working on Wellingtons, Stirlings and Lancasters, all with 149 Sqdn. Listen to what’s left of him talk now though, and he swears that he piloted Halifaxes.

Sad.

It certainly is sad that so much first hand knowledge and experience goes undocumented for whatever reason.

I had a great uncle who died about 5 months ago, he was a navigator on Wellingtons and Lancasters throughout the war and was forced to bail-out on at least two occassions. His experiences very nearly destroyed him before the war was even over and my mother recalls reading his log books as a child. She says that by the later stages of the war his previously neat handwriting had deteriorated to the point where it was unrecognisable as his and was almost illegible. He won a DFC but, such was his mental state by then, that he threw it in the fire when he got home from collecting it and it was only just rescued in time by his mother.

I suppose my point in telling this is prompted by Dan Johnson who said…

Seems to me the first clue is the willingness of the person to tell the stories. Most if not all of the vets I’ve met are quiet and humble men who don’t go out of their way to talk about their wartime experience.

…and I think that’s absolutely true. To this day we don’t really know if there was anything specific that so badly affected my great-uncle or whether it was the general stress of the whole situation that ground him down, but either way it’s perfectly understandable that these people often prefer to keep things to themselves.

I liaised with a chap from Australia who claimed to have been a Whirlwind pilot with 137 Sqn, he also claimed to have flown CAM Hurricanes and Tempests on operations during WW2.

He wrote a book about his supposed experiences supported with photographs. However when you look closer at the photos they are obviously doctored, he also doesn’t appear in any of the ORB’s of the units that he claimed to have flown with.

In the end it turned out that he was a fraud and the publishers withdrew the book, though it is still possible to get copies. He now claims that he wrote the book as a tribute to the airmen and not as a historical document.

Not Pierre the Faamoose Feeeter Pilllot from Flying Legends?

PS, I wonder if Pierre ever really was a feeeter peeelot? (Steve and Kighters will get that, the rest of you ask when you see me)

Oh god. Flashback.

Don’t dare ask him folks….

Then there’s the other side of things, the guys who DID do their jobs and had something to be proud of, who have now turned jelly-brain, and forgotten the lot. My grandfather was ground crew in Bomber Command, working on Wellingtons, Stirlings and Lancasters, all with 149 Sqdn. Listen to what’s left of him talk now though, and he swears that he piloted Halifaxes.

Sad.

[QUOTE=skypilot62]

Now that you mention it, I did meet this strange fellow in England who claimed to be a famous Rearwin Cloudster pilot…what’d ya think?

Sure he wasn’t just a rear gunner? 😉 😀

Are you sure that isn’t a Euphamism?

I heard about that guy with the Cloudster. You can’t trust them you know. He’s the sort of person that would paint it red.

Melv

PS, I wonder if Pierre ever really was a feeeter peeelot? (Steve and Kighters will get that, the rest of you ask when you see me)

[QUOTE=srpatterson]Now that you mention it, I did meet this strange fellow in England who claimed to be a famous Rearwin Cloudster pilot…what’d ya think?

Sure he wasn’t just a rear gunner? 😉 😀

Now that you mention it, I did meet this strange fellow in England who claimed to be a famous Rearwin Cloudster pilot…what’d ya think?

Naw…who’d be silly enough to brag about that 😀

There are a few guys in the warbird game with “questionable” pedigree and references. Test Pilots comes up every now and again, as do transport guys turning into fighter pilots. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does it’s usually not too hard to sort out the horses from the horsesh*t.

Melvyn,

How can you not like Balkalva,I just made three trays of it today for the restraunt. :p

I always imagined you’d look good in black. 😀 😀 😀 😀

I just had to leave, I was allergic to the balaclavas.

MH

Good in Black..

I always imagined you’d look good in black. 😀 😀 😀 😀

I remember hearing a well-known WW1 researcher telling how a famous WW1 pilot’s victory tally would grow with each telling.

Of course this does not apply to me as I have been retired ever since I single-handedly ended the Iranian Embassy siege in 1980.

Melv

Seems to me the first clue is the willingness of the person to tell the stories. Most if not all of the vets I’ve met are quiet and humble men who don’t go out of their way to talk about their wartime experience.

You’re absolutely right about that Dan. In my case upon reflexion, I think my ‘possible imposter’ failed that test too.

Cheers
Dave

Ref “There I was -upside down with nothing on the clock” the army uses something similar i.e. ” pull up a sandbag and swing that lantern”

Seems to me the first clue is the willingness of the person to tell the stories. Most if not all of the vets I’ve met are quiet and humble men who don’t go out of their way to talk about their wartime experience.

It’s usually after being able to let them know that you have a bit of a clue yourself that you might get them talking a bit, and even then I’ve yet to find any that want to tell ‘war stories’. It’s usually about the people they served with, the good times they had away from combat etc.

I remember getting the chance to meet a Medal of Honor winner at an airshow one time. He was walking near the flight line and I took a second to thank him for what he’d done. He then thanked me for being interested.

It felt strange that he would think to say that but he was clearly a humble man who felt like he’d done his job and didn’t expect any recognition for it.

Dan

Yeah we get em here also 🙁

One example- and is priceless, was a guy saying how he was Peter Radcliffe, the RSM of the SAS, to Peters face personally :rolleyes:(. Its documented in his auto biography

Dave,
A good example of why proper thought-out research is important; and examples of how to ‘test’ stories.

Interesting, heads up folks.

Thanks for sharing.