Adrian Warburton

Just watched it off tape.

Really good, interesting and balanced programme. Might not have been totally accurate in all its facts, and certainly wasn’t in the film used, but engrossing nevertheless.

dhfan. PM me with your address and I’ll mail you the tape in a week or two. I’d like it back though, it’s one to keep.

Moggy

I wouldn’t necessarily agree about Warby being well-liked by his contemporaries.
Just re-reading a couple of books about Malta during WW2.
Seems that neither Laddie Lucas or Harry Coldbeck (who took over PR duties after Warburton) had a great deal of time for him.

Meant to watch the prog Friday night but got delayed by some ale. I’ll have to wait for a repeat.

Bit of a double edged sword!! The people who cannot tell the difference usually don’t care what aircraft they are looking at and the people who do don’t usually mind seeing something different
to the usual library film i.e Allison Mustangs!

At a guess,I’d say the Warby’s lack of lasting fame was due to him being A) based overseas most of the time and B) being a recce pilot,rather than being a fighter or bomber boy.No matter what the character of a pilot,he rarely made his name if he didn’t go in all guns blazing etc.Despite the dangers,Recce pilots have never really recieved the credit they deserve,they ‘only’ took pictures afterall.
As for the pictures of Hurri’s whilst talking about Spits etc,it seems to be the norm to show pictures of just about anything with a single engine and roundals on it when talking about Spits-they even managed to sneak in some footage of an Allison-engined Mustang yesterday!

It was probably down to the propaganda boys during the war who needed action heros. I imagine they felt it better to recount tales of daring do at 30 feet than droning along at 30,000 ft. It probably didn’t capture the publics imagination as much then.

I missed the first 10 minutes but have one small criticism and one question.

Question – Warburton was obviously well known at the time, well decorated and was apparently well like by those associated with him, so why is it that he is relatively unknown now, unlike Lacey, Gibson, Bader, Tuck, Cheshire, etc…and I have to admit that until the annoucement was made last year, that his aircraft may have found, I certainly had never heard of him.

Criticism – Why is it that when the programme makers (and this is not just those involved with this programme) mentioned that the Spitfire was to become Warburton’s favourite aircraft, did they switch to a shot of a Hurricane in flight?????

But this is only a small criticism to an otherwise very informative programme.

I saw the prog and thought it was good too.It’s nice to see them hiring an actor for the reconstructions who looks like the guy in question,they often seem to pick any old bod to play the part,but the chap who played Warburton tonight looked the spitting image of him!
There was an interesting article in last month’s A*roplane about what might’ve have happenned to the bulk of Warburton’s remains immediately after the crash.Apparently his body was removed from the wreck at the time,and buried in the local churchyard. Unfortunately,they could find nothing which identified him,so he was buried anonymously.Having crashed in a P38,he was presumed to be American,so when his remains were exhumed for proper burial,he was most probably re-buried as an unknown American airman.

It was a really enjoyable documentary which gave a good insight
into the man behind the medals. The CGI was okay – we don’t have a Maryland to look at so it’s probably the best we will ever get. All in all a fitting tribute to a man who left before his time.

Very well done, I thought..some nice archive film, not the usual stuff and an insight into aviation archaelogy. Good stuff.

Interesting programme – not too keen on the computer generated sequences though, but I expect it was cheaper than using a real P-38!