By: SimonK - 26th February 2002 at 21:09
RE: 60th Anniversary?
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 26-02-02 AT 09:10 PM (GMT)]Ashley nearly got it.
22nd February 1942 Air Marshall Arthur Harris took over Bomber Command
The Bomber Command are having an anniversary year this year. No single year for Bomber Command of course they fought from the start to the finish.
I know about the service in St Pauls, is there anything else happening?
Simon
By: Moggy C - 26th February 2002 at 13:27
RE: 60th Anniversary?
Just to enlarge on the original posting
On the night of the 3/4th March 1942 four Avro Lancasters of 44 Squadron set off on the first combat mission for the type.
This was ‘gardening’, the dropping of sea mines, an unglamorous, but vital task.
They carried out their mission off the N German coast and all four aircraft returned to base safely.
Truly “The first of many”
Moggy
By: Rabie - 26th February 2002 at 13:16
RE: 60th Anniversary?
well no offence but it isn’t the most majopr event of the war for us lot, i suspose it ti for you as its the first time you’ve been attacked.
rabie :9
By: Ja Worsley - 26th February 2002 at 09:31
RE: 60th Anniversary?
How about the 60th anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin, or don’t you people in the Northern Hemisphere worry about us down here? Mind you this was two weeks ago now!
Fighter pilots make movies, Bomber pilots make history and Nerds make money from the sims!
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By: Bob - 26th February 2002 at 07:54
RE: 60th Anniversary?
So, it should really be ‘Ashley – the SR71 fluffer’…………
:7
By: Rabie - 25th February 2002 at 23:13
RE: 60th Anniversary?
so it was here -move in men ! }> }> }>
rabie :9
By: Ashley - 25th February 2002 at 21:15
RE: 60th Anniversary?
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 25-02-02 AT 09:16 PM (GMT)]I am no longer a museum assistant at Duxford, having moved “over the road” to work for the Film and Video Archive instead…this means I no longer get to polish the aircraft…something I miss very much :(…
Hopefully no one else from Duxford comes here often so I’ll tell you all a little story…one day last summer, I was on cleaning duties for the day and was put in charge of cleaning the aircraft in Hanger 1…now the Blackbird had not long been at Duxford so I hadn’t cleaned her before…I wasn’t quite sure whether I was supposed to or not so I checked the list of aircraft to be cleaned, and yes, she was on the list…so I picked up my big fluffy aircraft duster and started dusting away…
What I wasn’t bargaining for was that the surface of the Blackbird on her nose (which was too high up for me to see the top of) is slightly rough…a bit like sandpaper…and very attractive to big fluffy sticks…
Yes…you’ve guessed it…I had created the first fluffy SR-71…a cross between a mean fighting machine and an angora jumper…
Needless to say, Ashley the Spitfire polisher nearly wet her pants on the spot…
Fortunately the fluff came off quite easily and there was no harm done…but I’ve not been near her since…~squeaks~
By: Arabella-Cox - 25th February 2002 at 18:45
RE: 60th Anniversary?
Phil, I second that. Commercial Manager for an IT Distributor, but would willingly give it all up to restore Beaufighters full time…
By: philo - 25th February 2002 at 18:38
RE: 60th Anniversary?
“just a Spitfire polisher”………UMMM nice work if you can get it.
I ‘just’ work as technical support within the marketing office of a very successful high tech medical engineering company, dealing with customer organisation across the globe, but i know which i’d rather do (for the correct salary of course!!!), no , sod it, i’d polish Spitfires for nothing!!.
Phil ( as ever, envious of Ashley)
By: Ashley - 25th February 2002 at 14:06
RE: 60th Anniversary?
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 25-02-02 AT 02:06 PM (GMT)]Moggy…hey I’m not a professional…just a simple Spitfire polisher 😉
By: Moggy C - 25th February 2002 at 13:52
RE: 60th Anniversary?
Hmmm,
As a brain teaser that was a bit of a failure. You got the right general area
I haven’t got my reference with me, I will post the full details tomorrow, but this week sees the 60th anniversary of the very first Lancaster operation.
In the aftermath of the Channel Dash there was much mining done off the Frisian Islands. On one of these ops the Lancasters were given their first combat outing.
Well done Ashley – not sure if the comp was really open to professionals or not though.
Moggy
By: Ashley - 25th February 2002 at 13:47
RE: 60th Anniversary?
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 25-02-02 AT 01:49 PM (GMT)]Well…how about…
February 27th February 1942…Operation Biting…
C Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment,
under Major John D. Frost, drops that night on a German radar
station at Bruneval on the French coast. Among the paratroopers
is RAF Flight Sgt. W.C.H. Cox, whose mission is to dismantle
parts of the German Freya radar set and bring it home to Britain
for study. Evacuation is to be by sea.
The raid is a complete success. British losses are two,
German six, but Cox brings home key German radar components and a
radar operator for interrogation. The raid boosts British morale
and Frost’s career, as he goes on to lead 2nd
Battalion the Parachute Regiment at Primasole Bridge and Arnhem
Bridge, and retire a Major General.
(Adapted from http://www.usswashington.com/dl22fe42.htm)
Or…
March 3rd, 1942: RAF Bomber Command, under its new C-i-C, Air Vice Marshal Harris (Bomber Harris), attacks the Renault plant in the Paris suburb of Bilancourt, causing serious damage to production facilities and killing many French workers.
(Taken from http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html)
Or…
The first Lancaster offensive by No44 Squadron against Essen, 10th/11th March 1942…
Am I close at all? 🙂
(Probably a million miles off but I’ll give it a shot!)
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February 25, 2002 at 1:07 pm