Battle of Britain – Children and a Parachute

Great these pictures, staged I think has as been said, but still interesting. I must say though with our pc brigade nowadays those innocent photo,s would never get published.

Funny you should say that, Sideslip…..! 😉

The ‘injured’ scenario was only a suggestion, Paul. No indication of that on the original caption.

Meanwhile, to avoid any suggestion of bias, here are the day’s ‘bag’ of German parachutes laid out for inspection on 11 September 1940 (or thereabouts!)

Apparently the chap on the left wanted to wear a frock but the Sergeant said no. And stamped his foot!!!

Of course it is quite possible that the children in the pictures are still alive, would it be possible to track them down by having the pictures printed in newspapers?

Yes, that is certainly true Paul.

I know injured is suggestion, but that might explain why parachute left….

The ‘injured’ scenario was only a suggestion, Paul. No indication of that on the original caption.

Meanwhile, to avoid any suggestion of bias, here are the day’s ‘bag’ of German parachutes laid out for inspection on 11 September 1940 (or thereabouts!)

Hurricane bale outs Sept 5th 1940 (if it was a Hurricane and not a Spitfire)

Hurricane P2985 303 Sqn P/O Waclaw Lapkowski baled out with broken leg and burned landed at Hawkwell, near Rochford essex.
Aircraft crashed at Bonvills Farm, North Benfleet, Essex

Hurricane P3110 73 Sqn P/O Robert Durham Rutter baled out, aircraft crashed Steels Farm, Seamans Lane, West Hanningfield, Essex

Hurricane P3110 73 Sqn Flt/Lt Reginald Eric Lovett baled out White House Farm, North Fambridge, Essex

Hurricane V6625 249 Sqn Flt/Lt Robert Alexander Barton baled out over Shellhaven, Essex

Hurricane V6644 501 Sqn P/O Stanislaw Skalski baled out with severe burns aircraft crashed near Herne Bay, Kent

As only Lapkowski and Skalski appeared injured it may be one of those two

Only enemy aircraft were shot down. 😉

So clearly the pilot of the hypothetical Hurricane had jumped out for practice, and left the rest of the crew to land it safely. Maybe… 😀

Yes, exactly so SNAFU.

All we can say is that this episode was on or prior to 5 September. As a rule of thumb the dates on most of the Fox Photos images of the period actually carry a date that corresponds exactly with the date of the incident photographed. So, it could well actually be 5 September 1940.

And yes, I agree! Only enemy aircraft were shot down. 😉

I seem to recall that it hs the dte as September 15th, though press photo captions are not terriably accurate, why let the facts get in the way of a good story/

If I remember correctly anything that might assist the enemy would not be pictured or written about: journalists of the day became used to what they could and could not get away with. Therefore there would be lots of images of crashed German aircraft, and very few images of crashed RAF aircraft. By the time the photo had been given to the official censor and then passed by him it might be several days (or even weeks) later – dates on the back of original photos may refer to the pass date, the date the picture arrived back at the editors desk, the date it was published or the date it was filed in the library; for some reason the actual date it was taken was not important! Captions would be vague, not very often would even an approximate location be given (unless it was obvious) and only occasionally would names be provided.

Also, as has been pointed out, where is the photograph of the plane? If I were a press-photographer at a crash-site (near enough to salvage an immaculate propeller blade) then why wouldn’t I photograph the aircraft?

Bad for moral (see above). Anyway, our planes didn’t crash…;o)

I’m sure we’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, Brian! 😉

You need to get out more, Brian!! 🙂

It was Mrs F.A.’s observation – she studied Textiles at Uni and can’t quite seem to get over it!

You need to get out more, Brian!! 🙂

The girls frock – the fabric at the rear lower is at right angles to the main pattern. Was this a deliberate fashion from the time or a make do and mend?

Does anyone here know if the Irvin Caterpillar Panels at Letchworth where transferred to Wales ??

Text upside-down…..Australian parachute! 🙂

I’ll get my coat…

Could the nationallity of the pilot be determined by the parachute?

Aeronut it is a British parachute, the text on the “bash box” is in English. When I first got my print I thought it might have been German until I relaised I was trying to read it upside down as the text is orinentated to be read by the wearer of the harness so is upside down to the viewer!

Could the nationallity of the pilot be determined by the parachute? I only ask because several yaers ago I visited the Irvin factory at Letchworth and noted the wooden panelling with all the names and dates of teh Caterpillar club members. What struck me at the time was the number of Luftwaffe members during 1939 -40. Presumably during the pre-war years Irvins had sold the Luftwaffe parachutes of essentially the same design as bought by the RAF, and having used the Irvin parachute these German were eligable for the club membership.

Andy,
do you have an origianl print of the second image you posted? I have not seen that one before and it would be nice to get a good scan of it to have printed to frame next to my orignal of the first image, as it is an image I have always liked from the Battle of Britain period.

I think you could be correct in saying that the first was not used at the time as I have never seen it anywhere else before until this thread. Though I do have two period prints of it from different press agencies, and presumably your copy is an original period print as well? I wonder how many prints would have been in circulation at the time?