Following on from Mike J’s excellent thread about the Hawker Nimrod, I thought you might like to be aware of this. It is showing tonight on Sky Cinema 2 (73 mins) and is a “docudrama” made in 1939 (essentially a rushed out propoganda film) about the RAF starring Ralph Richardson and Merle Oberon. A bit staid, I guess and “rose-tinted” in outlook, the salient point is that it contains many newsreel clips of the pre-war RAF and Hendon displays with some lovely shots of Furies, Bulldogs, Wellesleys, Wellingtons etc and certainly worth a look IMHO, if you have an interest in this period of RAF history.
By: Geoff K - 20th July 2005 at 21:26
Geoff,
wasn’t the battle given it’s name for the type of deposit found in Barking Creek rather than a strict geographical location?
Cheers
Andy
From ‘The Blitz, then & now – Vol 1’ re Barking Creek
‘….this is the name used by Londoners to describe the place where the Northern Outfall Sewer and the River Rodding meet the Thames,…’ 😀
Geoff in Kent
By: Andy in Beds - 20th July 2005 at 18:07
The scenes you’re thinking of were filmed on the afternoon of the 6th September, and featured ‘B’ flight of No 74 Sqn; the infamous ‘battle’ which had taken place in the morning having involved ‘A’ flight.
There is also a scene which captured Wellingtons returning on the 4th September from the first offensive RAF operation of the war.
The RAF is also shown intercepting a raid – at the same spot the ‘Battle of Barking Creek’ took place, whilst another shot shows battle damage to a Spitfire, almost certainly caused by ‘friendly’ AA fire during the ‘battle’.
BTW Barking Creek is 20 miles from where the first interception took place and 50 miles from where the two Hurricanes came down.
Geoff.
Geoff,
wasn’t the battle given it’s name for the type of deposit found in Barking Creek rather than a strict geographical location?
Cheers
Andy
By: Geoff K - 20th July 2005 at 17:50
From memory, doesn’t this contain footage of the airmen and aircraft involved in the infamous “Battle of Barking Creek” – possibly even the scramble that led to the incident? Or was the film made before September ’39?
Adrian
The scenes you’re thinking of were filmed on the afternoon of the 6th September, and featured ‘B’ flight of No 74 Sqn; the infamous ‘battle’ which had taken place in the morning having involved ‘A’ flight.
There is also a scene which captured Wellingtons returning on the 4th September from the first offensive RAF operation of the war.
The RAF is also shown intercepting a raid – at the same spot the ‘Battle of Barking Creek’ took place, whilst another shot shows battle damage to a Spitfire, almost certainly caused by ‘friendly’ AA fire during the ‘battle’.
BTW Barking Creek is 20 miles from where the first interception took place and 50 miles from where the two Hurricanes came down.
Geoff.
By: DazDaMan - 20th July 2005 at 15:48
Not sure, but it does have some Spits in it! 😀
By: adrian_gray - 20th July 2005 at 14:57
From memory, doesn’t this contain footage of the airmen and aircraft involved in the infamous “Battle of Barking Creek” – possibly even the scramble that led to the incident? Or was the film made before September ’39?
Adrian
By: Moggy C - 20th July 2005 at 14:01
Ah yes.
You’ll be begging for CGI by the time you get to the end of this one.
Still worth a couple of hours though.
Moggy
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July 20, 2005 at 1:35 pm