Spitfire ace Ch 4 21 00 tonight REMINDER

I’ve had a quick glance through the book of the series, naturally following up the index references to ‘guns’ 🙂 I have to say I was disappointed by the errors, especially since I’d provided them with information and references (at their request) which they evidently decided not to use.

One of the German pilots is quoted referring to the fact that the 109s had ‘3 cm cannon’, whereas they were of course 2 cm during the BoB. One cannot blame the old pilot for a slip of memory, but the editor should have caught it.

There is also some seriously confused information about the .303 ammo used, the story they tell being (IIRC) that the guns used to be loaded with AP and tracer until they contracted with the ‘Belgian De Wilde Company’ for ammo which did both, the implication being that that’s what was used in the BoB. In fact, the ‘De Wilde’ incendiary was heavily modified in the UK from the Belgian’s original design (which didn’t work at all well) and the name was only kept for security reasons. Nor was it the only one used: this extract is from ‘Flying Guns: World War 2’:

“The RAF fighters armed with eight .303” guns differed from the usual practice by loading each gun with only one type of ammunition. During the Battle of Britain in 1940, the reported use was three guns loaded with ball, two with AP, two with Mk IV incendiary tracer and one with Mk VI incendiary (the “De Wilde”). It is not clear why the Mk VI was used so little or why ball was used at all; possibly there was a shortage of the more effective loadings.”

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and Discussion forum

Me?

I’m loving every minute of it. 🙂

Moggy

i’d write a strongly worded letter if i were you!! 😀

When i was 17- not that long ago (Crumbs..yes it was! 10 years!) i couldn’t keep a one litre Fiesta on the road, let alone a V12 Spitfire in the Sky! 😉

I understand the dissapointment expressed here, with ‘Spitfire Ace’ I almost posted something similar on Monday when after watching the programme i realised that its really a Battle of Britain Documentary… a very good one at that!

I support channnel 4 in going with this programme and will be writing to them once the series is finished. The bl**dy BBC would never show a programme like this because it doesn’t involve’celebrities’ and no one gets voted off!!!!

Nice one Channel 4

🙂

It certainly is (done it – 500 up 🙂 )

Geoff.

Originally posted by von Perthes
A bit off topic, but ‘First Light’ is available as an audio book, though NOT read by Geoffrey Wellum, which is a great shame.

Wonder if there are any other Aviation autobiographical audiobooks which ARE read by the author?

Geoff.

And damn good the book is, too!

A bit off topic, but ‘First Light’ is available as an audio book, though NOT read by Geoffrey Wellum, which is a great shame.

Wonder if there are any other Aviation autobiographical audiobooks which ARE read by the author?

Geoff.

But how would they do that? There’s no two-seater Hurricanes flying!

Unless, I suppose, they had a bunch of veterans talking about their experiences, but it wouldn’t be able to stretch as much as this one.

As I said in the post programme chat on the C4 website, a similar programme based on Hurricane’s would be a great idea.

For me this series is brilliant, it has a mix of everything, all the ingredients are there and I hope to see the icing on top of the cake next week.

I cannot fault the photography, the content or the narration (apart from the talkover of credits in the 1st episode!). If you are reading this little missive Channel 4 let us have more of the same P-Lease………………

I also wish to see more of the current pilot learning to fly the Spitfire, especially the aerobatic phase next week.

A good BofB documentary but I’m a little disappointed that its not totally as advertised.

Neal

Bob Doe book – Fighter Pilot

I just got Bob Doe’s book “Fighter Pilot” today, and as they didn’t have any unsigned copies left, I got a signed copy at no extra cost 🙂 Not the first time I’ve had a limited edition book for less! 😀

Currently reading “First Light” by Geoff Wellum, too.

Chuffed Daz 😉

I was also a little disappointed in the lack of footage of the formation flying training, maybe it just wasn’t a good day for filming, and there wasn’t much more.
There is a post from Carolyn on the ML407 website board about the aim of the series being to tell the veteran’s story, with ML407 being there to enhance their words. Seems like a change of emphasis to me.
Still enjoying it very much though!

I agree with both Lancman & Damien.

It’s a great documentary about the BoB but falls short of what it claims to be about. :confused:

Pearl Harbour syndrome I think they call it. 😉

When it was first advertised, I wondered how they were going to stretch it to four, hour-long episodes based on the title. I think we can all see how this has been achieved.

Last nights episode was again great in terms of telling the story of a very important moment in history but very poor at telling us what it is like for a low houred civililian pilot to fly a Spitfire. 🙁

The navigation exercise looked like anything but (I’m sure it wasn’t) and the formation flying sequence didn’t really tell us much either. I don’t know about you, but I got fed up with seeing the same shot again and again during this part. Surely with the amount of cameras they had and the amount of footage they must have shot they could have made the aerial sequences far more interesting.

I think it would have been far better to have had the first two or three programmes telling the story of the BoB with all the interviews etc as a build up to the four pilots training and progress which would be covered in far more detail in the remaining episodes. That way it might have been far less disjointed and confusing than it is now.

Or maybe they should have forgot the “Spitfire Ace” title and called it “The Battle Of Britain – The Truth”.

Just my 2 penny’s worth!

Cheers

Paul

I agree with Damien that the show has moved away from what it was being touted as-the first episode was heavy on the modern day pilots flying in the Spit stuff, but since then, it’s moved on to become an astonishingly good BofB documentary, one that’s not all packed into 50 minutes, but rather, one that is taking it’s time to really explain things over a few weeks.

The Dams one was good, but ultimately, they modern RAF crew were sat in a plywood thing that we could all build, playing with software that we can all buy from PC World if we want!

One for anyone who has the book to go with the series, is there any mention of our museum in it (text or credits), and has any of the interview with Frank Nutkins, our curator’s father, which was dropped from the series, been included in the book?

Geoff.

I’m fairly sure I recognised a couple of engines from our museum on last night’s prog, a Merlin from a Hurricane and one of the Jumo from a Ju88. No credit at the end though:mad:

I’ve just started listening to the ‘Spitfire Ace’ audiobook, which is quite good so far, except that they’ve used a couple of actors to speak the comments made by the actual veterans in the prog. Shame they couldn’t have used the soundtrack from the prog, so we could hear the people themselves, rather than actors trying to sound like them.

Geoff.

Spitfire Ace

I’m getting the whole lot on tape for a mate – I’m sure that once he has watched it, if anyone still wants to see it, something can be arranged!

Andy

It’s turning out to be an excellent series. I must admit I prefer the WW2 footage, the commentary from the historians and the interviews with surviving BoB pilots from both sides. The original purpose of the series, to give current pilots the chance of flying the Spitfire, is for me the least interesting bit!

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and Discussion forum

I did forget it 🙁