WHO in Oz, Read last Sunday's Melbourne Herald Sun Sept 11 th

Kenoath it was Allan Mate!

And I will do it again, if I spot a good one again,

The ship’s a rocken and sinking now, sick as a HUMAN(I like DOG’S) so I must crash now ” Gut Nacht ” all far and WIDE!

And buggger it, I felt like starting the thread, and I DID think it was an important story for ALL to see!! 😮

Hello Stormbird

many thanks for both of the photos – and for starting the thread in the first place. It was an important story, and needed to be told to a wider audience.

cheers

Allan

Old Aussie flying Warrior’s meet again!!!

It’ HERE!!!! 😀

Well it took some time, doing all of this, but finally have done it!! 😉

I really do hope Mr Gaze and Mr McGindle do not mind me doing this 😮 .

You are BOTH a couple of true Aussie Hero’s 🙂 🙂 .

To you both, Well done chap’s.

We won’t forget what you both did for the freedom of us ALL!!!! 😉

And buggger it, I felt like starting the thread, and I DID think it was an important story for ALL to see!! 😮

No wucken forrie’s Alann and Maca!!

About to fall off the plank!

Must be off again

Tooddle doo!!

Stormbird – nice thread, I am staggered at the coincidence! Good of you to write up so much with your crook bits and pieces 😉

Hi Stormbird

Thanks for the update – I look forward to seeing it.

cheers

Allan

One of Taylor’s Painting, and a Photo of both the pilot’s NOW in 05 together.

Had one of the Bomber boy! way back then on another page, BUT the house keeper(stepdaughter Angie), through it out I’m guessing Alann.

But Frank has agreed to have a go at doing the 05 one, so it will be here whwen I ave it matey,

Arr Arr aye aye, shipshape me Cap’in SIR!!!

SEAMAN’s Nanki’s noon watch be over now ya see!!

check yas all later onsky!!!

Hi Stormbird

Thanks for this – was this the only photo with the article ?

cheers

Allan

It has got ere

arr arr eye eye me matey’s :p

ere it is

Best me and me mate, Ex hampshire Pom, Now Aussiefide :rolleyes: Frank Appleford could do!!!

Ciao, crook as a Humman, must crash 🙁 , ” Gut Nacht ” 😉

No worrie’s Allan, what about ME I am on the GRAVEYARD SHIFT mate.

4.15 AM, Crashing right NOW, ” Gut Nacht ” all.

Hi Stormbird

thanks for completing the story – I look forward to the photo – and with this last piece I have now put it into chronological order (big word at this time of night!!). 🙂

cheers

Allan

Strange I Had two Cornish on me thread, OOOhhh , freaky!!

Kaput, Finito, bloody well finished at LAST!!!.

Great Info Allan 🙂 ,

Thank’s mate 😀 , and I may just go and get the hand’s and wrist’s checked 😉 .

Yep and I seen the thread mate Thank’s 😮 .

Let’s continue then :rolleyes: .

Two warriors whose lives had become intertwined in dramatic circumstances over Europe 60 years earlier, who had nevr met despite thinking about each other down the ages, had both been living in rural Victoria (Australia) all the time.

Now they were about to team up again–Mr Rayner arranged for them to sign prints of Robert Taylor’s painting of Spitfires providing top cover for a Halifax.

” The chances of them ever meeting after that encounter, surviving the war and living into their 80’s, then living only 150km apart, are staggering, ” MR Rayner said.

Despite the remarkable coincidence, Mr Gaze and Mr McGindle took their meeting calmly, as you would expect of men who have seen so much of life.

Mr Gaze called it an “amazing fluke” that they had lived so relatively close to each other and Mr McGindle said the meeting had completed the story.

“It was a good feeling shaking his hand after all that time,” he said.

September 15 is Battle of Britain Day. It recalls the phase of World War II from July to October 1940 in which the Luftwaffe sought to demoralise Britain and destroy the Royal Air Force ahead of Operation Sea Lion, Hitler’s Invasion plan.

France had succumbed and the US was not yet in the war. John F. Kennedy’s Father, Joseph Kennedy, was US ambassador to Britain and he predicted Hitler’s invasion would succeed.

But the British were resolute as Winston Churchill vowed to fight the enemy on the Beaches and in the streets. In fact the fight took place in the air.

It was the first battle or its kind in history of warfare, the Spitfire and its slightly older sister, the Hurricane, defending Britain against waves of bombers coming in almost daily. Germany eventually turned its bombers against London in what became known as The Blitz, leaving 23,000 civilians dead and 32,000 wounded.

But Hitler failed and his invasion plan was scrapped.
RAF rolls show that 2440 British and 510 allied pilots took part in the Battle of Britain, almost 500 of the total dying in action, with Churhill paying homage to them in the House of Commons: ” Never in the field of Human conflict Was so much owed by so many to so few.”

The Spitfire became a potent symbol of World War II, but it also evolved after the Battle of Britain into a faster more deadly armed fighter with greater endurance.

Tony Gaze was flying one on that day in June 6, 1944, when he disobeyed orders to observe the D-Day landings, When the Allies invaded Europe as a pelude to marching on Germany and bringing the war to a close.

Later a racing car driver and farmer, Mr Gaze had a devilish steak that landed him in trouble on occasions, but he was a wizard when airborne.

He chased V1 rockets fired on Britain from Europe, shooting one down.
“IT was fairly easy,” he recalled. “I saw it comig from behind, Let it go past, then fired a burst at it.”
He chased another as it plunged into to the sea short of its target.
“It contained 907kg of explosive. It nearlt blew my wings off.”

Mr GASE also escorted bombers on missions deep into occupied Europe. He recalls seeing American B-17 returning to England with no signs of life aboard. Flying close to check out the big bomber, he was surprised when a head appeared in the window of the otherwise empty flight deck, with the American then holding up a hand of cards.
the B-17 was on auto pilot as the crw passed the time in a poker game.

Bombers also were evolving as the war neared its climax, but Mr McGindle, who was to become a lawyer in civilian life, discovered the missions were just as dangerous.

The raid on the synthetic oil plant in the Ruhr Valley on Octor 6 was made in daylight. It involved a five hour round trip from Yorkshire in a large formation of Halifaxs, their route taking them over Holland, which was still in German hands.

Mr McGindle was two weeks short of his 21st birthday.
Crews wryly nicknamed their destinaton Happy Valley, knowing its heavy defences made it anything but.
They would face fighters, conventional anti-aircraft guns and a new danger, radar-predicted flak.

The airmen were expected to take part in 30 operations before being relieved, but the chances of survival were not good.

In what he recalled was a beautiful day with blue skies and little cloud, Mr McGindle’ s Halifax approached its target as flak came up from the ground defences in what was called a block barrage. That meant all rhe German guns were firing into an imaginary oblong bow through which the incoming bombers would soon be flying.

Heavy bombers must travel straight and true on the bomb run–there was no alternative to flying through the box which the flak was concentrated.

In an understatement typical of his generation, Mr McGindle says of the sight of mid-air explosions directly ahead: “It get the adrenalin going.”

His bomb aimer in the forward perspex dome having ordered the bomb doors open, making the Halifax especially vunerable to fragments of hot metal from the burdting flak, Mr McGindle was alerted to a new danger.

The rear gunner shouted into the intercom: “Skipper, there’s flak following directly in line behind us and it’s getting closer.”
It could only mean that a radar-predicted flak battery had locked on to them–there was now random flak ahead and a smarter version of the same danger coming from the rear.
Mr McGindle had no time to consider aborting the bomb run in order to take evasive action because the Halifax shuddered violently as it took a direct hit, fire erupting above the huge bomb load in the open bomb bay.

The order to abandon the aircraft was given immediately – he wanted everyone out before it blew up. Just as he jettisone the bombs, however the Halifax took another hit and he heard the navigator call out in pain as fragments of hot flak tore into him.
There was a hole where the wireless operator had been sitting minutes before he stepped up to the cockpit, a lucky escape for the only other Australian on board.

Diving sharply to port to escape the radar, Mr McGindle regained control of an aircraft that had no seviceable instruments, a fire in the bomb bay, and a wounded navigator.
Other crew, too busy to bale out with the two gunners, took stock of the situation as they fled the target area. They decided to stay with the aircraft. Mr McGindle figured they could jump later if necessary, while he would try to get the navigator and the wireless operator, now without a parachute, to England or an airstrip in liberated France.

It was then that Mr Gazes’s Spitfire assisted them on their way. McGindle’s flying skills did the rest, lifting the damaged Halifax over its last hurdle, a strand of high tension wires that almost undone on their approach to Woodbridge.

It was the most perolous of the 33 operations he undertook–all of them before he turned 22 – and he celebrated in the usual way.

He caught the train to London, where met Geelong Grammar boy Roberts Dunstan, who had lost a leg at Tobruk. They got very drunk together.

Top Cover, by Robert Taylor, is available in limited editions print’s from Aviation Art, 7E Bay Rd, Sandringham. Telephone 9598 9613. A share of proceeds goes to the Spitfire Memorial Defence Fellowship.

Err, arr, I am stuffed 😮 ,
I had me dinner Chicken stir frie made for me by Angie(Wow, Dad’s day again :rolleyes: ), and watched,” Scooby Do “, the new movie with my stepdaughter Angie(and did laugh enough to nearly choke on me dinner :p ).(Buffy Slay me please 😀 ), then came back in and finished it off at last.

I should have the picture’s scaned about this Saturday or Sunday, the weekend coming up, and I will post the here when they arrive 😎 .

I do hope some of you nice Lady’s and Gent’s outthere Enjoy the Complete story as much as I did 🙂 .

Till then Ciao for now!!!!

Top Cover by Robert Taylor

Hi Stormbird

coincidence or what – take a look at
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?p=743909#post743909 – and you will see the painting in question !! 🙂

cheers

Allan

Ted McGindle / Tony Gaze – 6 October 1944

Hi Stormbird

Thanks for continuing the story – now for a bit of background information. Tony Gaze was at that time on 610 (County of Chester) Squadron, which was part of the Lympne Spitfire XIV Wing.

The Lympne ORB (Operations Record Book) for that day reads “…..34 a/c of 41 Squadron and 610 Squadron acted as escort to Halifaxes bombing STERKRADE – Ramrod 1318. Bombing appeared excellent – large explosions seen. Halifax seen to explode in mid air over target: and two came down in flames, 3 parachutes seen near MENZGLON A1837. One Halifax came out over WALCHEREN and ran into strong concentration of heavy flack.”

The ORB has no mention of any action by Tony Gaze, but then again that would be more likely in the 610 ORB – Chorleys BCL 1944 confirms the three losses mentioned above on the Sterkrade op. Two of the three lost complete crews and the other one has one survivor – so, presumably, the other two parachutes are the mid-upper and rear gunner of McGindles crew.

A quick check on Autoroute shows Sterkrade – Menzglon – Walcheren in virtually a straight line (allowing for occasionally dodging flak sites!!) leading back to the UK – so it seems highly likely that McGindles is the one that came out over Walcheren.

I await the rest – and the photo if possible – thanks for this.

Ref Carpal Tunnel problem – I had my first operation in hospital in 1996 and the second in a local Doctors minor op surgery in 2001, great fun watching it and the procedure was so different the second time!!

Best to get yours checked out before they get worse – seems like you have a big enough problem with MS without this giving you gype as well.

cheers

Allan

I need a Holiday

No prob’s Allan 😉 , Here’s a bit more mate!

Yes I did notice that Mr Duckman has one on the go, and as it stand’s at this very moment 🙁 , we have NO Spit’s flying in Oz 😮 , So I hope they do it GOOD, but Quick!!! 😀 .

O.K

As the Spitfire pilot cuddled up to the damaged bomber, the pilot silently assessing it’s chances of survival in the absence of radio communication between the two, the flak from the village grew more ominous.
The Spitfire Mark XIV, a long-range version of the aircraft that had won the Battle of Britain four year’s earlier, peeled off, gained altittude, then swooped back down on the village, pounding the anti-aircraft battery into submission with it’s cannon, permitting the Halifax safe passage.
A relieved McGindle watched the Spitfire dissapear, wondering if he would ever meet his guardian angel.

Then he turned his attention once more to clearing Holland, crossing the English Chunnell and finding the emergency landing strip at Woodbridge, north of London, where blood was to fall on medics as they prised open the Halifax’s crew hatch.

“On return to the base, this saving of lives was high-lighted in my report, “McGindle later wrote in a Squadron history. “Despite inquiries, we were never able to find out who this brave pilot was. To this day it has alway’s troubled me”.

Sixty years later, enter John Rayner, who run’s Aviation Art at Sandringham and who flie’s a vintage warbird from Moorabbin, and Robert Taylor, renowned aviation artist, who has captured in his paintings the courage of the men who were locked in combat in the skies of World War II.
Mr Rayner donates a percentage of sales of his limited edition Robert Taylor prints to the Spitfire Memorial Defence Fellowship, which awards research grants in the name of the Australians who flew the famous aircraft.
As the British artist was about to start a painting of Spitfires escorting bombers over Europe, Mr Rayner persuaded him to incorporate in it an RAAF Halifax. Taylor needed more information. He asked Mr Rayner if the Mark XIV Spitfires ever escorted RAAF formations, so the Melbourne art dealer in turn called Tony Gaze, a Spitfire ace living in retirement at Nagambie, who checked his wartime log book.
Mr Gaze had escorted many Halifax bomber into Germany, finding in his log the notation ” escorted one home in trouble” on October 6th, 1944. That led Mr Rayner to the Halfax Association,where he hoped to unearth more information.

He was directed to Mr McGindle, whose 1999 book, Pimpernel Squadron, covered many Halifax missions, including one involving an oil refinery at Sterkrade, in Germany’s Ruhr Valley, which was nearly his last.

The date: October 6 th 1944.

To be continued…….still more great stuff to come, Same Bat time, same Batty channel

P.S, Think I have that wrist thing happening too Allan, I was a T.A. electrical fitted for Nilsen Electrical Industry’s(OJN) for about nearly 15 year’s, Cut, stripped, crimped putting lug’s, on wire’s of ALL size’s, and LOT of other rep work screwing thing’s, and putting very heavy thing’s called NAB 1’s (industrial Circuit Breaker’s from 800amp’s to 4000 top end) together on high output and had to be fast production line’s.

CIAO FOR NOW!!!

KNACKERED MUST CRASH RIGHT NOW 😮 .

” Gut Nacht ” all 😉

Hi Stormbird

Thanks for what you have typed so far – I appreciate it, especially as you say that you have MS. Note you have left us in “cliff-hanging” mode waiting for more!! 🙂

Look forward to the remainder of the tale, plus hope your mate can manage to scan the photo from the Sun Herald.

cheers

Allan

p.s. I am another poofy 10 finger typist – who has had carpal tunnel problems with both wrists – now rectified (I hope!!) 🙂

p.p.s. surprised Oscar Duck hasn’t picked up on this thread as he owns a Spitfire XIV flown by Tony Gaze

P.S Will try and get mate to scan Bader Photo from paper.

Off now, Dad Taxi’s dutie’s await as my daughter will soon be asking to be pick up from the Royal Melbourne Show.

Well atleast somebody got a SMILE

So glad I can spread some cheer and smile’s, for people across the many mile from Oz 😀 .

As my Father’s ancestor’s, came from Corwall(Most likely a bunch of Pirate’s :p ), I have a conection with old Blighty, how ever painfull it is to admit too 😮 🙁 :rolleyes: (pssst don’t tell O.k 😉 ).

As for the Aussie plonk, Nah had to give it away for health reason’s, now day’s it’s a bit of the aussie weed 😎 .

Now a bit at a time of the story, unless some one out there come’s to my rescue!

A chance meeting reunited two pilot’s who survived a life-changing encounter during World War Two, By Derek Ballantine.

The big halifax bomber was in trouble. Limping home to England with one of it four engine’s out of action, cold air screamed through hole’s torn in the fuselage by exploding shell’s.
The mid-upper gunner and rear gunner were gone. ordered to bail out as german flak raked the Halifax with hot metal fragment’s, while the flight engineer was beating out flame’s with his hand’s. protected only by leather flying glove’s.
On the floor, in dreadful pain and bleeding from wound’s to his abdomen and leg’s, was the navigator, fighting for his life.
Because all the bandage’s from the first aid kit were already soaked, the wireless operator had cut up his parachute to stem the flow of blood, which meant he could not jump to safety.
At the damaged control’s, which were sluggish and in danger of failing, Ted Mcgindle could do little more then steer a straight course at low altitude in L for Love of the RAAF’s 462 Squadron.
In broad daylight over occupied Holland, the Halifax was a sitting duck against Messerschmitt’s of Germany’s Luftwaffe, It’s gun’s no longer manned and it could not even take evasive action against fire from the ground, a new peril that galvanised the entire crew as puff’s of black smoke erupted over a small village, directly in the path of the damaged Halifax. It was a clear sign that an anti aircraft battery had sprung into action in preparation for them passing overhead.

Mc Gindle’s morale slumped another notch when a sleek fighter pounced. It came at him from ahead and above, banked sharply, but soon waggled it’s wing’s in demonstrating it’s peaceful intention’s—-it was a Spitfire!.

That’s it for now 😮 , Me hand’s, arm’s and mind get tired real fast because of the Multiple Sclerosis I have, And doing this sort of rep stuff kiill’s me.

But at least that POOFY 10 finger typing :p , that I got taught at school 25 year’s ago is helping me a bit!

Ciao for NOW! 🙂

Agreed! 😀