I enjoyed the Boulton-Paul heritage centre very much so I wish you the best of luck with the new project and look forward to seeing it.

IIRC Cap de Gris Nez is the nearest point. It’s still festooned with bunkers and there are other interesting memorials such as to the Dover Patrol plus a statue of Napoleon.

Diver

Having recently done some writing on the subject of Typhoons engaged in anti-diver ops, I found the best books on the V1 subject were “Flying Bombs Over England” by HE Bates, the excellent “Doodlebugs and Rockets” by Bob Ogley (both by Froglets Publications based in Kent) and “Tempest Over Europe” by Roland Beamont (Airlife). Not sure which of these is still in print.

Thanks for confirming that Tony. I assume it’s a misprint. 20 rpg would have been about one burst from each cannon!

In his book “Meteor””, Brian Philpott relates that the Meteor was originally to be fitted with 6 Hispanos carrying only 20 rounds per gun. If this is true and not a misprint for 120, I don’t know whether they would have had a short belt or a box magazine. Maybe there are some of these smaller box mags around as they might have been used in another application of the Hispano. Luckily sense prevailed and the Meteor got 4 cannon with 120 or 150 rpg.

Great to see a thread remembering the harsh conditions that “erks” worked in. The life of groundcrews was dangerous as well as uncomfortable. Propellors, collapsing undercarriages, bomb-releases, accidental discharges of firearms and premature explosions of bombs, mines or rockets claimed many lives and crippled others. The practice of sitting on the wing to guide a taxiing pilot was also hazardous.

Is Britain (and commonwealth countries) unique in referring to aircraft by names (e.g. Spitfire or Boomerang) rather than numbers (e.g. Bf109 or P51)?

It would be terrific to see a Stuka flying, especially if it was allowed to dive in the way it was designed to! I have a 1942 copy of Aeroplane in which there is much discussion as to whether the Axis are deliberately overrating the success of the Stuka in order to encourage the Allies to waste time and materials building their own dive-bombers instead of more effective aircraft. Still, when I read what Rudel achieved in his, I have to admit it was an astonishing weapon if employed in the right environment.