132 Squadron photo at Detling

Hi Olivier

Welcome to the forum – as an amateur historian of 125 Airfield/Wing I was very interested in your photo, taken on 15 December 1943 at Detling, do you hold any other pictures of 132 Squadron at all?

The 125 Airfield ORB simply describes the event as “Spitfire “Ethel Marsden” was presented to 132 Squadron at an informal ceremony attended by A.V.M. Dickson, A.O.C. 83 Group” – whereas of course the photo actually shows the C.O. of 15 Wing G/Capt Jamie Rankin, and the 125 Airfield O.C. W/Cdr John Lapsley, as well as Sir Hugh Garrett, and A.V.M. Dickson, with an incorrect spelling of Dixon – and the dog is called “Dingo”, the 132 Squadron Mascot.

“Ethel Marsden” was actually allocated to 132 (City of Bombay) Squadron on 26 September 1943, and was coded FF-F (Spitfire LFIX MH486) – Sir Hugh Garrett was a retired member of the Indian Civil Service and former acting governor of Sind Province, then living in Torquay, who wrote his autograph on the nose of the aircraft. (Details from: Gifts of War by Henry Boot and Ray Sturtivant).

cheers

Allan

Not quite your punchline but the famous (fictional) S/Ldr Paderewski was visiting a famous girls school and was asked by the head teacher to describe a typical action.

“Vell – I vas flying along in my Spitfire when I spotted these fokkers in the distance, I dived on them and shot two of the fokkers down, then did a quick roll came up underneath them and shot down another couple of fokkers – the other fokkers flew away in panic”

As the girls were giggling at this the head teacher said – “Of course what S/Ldr Paderewski means by fokkers is that these were the German Focke Wulf 190, isn’t that correct S/ldr?”

“Certainly is generally – but in this instance these fokkers were Messerchmitt’s”

Allan

some reports state “The vehicle was specially adapted for disabled drivers” so I would tend to think that his problems lie with the adaption, whether officially done by Renault, or by another company. Probably Renault as Mr Lecerf said it was not his first speed jamming incident but that Renault had looked at the car and said they had fixed the problem.

With regard to going through several peage booths – in France they often have a separate area for HGV’s to go through and I would tend to think that the Police escorted him through these, rather than have him try to queue up with the normal booth!!

Allan

Sainsburys are involved as well

For Alan

“not once have I heard Sainsburys mentioned” – take a look at The Grocer website on the matter from 13 January

http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/fmcg/fresh/meat/horse-meat-now-sainsburys-withdraws-burgers/235693.article

You only have to Google Sainsburys and Horsemeat and you get lots of hits – so they are just as much involved as Tesco, Asda, Co-op etc.

cheers

Allan

horsemeat

I am thinking of buying a horsebox and turning it into a burger van

Does anyone have a toothpick? I had a Tesco burger last night and there’s still a bit between my teeth!

My daughter has always wanted a pony, so i’m buying her a Tesco burger for her birthday.

I’ve got some Tesco burgers in the fridge – but…They’re OFF!!!!!!!!!!

My doctor told me to watch what I eat – so I went out and bought tickets for the Grand National.

Traces of Zebra have been found in Findus barcodes!!

Allan

Rene Mouchotte / RR232 on BBC iPlayer

Living down here in Cornwall I had to catch this excellent piece by Jan Leeming on iPlayer as of course we have a different “Inside Out”, and the feature on ours was all about RR232!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01qclmc/Inside_Out_South_West_28_01_2013/

Although I was able to take a few screen prints by pausing the Rene Mouchotte film I would like to know if it is possible somehow for a person in France to be able to view the programme on iPlayer as, currently, you have to be a UK resident to be able to view on the PC etc.

cheers

Allan

Operation Crossbow – Night Bombers, Hemswell

An excellent programme on BBC4 last night, and worth catching on iplayer if you missed it, where it is available until 9 January. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011cr8f/Operation_Crossbow/

Not only was Night Bombers filmed at Hemswell – but the station commander was Iliffe Cozens, who had bought Spitfires into RAF service with 19 Squadron, and, as an added snippet, in the credits at the end of the Operation Crossbow programme was a certain Mrs Cozens.

see also http://ftfmagazine.lewcock.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=124:air-commod..

Allan

Gerry Anderson – R.I.P.

Didn’t he also do Twizzle and Torchy the Battery Boy? And no, I’m not old enough to remember them first time around 🙂

Yes he did – and I did watch them the first time round as well!! 🙂

And, having read the post above, I personally blame Andy Saunders for the BBC not giving Four Feather Falls a mention – typical expert, only gives his own slant on the story, never mind the facts!! 🙂

Allan