October 16, 1943, F/L Clive Gosling brings the last production Spit XII MB882 up close and personal. They don’t get any better then that 🙂

I agree to a point i hate the fact we have no flying Mossie here and the Sunderland gone too but remember nobody here was trying to buy them before they went to the USA.
My point is that if a Aircraft is so special to that country some efforts should be made to keep it there were it belongs, If somebody had tried that for us maybe we would have a Mossie here and Sunderland here where they belong instead of cobweb gathering in the USA, Sadly its a expensive bussiness and money talks sentiments don’t.

I think you need to look at it a bit differently. I’m not adverse to a P38 going to England. White Lightnin is not just any 38. Whether it be it’s connection to the CAF, it’s racing at Reno and it being owned by Lefty Gardner, it’s history is in the US.

There are lots of Spits in the US, but MH434 in my opinion belongs in England, flying out of Duxford. It wouldn’t be right to see it flying here. It’s history is in England. To be honest, when ML417 came over here, I felt the same way. Somehow it just doesn’t seem right.

Dan

Rereading Goodbye Darkness, by William Manchester about his wartime experiences as a Marine in the Pacific. Heckuva book.

If you could see the mess I’m sitting in with books all over the place near the computer it would probably scare you 🙂 Norrowa’s 109 book, Battle of Britain Then and Now, a biography of Don Gentile, the 359th FG history, Robertson’s book on the Spitfire, Camoflage and Markings Supermarine Spitfire, GI War by Ralph Martin, Escort to Berlin by Jeff Ethell and Garry Fry, JG26 Photo history by Don Caldwell, Cobras over the Tundra…and those are the ones I can reach from where I’m sitting 🙂

Dan

Does it still count if they’re not British?

Brig General Frederick Castle posthumously won the Medal of Honour flying in a 487th BG B-17G, 44-8444.

Also seem to remember a very nice painting being released just a few months ago by Robert Taylor that depicts Lt Col Gen “Jimmy” Doolittle flying over the Normandy beaches in a P-38 on 6th June ’44 to “see for himself”.

Don’t forget Eisenhower taking his tour in the modified 2 seat P51B “The Stars Look Down” of the 354th FG over the Normandy area

Dan

That was a great discussion. Nice when everyone walks away having learned something and contributed too 🙂

Dan

For better or worse, movies like Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, computer games like Medal of Honor, Day of Defeat, flight sims etc, have made WW2 “popular” for lack of a better word.

Items that may have gone to serious collectors, museums etc where the history would be preserved, get bought up by people caught up in the latest fad. 101st Airborne stuff for example is in great demand because of Band of Brothers. All kinds of fakes being sold on E-bay, where they are listed as originals.

Sadly it’s the nature of things when people think they can make some fast money.

Dan