For me?

Organising the one & only (so far) reunion of 131 (County of Kent) Sqn. RAF back in April 1992. Twelve pilots & ground staff attended, including one from Australia. None had met since the war, & seeing their pleasure at meeting again was all the reward I needed. It was the first time I had organised anything, so I was relieved it all went so well. Six of the twelve are no longer with us.

Geoff.

I know exactly what you mean Geoff

That was what was so wonderful about the 41 Squadron get together in 86. Helping Peter Cowell get in touch with Don Smith as one had been best man for the other way back when, reading Tom Slack’s book before it got published, being allowed to sit in on the conversations in the Coltishal Officers Club and then having them ask me if they had their facts straight as they knew that at that point, their history was my current events having been immersed in it for so long. Having Peter Cowell and Terry Spencer ‘lean on” the B of B flight pilot to get me into the cockpit of the Spit II. The list goes on and on from that little slice of time. Being allowed in and welcomed into that world was wonderful

Outside of my wedding, and the births of my children and the things involved with family, that photo with the Spit pilots of 41 represents one of the best days of my life. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Sadly a number of those guys are gone now too 🙁

Dan

Dan

Pearl Harbor’s biggest mistake….

Was that it called itself Pearl Harbor for one. Saving Private Ryan didn’t call itself D-Day. It never claimed to be the historically accurate account of D-Day. The Longest Day didn’t claim that and it tried to be closer to ‘history’ then Pearl Harbor.

The other HUGE mistake of Pearl Harbor, was putting fictional characters in a position where they were doing the things that real people did. Whether it be the “Yanks in the RAF”, Welch & Taylor getting into the air in their P40s or Doolittle and his raiders.

From Here to Eternity was based around Pearl Harbor, but it never claimed to be “THE STORY” like Pearl Harbor the movie did. It let them put fictional characters in a historical setting.

Even Titanic, regardless of what you think of it, did not have the fictional characters doing anything a real person did on that ship. From what I’d read about Titanic over the years, the film makers did keep the real people’s actions close to the truth as it’s been written over time.

That will be the danger of “The Few”. If it uses the American Billy Fiske, to let people know of the actions of many people, in particular the RAF pilots who fought the battle of Britain, then it has a chance. If it is a fictionalized “based on a true story” type movie, it has no hope, because then you know Fiske will shoot down 25 planes while leading his squadron of Spitfires into action against the Luftwaffe while romancing all the women of England at the same time.

Dan

Tis the joy of trying to get it right. I’d wondered about that as well but the photo sure answers the quesiton.

How bout another mystery? Back when I first was digging in to Spit XII stuff in the mid 80s, I corresponded with Douglas Hone who was B Flight commander in 41 Squadron when they transitioned to the XII.

One of the comments he made was that one or two machines were modified for oblique photography when they were flying out of Hawkinge, when they took over for 91 while 91 transitioned to the XII. He said he flew a number of flights where he took photos.

I could never find any proof on that one elsewhere however..

When I got the Osprey book on 91 squadron recently, it mentions that 91 modifed a couple of their Spit Vs for oblique photography.

Dougie Hone’s aircraft was EN234 EB-Q for Queenie. The fact that 91 had locally modifed Spit Vs does seem to lend credence to his story which might mean that EN234 and possibly one other Spit XII were locally modified ‘FRXII”.

Considering the job they were doing on the “Jim Crow” sorties and the capability of the XII down low, it does make some sense. How’d you like to dig up a photo of that kite? 🙂

EN234 incidently was the Spit that Tony Lovell died in low flying in August of 1945.

Dan

But what did the American public think of it?
Lets face it – it was made for them, not us, and all they’d really want to see is their guys wiping the floor with the opposition. They wouldn’t care whats flying as long as the ones wearing the star and bar are seen to be top of the pile…

Flood.

They/we thought it was garbage. To be honest, I have only seen bits of it, and that was by accident. The formation of Doolittle B25s in heavy flak told me there was no point in seeing more.

And the premise that there was an American who flew with the RAF, then made it to Pearl to fly P40s and then converted to B25s in time to go with Doolittle, told me it was garbage long before it made the theaters.

To be honest, this particular ‘Yank’ is getting a bit tired of some of the commentary about ‘us’ and the films on the forum. “we’ aren’t Hollywood, and lets face it, you can find lousy ‘historical’ films all over.

Seems to me I remember seeing on late night TV that film where the British pilot was first to break the sound barrier by reversing the controls. If you hadn’t done your own research you’d probably have believed it. But it was a film and you have to have your own filter to weed out the fact from the fiction right?

For every lousy film you can probably find a good one. I watched a film last night called “Battleground”. It was made fairly soon after the war and focused on some 101st Airborne glider troopers during the battle of the Bulge. It was a great film. It didn’t claim they won the war single handed but it looked at a platoon of guys and how they dealt with thier experience. Of course you could pull out “Battle of the Bulge” with Henry Fonda and company and wonder what history book they read.

I guess it depends on whether or not you count on films for your historical fact. If that’s the case then the Battle of Britain was lousy because they didn’t use real names etc. But if you view it as something that might give you a small idea of what was going on and lead you to do some more digging then it was a success.

Bottom line is that movies are what the are…attempts at entertainment.

Dan

According to “Royal Air Force 1939-1945 Vol III The Fight is Won” after a write-up about Ste. Croix sur Mer “The airfield was ready on the 10th and from it Squadron Leader J Storrar took off with urgent despatches and mail. Flight Lieutenant H J Dowding was probably the first Allied fighter pilot to land on, or rather beside, the first airstrip at Asnelles, which, as distinct from the first airfield, had been finished by the evening of 7th June” Asnelles was allocated B.1 and St. Croix was B.3 – cheers Allan125

I came across a biography of Mike Beytagh way back when, and one of the people interviewed in it was “Jas” Storrer as they were best friends from the B of B on apparently. According to Storrer, it was he and Mike Beytagh who were the first two into Normandy in those Hurricanes. Apparently, if Storrer is to be believed they tried to be the first two into Paris as well.

Dan

Flood,

Thats funny because we have a gentalmen from Maine who was a memeber of the Eagle Squadron Joined up Spring of 1940 posted MIA Fall of 1940 memeber of the all American Yank Squadron better know as the Eagle Squadron.

The BoB records show that the first Eagle Squadron were operational prier to the open German Ops in the summer of 40

Who might that be?

Another “Yank” chiming in, and the Eagles were NOT formed prior to the B of B. Art Donahue, from my home state of Minnesota was one of the first in 71 AFTER the B of B but he’d flown in the B of B with 64 if memory serves, being wounded. He was not a fan of the Eagles and transferred out before they became operational.

71 was formed September 19, 1940. As of October 8, 1940 they still had no aircraft. Donahue transferred back out on October 23rd and they got 3 Brewsters on the 24th and it appears they didn’t start flying anything operational until January of 41

Dan

It doesn’t look like it. They were declared “operational” on July 9, but didn’t start flying from Coltishall to Duxford until August 30, 1940 and then they were not officially based there until October 1940.

Dan