Why would IPC want to keep the Aeroplane photo archive when they’re not aiming to publish magazines with aeroplanes in any more?!

I understand the photo archive was included in the deal, seems logical to me…

I thought both brothers brought something to the programme, Colin’s appreciation of the Spitfire as a serving pilot was interesting for many of us enthusiasts but Ewan’s reactions reflected far more how the man in the street would react if put into the back of a Spitfire. I remember the first time I flew in formation with other aircraft and my reaction was exactly the same as Ewan’s!

Knowing the way TV producers minds work, I would guess that the Bader being O/C 12 Group thing was simply their way of simplifying things for their viewers, they have a very low opinion of the attention span of their audience, (maybe justified), and overly complicated explanations tend to get ‘smoothed out’ in the final edit.

MP

http://www.posart.com

For those who are genuinely puzzled by Osprey’s lack of recognition skills…

They do mock up covers for all of their forthcoming books, usually created by taking the aircraft type from a previous cover and pasting it onto a generic background. In this case, they have never troubled us artists to paint a Buffalo before so the poor designer, probably on a Friday afternoon, stuck a Spitfire on the cover, switched his computer off and went down the pub…

I’ll be painting the actual cover in a couple of months’ time, just got half a dozen others to get through first…

Mark Postlethwaite
long suffering and vastly underpaid Osprey cover artist.

It looks like a presentation Spitfire with the Eastleigh style of script. First letter appears to be M with either an L or a B about four letters along. I’ve had a quick scan through all the ‘M’s in Gifts of War without success but then reminded myself I should be working!

Watched it in a packed cinema in Leicester and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. There was no reaction to the dog’s name up here, I suppose we’re made of stronger stuff ‘up north’!
Saw the Canberra, (through a car window), and the Lincolns. But putting all the technical bits aside it made me realise what a difficult job Peter Jackson’s team will have in telling the new story accurately without it getting confusing. For example, the second wave took off before the first wave and the third wave were coming as the others were going! How do you tighten all that into a good flowing story?

One thing for sure, I can’t wait to sit in that same cinema to see the new version, it couldn’t be in better hands.

Mark Postlethwaite

The Lancaster in the photo is definitely QR-O as we have a further photo in the library taken a few yards further back. Closer examination shows the ‘Z’ equipment rings in the bomb aimer’s blister which would date it after R5856 had crashed. The serial number is not legible in the print so we can’t 100% prove it is LM720 although the original photo was captioned as such. What we can definitely say is that the Lanc is not R5856.

Mark Postlethwaite GAvA
Founder
http://www.ww2images.com

PS. No problem with posting our web images here, we always appreciate further information on any of the photos we have.