Bubi Hartmann (Source Tolliver and Constable)

Bubi Lent (Source The Lent Papers)

Sorry, exact references not to hand. There are plenty more German ones if we want to go down that route.

WZ 862

Bee Beamont 1948

With kind thanks to Twin Otter 23 for the reference, Bee Beamont as an EE Test Pilot went supersonic in 1948 in an F86.

http://www.airsceneuk.org.uk/oldstuff/2005/bee/bee.htm

WZ 862

Barracudas (?) at Budworth Mere

“The soldiers fired mortar bombs into the mere. The Fleet Air Arm at Appleton had a target in the middle of the mere and George and his pals used to love watching them.”

http://comberbach-history.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00:00:00Z&updated-max=2008-01-01T00:00:00Z&max-results=10

Budworth Mere is located right next to the former army camp of Marbury Hall. British, Polish and American soldiers used it for training so there may be other ordnance in there as this extract from a local history reminiscences site says.

Budworth Mere is one of the largest areas of open water in Cheshire.

The lake is quite deep in places. I am told the masts of totally capsized Enterprises do not touch the bottom. The lake is shared by various bodies, including the local sailing and angling clubs and is also fronted by a Cheshire Wildlife Reserve for bitterns and Marbury Park, administered by Cheshire West and Chester Council, as well as the land of several farmers.

Some of the (none aviation) history of the site in WW2 is on the website entry of the Friends of Anderton and Marbury.

http://www.merseyforest.org.uk/foam/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Section-5-Marbury-Hall-Camp-Second-World-War-Years-rev3.pdf

WZ862

RAF Cosford

Didn’t they scrap plenty of Spitfires, Lancasters and Mosquitos at Cosford?

WZ862

Flight Lieutenant Bert Webster, I think ex Wellington Sgt Pilot, if I remember correctly, later CFI 1970-71, University of Wales Air Squadron St Athan. After a heavy session in the mess one night with the sprogs, he was seen the following morning undertaking a met flight along the line of the main runway about 10 feet of the ground, aircraft inverted.

Lerche published his book “Luftwaffe Test Piiot” Janes 1980, translated from its 1977 German predecessor in which this test report is not included but there is a written recollection of his last flight in the Do335. He recalled it as “an unusually powerful aircraft with exceptional flying qualities.”

I managed to pick up my copy from the second hand section of the bookshop at RAFM Cosford, a lovely read with descriptions of flying amongst many others, the Lancaster, Wellington and Tempest. His test report on the Lavochkin La-5 is an appendix in the book.

Lerche was eventually put in command of E 2 Beute, the Captured Aircraft Section at Rechlin. In some ways, his career path , from a German perspective in test flying, seemed to mirror somewhat, that of our own Captain Eric “Winkle” Brown.

You may find that the RAF museum at Cosford has an example of the message pick up system on display fitted to their Hawker Hind. I have seen it but do not have any photos of my own, but here is a link which shows the gear, as you say, fitted to the axle of the aircraft. I’m sure you’ll find plenty of posted photos of this machine, which was recovered from Afghanistan many years ago and is displayed in Afghani colours.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/collections/hawker-hind-afgha

Good luck, WZ862

I celebrate the retrieval of the Dornier which now is in safe hands. It is unique (if I recall correctly) in that it is the only bomber of its kind and the only example in the RAFM’s diverse Luftwaffe collection at Cosford and Hendon that is a genuine Battle of Britain German veteran. After we are all gone, newer generations will be able to see an aircraft from a battle that was as critical as any that this country has ever fought. If we had lost, when we were right on our own, I dread to think what would have happened. My sense of history has been so heightened by standing on the decks of HMS Victory, HMS Cavalier, HMS Plymouth, seeing S for Sugar, standing at Dover at the spot where Churchill looked over to Calais in 1940, sitting in the cockpit of a Spitfire, seeing R4118. That’s enough from me. There is nothing like the real thing. Hats off to the RAFM.

WZ862