Thanks for the updates – keep them coming please!

Best wishes,

Soggy

Anthony – I think this must be the occasion of the movie clip at Pathe, from Wing Commander Baker’s letter, little over half-way down the page:

http://www.eregbaker.info/ww2_1943.htm

…where he relates with some glee and pride the visit of the ‘Movie-tone news people’ after the Squadron’s successful attack on e-boats and armed trawlers at L’aber Wrac’h.

I never knew that those Whirlwinds were used so effectively in the ground attack role.

As no one has posted a direct link to the British Pathe Footage, here it is.

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=52222

What a fascinating if fragile aircraft it looked. 😎

This may be a very silly suggestion – the Whirlwind squadron with the code HE in 1943 was No 263 – as the airfield shown in the British Pathe clip (thanks to Super Nimrod) looks to me very like RAF Warmwell, and this Wiki confirms that 263 Squadron:

…flew Whirlwinds until the end of 1943 these three years being spent in the west :– two years in airfields around Wiltshire, Dorset and Gloucestershire; six months in south Wales and six months in Devon and Cornwall. Apart from periods of training and “rest & recuperation” the squadrons operations involved:– Air-ground attacks on airfields, railways and roads in north France; air-sea attacks on enemy shipping (E-boats and armed trawlers), sea convoy escort and bomber escort.

Soggy

Here is a link to some interesting short videos from the Open University:

http://podcast.open.ac.uk/oulearn/mathematics-and-statistics/podcast-mst209-soaring-achievements

In these the performance of modern gliders is compared with the RFD Dagling primary and there is some excellent footage of the Rhonsperber.

Interstingly, Ann Welch of the BGA Gliding group no 1 above, is seen interviewing modern glider pilots about their competition tactics.

Ann died on December 5, 2002, aged 85. She was my childhood heroine and my inspiration to fly:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article800980.ece

Soggy

IIRC, it is very well modelled in IL- 2Sturmovic, Forgotten Battles. It is just ‘AI’, not flyable by default.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGFyRdYi9wo

Soggy