Steve-

Brilliant write up of your trip…now you know why I fell in love with England too during my two trips over there in 2001 and 2002…however, I must say I never had a bad meal in the whole time I was there (great lasagna at the pub near Old Warden, great mint jelly lamb at the Plough near Duxford….but never DID have the ‘spotted ****’ off of the desert menu!) I fell in love with Pedigree beer and Spitfire ale, smuggled 16 bottles and cans of Pedigree home for me and friends….conversationally, the worst thing that happened is a friend of mine who made the first trip with me asked “Why do they put targets on the sides of the British planes?”, to which my host suggested that we drive her to Heathrow and deposit her BACK on the soonest stateside bound plane…we had a wonderful tour of the BBMF facilities with a fantastic tour guide named Ted Farrant (perhaps this was the guy that led you around, Steve?)
I came to one conclusion in England….when you are someplace that you have always wanted to be, there is almost NOTHING that can go wrong with the trip short of losing all of your money. However….I must protest the use of mushy peas on top of the Fish and Chips…I swear I thought he was putting Guacamole on them…

Mark

Forgot to answer MMitch’s question about the Coast Guardsmen buried in his country ….being ex-Coast Guard myself (USCGC Evergreen), I do know that the Coast Guard fell under the Department of the Navy in time of war and so many men wound up on Navy ships….not to mention the CG had many cutters of their own (basically like destroyer escorts) and they battled the Germans in many ways, so there are lots of ways Coast Guardsmen could wind up in a cemetary in England.

Mark

Kinda surreal, really….had that happen at a warbird show once, got 24 exposures on one frame of film…really ****ed me off…

mark

I know Wildcats of the US Navy encountered Vichy French Hawk 75’s (or P-36’s) and basically fought them to a draw (Commander Tommy Blackburn, later of VF-17 in the Pacific, was shot down during this conflict)…I know the FAA employed a mixed bag of British and American fighters and bombers to inflict damage on the Tirpitz in the fjords of Norway, keeping her there until Lancs of 617 squadron sank her with ‘Tallboy’ bombs…American Naval aircraft operating against the krauts would make for a good book…but I bet it has been done already…I just can’t tell you a title…

Wish someone would do a movie on the 5th air force in the southwest pacific, the guys with 75mm cannons in their B-25’s dropping parafrag bombs at treetop level and skipping bombs off the water like rocks into the sides of Jap ships…THAT would make a good movie! Mel Gibson might be available…

Mark

I’ll tell you, me and my friend became ENAMOURED of Pedigree when we were over there, GREAT stuff…when I came over the second time, it was all I could do to bubble wrap 16 bottles of it for the trip back to the states…the bottle (now unfortunately empty) lies withing grasp of my computer as I write this…could’nt throw them all away…and they don’t sell it over here, anyone possibly know why? Second best: Spitfire…great stuff too. Stayed away from the Bishop’s finger (who knows where that has been) and Old Fart. We can get Bass, Newkie Brun, Caffrey’s, Boddington’s, and Guinness and some others out west here…and we have a lovely of our own, Fat Tire!

Mark

You’re right, Mark V, just my opinion…so just let me have my opinion, OK? To me she looks ‘remarkably clean like a Mk. 16’…can’t you just let me have that? I never said the WHOLE PLANE looked like a Mk. 16, I’m not an aviation MORON, my friend…I DO know the difference between the two…

Mark

What did the Americans think? AS an American, I thought some of the REAL warbird flying was good, I thought the CG planes were crap (LOVE how the Vals dive down and drop their bombs out of a half roll in about 2 seconds RIGHT ON the Arizona!!), the acting was bad, the B-25’s ran into WAY more flak at the end of the movie than the REAL Doolittle Raiders EVER saw…and the stories about Ben Affleck thinking that the warbird owners were being too prissy about their precious planes…and not signing autographs for active duty servicemen in the US Navy left me with a bad taste in my mouth for the whole flick….’Tora Tora’ wins my vote every time…

Mark