RE: Nothing’s Impossible? Try This!

Man these are crazy, I’m going to sit this one out as well
T-5 you are either board or psychotic either way this will drive people nuts enough to join you!

Leave no-one behind!

RE: Favorite weekend activity (keep it clean!)

I love to spend as much time as I can get with my kids, I don’t get to see them much but hopefully that will change soon.

Anyone out there with kids will know how special they can be, even if they do drive you crazy at times!

Leave no-one behind!

RE: Swordfish

Yes PII, it’s true. Otherwise the old man that I met who told me the story is off his rocker.

A few years ago I was working in a shop selling clothes, this company had been around for a long time and still had much the same clothes as what they did back during the war.

It was nothing unusual to meet someone who had served during the war in one way or another, I met a B-24 navigator who was writing a book about his time in the RAAF, I met a Beaufighter pilot who loved to joke about every thing and I also met a man who happened to serve in the FAA as a gunner on a Stringbag!

This was nothing unusual, people here in Oz went to mother England to fight during the war, but he’s the one who told me this story. No it wasn’t him in the gunners seat of the Swordfish that did the neat little landing, but it was his best friend. This guy actually downed two Me-109’s, three Ju-87’s and a He-111 from his gun. If you’re ever down this way, I know where he lives. He’s always happy to talk about the Stringbag.

“We the unknowing who have been doing so much for so long with so little, now attempt to do the impossible with nothing”!

RE: Swordfish

The good old “Stringbag”, always held a place in my heart! One of the last Biplanes ever, replace breifly by the Albacore which was the last Biplane IIRC and the last ever to serve the FAA.

The best story I ever heard was of one in Norway in the last days of the German invassion. An Airfield up in Bodo was being evacuated and the Hurricans flew out all except one, the CO. A Stringbag was sent to find out what had happened and if nessecary destroy the plane lest it fall in the wrong hands. When the Swordfish arrived, they saw that the CO was still there but with a broken leg. The pilot, with some quick thinking, landed the plane. Not on the runway, it had been damaged by He-111’s, but on the roof of the main building where a telegraph wire was crossing over the roof. The pilot used this wire like an arrester wire on the carrier and landed safely with a couple of feet to spare. The nav and gunner helped turn the plane around and the CO got into the Navs position, the Nav flew the plane back to the carrier. Mean while the Pilot jumped in the Hurri and used a road to take off just as old Herman was coming down the same road in the opposite direction. Back over the carrier the idea was to land the hurricans using the barrier. Needless to say, the whole thing worked and the Pilot got a comendation and the FAA got new monoplanes soon after!

I always love hearing that story! But now I’m telling it, wow I am getting old 🙁

“We the unknowing who have been doing so much for so long with so little, now attempt to do the impossible with nothing”!