Many thanks. I think we can put this subject to bed now. Wasn’t as popular as I thought it was going to be.

Tony

As promised. A few extra bits from the concert. Even the un-scheduled fly-past. They came from the right in tight formation, close to the trees, silently. When the crowd saw them they applauded. We were expecting the BBMF and a dog fight senario. We started off with a flock of geese. 40 of them!! They caught me by suprise so I filmed them when they did a return pass. 🙂

The gentleman signing copies of his book is Air Commodore John Mitchell who was Churchill’s navigator.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci-G2tvfAhk

Tony

– and I am looking forward to seeing the air raid sequence.

Kind regards

I shouldn’t get too excited. From where I was sitting there was a huge screen in the way of the main pyros.

Tony

In addition, we were also tasked with re-acting to the ‘Air Raid’ sequence later on – adding our hand cranked siren to the noise produced by the special effects team of their siren and then pyro’s going off…:D

Hi Nigel,

Thanks for your comments. I have the ‘Air Raid’ on video which I’ll add to YouTube shortly. With regards to the siren, I thought it was a nice touch that it interupted the group half way through the song. Nice touch. But was the sound of the siren genuine or was it electrically produced? My dad, who lived through it thought it wasn’t the genuine sound.

Regards

Tony.

Videos available

The concert was a truly wonderful experience. Lovely setting on the grassy slope that runs down from Chartwell House to the lake, brilliant music by the Central Band of the RAF and fantastic flying by a Spitfire and Hurricane of the BBMF followed by a dogfight by a Spitfire and a Messerschmitt.

Unfortunately the videoing is a little jumpy. This is because:
a) it was cold
b) it was a highly emotionally charged event and
c) I am use to having a display line of a mile or so, so there’s plenty of time to line the shot up. Here it was a very short display line, only a few hundred feet surrounded by high trees, so by the time the planes were lined up, they were shooting overhead and gone.

Having said that I hope I have caught the atmosphere of the evening. It’s one I’ll remember for a long time. Even now, watching the arrival of the BBMF over the trees, it brings a tear to my eyes.

And for all you Battle of Britain film fans you’ll enjoy the second video.

Part one – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfBaSqoFPlM

Part two – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPcCsEJQeEA

Tony

I can post a current picture if you’re interested.

Yes please 🙂