abebooks.com have 4 listed, the cheapest from Colorado Springs (apart from the postage that is!)

There were literally scores of wartime fatal accidents caused by impromptu aerobatics over family or girlfriends’ houses. Tee Em sometimes publicised them in an attempt to influence others. I thought about doing an article for FlyPast but decided that the subject was too unpleasant to publicise. No harm in compiling records of them, though. My wife’s cousin admits to flying a Mustang all the way from Keevil (61 OTU) to Birkenhead to beat up his mother’s house. She said that he almost knocked the chimney pot off and I hope this was an exaggeration. He was supposed to be on a local flight!

And that footage itself came from the William Wyler(?) documentary, Thunderbolt…..

Thanks for that DDMan – I must look at my Thunderbolt video again. It WAS William Wyler’s work, by the way.

The fin of the C-47 was recovered in 1972 and is now in the Warplane Wreck Museun at Fort Perch, New Brighton, Wirral. Photo shows it a few years ago with curator, the late and much-missed Doug Darroch.

The book with the Berwyn C-47 photo is Eddie Doylerush’s Fallen Eagles (Midland Counties 1990 and possibly still in print).

The aircraft was a de Havilland Dominie (militarised Dragon Rapide). There are a few still flying, including one in period camouflage, so a reanactment shouldn’t be too difficult! Unfortunately, I can’t find my original notes at the moment but the aircraft flew from RAF Madley in Herefordshire. I find it difficult to believe that it flew all the way to Nuremburg. Maybe it ferried him to RAF Hendon or Croydon for onward flight in a Dakota? Anyway, the Dominie would have needed several refuelling stops. Approx 8-seater by the way. No 4 Radio School at Madley had Dominies and one of its aircraft could have been used for the flight. My notes came from the unit Operations Record Book held at The National Archives, Kew. The entry may have more details but I can’t remember.

I have now checked through all the Air-Britain RAF serial number books and there are quite a lot of possibilities, maybe 12 or more. Some are noted as missing from operations over the Aegean. Another is JA354 of No 221 Sqdn, based at Kalamaki/Hasssani, missing on air test, presumed to have crashed in sea off Greek coast, 3 April 1945.

Are there any manufacturer’s data plates on the wing section? VABL would denote built at Vickers-Armstrongs Blackpool, VACH at VA Chester. This would narrow the search down a little. Are there any plans to look for more wreckage? Engine type would help and the six-figure number engraved on the crankcase would, if still visible, identify the exact aircraft. But I am sure you know that!

The film left an enduring piece of classical music; William Walton’s (later Sir) Spitfire Prelude and Fugue. A wonderfully evocative piece which is still perfomred occasionally. He was commissioned to write the music for the BoB film but for some reason they didn’t use it. The only other music inspired by an aircraft type, is, as far as I know, the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu’s Thunderbolt P-47 (sic). Am not very impressed with this one. There is also the howling Stukas passage in Shostakovich’s Symphony No 7, the Leningrad.