Phil,

For what it was worth, the first man to get out of a spin was, IIRC, called Parkes, possibly Wilfred Parkes, and was flying the Avro G (this is based on a Putnam in my school library 25 years ago, so may not be strictly accurate!).

Dunno if that gives you anything to go on?

Adrian

You may want to beg buy borrow etc one of these books:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Hurricane-Raid-G-H-Rayner/dp/1853101990
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Airfields-Eighth-Then-After-Battle/dp/0900913096
http://www.amazon.com/Spitfires-Thunderbolts-Warm-Beer-American/dp/1574888447 (also on Google books, it seems)
http://www.amazon.com/Tumult-Clouds-James-Goodson/dp/0451211987
http://www.amazon.com/1000-Destroyed-Times-Fighter-Group/dp/0816850046

There’s also an Ian Allen publication called Fighter Squadron at War, which I’ve only ever seen bound in with a companion volume and called Fighter and Bomber Squadrons at War that covers a squadron at Debden. By Andrew Brookes, I think.

Hope they help!

Adrian

PS You used to be able to get airfield maps from Hendon – dunno if you still can, but I’m sure they included Debden.

PPS Had my first ever bacon butty in the Sergeant’s Mess kitchen, aged about six!

And, IIRC, the only person to survive a Typhoon structural failure. By bringing it back “intact” (albeit minus a hefty chunk of fuselage skinning including the cockpit floor) she may well have helped to save lives.

Blue skies, Diana.

Adrian

If you chase up Moggy’s website and click on the crews, then click on David Maltby, there’s a fair bit in there, where did your distant cousin live, presumably no-where near Sampford!!
I thought you might get your hiking boots out and meet us at Strines, more chance of getting a better pint up there than our last effort in the Fox!!

Nothing wrong with that pint – you paid! :p

All the connections seem to be Kent, so I’m fairly sure that it’s just youthful enthusiasm getting carried away. I don’t think it’s worth bothering the author, somehow!

Adrian

First off, apologies for a slightly bizarre tangent!

This reminded me. On visiting a distant cousin who grew up during WW2, he said to me something about “the house where the Dambuster lived”. Further prying brought out the fact that apparently the “last name on the chalkboard” in the film was the person concerned.

Whether there is any basis in fact or not, I don’t know, or whether it was just an impressionable lad getting carried away. I just wonder, though, whether anyone knows where David Maltby’s family lived, as I know there was a family of that name in the village at the time. I know he’s buried at Wickhambreux, Kent, but don’t know whether that’s where he’d lived re-war or not.

Any assistance you can offer in proving or disproving this would be greatly appreciated!

Adrian

Just be thankful that it was only a pair of Bristols and not De Havilland Canada’s finest bush plane… :diablo:

Adrian

Reckon the S-38 has good enough short-“field” performance to get it onto Gosfield Lake, then? Or is that water-ski jump going to cause problems? I reckon you need at least Hanningfield resevoir…

I must confess to haveing been utterly ignorant of just how big the XF-11 was – almost Lancaster-size. Blimey. And its Republic competitor, the XF-12 was even bigger – that must have been quite a sight!

Adrian