Is the first one a DC-2?

As a general comment I have never understood why people who decide to reside near an active airfield (airfields and their associated activities are pretty much plainly apparent) decide that the noise level is too much and start complaining.

Maybe I’m being dense here, but what specifically is this petition asking the government to do? It seems that the decision has already been made by the RAF to dispose of the site, future plans to ensure it remains open and accessible are being made, there is still well over a year to go, and there appears to be no imminent threat of closure.

That’s how I read it also.

Can’t think of any other big stories about secret goings on – can you Charlie. It would be nice if some of these people had a success or two then we’d all learn something. Apart from the Stork Hotel incident there is one other, it’s on the tip of my tongue but alas memory fails me. I can’t seem to recall it, can you? 😉

As an aside the swastika was at the time, and before, a symbol of good luck (very popular in the Baltic states e.g. Finland and Latvia). In 1933, apart from Germany, there was no political significance attached to it. In fact it remains a symbol of good luck in many parts of the world at this time. I have several books on Indian archaeology published in the 1970s whose publisher’s logo is a swastika – also the orientation is a thing to note. If the cross is laid out as a vertical square then that is the traditional form while if it is at 45 degrees then that may correspond with the Nazi layout but then again it might not – so context and date is important. Also the arms on the cross may be reversed on the traditional symbol at times. Unless you can find evidence that Mrs James was an early member of the Nazi Party then I wouldn’t read too much significance into the use of it on the Air Yacht.

Perhaps we need a new thread titled Wot Contributor … 😀

And these days no one could afford the fuel 😀

Ground based Ack-Ack – even if not 20mm did the higher calibre guns use cannister shot with 20mm balls?

Basically AA shells use the effect of a small amount of explosive contained in a frangible case to do the damage – against soft targets like aircraft you don’t need much metal to create catastrophic damage. That also is how most explosive projectiles and air dropped bombs work (expect for the thin case blast bombs e.g. cookies and their related cousins still in use). A small charge is contained in a hardened case and exploded either by a timed fuse, proximity fuse or an impact fuse.

Without seeming or intending to state the obvious, in most cases the resulting irregularly shaped chunks of steel are what cause irregular holes (of course similarly a cannon shell exploding on contact will also create these types of holes – but smaller). In the two pics I suspect that the torn hole in the second is a result of AA – could be wrong. The hole in the prop blade looks like a bullet hole – the slightly distended shape may be due to the bullet hitting a rotating blade – again I could be wrong and without being able to see it I wouldn’t really go beyond that guess.