I guess many here have noticed how photo and film archives generally like to call any single-engined fighter with roundels a Spitfire! Similarly, any twin is a Mosquito. My theory is that there’s a freelance aeroplane expert doing the rounds of these archives – a five-year old child, pointing excitedly and shouting ‘Pitfire’! I’ve tried using the various ‘comments and corrections’ emails, but always to no avail.

My tip – whether you’re looking for Mustang, Typhoon or anything else, try searching ‘Spitfire’ 🙂

Happy to help!

Does anybody else have recommendations, especially around literature? I was reading the Battle of Britain part of Leo McKinstry’s ‘Spitfire, Portrait of a Legend’ last night, and kept thinking ‘I hope Greg NewGuy’s read this’..

SOMEWHERE I have an account of an RAF fighter pilot smoking, cockpit open, on the way home from a Rhubarb. I’ll have to dig it out. I think it was recounted because it was so unusual.

However, there are other incongruous things that did take place in the cockpit. ‘Stapme’ Stapleton was known to sing Cole Porter’s ‘Night and Day’ at the top of his voice over the radio, while at least one well known Spitfire pilot would often shave during the climb to interception. Some pilots fought in their pyjamas, and others liked to listen to the latest hits on the radio (until the sets were changed to only allow pre-set frequencies).

Regarding books – I would personally recommend anything by Dilip Sarkar. Actually, thinking about it, he posts on this forum – best talk to him direct. His posts – http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/search.php?searchid=2563203

Just a thought but just how do you do a re-enactment if somebodys not dressed up as the Germans????????………………….

I’m sure that would be difficult. But to reiterate – unless he was re-enacting a formal dinner (actually, dinner re-enactments sound like the way forward to me) he was considerably overdressed. But I apologise for derailing this thread.

Oh, and hello Merkle! I reckon we’ve stood in the same muddy hole as teenagers – I was in the Severnside Aviation Society, and I believe you were in the SWARG?

Almost certainly air-to-air gunnery competitions would involve firing at air-towed drogues. I believe different competitors would have different coloured paint on their ammo – the judges would then count holes rimmed in different colours to award scores. Being a drogue-towing pilot was a dangerous job..

Yep, just playing devils advocate…. My reasoning behind listing the serial number would be because once safely back on the ground and the facts have been gathered it would have been quit easy to list the serial number if it was from the same Squadron as I’d imagine the author would be familiar with the airframe and probably have even flown it at some stage.

My understanding was that combat reports were filed immediately and individually, based upon fresh memory and not assembled from gathered facts (this is why names were used, and/or occasionally code letters). That assimilation of the ‘big picture’ was the job of the Intelligence Officer, who along with the Adjutant might file a quite different set of reports that may or may not include serial numbers, with the full knowledge of which aircraft were lost.

As to why so many forgeries were supposedly by Polish pilots – I wonder whether its to do with the use of language. Phrases that ‘don’t fit’ might not stand out so much if imperfect English can be blamed.

I’ve always thought there was something I wasn’t getting about Johnson.

His public profile was never as high as Tuck’s, or Bader’s – and yet he is on record as the highest scoring RAF pilot of the war. His record was a shining one – a regular guy from Leicestershire who struggled to get into military flying at all ends up as the acredited highest scoring ‘ace’ as well as a trusted wing leader. Yet those outside of aviation have rarely heard of him. Even Greg ‘NewGuy’ on here, who is researching the career of RST very carefully for his film project, had to ask in all innocence whether anyone had a higher official score than Tuck. Why is this? Is there a dark secret? Something that happened after the war? (and I don’t mean revisionism over his claims, which strikes me as pointless).

Johnson himself freely admitted that he flew for the vast majority of his career with someone behind him, watching his tail – and that that combined with above-average marksmanship and a degree of air superiority in the latter half of his career would doubtless lend itself to a high score – whether its 38, 40 or 28. Is there something else driving this general downer on Johnson?

:diablo:

Heehee … too late.. already spotted!

You were spot on though, not only with these reports but for much larger parts of military history.

hehe – not sure what the missing post was, but if its to do with my comments about who wrote what down and when – well, I wouldn’t make any claims as to the accuracy of any of it! It was much more about the kind of information recorded (pilot name as against aircraft serial), whether right or wildly wrong from the heat of battle, expediency or general ****-up!