Vulcan K2 from 50 Sqn doing a recruit graduation flypast at Swinderby in December 1983. I was 2 weeks into training there and standing outside the Cinema there when the aircraft came over throttled right back (you could hear the airflow over the airframe). That was until he reached the road that spilt the camp. Full Power!!, pull back on the stick !!! Instant Earthquake!!!!

Phantom FGR2 summer night flying at Wattisham in 1991 (0200 hours, the aircraft woke you up, the car alarms kept you awake).

B1B at Mildenhall some time between 1996 and 1998 (I cannot rember which one). High Speed pass – watch those car alarms go off.

Spitfire SL542 4M-N – Currently airworthy in Canada.

Baxter’s Spitfire

I’ve done a number of Spitfire Profiles (and 41 other types from the Tiger Moth to the Jaguar) over the last year as part of poster and book project about Coltishall and one of the aircraft for the book (and the last Station Magazine) I want to do is one of the Spitfires flown by Raymond Baxter in 1945 from Coltishall or Ludham. I known that his mount in Jan-Feb 1945 was SM388 (that information is straight from 602 Squadron’s F540 Operational Record Book at the UK National Archives and I’ve been told that the aircraft was LO-U, by somebody from the 602 Sqn museum). Does anybody know when he flew TB382 at Coltishall or Ludham. Also does anybody have any info on the colour schemes of these two Spits below and a couple of other aircraft profiles I need to finnish . I need this Infomation ASAP as I’ve a deadline to meet (14 Feb).

Spitfire IIA P7373 ZP-A 74 Sqn (Sailor Malan) when it was at Coltishall in 1940
Spitfire V EP126 HP-B (Wg Cdr ‘Cowboy’ Blatchford) May 1943

Beaufighter VIf X8147 of 141 Sqn Sept 1943 (flown by Bob Braham on the
night of 29/30 Sept 43 when he shot down a ME110 flown by August Geiger of NJG1. The sortie was launched and recovered from Coltishall)

Blenheim VIf Z5722 – 68 Sqn (was it still WM-Z when it crashed at Coltishall in 1942)

Dan, Any chance of using a large copy of your 602 Sqn badge for my Spit XVI? I will credit your work in the finnished product (which is the last Coltishall Station Magazine).

My Spit XVI is below as well as a template for the Mark 21

Richard Vernon

The Wright Brothers (The first men to worked out how to control an aircraft in flight)
John Cunningham (THe only one on the list I’ve met and a very nice gent)
Eric “Winkle” Brown
Chuck Yeager
Leonard Cheshire (The best RAF WW II bomber pilot and overall combat leader by far)
Lanoe Hawker VC (it took almost 900 rounds (of which only one hit his DH2 (and him), the prevailing wind , bingo fuel and a much superior aircraft flown by Red Baron to kill him).

What about Hanna Reitsch, even if she was a Nazi. Biggest Glider (Me 323 Gigant), Early Helo (Fa61), Rocket Fighter (ME163) and first Cruise Missile (V1), not even Chuck Yeager had that spread of types on his résumé.

Quarters belong to Anning (sp?) I think – Maggy sold them off cheap to her mates

John Major sold them of Annington in 1996, Maggie was long gone. Its caused a lot of problems as a lot of quarters have been sold off to the civies on bases that are now expanding (its one of the reasons why the TCW is now going to Leeming and not Scampton).

Should Ambrose have thrown a Brit into it so “younger cinema and TV audiences in Britain may be forgiven for thinking the USA was the only nation to take on Nazi Germany”.

There’s a few Brit’s in ‘Band of Brothers’ like episodes 1,4 and 5 when the 101’st were in Britain before and after D-day and in Holland during Market Garden (and of course Lt Winters, Sgt Martin and other member of Easy were played by British Actors). As for Steven Ambrose, his first book about D-day from the guys on the front line point of view was about a British unit (D Company, Ox’s and Bucks) and the glider assault on Pegasus Bridge. The Band of Brothers book was the result of members of Easy being given free copies of Pegasus Bridge when they gave interviews to the Staff of the US D-Day Museum and suggested to Ambrose that their story would make a good book. (Richard Todd who played Guy Gibson of the original Dambusters film is mentioned in Pegasus Bridge book as he was at the Bridge as a captain in the 7th Parachute brigade on D-Day. 7 Para dropped into the area 30 minutes after the Gliders went in and of course Richard Todd then as an actor played Major John Howard, the CO of D Company in the Film ‘The Longest Day ‘).

And his comment about only British actors is pure rubbish. As was pointed out members of 617 Squadron came from across the commonwealth…and the USA. If a guy can look the part and do an accent why not use him? It might help the film get made or ensure people see it if/when it does come out.

JB has hit the nail right on the head here.

As for the comments on the Sound Barrier (aircraft in the film was the prototype Swift if memory serves) he is right about that one as well (there is a good quote about that one in Chuck Yeager’s autobiography). The first Brit to break MACH 1 was John Derry in a DH108 Swallow and I’m sure that it was the first jet aircraft to do it (abet in a dive and out of control). He may even have been the first guy to do it in an aircraft that had taken off under its own power (I’m not sure when Yeager did the MACH 1 flight from the deck in the X1, with of course was rocket powered). Need less to say of course, the first man to break MACH 1 would have been Eric Brown had it not been for the man who came up with the Spotlight Altimeter cancelling the Miles M52.

Just one point to finish on, what is the link between the TV series Band of Brothers and the DH108 Swallow? Answer: Both made at the same place, the de Havilland plant at Hatfield.

The Production Company, which made ‘Band of Brothers’, used the services of a OAP (Old Age Pensioners) centre in Hatfield to help make the Uniforms for the series. Just before filming started I went to a family wedding reception held in that centre (my mother’s parents were members) and when my grandmother pulled back some curtains to reveal thousands of US army WWII Para uniforms with Screaming Eagle badges on them.

Small World isn’t it.

Having had the pleasure of working on two types of SAM system, One British (Bloodhound Mk2) and one Russian (SA-8), I can say that the Russians do build good SAM Systems (the Gecko’s capibilties are impressive for a system that has not one silicon chip in it). If the Russians can make a system with valves, a limited number of transistors and electro mech computers as good as the SA-8, I’d hate to think what a system with modern electronics would be like. As for Rapier, Never worked on it, however know a lot of blokes would have and they say that the Old Field Standard B would go U/S just by pulling it out of the hanger. Saying that the stuff I’ve heard about the Field Standard C is that it hardly breaks and when it does the Build In Test Equipment is first rate, hence it does not stay broke for very long (as long as you have the spares).

Dambusters Remake

A remake of the Dambusters? All for it, as long as the producers do the following:-

1) Gibson black Lab is called NIGGER! which is also used as the Codeword for breaching the Monhe dam. That is historical fact and should not be compromised by a load of PC scriptwriters who have never worn a uniform in their lives.

2) Gibson is displayed as he actually was (its worked for other film Anti-hero’s i.e. PATTON). Did you also know that he was not a bad Night fighter pilot either, he did a tour on Beaufighters in between bomber tours and got three kills.

3) No requirement for Gibson’s love interest (or anybody else’s) as rumoured (Gibson’s Wife Eva had no idea what 617 Squadron was up to until after the raid).

4) CGI or large models for the Lancs – Does not matter which as long as it’s done well. The model work in the 1950’s original was not that great (like the way Bill Astell’s model Lanc (AJ-A if memory serves) wobbles into the ground and ground loops before blowing up after being hit by flak (again if memory serves AJ-A actually hit HT cables before it crashed). As for the real Lanc, the BBMF Lanc has done low level over Derwent water before and the Lincolnshire fens does make a good Holland. Plus the BBMF Dakota would make a good camera ship.

5) The Attack – Follow all three waves and the attacks on the four dams that were finally targeted. Show lost of all aircraft, the problems of northern routed wave (Rice hitting the sea and ripping the bomb off, Les Munro having to turn back after Flak damage to his intercom, Etc) This leads to point no 6, a fact that was left almost out of the first film.

6) The Sorpe – Mine was not spun or bounced (and was dropped along the crest of the dam) and was only attacked by North Americans, leading to point 7

7) No Americans in the film as some persons have suggested? – Again total inaccurate. Reason – Joe McCarthy for starters (Dingy Young was born in the US as well), plus a large number of Canadian personnel who could be played by US actors (however most of the good actors in the US are Canadian anyway). (The problems that Joe had in getting off the ground is a sub plot in itself).

8) At last it can be shown what a death trap a Lancaster was when you had to bale out in a hurry. (The escape by the three members of AJ-M (Hopgood’s Aircraft). Bomb Aimer and Rear Gunner got out, Wireless Op hit the tailplane and was killed). The other survivor was Sgt Tees, the tail gunner in Ottley’s aircraft who survived the aircraft’s crash after it was shot down.)

9) Training and Upkeep development, Not much to add on the original Film, However the fact that there was the Highball development and its problems that caused the Navy to try and stop the raid could be mentioned. The fact that Wallis was a pain in the butt to a lot of people who were all for attacking the dams (a lot of other methods of attack on these targets had been suggested before Wallis came up the 10 ton bomb or Upkeep) could also be mentioned. The fact that Ben Lockspeiser came up with the spotlight altimeter and that most bomb aimers used string and chaingraph marks on the bomb aimers clear view panel instead of the wood and nails bomb sight can also be covered. One other point that could be made is how pissed off Wallis was when he was given only 8 weeks to get the bomb ready. Also how dangerous the weapon delivery actually was (ie Maudslay’s trial drop days before the raid, when the aircraft was badly damaged by the splash of the weapon hitting the water). There is also the lead up to the attack, the briefing (there were a number of codewords and in fact GONER was also followed by a code that indicated the Upkeep’s detonation distance and position from the face of the target and the effect on the target). The Upkeep falling off AJ-P during loading and some of the pre takeoff rituals (i.e. the guy who pissed on the tail wheel (and did not come back)) could also be covered.

10) Germans and the Russian POW’s – I’ve no problems in having that side of the story covered. In fact it’s a good way of showing the effects of the attack (i.e. the effects as seen by the German dam engineer who was in one of the access tunnels in the Eder Dam when Les Knight’s weapon blew the hole in it and survived).

11) Mentions at the end to the film can should the positive aspects of the raid. Master Bomber, Tallboy Grand Slam, the other great attacks by 617 Squadron, etc and the effects that Wallis guilt at the end of the war affected the British aircraft industry can be made.

12) Young Actors – Gibson was only aged 23 when he led the raid.

13) The film makers usual reasons for not following a story accurately. Too many characters, too much for the audience to take in which was the excuse for the bits left out in the original film. Well the Longest Day and Blackhawk Down proved that wrong and as in the case of both of those films subtitles can be a great addition to helping audiences follow the story.

14) George Lucas to direct it (he loves the original film) and of course he ripped a line straight out of the original film and used it in Star Wars IV (How many Guns do you think Gold Five (Change Gold Five to Trevor (Roper), Gibson’s Rear Gunner) Trevor-Ropers and Golf 5’s answer is almost the same).

We can but hope.