I am not sure if it is only the first line that is relevant to the paint finish, but as it is stenciled in a single block it is likely that the whole text refers to the paint finish.

No.34 MU were at Stoke Heath in the early 1950s.

Tell her to take anti-depressants first.

Sorry Hull, I know it isn’t your fault, first the Luftwaffe then the town planners and then the end of fishing & industry, not to mention two Jags.

Now on to the programme, it was a good mix of early war events. But, and there is always one. What happened to the crew of the He111? I know it is on Simon Parry’s site but it should have been at least mentioned that 3 crew got out and were taken prisoner and 2 were killed. Also it could have been made clear that it wasn’t a 1940 crash (the only real clue being it was shot down by a Beaufighter rather than Defiant or did I miss the date).

Interesting that more than one tag came out with the Werk Number on it, the other (in the programme) looked like it had more detail than the one on Simon’s site or is just the fact it actually said Heinkel that it was the example.

How complete was the less bent engine once the mud was cleaned off it? It looks to be in good condition, certainly an excellent display item.

Here’s the IPlayer link http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wxb07/Dig_1940_Battle_of_Britain/

The second programme was certainly better than the first as it had more of a ‘storyline’ to it but it does still come across as a bit of a cook’s tour of crash sites with an excavator, it doesn’t go into the reason why they are excavated or the hoops that have to be jumped through to get approval and what happens to the material once it has been recovered. The only mention was World Heritage Site status, I guess it is too boring for primetime viewers to inflict the paperwork on them.

The aircraft behind the Hurricanes looked like a Handley Page Harrow.

The only aircraft from that time period where Leconfield is mentioned specifically and there were two crew killed is Meteor T. Mk.7 WL410, 12-4-1957. Dived into the ground during single engine flying.

Source: Broken Wings, J.J. Halley.

Canberra, whole!

Are you having a laugh or just unaware of how it was got out of Salmsbury?

There are bits of it everywhere and the “careful” cuts by the transport contractor have left wide gaps and cuts where there shouldn’t cuts. At best, hack the cockpit off and weigh the rest in.

Just checked on RAF Commands and he got mentioned in Henk Welting’s post for the 29th July 1940. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?t=912&highlight=29-7-1940

Conclusion was he was killed in Tutor K3287.

http://www.airnorth.demon.co.uk/section3zart3.htm has XV790 as AP & XZ136 as O.

There is a photo of XZ136 on Flickr taken on the 19th October 1987, http://www.flickr.com/photos/gerbenwessels/3761384156/ so I recoken we could safely say it looked exactly the same just before it crashed. You can see the O on the upper part of the tail fin.