Thanks, chaps. I googled and found the same. Haven’t found any in Australia yet but the search is in its infancy!

There’s a Swordfish beer too? Just found a good supplier for Spitfire down here so will have to look for these.

Churchstanton later known as Culmhead in Somerset UK was an operational fighter station throughout the second world war.
On one of my many visits to this airfield I found a rusty piece of metal sticking out of the ground. *As I picked it up I noticed a name painted on it in remarkably good condition. The name was Flt Lft Glaser, .After a bit of research and plenty of phone calls I managed to get a letter forwarded to Sdr Ldr Glaser via the Fighter asssociation.
A few days later I had a phone call from a very real Sdr Ldr Glaser. He was as amazed as I was and told me that he had only been at Culmhead for two weeks. While there he was flying with a ninety gallon drop tank attached to his Spitfire. In his log book is recorded a flight of 5hrs 10mins. He was operational throughout the war from the Battle of Britain to Australia in 1945 logging 3000 operational hours. Over the years we became good friends.

That’s a particularly wonderful story, Graham.

We’re not running C-27Js yet. A couple of years to go, IIRC, before they’re operating here. Should be a good replacement for the Caribou which operated alongside the Herc for decades. Admittedly, during that time, we didn’t have anything like the Globemaster.

Des Curtis’ book A Most Secret Squadron has all the gumf on the Highball Mossies of No. 618 Sqdn and their formation for an attack on Tirpitz, the special detachment using the Tsetse Mossie and then the re-formation for ops in the Far East. They were based at Narromine in central New South Wales and, post-war, the aircraft were sold off to farmers. The immediate family of a good mate of mine (Albion restorer Phil Dixon) bought one of the Highball Mossies (DZ582/U), stripped it of bits and burnt the rest (he is stilll dismayed at that). The engines were still extant with a collector until recently but may have gone overseas.

The museum at Narromine has a good chunk of 618 Mossie and the Camden collection has enough that it looks like a Mossie project. Quite historic relics.

Re the non-operational side of things in the Far East, it is also mentioned in the book that the US were not keen to support a specialist squadron from their forward bases.

Way to go, Tony. I’m waiting on a high res cover image from P&S and then it’ll be going up on ABR. I’ll PM you.

Nothing like sexing up an article with fighter jets.

I reckon the retired Seahawk will be used for spares or as an instructional airframe as opposed to being sold on. No insider knowledge, just makes sense to me.

didn’t the Aussies lose one doing this very same party piece ?

No, the RAAF never lost an F111 doing this.