Slightly easier to follow who’s who here. Great bit of work by BBC and others to find photos of them all.
…….And a few hours after the B17s had landed from Schweinfurt, Bomber Command were taking off for Peenemunde. Also 70 yrs ago tonight.
Mikesh was required reading for RAFM ten years ago. Can’t comment on what they read these days.
In the DT from a few days ago.
Info on the programme here
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-plane-that-saved-britain/episode-guide
I’d recorded this on VHS many years ago. Probably when it came out. Long since accidentally recorded over it by mistake. Hopefully you’ll have seen Jack Curry’s equally good two other documentaries.
The Augsburg Raid
http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=z2deq8gbYV4
And The Lancaster Legend
Got to the end of the queue at about 8.30, got in at about 10.15. The traffic stopped completely for about 20 mins when, so Plod said, because the gates were closed to allow an aircraft to take off (?). When we moved again, got directed to one of the off airfield fields for parking (purple car park, i think). Which meant when we left we found ourselves at the front of the queue to leave and not stuck on the airfield itself, like many hundreds seem to be and moving nowhere fast. So very lucky and can’t complain. Tickets were on sale at the gate.
Thanks for the heads up there, 11group! Having just arrived from Spain for Waddington, I’d have been none the wiser. Just rushed over to Morrisons in Peterborough and got tickets there.
There’s more new black gone onto her since, extending up the fuselage sides and around the markings. The two tone effect- from memory, the newer stuff is more matt- looks horrible.
Haven’t seen the old girl for a few years, so can’t comment. I’d like to see a comprehensive restoration/conservation as per G-George in Australia rather than anything piecemeal.
If you are talking about the external paint, the short answer is, No. Photos taken of its delivery to Hendon in 1972 clearly shows the aircraft in bear metal, apart from the bomb mission markings and the Goring quote on the port side. The paint on the port bomb bay door and the port undercarrige doors dates from the early 2000’s. I should know, I painted them! There was corrosion control required.
The internal sides of various panels appear to show original paint, however. Internally, the aircraft is very much intack – in part as a result of the restoration prior to display at Hendon. A couple of labels show where parts have gone to BBMF.
How much of the airframe flew all 137 missions is debatable as repairs by Avro in Nov 1943 would have been fairly comprehensive. Historic airframe, nevertheless.
RAF Museum Facebook have posted some internal photos. This is cockpit area looking read wards.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]218004[/ATTACH]
Not sure why anyone thinks it’s worth while resurrecting this sad story right now.
The late, great, Leonard Cheshire V.C. once pointed out that that, on average, for each DAY of the War the Nazis murdered 10,000 people in the concentration and extermination camps. So 45,000 is little under one working week’s work for the evil Nazis regime. His point was that Bomber Command’s role was to put an an end to this evil, no matter the cost to civilians in Germany and indeed BC themselves, as soon as possible, and just stop the killing on all sides. And let’s not forget, he was one the world’s greatest humanitarian if ever there was one.
Paul 178…..I ask would anyone want to keep and display a Taliban IED to show what sort of weapon blew someones loved one to pieces?
Sadly, from a historical point of view the straight answer is, Yes. How else do you tell the story to future generations what our brave guys in Afghanistan were up against? Same point the BoB, it was brave guys against Dornier 17s. And the allied bomber offensive against Germany and Japan did what to the civilian population in those counties????? Preserve just Lancasters, B17s, B29s and no V1s and V2s you will have a distorted view of history. IMHO.