A dreadful event, too many lives turned upside down.

Here is a weird thing. Twenty one years ago, in he SAME place !

“Two people standing in the grounds of Waddesdon Manor were watching the glider whilst they waited for relatives. They became aware of the Grumman AA-5B Tiger when it flew almost overhead. It appeared to be flying straight and level at a steady speed, and they were surprised when it did not take early action to avoid the glider.

They continued to watch both aircraft and at a very late stage, they saw the AA-5B Tiger bank to the right, as if to avoid the glider. They thought that the aircraft had come extremely close to each other but had not touched. However, almost immediately, the Tiger entered a diving turn to the left, from which it did not recover. The witnesses heard the AA-5B Tiger’s engine running all the way down the dive, and both were of the impression that the aircraft was behaving as if there was no corrective action from the pilot.

Another witness in the garden of a house close to the impact site saw the Tiger in the final moments of what appeared to be a vertical, high-speed dive. She immediately instigated a 999 telephone call, and the police logged the reporting time as 11:05 hours (10:05 hours UTC).

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=188064

Sim, Thanks for your generosity in putting these lovely photos ‘out there’ and allowing distribution and sharing, with proper accreditation of course. Any preference what name/title should be used ?

There is plenty of scope here for a cracking article in one of the historic aircraft mags, maybe one for the 50th anniversary year, which is almost upon us. I wonder who might run with that !

Any better?

Sim, Really great that you have felt able to put this in the public domain. That link works just fine, and the pictures there are fascinating to study, especially when one remembers the film was almost 50 years ago !

They all deserve a bit of enhancement to revive the colours and tones that have faded over 5 decades, and hopefully someone can sort that out, but a quick tweak in Photoshop is a rewarding exercise.

Thanks again for letting us enjoy these historic photographs.

In modern parlance, this ‘ stuck in the tree’ tale might be called ‘fake news’.

”Can I also suggest that the fact that on the 29 September 1940 P/O Hill’s funeral was held at Hawkinge might lead one to suspect he wasn’t hanging around in the tree tops two or three weeks later?

For reference*: http://www.doverwarmemorialproject.o…vers%20Few.htm

The full (official) story will be available in the next month or so from TNA, Kew, when his casualty file will be in the next batch released

Moggy ”

https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?132154-Pilot-Officer-Howard-Perry-Hill-recovery

http://www.spitfire-restoration.co.za/history.html

”The Early Years

This Spitfire MkIX, otherwise known as 5518, was built in the Castle Bromwich production line in May 1945 and originally designated TE213. She was the 5556th MkIX built and was fitted with a Merlin 70 powerplant. TE 213 was put in storage and eventually sold to the SAAF in July 1947, and was eventually flown to Union via Egypt in mid-August where she was allocated serial 5518 at 15 Air Depot. Now 5518, she was transferred to 1 Air Depot in November and then finally allocated to 1 Squadron at A.F.S Waterkloof on 4th December 1948. 5518 was involved in a collision with another spitfire in June 1949 and sustained category 1 damage and returned to 15 Air Depot. After which 5518 returned to 7 Wing in early (January) 1951 and then being transferred to Air Operations School in April 1951. In September the same year, 5518 hit a drogue cable and sustained category 1 damage. Later in June 1953, 5518 was transferred back to 1 Squadron at A.F.S Swartkop and then back to 15 Air Depot in September for storage. The SAAF retired the Spitfire MkIX in April 1954 and is was then decided to erect a Spitfire gate guardian at A.F.S Waterkloof. Spitfire 5518 was chosen after the removal of her Merlin engine and placed outside the administration block for the next 23 years.

Tragedy Strikes

On the 15th April 2000 at a SAAF Museum Flying Day, 5553 suffered an engine malfunction after a low level fly-past and had to make a forced landing short of the runway, where she went through a security wall, breaking up. 5553 was then put back into storage at the SAAF Museum where she would remain for the next 15 years.

In early 2015, it was decided that the SAAF Museum in conjunction with the Friends of the South African Air Force Museum (FSAAFM) and hopefully with the help of vary dedicated partners and sponsors, to restore 5518 to static condition, with the possibility of making her airworthy once more in the future.”