I remember Gary Halliday – and didn’t he have a lot of trouble with a rather irritable looking bloke known only as ‘The Voice’?

Does anyone remember a TV play probably from the -60’s, which had a murder mystery plot – a young couple running through some woods – for some reason they venture off the beaten track and discover the wreck of a twin engine aircraft, been there since the war undiscovered. Thet scrape the moss off the cockpit canopy – and of course there is the pilot grinning skeletally from under his flying helmet.

Police discover one bullet hole through the back of the skull. Conclusion – somebody in the crew fired the shot from a service revolver, bailed out safe in the knowledge that the aircraft would crash, and obviously miffed when police turn up all those years later to ask awkward questions. Aircraft being well trimmed carried out an uncontrlled forced landing in the woods.

Anybody – please tell me it wasn’t a childhood nightmare? The idea of finding an aircraft lieing undiscovered since the war certianly gripped my imagination.

SoG

Um, is it a Bloodhound – in Germany, perhaps RAF Bruggen or Wildenrath, say around 1969?

As an air cadet I remember going on Annual Camp to Bruggen, but my memory now fades as to where exactly I saw batteries of them all facing East – arounf the perimeter of one the RAF aerodromes we visited. The only other thing I remember about that camp was that I got plastered with blanco and boot polish – ex ATC cadets will know to what I refers.

Edit – silly suggestion, googling images of bloodhounds tells me that I am wrong, never mind though – least I had a go.

SoG

May I suggest as a change from Museums you get up to Hill 112 and walk across to Cornwall wood, through the copses and down towards the village of Esquay. Here you can still see the countyside just as it was in 1944, and the fields and hedgerows still give up the rusting remains of the tools of war.

“During two days fighting alone, 10th-11th July 1944, the 43rd (Wessex) Division suffered more than 2,000 casualties, and the slopes of the Hill were ablaze with the wrecks of British tanks (largely Churchills) knocked out by the SS Panzer units in occupation of the high ground. Hill 112 was not finally cleared until 3rd August, during the final phase of the breakout from Normandy. By that time the crest of the hill had been turned into a vast crater-zone of shell holes, wrecked vehicles and the bodies of those who had fought and died here.”

http://www.army.mod.uk/lightinfantry/history_traditions/major_battles/hill_112_1944/

Remembering 43rd (Wessex) Division – Normandy 1944.

Does it need a cushion for the Pilot’s seat? I have one, of the ‘L’ shaped variety – nasty green canvas affair stuffed with what might be straw. It came from a Canberra alright, that I do know.

SoG

A respectful salute!

SoG

http://www.warbirdrestoration.co.nz/current.html#ka114

Just look what they started with!

Dave, no big thing – but I think the rumour was that Earhart was tasked with spying on the Japanese movements, rather than spying for the Japanese.

TIGHAR’s Earhart project is interesting: http://www.tighar.org/

They have been sifting soil in the excavation of a site on the island of Tinian reputed to be the graves of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan.

Now Star Dust has been found, and Burt Lancaster, there are not many mysteries of the air remaining I suppose.

Best wishes,

SoG