scary if she had been around in ’39 or ’40 but still reckon if she had stuck her nose out after that you could have been doing a sea water dive somewhere off the Norwegian coast!!! 🙂

PS why are ships, aircraft and cars always female???

A ship is called a she because there’s always a great deal of bustle around her…because there’s usually a gang of men around…because she has waist and stays…because she takes a lot of paint to keep her looking good…because it’s not the initial expense that breaks you, it’s the upkeep…because she is all decked out…because it takes a good man to handle her right…because she shows her topside, hides her bottom and, when coming into port, always heads for the buoys. 😀

Ali

Hurrifan……. think boots and dangly bits before you reply. 😀 😀 😀 😀

Looking though the September 1941 issues of the New Zealand Herald I found a photo of 45 men, all in civilain suits (though all exactly the same suit! Like a civvy uniform) marching in three ranks up a railway platform.

The caption states:

“MARCHING WITH A SWING: Young British air cadets marching along a Los Angeles railway platfrom after their arrival for training. Those who gain their wings will take their places in the Royal Air Force.”

So was this done at civilian US flying training schools? Were these air cadets kept as civvies so as not to breach the neutrality rules? It’s really quite interesting as this was published on the 3rd of September 1941, so would have been taken some days or weks before then, before the USA was at war and whilst many of the US citizens were convinced that Canada training airmen for the RAF was bad enough. Did they realise it was happening in their own country too?

Does anyone know details? Where did they train? How many Brits went through such courses? Were other nationalities (Kiwis, Aussies, etc) also sent to the USA to train before the USA entered the war?

I know Kiwis and Brits and others went to the USA after America joined the fight, to train with the US Navy for flying in the Fleet Air Arm. But I’d never heard of British or Empire airmen training there before Decemebr 1941. Interesting stuff.

I did hear that Sunderland crews were sent to the US to train on the lend lease B17s that we had. Not sure when that happened but I will check. I remember that it said that the instructors were seriously impressed with their flying skill.

Ali

Have come across a few blog sites where doubts have been expressed as to the i.d of this wreak definately being the Graf Zeppelin but i havent been able to find out anything more recently than the initial discovery report.

Has anyone heard anything ?

In addition i wonder if anyone has thoughts on whether the Graf could have been a success? she was i understand going to be pretty fast with a large air complement and poss considerable range.

What would have been her most effective use or role?and could she have survived ?

She was planned to do 35 knots with a range of 8000 miles at 19 knots. Supplies for 7 to 8 weeks with a crew of 1720 + 317 aircraft technical personnel.

Ali

That sounds like a cunning plan.

Sorry, but someone had to say it 😀

Is a plan so cunning you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel?

Ali (just proving you ain’t the only sad one on this forum)
😀

Amazing… the MoD think they can get 7500 quid for a Lightning nose, yet are throwing away complete Jaguars at 500 quid a time…!!

Maybe just trying to hit the cash strapped museums. There is at the end of the day an enthusiasts market too.

Ali

USS Phoenix survived the attack on Pearl Harbour and was sold in 1951 to Argentina … she was sunk by HMS Conqueror in 1982 as the A.R.A. General Belgrano.

I heard that there were a lot of the task force who wanted their carrier to come out to play as we had flogged it to them in the first place. It stayed home. 🙁

great pics folks, thanks. has anyone got any pics of the B29 washingtons flown by the RAF?
cheers.
Greg

If you check out http://www.rafwatton.info/subjs/wash/wash1.html there are some photos there and there are also some newsletters about the Washington for download.

Ali