Cheers guys, I was being tongue-in-cheek of course. I love Mustangs.

Thanks Mark for the explanation of what they’re actually doing, it’s great to know warbirds like the P-51D, Spirtfires and P-40’s are so well supported to keep more and more flying around the world.

Jeepman, I’ve read a lot of those nit-picker arguments. I’m not so picky myself but I have to say it always astounds me how the model companies don’t actually listen to the “expert” modellers as they always seem to get something wrong on the millions of Fw190 and Mustang releases that come onto the market, etc.

A couple of queries, I looked at the Flug Werk website but it’s all in German which i don’t speak. I wonder, is there a limited number of these aircraft being built or are they planning to make them for as long as anyone wants to buy them?

Also, was that two-seater that James”s photos show built in the factory in that condition or was the extra seat added in the field? It’s not pretty, but indeed a rarity (one off now I guess). Is that the one now in Hendon?

Just spotted on Kenneth William’s website, he states:

What a bleedin’ shame – As expected, no luck with “Hoppies” Stork Hotel leave pass, must have been someone else perhaps, don’t you think?

Mr Williams, with all due respect I feel you have not taken much time to look.

Real genuine research is something that takes much time and patience. There have been less than two days since I made the suggestion of a leave pass to the forum – one I thought – as a seasoned researcher – to be sensible and valid and in no way derogatory to either side of this ongoing argument that I’m trying to stay clear of.

Out of interest, may I ask where so far, in less than two days, you’ve actually looked for the leave pass of Colin Hopkinson?

Was your research only done via the internet? I’m sure his records would probably be held in the UK. If leave passes are not kept in personal records perhaps they’re recorded in the unit’s records that a person was attached to. After all the unit had to note where an airman was going to on leave.

May I suggest you be patient and try again, maybe you’ll be luckier on the second attempt if you are more thorough. Good luck.

Thanks very much Will. I am looking forward to seeing photos of the finished scheme.

Great photo by the way!

I wonder why they have not made this multi region zoned, like the Canadian version. R2 limits its sales a little (unless like many DVD’s claiming to be of one region they’re secretly multi-zoned?)

I have the Canadian DVD version and love it. It’s a superb series, with great acting as well as characterisations. I think Uncle is one of the supreme characters, and Skull is also wonderful.

I’d be interested to hear from anyone who has got or has seen both UK and Canadian DVD versions – is this British one actually better quality than the Canadian release? As far as clarity, sound etc?

I have a wartime article about the poem if anyone’s interested. This comes from Contact: The Official Magazine of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, April-May 1942. I suspect the original source was a US-based report. I’ll not bother quoting the poem itself.

Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee Jnr., an American citizen born of missionary parents in Shanghai and educated at Britain’s famed Rugby school, was killed on active service in Britain last December. He was 19 years old and had the cause of freedom in his heart.
Pilot Officer Magee had poetry in his heart too, and, in the form of a sonnet, he left a message to youth which his parents consider may be a greater thing than anything he had done in the way of fighting.
Pilot Officer Magee sent the sonnet, scribbled on the back of a letter to his parents, Reverend and Mrs. John G. Magee, who now live in Washington. Mr Magee is assistant Minister at St. John’s Church, Lafayette Square. The Library of Congress, learning of the poem, has requested the original manuscript for inclusion in a collection called “Poems For Faith and Freedom,” which includes works of Burns, Clough, Longfellow, Walt Whiman and Shelley.
The poem was composed last September as the exultant freedom of soaring 30,000 feet the earth amde a word-pattern in his mind. These words were scribbled on the back of a letter after he had returned to earth:-

[POEM INSERTED HERE]

After learning of his son’s death, Mr magee wrote to the RCAF: “When my wife and I saw how deeply he felt about the situation in September 1940, we gave our consent and blessing to him, as he left us to enter the RCAF. We were proud of his determination and spirit. We knew that such news as did come might come. When his sonnet reached us we felt then that it had a message for American youth, but did not know how to get it before them. Now his death has emblazened it across the whole country. We are thinking that this may have been a greater contribution than anything he may have done in the way of fighting, for surely our American youth must enter this conflict in the high spirit of idealism and faith… May we thank the RCAF for all the training and help you have given to our boy.
“We saw a tremendous change in him when he returned to us from his training, a change that was all for the good. We do not regret that we gave our consent to his going and will be forever proud of him.”
Pilot Officer Magee lived in Shanghai for nine years and then was sent to England for his education. After Rugby he came to the United States for the first time in the summer of 1939 and there won a scholarship which would send him to Yale. He was entered at Yale in September 1940, when, having attained his eightennth birthday, he felt he must fight.
He enlisted in Montreal early in october and, on completion of his training at a Flying Training School near Ottawa, he was commissioned from the ranks in June 1941, and proceeded overseas shortly afterwards.

The latest issue of Classic Wings announced this news last week, stating that the Fw190 A-9/N will be taken to Duxford for flight testing by the US owner who has just purchased it.

The claim that the Japanese called it the “Whispering Death” means that someone,somewhere had to interogate some japanese soldier and to be told that the japanese forces called it so, doesnt it ?

Or perhaps another scenario is the Allies got hold of a Japanese publication – a magazine or newspaper – where their own press had coined the phrase for propaganda reasons.

I’ve heard they also called the Corsairs ‘Whistling Death’, but who knows – same old situation of finding the true source.