Dave HomewoodInteresting stuff.
I am interested in the two NZ examples you mentioned – I may be getting confused here as i don’t have references to check, but are they the two first Boeing aircraft ever built that were sold to the Walsh Bros. Flying School at Kohimarama in Auckland? Or are these two seperate old Boeings.
Theorists reckon that the Government holed one of the first two ever Boeings inside the myriad of tunnels at North Head, above Auckland city in the olden days. Many groups have sought approval to open these old MoD tunnels to find the priceless aircraft, but the Govt. won’t allow it stating it is too unsafe. Many think that it’s more the case that they are hiding much more than they’re letting on, ie stockpiles of war surplus ammunition that residents wouldn’t want in their backyards.
The Government reckon neither of these Boeings were ever put into the tunnels, and that calves ate at least one of them (which did happen to other Walsh Bros. aircraft!! But many people say they saw a plane hidden in the catacombs before many passages were filled in to restrict access.
Dave Homewood😀 😀 😀
Dave HomewoodThank you very much gentlemen.
Steve, yep, I’m just awaiting news on this side of the ditch now, like when the new Avenger and Sea Fury are meant to be arriving here (rumours, rumours)…
Wanaka is a long way off though, 2006. But Classic Fighters at Omaka is 2005’s big one. I might have to see if I can get down to it. A mate is in the Catalina Club and is seeing if he can arrange a seat in the Cat for me. Fingers crossed.
Summer? Well, the days are lovely when they’re not wet, but the past few nights have been decidedly chilly. I have been sleeping with two duvets and two blankets!! Usually by December it’s one sheet only. I think we’re having a very mild summer all in all. Just the way I like it, I hate the stinkin hot muggy tropical heat of long summer nights that we usually get from Dec-Feb.
Gnome – who arranged the flyover? Providence, chance, good luck, co-incidence, all of the above I expect. They were obviously just transitting somewhere low and in formation, and happened to pass directly over my house. Wahoo. Great luck. We occasionally see Harvards in transit, and the C47 from Ardmore often goes over if it’s havining engine checks in Hamilton, but Yaks and Nanchangs are rare beasts in these parts.
Dave HomewoodGeoff, yep, I realise that not everyone is into making kitsets and the skill levels vary too. I was perhaps hasty in my criticism. I am just an average modeller myself and many friends who are more hardcore into it humble my efforts.
But I was quite shocked at the prices of these, bearing in mind I was looking at the wholesale prices. Most are just 1/72nd scale, not big. I’m not a big fan of that small scale, I like to see detail and accuracy, and it’s hard enough to replicate in kitset form at that smaller scale, so I am dubious that they are any better in die cast.
They are very nice pieces to collect I guess, and I would have considered buying the RNZAF P40E if it had been in the correct scheme, and also the fact it was in some ‘Aces’ range but it was in the scheme of an aircraft that never left NZ puzzled me. I hope the research is better on the other models, put it this way.
Dave HomewoodHey Gnome, I didn’t mean to upset anyone, including yourself. I took your first message with mirth when I realised my mistake – you saw my post before I had realised the ommission of the year 1943, which made it look like I meant it was written this year, so I fully understand what you’re saying.
So if anyone thought I was stating that Berlin should be bombed today, I wasn’t. Far from it. It was a just piece of history from 61 years ago, and only meant to represent that.
As for those damned Hindu, Lesbian, Disabled Donkeys, my stance is they should all be lined up,against a wall and shot!! It’s just disgusting what they get up to, in those films, that…oh, said too much…
Dave HomewoodSorry Gnome, I simply thought this was a very interesting piece of social history, seeing what the bomber crews did to amuse themselves after hours. It is not meant to offend the fine people of modern-day Berlin. That was never the intention of this post.
Dave HomewoodLast week I had a look through the Corgi die-cast aircraft catalogue that Dad got through his model business.
They are an astoundingingly high price, I don’t know why people pay it (even in Britain). After all they are mass produced and machine made (no doubt in China), as opposed to creating a one-off yourself with a kitset for less money and more detail in most cases.
Having said that for die cast toys they are better than most, and I was impressed with their wide range, surprisingly including two RNZAF aircraft (a 487 (NZ) Sqn Mossie and a P40E). However, the P40E is in the wrong colours!! They have used sand brown instead of dark earth – poor research. 😡
Dave HomewoodHere is another odd thing, he is always credited as Flying Officer. He had been in the RAF since 1936, joining up already a trained pilot, and after a bit of RAF training he was made a Pilot Officer.
The Cambridge newspaper report I have from 18 Novemebr 1939 refers twice to him as an Acting Squadron Leader. But he was back to Flying Officer when he died 7 months later. Would Act. S/L be a temporary rank when, say, he is filling in as CO while a replacement came? Did Cobber command No. 73 Sqn temporarilly?
And what about Flight Lieutenant – the rank in between. Is this purely a mistake by the local newspaper? Or did he go up and then back down the ranks, by either fair or foul means?
Did he perhaps get busted? You’d think someone as publicly loved and followed as he was would be well liked by the top brass. He got results, and was well known for his skill. So why, after almost four years in the RAF, did he end on the lowly rank he did? A bit odd.
Dave HomewoodThanks Laurie, another eyewitness account. Very interesting. Flick rolls and slow rolls are, are they not, two different manouvres? Perhaps for the Doctor that Mitchell talked to, it all happened in slow motion.
It almost sounds like Cobber was totally burned out, which is understandable. He apparently had been very keen to get back to the UK and become an instructor for a rest.
I have read that Noel Monks’ book ‘Fighter Squadrons’ is dedicated to Cobber Kain, but I have not yet seen a copy of the book.
As for his story getting a Hollywood make-over, I perish the thought. They’d no doubt want to cast that idiot Russell Crowe simply because he’s a Kiwi, rather than find an actor that would suit the part. No, I am certain this is a job for New Zealand filmmakers. They are, after all, among the best.
I can think of one star that would be perfect however, Sir Tim Wallis’s Hurricane P3351. It served with Cobber Kain on 73 Sqn, and was one of the aircraft that did a flyover at his funeral!
Dave HomewoodPiece of Cake is the only dramatised programme I’ve seen about the Battle of France, and the film Dunkirk is the only movie I know about that covers that interesting part of the war. Both contain a mix of fiction with fact. I think it would be great to do a purely factual dramatisation that showed the battle as it really was, seen through the story of the Battle’s most famous warrior, Cobber Kain. He’s perfect for such afilm or TV drama.
I think because the Battle of France was such a farcical defeat for the British and French, the media’s previous love for Kain disappeared with his death. The media at large has only looked back on the Battle of France with negative memories, and all the heroic and positive things done in the battle, by many, was quickly forgotten and overshadowed by the heroism of the Dunkirk withdrawal, and the susequent victorious defence of Britain. So the Allies’ withdrawal is remembered, it’s previous victories forgotten, melted into the defeat.
No, Spitfires weren’t based in France.
Incidentally the director of Dunkirk was a Kiwi and I saw him interviewed some years ago when he returned for a visit to NZ. He said that no Allied footage of the Dunkirk withdrawal existed, because the one man who’d been with a film unit and filmed it all had then been orded to throw the cans into the sea to lighten the boat! He said every documentary you see with black and white film taken from an Allied point of view is actually taken on his film set!!
Co-incidentally I was looking up something totally unrelated today at the museum in old 1939 locl newspapers, and I found that Cobber Kain had visited Cambridge in 1935, and stayed with the family of Don Taylor, who himself went onto become a Spitfire pilot with 485 (NZ) Sqn. He too died by hitting the ground during a low manouvre in 1945, when he was strafing a railway yard and hit a lamppost!
Ant, that bit about him drinking the night before was something I’d forgotten. In Alan Mitchell’s book he noted that when they’d first met, Cobber was a very fit, large man. This all the photos and newsreel proves. But Mitchell said on their final meeting many months later Cobber was thin and tired and drawn, due to the lack of meals and long combat hours. I guess by then alcohol went to his head much more, without him realising he shouldn’t drink so much. He may not have even had that much to drink, but it may have been too much for his frail frame.
Dave HomewoodThanks Mike and Ross.
Mike, that books sounds very interesting, I’ll see if the library can get it. If not, I might have a to fire a few questions in your direction (don’t worry, most Cambridge airmen who were shot down in Bomber Command died, there were only a few POW’s, so not too many questions).
Ross, an interesting list and great resource, though none of the three men I looked up who are associated with my research are on the list. One was not a prisoner of Gerry, he was actually interned in Spain for four months. There is no doubt a really interesting story behind this one, but sadly the chap died in 1997.
Dave HomewoodWhoa! I can’t believe that gorgeous Dauntless is no more, what a shame. I did like the photo of the crewman consoling the pilot though, haha.
Dave HomewoodAh, that’s right, thanks John. Sorry for my vagueness. Getting old.
Dave HomewoodI have more somewhere. Will do some digging about. The event in this photo was simply a passing through of the two on the way somewhere north (or perhaps going home) one weekend. It was often the case on a weekend when the base was deadly dull the boredom would be broken by the sound of a Merlin or Alison or P&W and one or more of Sir Tim’s brood would be making a pitstop, so of course many of us ‘baggies’ on base would wander down to the apron for a look.
I recall one Sunday I was in the Museum itself and they announced that the Spitfire was about to take off. A large crowd of tourists rushed out and had a free airshow they hadn’t expected. Sir Tim used the grass strip right next to the museum hanger (No. 1) so we all got a good view, and he did a few passes for the crowd who he’d obviouslyt seen gathering. I was stood next to an American Army Medic who said he’d just returned from the Gulf War and had only just arrived in NZ to be based with the USN Operation Deep Freeze at Harewood. He was very impressed indeed. He said he’d had no idea we had anything like the RNZAF Musuem, which had blown him away, but seeing the Spit capped it off for him.
Here are a couple of other shots taken on occasions at Wigram and at Wanaka which I think I’ve posted before, but I’m sure I have more to find.
This includes the shot you mention from the Avenger OMFC Fan.
Dave HomewoodI have a vague memory from the mid-1970’s, and my parents remember well, seeing them fire up the Lanc. I’m not sure how many engines though, I was pretty young, but I have been told it was a regular event for a while, every weekend or something like that. That was when it was at the main museum, MOTAT 1.
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