I was 17, and I lapped up the films like Battle of Britain and Piece of Cake, because I was just about to join the RNZAF.

I remember wishing that the Air Force would be a little like in the movies, and lo and behold whilst doing my basic trianing, Stephen Grey visited Woodbourne and displayed in Tim Wallis’s Spitfire – the first time I’d ever seen one in the air. So yes, I got my little wish. 😎

I’m guessing the wartime shot in the quarry was before the presentation in Sept 1943?

The booklet dates from 1944, so it cannot be more than a few months after it was presented, most likely quite a bit earlier. Surely such a significant airframe would not have been stripped and abandoned so soon after all the fuss of ‘presenting it to the people of Malta’.

What sort of prop is present in your photograph Dave, 2 or 3 bladed? Wonder if the current prop dates from the original ‘patch up’ in 1943 or from later restoration work, they would all have been metal three bladed units when in service I would have thought?

It has a two-blade prop in the handover photo. Judging from the date of your pamphlet you’re undoubtedly correct.

Yep, Agreed.

Does the aircraft in the presentation photo look something like the second one Dave?

No, When handed over it was much more complete. In the photo it has an engine, propellor, cowl ring and undamaged tail. Looks kike the vandals got to it afterwards then?

Really? How interesting. I’d go and have a harder look at the 1930s newspapers if I were you. There were quite a lot of people in Britain and the USA and just about anywhere else who either didn’t mind, liked or admired Hitler and what (was known of) the Nazis were up to.

There was quite a substantial lobby in Britain (for instance) who were quite happy to see Hitler carry on. When he turned out to nbe quite as bad as we now know, there was rather a lot of foot shuffling and cover up going on. Hindsights a wonderful thing, but mightly innacurate.

All I can say is the press here in New Zealand were obviously much more far-sighted than those of other western countries, which is often the way with us Kiwis. We have all the brains and none of the power. 😉

What first alerted me to even bother to look at the first article I saw was the headline “Hitler and his Terrorists”. I was surprised to see it was a scathing attack on his policies, and this was in 1933. I saw a number of others after that as I went through the papers, and none were in support of the Nzis or Hitler, that’s for sure. I was stunned that they were talking about the likelihood of another war because of Hitler even then.

I will concede that that some people in the west did think he was the bees knees. Around that same time the Yanks were making him Time Man of the Year – twice. But then there were a lot of Nazi sympathisers in the USA even during the war, some of whom were media moguls.

From what I’ve heard and read the Nazi supporters in Britain under Moseley’s party were not a popular little group either, most normal people seemed to despise the national socialists or fascists from what I’ve come across. But as you say, this may be presented with a hindsight view. Anyway, enough politics. Or as I always like to more accurately term it, bollitics.