Wow, thank you all for this fascinating information. It is a really interesting topic, and one that should warrant some sort of modern revisit through either documentary or dramatic film.

It must have been quite something to fly all that way in such flimsy slow old planes, to face flak, etc, and I thought WWII was bad.

Thanks for the referrals to those books. Sadly any books that are scarce in the UK are going to be almost non-existent in NZ. I hve never come across anything on the subject in any of the three local libraries I use. But is is good to know someone has recorded it all for posterity.

Do any genuine WWI bombers still exist? I know the two Vimys that are around (one in Hendon) are replicas, but does Germany have anything like a Gotha or anything in a museum?

Great story about your grandmother to cbstd. She sounds like a really lady. 🙂

Wow. That’s really interesting, thanks Relightflynn9

I’m afraid Google hasn’t been much help as it picks up loads of WWII blitz sites but little about WWI

I’d always thought that the Spanish Civil War was the first in which cities were bombed en masse. Goes to show really. That article says on Oct 31 1913 the Germans sent 30 bombers to raid Kent and London. Quite a force for WWI as squadron activity was gernerally much smaller flights in that war, wasn’t it?

Yes, I totally agree with you both having thought about it. I wonder if the reference I take this from means the first sortie to fly from England, not France?

Or perhaps it has the aircraft type mixed up. Or it is all bull. It was written in a 1945 issue of RNZAF Contact magazine which I just received today among many other stats and feats performed involving RNZAF pilots, etc.

Did RAF Mustangs fly over Germany before USAAF ones?

Who Do That Voodoo?

Thanks Allan. I guess Flt Lt Thompson must have been the Navigetor since the quote says he guided it. what an incredible trip. The glider must have had wheels I guess, not sure what a CG-4A looks like. Will try to find a piccie.

I have another one, a World War One pilot who also served in WWII as well.

Keith Caldwell. Quite an amazing chap really. He was on the first course of the famous Walsh Brothers Flying School at Kohimarama, becoming their second pupil to pass his test and get his licence. he then went to the UK and joined the RFC. He served in No 60 Sqn where he won the Military Cross. On one occasion in that sqn he saw that Major W.A. Bishop was under attack from seven German fighter, and despite having no ammo left himself he returned from the safety of Allied lines back eight miles over enemy territory to bluff the fighters away from Bishop so he could escape.

He was also one of the few pilots to escape a long chase by German ace Werner Voss (who had 48 victories to his credit at the time) by pretending he’d been hit and then turning the tables and loosing off 94 rounds himself. Voss escaped but Caldwell was at least not shot down.

After a rest period he got command of 74 Sqn, which included Mick Mannock VC and several other aces, and between Jan 1918 and the end of the war the Sqn shot down 230 aircraft.

On one patrol his aircraft collided with another in the flight, and was badly damaged. It dropped 1000 feet then went into an uncontrollable flat spin. He stepped half out of the cockpit and holding the strut he managed to balance the plane a bit better. It spun for 5000 feet. Just before it hit the ground he stepped off onto the ground, rolled, stood up and walked away, much to the astonishment of troops on the ground that witnessed the whole thing!

He had many other adventures in WWI and shot down 25 aircraft. He later joined the RNZAF in WWII and commanded RNZAF Station Woodbourne, then Wigram, then went to India and onto the UK.

I think his early career would make a great story, especially since he served with many aces and had some really amazing adventures. And he survived. He died in 1980.

Cheers John,

I have this nagging feeling I read in an Aussie magazine about a Walrus converted into something. May have been in Flightpath or (what’s the other glossy Aussie magazine we used to see here that included warbirds stuff?)

I have this vision of an old, old photo. I may be completely confusing it with the UK one and the Catalina caravan in Aussie, but there’s this idea in the back of my mind.

When are you coming here? And where to? I noticed you were off to England but didn’t see you’re coming here too.

Sorry guys, it seems from that link to the boom it must be spelled Wikner. On checking the original article it is spelled both ways. I looked at the wrong one when righting the above last night, sorry. That is the only thing that lets down the magazine is the occasional typo.

Funnily enough Graham Orphan (the editor) mentions Wikner had a Wicko “Wizard”, which he describes as “a racy low wing monoplane that would make a nice subject for a replica even now.”