Kevin,

None of the films you mention are based directly on factual events and as far as I’m aware none of them claim to be. Whereas First of the Few/Spitfire alledges to be the true story, but is so loosely based on truth that it simply distorts history.

My opinion is that as time goes on and future generations become more and more removed from understanding the propaganda situation and the reasons why the film was so different from the truth, and also understanding the events and technology of the Second World War, that this can only confound confusion for the future populace as to what really happened as opposed to what the film says happened.

In fifty, sixty, seventy years time there will be no wartime Spitfire pilots left, nor their children, and very few of the current crop of historians who’ve been able to have personal contact with the WWII generation. The history will become more and more filtered and “revised”. Books are becoming more and more unpopular with the younger people who would rather research by hitting Youtube and looking at something thrown together by Discovery or History Channels. The way we learn has dramatically changed in the past ten years and as technology moves forward who knows how people will view books in fifty years time – they’ll probably be as unpopular to a teen in 2065 as the abacus is to us. But visual media through electronic technology is becoming wider and wider, and more popular with education. Films will probably still be watched then.

Hence the reason I think it’s time this film is laid to rest and a better, more accurate version made that puts the record straight. The same goes for several other factual films that have more fiction than reality.

I spend a fair bit of time trying to record history accurately while we still have the veterans to tell it first hand, and I know that you too have also done this. In my research I have found that many “respected” books by “respected” authors are full of rubbish due to poor research, and I seem to be forever trying to correct misconceptions when I can find a more reliable source and I try to always back up my findings from extra sources when I can to ensure I don’t have it wrong. I feel we as a society should embrace accuracy when it comes to history, and we don’t need more misconceptions being created for generation after generation at will by things like this film, to be frank.

For the record, I have no issues with fiction-based films when they are what they are. I thought U-571 was brilliant as an action adventure, its intended purpose, and I have never seen anyone connected with the film attempting to claim it to be a true story based on real events and people. So there’s no comparison. In fact they acknowledge the true heroes at the end, so what’s wrong with that? I will say that I much prefer Das Boot though.

The point is that it should not be shown any more. or released on DVD, as it’s a load of nonsense. But the unintitated will watch it and take it for what it purports to be, and come away thinking it’s the true story. I don’t even think that as a work of fiction that it comes off as very impressive to be honest. There are far better films from those days.

It is good to hear that Britain is getting to see so many new documentaries and dramas over this period about the battle. Sadly, we’re not.

I think it’s high time the real story was portrayed in a new version, without all the made up story, and with realistic characters. It makes a mockery of history as far as I’m concerned, and could be done better. I’m amazed with all the interest in the Spitfire even these days in Britain that it has not yet been done.

The publication of photographs of the Mapua Mosquito is strictly forbidden by its owner, John Smith. He allows people access and allows them to photograph it, but on the proviso that no photographs of his collection are published online or in print. I don’t know whether mossie.org sought special permission to post the photos they have, but I’d like to hope that other people will respect his wishes. He asks this for his safety and his security, and because he already gets far too many enquiries from people around the world regularly as it is to cope with.

In one of the threads it mentions a 4th but haven’t read the posts in depth so don’t know where the 4th is.

The fourth is another static restoration going on at the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) at Western Springs, Auckland. This is very advanced after many years of restoration by MOTAT and the RNZAF Museum in partnership. It was rescued in the 1960’s from rotting away under a farm hedge, but now is very much back to looking like a proper Mosquito.