PaulHi all,
It looks like the microlight chaps have cottoned on to this scale B17.
There is a new catagory of microlight called SSDR (Single seat deregulated). So maybe there is hope for scale Halibags, Stirlings, Wellingtons, Hampdens, Whitleys etc…..
PaulHi all,
I have to agree with everything said here. Last year I bit the bullet and bought a dedicated slide scanner..
I use a Plustex7200i. It has the IR scratch and dust removal facility but that makes the scans very,very slow So I am just doing my favourites like this. I am using the Sliverlit software that came with it and is seems to work fine. I am working at its maximum optical resolution.
The worst thing of all is dust. Even what I thought were my best slides have no end of hidden flecks
It is also very long winded process and one to do while you are doing something else or it will send you bananas!
I’m about half way through my slides (Mid 1970’s till 2002).. When I’ve finished that there will be my thirty years worth of Black and white negs to do. I will be a jibbering wreck by the time I’m finished, but it is quite nostalgic looking back over all those years… Where did the time go!
Paul.
PaulThanks…. Apologies for that…. I must get on and have a look at the forum each day… Awkward things like work do ge tin the way!
Paul.
PaulHi,
Try the airfield exchange forums…. They are a helpful bunch. I am sure that someone there will have some pictures.
http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/
Paul.
PaulHi all,
Taken from “578 squadron Operations” by W/O Chuck Adams DFC:
————————–
A survey of the rate of survival by aircraft and by crew position was taken by P.O.W Group Captain Marwood Elton amongst his fellow P.O.W’s
Aircraft Crew position Safest to worst Escaped safely
Lancaster N, B/A, F/E, W/O, P, M/U, R/G 10.9%
Stirling N, W/O, R/G, F/E, M/U, B/A, P 16.9%
Halifax N, F/E, W/O, B/A, M/U, R/G, P 29.4%
Wellington N, W/O, M/U, P, R/G 27.5%
————————–
I can’t really say that this sounds a very scientific study and I don’t know the numbers involved.
Other comments were that the Lanc was the most likely to break up in the air and the Halifax was the best one to be in for a crash landing. The Halifax Navigator stood best chance of getting out as his seat was over the escape hatch.
Group Captain Marwood Elton was station commander of RAF Burn. He went on a “trip” to Frankfurt with 578 squadron Halifax Lk-R (Robert) in March 1944 and got shot down. He must have been one of the highest ranking RAF P.O.W’s. (He was co-pilot of Brooklands Wellington R-Robert when it ditched – so R-Robert was not a good omen for him).
Finally I did read somewhere that your average Stirling lasted about 13, trips Halifax 15 & lancaster about 17….. Not very good odds whichever you were flying! In the six months Jan-June 1943 6,498 airmen failed to return from night bombing. Of these 1,203 are known to have survived.. 19%… Not good odds of getting out!
Paul.
PaulThey weren’t used that much… Halibags got rid of them and Stirling tugs removed them.
Head-on attacks at night with the rapid closing spead required were rare.
Halifaxes did have a “scare” gun in the nose and this was beefed up on the Coastal command Halifaxes for straffing U-boats.
Paul.
PaulTirpitz – The Halifax raids.
If they had pulled it off it would have ranked with the likes of the Dambusters and Amiens raids….
Paul.
Paul🙂 I think we have two issues here,
1,recovery of the planes ,i am all for it and they should be bought back as a memorial to those that did die BUT only WHEN
2, The human remains where still around MUST be responsibly recovered and treated with utmost respect.
By all means this should be a win /win situation for all parties,however as humans we make things much too difficult.
Hi all,
I have to agree with Trumpeters comments.
Yes get the planes back and restored if possible, but respect must be made for the remains of the crew and the sacrifice they made.
My mother lost her only brother who was a Flight engineer on Halifaxes. He was reported missing with the family having no information about him until his body was found six months after the war ended. She has often told me how awful it was not knowing anything, and even though he now has a resting place she still misses him and so having been robbed of an Uncle so do I.
From a personal point of view having lost my eldest son a grave to visit is some point of contact and help for the memories so yes some councils may remove some cemeteries but there are many more well kept and tended ones. A place to visit and reflect.
I would suggest visiting places such as the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery. It is a very, very sobering place.
I cannot subscribe to the shallow view that the sacrifice made by those who have gone before us should be regarded as just a “pile of old bones”, and applaud the aviation archaeologists who take the time to remove remains carefully and with the respect they deserve.
Paul.
PaulHi all,
Going back to the original post I don’t think that there are any official reports of Luftwaffe crews being lynched in Britian
There are some official reports about about allied aircrew being lynched in Germany and some of those responsible were brought to justice after the war. My belief is the fact that there are so few reports is because it is a particuarly unsavoury part of warfare and that very, very few of the sufferers survived.
I think that it may well have occurred during the early years of the War in the UK but once the fear of bombing and invasion diminished there would be less likelyhood of this happening.
In Germany however the story is very different and I have to conclude that this sadly happend quite frequently.
The German people were brought up to think that the allied bomber crew were “terror fliers” and they were on the receiving end of quite a pasting. After the Great Escape Hilter wanted to see all downed airmen killed.
There are quite a few unofficial reports. You only have to read the many books now written on aircrew experiences to read tales of downed crews being paraded through bombed streets to see other allied crew strung from lamposts and tales of Hilter youth & SS shooting the captured. It was also ingrained into the folklore of the crews going on the missions and something they feared most. Many said they would rather go down with their aircraft over the target than risk bailing out into a hostile bombed city.
Here is a link to the well documented B17 crew that were lynched in 1945. Because there were survivors there was a war crimes investigation. (There was an article in Flypast some years ago).
http://www.angriff1945.de/pages/pforzheim_60_jahre_19450223_page_009.htm
Warfare is horrible and thankfully the sacrifice of all those brave heroic souls has not been for nothing as we have had relative peace since.
Regards all,
Paul.
PaulWas PA474 supposed to make an appearance somewhere in the UK this weekend ?[/QUOTE]
She was supposed to do a flypast of a new 158 Squadron memorial on Saturday 16 May 2009 at 15:30.
It will be unveiled 15:05 hrs by The Archbishop of York , Dr John Sentamu . The memorial will carry the names of all 158 squadron personnel who were killed on bomber operations during the war. The memorial designed and sculptured by Peter Naylor of Beverley has been sponsored by Novera Energy who are building a wind farm on the site of the former wartime airfield . Once
operational all of the wind turbines will carry the names of squadron
aircraft.
I am sure that she had a full programme of events to fly to other than this.
Paul.
PaulHi all,
Me again,
I’ve just driven back through York and noticed that the huge hangers used to service the mighty Halifax bombers at Clifton airfield (The Halifax civilian repair depot) were being demolished…. Another piece of Handley Page Halifax History gets destroyed.
Clifton Moor is a depressing place (Now just an industrial & shopping complex) One small road is named “Halifax Way”…. Small regard for the many hundreds damaged Halifaxes repaired and put back into service there.
Paul.
Paulwhich halibag is that from?
NA337 in canada…
Hi all,
I posted these pictures a few years ago on another Halifax forum…
These pictures are the covered wagon section which I believe ended up as part of the Halifax at Elvington.
The photo was taken in the mid 1970’s at a small aviation museam at Newby Hall near Ripon (I think).
The long haired youth standing in the escape hatch is me. There was also what looked like a fresh crated up Hercules…
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PaulOn the BBC website today a video interview with Frank Stone, one of those who helped dig the tunnel.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7962600.stm
Paul.
PaulHi there,
Spoke to Harry Fraser Mitchell on the phone yesterday evening and he told me that somewhere in the UK a project has been going on for years to reconstruct a 0/00 Bloody Paralyser to airworthy standards and all drawings still exist. Does anybody know more about it?
Harry also mentiond that a Halifax wreck has indeed been found off the Norwegian coast.
Cheers
Cees
If it is true it would be utterly brilliant, one of my favourite bombers, I’ve not heard anything. My guess is that it must be still just idea.. (Imagine the Vimy and a HP 0/400 together).
As to the Halifax…. I hope that it is in good nick and a Canadian one as they will recover it and look after it with the respect it deserves. If it is a British crewed one then it will be left to rot sadly.
Paul.
PaulMZ527 of 578 squadron beats up the Burn control tower, F/Lt “Maxir” Baer at the controls
Paul.
Hi Paul thats a fantastic image, do you mind if I take a copy.
Burn is just up the road from me, a lovely place for a walk.Do you have any more from Burn. Any when the base was used for storage after the war.
Cheers.
Ben
Hi Ben,
The image is quite a well known one used in a few publications so no problem in taking a copy for your own personal use.
I look after the 578 squadron website. http://www.578squadron.org.uk/ so have contacts for quite a few wartime images but nothing much postwar I’m afraid.
I’ve wandered round Burn lots of times and it is a very atmospheric place, very peaceful with just the gliding club there now… It will be such a shame when “Yorkshire Forward” finally close the place down.
There will be a squadron reunion in May with a memorial service in Selby Abbey. The veterans are dwindling rapidly now but still a remarkable bunch to talk to… Halifax fans to a man. Non of them would swap a Halibag MkIII for a “Daily Mirror” bomber.
Regards,
Paul.
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