I don’t know about swearing being imported from America but I did notice that the fuel bowser was clearly marked USAAF, although somebody had made a half hearted attempt to smear it out. If they couldn’t afford to repaint that properly, what chance would there have been to repaint a Spitfire?

Seriously though, on the whole I quite enjoyed it. I do agree with other posters about the fad for announcers talking over the credits. That really spoils the mood carefully set by the film maker.

Rod

There is no doubt that most naval ships of the time were woefully under armed with respect to anti-aircraft weaponry and were thus vulnerable. Most ships of all sizes were seriously upgraded over the next few years as this was recognised.

I also feel that capital ships would not have become drawn into a battle in the confined waters of the eastern English channel/Dover straits/Thames estuary areas. They were just too valuable to lose and would thus be kept well out of the way. After all, how many capital ships were present at Dunkirk? It would also have been very difficult for them to respond from such a distance in time to cover an invasion attempt.

Rod

I have been following this thread from the start. It has been driving me mad as I am sure that I have seen something like it, but a long long time ago.

One theory in my mind is that it is for trimming the end of power cables. The hooked part could be hooked around a core and then by rotating the blade around the cable, the insulation could be trimmed off. I may be barking up the wrong tree totally but I offer this as one possible reason for the shape.

I do hope that somebody comes along who really knows what it is for before I go insane. :confused:

Rod

Of course the flip side of that was that they then landed (and killed people) in Kent and in particular NW Kent. Where my mother lived with my older sister and brother (then a baby). It got so bad that she was evacuated to the Midlands for a time. Dad was away in the Navy.

I remember that she told me, much later, that they would often just sit huddled, with their eyes tightly shut, muttering “keep going, keep going, keep going…” as a V1 went over. She was later quite embarrased by the fact that somebody else would then ‘get it’ instead, but I suppose that survival instinct takes over at the time.

On the other hand, although the V2s packed a bigger punch, you couldn’t hear them coming. So you wouldn’t know anything about it if they did hit you and thus she was less worried by them and returned to her own home. I think that people tended to think that ‘If your name was on it’ then you got hit. If not you would be OK.

PS I do hope that they are not topping up that milk bottle. We don’t want it to be the same as the beer glasses in the bar scene at the end of Ice Cold in Alex. A different level in every shot. 😀

PPS Did anyone else notice that the picture in the Radio Times was the piloted version? Presumably a shot from the show at Farnborough after the war.

Rod.

Well, apparently P9426 was also damaged by enemy action on 19/09/40, I don’t know how badly though and that picture does look more like a flying incident doesn’t it?

Rod.

See also post #23 in this old thread:

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=41431

Rod

My brother is a volunteer helper at Chippenham museum. He has been on duty all weekend as they have had a lot of pilgrims visiting.

Rod.