Best War Film Part 2

[Professor Brensec]

I knew it was modern, some of the colour schemes didn't make alot of sense.....lol. Also the quality is a giveaway.

I'd really love to see one of those airshows that all you Poms and Yanks talk about, but nothing like that happens here, except the very occasional RAAF special occasion, and they only have modern stuff (I like but my love is WWII stuff).

There are very few airworthy craft here, and the expanse of the country makes it impossible (financially) to get to anything in another Capitol or State without much planning and investment, even if there was the rare show to see.

I would really love to get a good look in a Spitfire V again. I had a flight in one with my grandfather when I was very young (1963 I think) but I don't recall much. I think if I sat in a cockpit, alot of memories might flood back. All I remember now is the smell of petrol, and being sick afterwards (on the wing). And I recall I thought we were crashing when we came in to land..........lol.

[BFMF]

Brensec, you are so lucky, not many people get to fly in a spitfire, let alone ever get to see one

[Professor Brensec]

I know, but I really don't remember very much. I was frightened, I'm sure, as I was only about 5 y/o.

I remember it was bright yellow (a trainer) and my older brother and I called it the "kangaroo plane" because the RAAF insignia at that time, and still now, is the blue and white roundel with the red kangaroo in the middle.

I also remember that when we landed, I thought we were crashing, because it was yawing so much to one side that it wasn't pointing at the tower (which was where I knew we were supposed to be pointing, I couldn't see the runway). I didn't work all this out till much later but obviously he had to increase power to make the runway (pretty normal sometimes) and consequently had to correct with the rudder. But I know I really thought "it's the wrong way, we're crashing!"......................lol.  ;D

[HawkerTempest5]

I knew it was modern, some of the colour schemes didn't make alot of sense.....lol. Also the quality is a giveaway.

I'd really love to see one of those airshows that all you Poms and Yanks talk about, but nothing like that happens here, except the very occasional RAAF special occasion, and they only have modern stuff (I like but my love is WWII stuff).

There are very few airworthy craft here, and the expanse of the country makes it impossible (financially) to get to anything in another Capitol or State without much planning and investment, even if there was the rare show to see.

I would really love to get a good look in a Spitfire V again. I had a flight in one with my grandfather when I was very young (1963 I think) but I don't recall much. I think if I sat in a cockpit, alot of memories might flood back. All I remember now is the smell of petrol, and being sick afterwards (on the wing). And I recall I thought we were crashing when we came in to land..........lol.

Well brensec old pal, you have done something I only dream about. If I ever come into money one of the first things I intend to do is buy a flight in Carolyn Grace's Spitfire T-IX!

I think Australia has one airworth Spit Mk VIII these days. New Zealand has quit a growing warbird collection.

Most of the Spits in my photo are in authentic colours. The Mk VIII is pretending to be a Mk V for it's role in Pearl Harbour and the Mk IX next to it (MH434) had a non standard yellow nose that has now been repainted in the correct RAF Sky type S colour! If you look down the line, you will see a pink Spitfire! This caused a bit of a stir when it was first repainted, but apart from it being a shade too dark, the colour was used on FR MkIX Spits shortly after D-Day! Sadly the PRXI just this side of the pink Spit (painted as an early type) crashed in France in 2001 killing it's pilot.

[Woodlouse2002]

The pink machines are recce planes. They did experiments and found that pink blended into any colour better than the colour its self. Apparently some people painted a plane pink on the idea that it would be easy to see. The plane crashed by some cruel twist of fate and esipite repeated search attempts it was not found for 2 years and even then by accident!

[BFMF]

lol

[Professor Brensec]

Yeah, it was the pink one I was referring to.

I knew they used pink on planes as a good all round cammo, but I thought it was only the underside.  ;D

[HawkerTempest5]

I've not been to work today (car decided to deposit it's oil on the drive) so I've been stuck at home with day time TV!
Thank God for the History Channel! I saw that Mig 15 Battle Stations show this afternoon. Very interesting. Although it didn't go into too much detail it would seam that the Rolls Royce story may be true. Whatever, it was a damn good fighter.

[Professor Brensec]

So you saw that episode, Hawker?

Did you see the Russian bloke talking about the "sticky soled shoes" to pick up filings from the lathe room floor, so they could get a sample and analyse the metal?

I thought the MiG15 one was interesting enough just because of that "industrial espionage" stuff over the RR engine.

Also the North Korean bloke who flew the first one to the South and didn't realise their was a $100,000 reward from the Yanks.  ;D

[BFMF]

[quote]Did you see the Russian bloke talking about the "sticky soled shoes" to pick up filings from the lathe room floor, so they could get a sample and analyse the metal?

I thought the MiG15 one was interesting enough just because of that "industrial espionage" stuff over the RR engine.

Also the North Korean bloke who flew the first one to the South and didn't realise their was a $100,000 reward from the Yanks.

[Professor Brensec]

Yeah, at least as far as the program I saw goes.

It was the History channel, Battle stations episode of the MiG15, I'm sure.
Wasn't it discussed in the one you saw?  ;D

[HawkerTempest5]

[quote]So you saw that episode, Hawker?

Did you see the Russian bloke talking about the "sticky soled shoes" to pick up filings from the lathe room floor, so they could get a sample and analyse the metal?

I thought the MiG15 one was interesting enough just because of that "industrial espionage" stuff over the RR engine.

Also the North Korean bloke who flew the first one to the South and didn't realise their was a $100,000 reward from the Yanks.

[Professor Brensec]

I pity all these people who don't have access to History Channel, Hawk.
You can turn on the TV, at almost any time and find something interesting enough to watch. And a good slice of it all is WWII oriented.

I've just seen the "WWII Gladiators" episode on the Kamikazes. Many things I wasn't not aware of.

From the time the Kamikaze attacks began till wars end, the Japanese had launched 2,700 perfectly good aircraft in such attacks (a huge amount when you consider the amount the allies had to defend with at the start).

On top of this were "Chery blossoms" mounted under Bettys (of which almost all were shot down because they were so slow and lumbering with the extra load). There were special "motor boats" which carried 2.500 lbs of HE. And also the "piloted" torpedos.

Even though the Allies would eventually have won, simply because of their inexhaustible resources, can you imagine the damage these 2,700 planes could have done if the Japs had have had some decent pilots to fly them instead of only fresh "barely trained" graduates who would have been 'fodder" (as seen in the Marianas).
Out of all these planes etc, I think they only ended up sinking about 40 ships and damaging the same.

Their tactics were all wrong. They apparently attacked one or two at a time, making it easy for ship defences to shoot them down. It's said that if they had attacked in an organised fashion, say, 3 or 4 from different diections they could have sunk 100's of ships.
But (and this is ironic), no-one ever returned to report the shortcomings of the attack methods...............lol  ;D

P.S. My "lol" is not directed at these obviously very brave and patriotic young men, misguided as they were. it's directed at the irony and ineptitude of the desparate and unreasonable Japanese military.  :-X

[HawkerTempest5]

Yep, the good old History Cannel has saved me from many a daytime TV nightmare!
I've not seen the Gladiators show but I've seen a few other shows about Kamikazi pilots. I read somewhere that they would have done more damage by dropping bombs because a diving plane did not reach a sufficient velocity to do maximum damage unlike a bomb.

[BFMF]

wish I had cable