Vera Lynn and Spitfires

[aghauler]

Saw this it brought back memories of stories told to me about WW2 by people who lived through the "Blitz". the music and engine sounds took me back to my younger days and "the old folks".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUx3MU9iM6c

Oh yes, C&R content, there has to be a 303 something in there somewhere.

[highpower]

Funny you should post that. I was just watching a series from the BBC on Spitfires and the remarkable young men that flew them during the Battle of Briton.

Most were under 24 years old (a lot were under 21) and they went into battle with a mere 9 hours of training in the cockpit of a Spitfire and no combat experience at all at the beginning.

[aghauler]

Funny you should post that. I was just watching a series from the BBC on Spitfires and the remarkable young men that flew them during the Battle of Briton.

Most were under 24 years old (a lot were under 21) and they went into battle with a mere 9 hours of training in the cockpit of a Spitfire and no combat experience at all at the beginning.

THAT's interesting! 9 hrs of flight time? WOW, things were different then and I vaguely remember something like that was a line in some old movie, of course I don't have a clue as to which one. Old age or watched too many movies or both

Thanks of the refresher!

Vera Lynn is still alive 98 years young, she was interviewed last May, beautiful lady with a wonderful voice that held many a folks together through some tough times.

[Enfield47]

That is pretty amazing at how few flight hours the RAF boys had. I love footage of WWII aircraft, there is something special about the sound of a prop plane zooming by.

[Bobby Ricigliano]

You cannot really overestimate Britain's role in the early years of WWII, when they stood alone against the nazi juggernaut which had already overrun the remainder of western Europe. One of Hitler's greatest frustrations was his inability to conquer Britain or even assemble an invasion force capable of reaching the British shores.

[Bobby Ricigliano]

Funny you should post that. I was just watching a series from the BBC on Spitfires and the remarkable young men that flew them during the Battle of Briton.

Most were under 24 years old (a lot were under 21) and they went into battle with a mere 9 hours of training in the cockpit of a Spitfire and no combat experience at all at the beginning.

It seems nearly impossible that a person with no flying experience and 9 hours of training could even take off and land a fighter plane, much less engage experienced Luftwaffe pilots in air combat.

Amazing.

[chuckdc]

It seems nearly impossible that a person with no flying experience and 9 hours of training could even take off and land a fighter plane, much less engage experienced Luftwaffe pilots in air combat.

Amazing.

Not to mention doing so in the air over England, where it can go into IMC at the drop of a hat and the fogshark is ever-present.

[Bobby Ricigliano]

I would guess the British had the same conundrum that the Germans experienced later in the war, plenty of planes but not enough pilots. It was probably a miraculous event for a British aviator to gain a significant amount of flight hours and combat experience without getting shot down or simply crashing due to inexperience, weather, or mechanical issues.

[surplus-addict]

THAT's interesting! 9 hrs of flight time? WOW, things were different then and I vaguely remember something like that was a line in some old movie, of course I don't have a clue as to which one. Old age or watched too many movies or both

you're probably thinking of the 1969 classic "Battle of Britain". Great film.

[Milsurp Collector]

"It's incredible to be in a Spitfire again after so long," Lofthouse said. "I'm so lucky to be able to fly it again."

Lofthouse shuttled war planes back and forth from the front lines to factories as a service pilot in the all-female division, according to the Mirror.

[highpower]

Those pilots had trained in Tiger Moths prior to transitioning to Spitfires, but there were few Spitfires available prior to the war and the RAF was a very small outfit.

One of the BB pilots said it was like getting out of a family sedan and getting into a F1 car and immediately entering a race. Only if you messed up you were shot down or were killed. If a pilot managed to survive his first five missions his chances of survival went up exponentially.

What REALLY saved Briton, besides the courage of those young men, was that the RAF had built a series of 63 radar stations, completed just before the war started. They had the advantage of not having to fly constant CAP patrols, which saved wear and tear on aircraft and pilots. They could scramble planes when the Germans left their airfields in France and be at altitude by the time the Jerries reached England.

Still, it was a very near thing. By the time Goering changed tactics and stopped attacking the RAF airfields and coastal docks and switched to bombing London and other cities, the Brits were pretty much worn down after four months of being on alert from 3AM to dark every day.

Winston Churchill's famous quote "never have so many owed so much to so few" was actually made when he was at the main radar control center watching the staff direct the RAF fighters where to meet the attacking Germans.

[highpower]

And one other thing, the real terrors of the skies over England were the Polish pilots in the RAF. They flew when no one else would fly and took no mercy on the Germans.

One of the British fliers said the they (the Brits) were out there to shoot down airplanes, but the Poles were there to kill Germans.

[1bulletBarney]

A good article on the Battle of Britain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain A long but good read...




Never really knew anything about Vera Lynn. I have allways been a big fan of Pink Floyd. This song was part of Pink Floyd's epic "The Wall" . A excellent collage of pictures in the vid, check it out...

[Crunch130]

And one other thing, the real terrors of the skies over England were the Polish pilots in the RAF. They flew when no one else would fly and took no mercy on the Germans.

One of the British fliers said the they (the Brits) were out there to shoot down airplanes, but the Poles were there to kill Germans.

Poland lost the greatest percentage of their population in WWII compared to all other nations. They had good reason to hate the Germans (AND the Russians).

Regards,
Crunch

[aghauler]

You cannot really overestimate Britain's role in the early years of WWII, when they stood alone against the nazi juggernaut which had already overrun the remainder of western Europe. One of Hitler's greatest frustrations was his inability to conquer Britain or even assemble an invasion force capable of reaching the British shores.

Yep and wasn't England only 20 miles away or something like that?