Re: Forgotten pilots or flights...
Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2021 4:34 pm
A Convivial Aviation Discussion Forum for Aviators, Aviatrices and for those who think Flying Machines are Magic.
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John Dering NettletonJohn Dering Nettleton, VC (28 June 1917 – 13 July 1943) was a South African officer in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He is most famous for leading the Augsburg raid, a daylight attack against the MAN U-boat engine plant in Augsburg on 17 April 1942. For his role in this mission he was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
The Nettleton StoryRare that we see an image of a South African Victoria Cross recipient in action, but this is one such image. Flying this exact Avro Lancaster bomber is a Natal lad – Squadron Leader John Dering Nettleton VC. Now, not many South Africans have heard of him – and why is that?
Nettleton is another true South African hero and recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. His VC was one of five awarded to South Africans in World War 2 – however very little is known of their stories in South Africa.
Of South Africa’s VC winners during World War 2 only two are commonly referred to, they are Quentin Smythe VC – see Profiling a true South African Hero – Sgt. Quentin Smythe VC and Edwin Swales VC – see Edwin Swales VC DFC, a South African Hero whose legacy has been eroded! The reason these two are more commonly known is largely because Quentin Smythe VC served in The South African Army and Edwin Swales VC – although a SAAF member attached to the Royal Air Force, had strong ties to his Alma Mater – Durban High School (DHS) who have largely driven his legacy in Durban. But what of the other three; George Gristock VC, Gerard Norton VC and our hero today, John Nettleton VC?
Simply put, after the war, the National Party came to power in 1948 they almost immediately dismissed all South Africans who had served in the war as ‘traitors’ to the country for supporting what they saw as ‘Britain’s war’. During the war the Nationalists had vocally supported Nazi Germany (as Germany had supported the Boer cause during the 2nd Anglo Boer War and Afrikaner nationalism was grounded on punitive British measures taken out on the Boers during this war), many Nationalists had even adopted national socialism and embarked on sedition during the war (see “Mein Kampf shows the way to greatness for South Africa” – The Ossewabrandwag).
For the Nationalists, on the top of the list of ‘traitors’ were the South Africans who distinguished themselves winning Victoria Crosses whilst serving in ‘British’ Regiments or Arms of Service. These were men, who in the eyes of the Nationalists, served the hated British and were not to heralded as heroes, lest their deeds specifically influence young South Africans. For this reason very little in South Africa is named or honoured in the names of Gristock, Norton or Nettleton.
So lets pull away this veil and reveal some true South African heroes whose very noble exploits and deeds in ridding the world of Nazism all of us as can stand very proud of. What better way to start with John Nettleton VC – this is his story.
Quietly...TheGreenGoblin wrote: ↑Sun Oct 17, 2021 11:04 amquietely forgotten by the Nationalist government[/url]
Philip Wellesley Dulhunty, OAM (27 April 1924 - 29 November 2020) was an Australian aviator, power distribution entrepreneur and inventor. He invented the widely-adopted "dogbone" damper for the protection of overhead power lines and produced the world's first battery-powered laptop computer. He was chairman of the Australian National Committee of the Conseil International des Grands Réseaux Électriques (CIGRÉ) and a member of its international administrative council and executive committee.[1]: 391 He formed the Seaplane Pilots Association of Australia in 1972 and was its chairman for 44 years.
Having himself witnessed the heavy cruiser USS Chicago firing on the Japanese minisub M-24 in Sydney Harbour on 1 June 1942, Dulhunty developed a lifelong fascination with the event which culminated in publication of his forensic analysis in 2009 concluding that the sinking of HMAS Kuttabul during that encounter was not, as the official account would have it, to a torpedo fired by the Japanese submarine but, rather, a five-inch shell from one of the guns of the Chicago. Dulhunty's account attracted press interest at the time. Dulhunty was the pilot of the seaplane which re-enacted the 30 May 1992 Japanese reconnaissance flight which preceded the attack on its 50th anniversary and he was instrumental in the original Yokosuka E14Y1 "Glen" floatplane's rediscovery in 1994
On this day 80 years ago saw the death of poet Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr. (RCAF), aged just 19 years old. An Anglo-American serving with 412 Squadron (RCAF).
On 11th December 1941, while flying from RAF Wellingore on a training flight, he was killed when his Supermarine Spitfire AD291, VZ-H, collided with another aircraft. Airspeed Oxford, T1052, flying out of RAF Cranwell, piloted by 19-year-old Leading Aircraftman/Pilot Under-Training Ernest Aubrey Griffin, who was also killed. Their two aircraft collided in clouds over the village of Roxholm, Lincolnshire.
His most famous poem was the well know “High Flight” The poem was quoted by President Ronald Reagan following the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster in January 1986.
“High Flight”
“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds,—and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor ever eagle flew—
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God”
A lesser known poem by Magee is “Per Ardua”, written about the Battle of Britain pilots.
“Per Ardua”
“They that have climbed the white mists of the morning;
They that have soared, before the world's awake,
To herald up their foeman to them, scorning
The thin dawn's rest their weary folk might take;
Some that have left other mouths to tell the story
Of high, blue battle, quite young limbs that bled,
How they had thundered up the clouds to glory,
Or fallen to an English field stained red.
Because my faltering feet would fail I find them
Laughing beside me, steadying the hand
That seeks their deadly courage –
Yet behind them
The cold light dies in that once brilliant Land ....
Do these, who help the quickened pulse run slowly,
Whose stern, remembered image cools the brow,
Till the far dawn of Victory, know only
Night's darkness, and Valhalla's silence now?”
John Gillespie Magee is buried at The Holy Cross Church in the village of Scopwick, Lincolnshire.
ON THIS DAY... 23rd December marks the 77th anniversary of the actions that led to the award of the Victory Cross to Squadron Leader Robert Palmer, a pilot in the Pathfinder Force. Robert was born on 7th July 1920 in Gillingham, Kent. The son of Arthur Robert Palmer, an ex-Royal Flying Corps pilot.
Following the launch of General Von Rundstedt offensive on 16th December 1944, which had penetrated deep into Allied lines, RAF Bomber Command was called upon by the Allied Supreme Commander, General Eisenhower, to attack primary transportation and communications targets, such as rail marshalling yards, to disrupt the German reinforcement supply lines to the battle front.
One of these targets were the Gremburg marshalling yards at Cologne attacked in daylight on 23rd December 1944 by 27 Lancasters and three Mosquitoes from the Pathfinder Force’s 35, 105, 109 and 582 Squadrons. In three formations, each led by an OBOE equipped Lancaster and an OBOE equipped Mosquito acting as a back-up. “Master Bomber” for the raid was the very experienced Bob Palmer. The role of the Master Bomber was to direct the bombing of the following aircraft. On this occasion all bombs were to be dropped on seeing the leading aircraft’s bomb load released.
Palmer usually flew a Mosquito with 109 Squadron, but on this occasion he was flying Lancaster B.III, PB371, 6O-V, from 582 Squadron, taking with him his navigator F/L George Russell, DFC. The rest of the crew were a very experienced 582 Squadron crew; F/L Owen Milne, DFC, second pilot, S/L Albert Carter DFC, second navigator, F/S Bert Nundy, wireless operator, F/O William Dalgarno, mid-upper gunner and W/O Yeulatt, (RCAF), rear gunner.
Close behind was F/L Carpenter, DFC, flying an OBOE equipped Mosquito. The second Lancaster in this group, PB120, 6O-P, was flown by F/L Arndt Walther Reif (RCAF) who was of German descent. The formation was to lose two Lancasters from 35 Squadron on the way out when they collided over the sea killing all on board both aircraft.
Over the target, what should have been heavy cloud cover, was crystal clear open skies. Highly accurate predicted Flak guns soon found their mark. An order to abandon the OBOE run and bomb visually did not reach the Master Bomber. This would have avoided the long, straight, radio controlled run-in. Palmer, ignoring the flak, continued to fly steady on the run-in to ensure an accurate drop. Knowing full well that the following bombers were awaiting the release of his bombs before they could drop their own. Flak hit Palmer’s aircraft setting fire to two engines and filling the fuselage with smoke and flames. The blazing Lancaster continued on its run-in until the OBOE radio release signal was received and the bombs were released. The aircraft then almost immediately fell away, spiralling down to earth in flames. Only the rear gunner, Yeulatt, was able to bail out. Almost immediately Carpenter’s Mosquito was shot down by German fighters, which had been despatched to intercept an American bomber formation, and Walther Reif’s Lancaster received a direct hit in the bomb bay. The aircraft crashed into the centre of Cologne in flames. Only the two air gunners were able to bail out in time.
Of the 30 aircraft that set out, seven Lancasters and a Mosquito were lost. Many of the aircraft returned with heavy damage from the Flak and the Luftwaffe fighters.
On 23 March 1945, it was announced that Squadron Leader Robert Palmer would be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his leadership and devotion to duty over Cologne and “his record of prolonged and heroic endeavour which is beyond praise”. Cologne was his 111th operational sortie.
Photo : Squadron Leader Robert Palmer, VC, DFC.
Text: LLA Member David Kavanagh
An interesting chap with a naval background who rose to high rank in the RAF, but whose career foundered after he earned Churchill's disfavour!Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Murray Longmore, GCB, DSO, DL (8 October 1885 – 10 December 1970) was an early naval aviator, before reaching high rank in the Royal Air Force. He was Commander-in-Chief of the RAF's Middle East Command from 1940 to 1941.
He was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1904. Having developed an interest in flying, he volunteered for pilot training when the Navy accepted an offer of training facilities by the Royal Aero Club, and was one of the four officers to be selected. He obtained flying certificate No.72 in April 1911 at an RAeC meeting that also awarded licences to the pioneer naval aviators C. R. Samson and Wilfred Parke. That year, assisted by Oswald Short of Short Brothers, he devised a way of mounting streamlined air bags on the undercarriage struts and under the tail of a Short Improved S.27 biplane with the construction number S.38—later often referred to as the "Short S.38"—and on 1 December 1911, using the air bags for flotation, then-Lieutenant Longmore became the first person in the United Kingdom to take off from land and make a successful water landing in a seaplane when he landed Improved S.27 No. 38 on the River Medway off Sheerness
http://www.ganderairporthistoricalsocie ... rryman.htm“When the first strains of war fell upon RAF Coastal Command it was very short of modern aircraft, with only one Lockheed Hudson squadron out of thirteen land-plane squadrons and only two Sunderland squadrons of flying boats. In fact practically the whole of the first year of the war when the Battle of the Atlantic was causing a heavy loss of shipping, Coastal Command could not provide any consistent air cover over the convoy of ships converging on our coast and most of its aircraft had to be used on North Sea and English Channel reconnaissance. The aircraft in the single Hudson squadron were the first arrivals in England of those ordered from the USA in 1938 – providentially – by Lord Swindon, then Secretary of State for Air, in the face of fierce opposition from the British aircraft companies. The delivery of the balance, plus follow-up orders, under the cash-and-carry system which preceded Lease-Lend, was too slow by sea. It took four months from the Californian factory to a British base, and the sad fact was that merchant shipping losses from submarines and mines remained depressingly high right up to 1943 when some measure of mastery over the submarine menace was achieved.
It was the same shortage of equipment to fight the submarines in 1940 that led Mr. Churchill to persuade the US to lend us 50 old destroyers, a deal which eventually went through in early September 1940, in parallel with the 99-year leases for US bases in Newfoundland, Bermuda and in the Caribbean, which were to be the forward defensive shields for the mainland United States.” (Powell)
The idea of ferrying aircraft across the wild north Atlantic came from Lockheed’s London representative. He also persuaded his bosses in the California factory to design long range kits for the Hudson aircraft being built for UK delivery. He also proposed that Lockheed pilots deliver the aircraft if Lord Beaverbrook, often referred to as the Beaver, the UK’s Minister of Aircraft Production, approved the idea. The brass in London quickly turned down the idea of the Lockheed pilots because of the high price that would be demanded by the Americans. Lord Beaverbrook asked his high-ranking advisors what they thought of the idea and was told it would never work – not only that – more than fifty percent of the aircraft attempting to fly the Atlantic would be lost anyway! Fortunately, Beaverbrook was not one to give up just because of what his advisors had to say. That’s where Don Bennett (Bennett Drive, Gander) comes into the picture. Bennett had flown the Atlantic and was one of the best brains in the business – a first class pilot, navigator and radio officer. The Beaver called Bennett to his office and asked him his opinion.
Bennett told Beaverbrook that the idea not only had merit but that it was possible. Beaverbrook asked Bennett if he would take on the job. That was the beginning of an incredible story. Even Prime Minister Winston Churchill was dubious that aircraft could be flown across the Atlantic in winter – it just wasn’t done, but Churchill and Beaverbrook knew it was desperate times and accepted the fact that losses would be great but probably no more than the losses experienced at sea.
Eastern Air Command requested Powell to join the team to ferry aircraft across the Atlantic. Powell had been to Hatties Camp (Gander) several times and had participated in antisubmarine patrols making him fairly familiar with the Newfoundland coast.
“By late September a delivery plan had been evolved based on group flights but not necessarily in any kind of formation. The scheme was to have a group leader with the best possible qualifications, a deputy in another aircraft, and a total of seven aircraft per group. The original plan was for groups of nine but, providentially in view of winter troubles in Newfoundland later on, the number was kept to seven.
The group leader was to be a pilot with a first class navigator’s licence and he would have with him two radio operators because of the work load and the long period on duty. The deputy leader who also was to be a pilot/navigator or to have a navigator with him.
The plan was that the aircraft would leave Montreal individually when ready and assemble at Hattie’s Camp for the group departure. The sector from Montreal to Gander was over 990 miles so was in itself a considerable flight, mostly over inhospitable terrain but was an invaluable shake down for the long haul ahead. Departure from Newfoundland would be when the weather forecast seemed satisfactory to the group leader who had a heavy responsibility as the overall level of navigation skill was very thin.”
The first Hudson arrived in Gander on October 28. By November 10, the first seven were ready to go. Bennett conferred with meteorologist Patrick McTaggart-Cowan and decided to go that evening.
“The decision to go that night was great news for the waiting crews, some of whom had been there for ten days. Defence troops had arrived from Canada in the shape of a detachment from a Toronto-based Scottish regiment. The commanding officer, Colonel Blackadder, took the opportunity to post a full alert and as he had some components of a pipe band in the detachment he asked if they could join the departure arrangements.
Miraculously all aircraft started without trouble as the starter trolley moved down the line. In that Christmas-tree setting the Hudsons were played away by the pipes in front of our small group of well-wishers.”
The first group of seven Hudson aircraft, led by Captain D.C.T. Bennett in T9422, departed Gander November 10 at 2233 GMT, arriving safely the following day at Aldergrove in Northern Ireland, 0945 GMT, after a flight of 11 hours. Thousands were to follow.
I was interested to read in Aeroplane that Cotton's Lockheed Electra is likely to be restored to the UK register...TheGreenGoblin wrote: ↑Mon Mar 01, 2021 11:19 amSydney Cotton, Australian (I guess he couldn't help that), pilot, photographer, spy and later Squadron Leader and head of "Cotton's Club" who was the bane of the RAF hierarchy's lives. He lived a colourful life after the war as well...
Immortalized in a book entitled Aviator Extraordinary: the Sidney Cotton story, by Ralph Barker...
Combat in the Me 262
Messerschmitt Me 262 A-1a – EJG 2 – Major Heinz Bär
On 14 February, Bär was transferred to command the jet fighter training unit III. Gruppe of Ergänzungs-Jagdgeschwader 2 (EJG 2). March, the unit was equipped with the Messerschmitt Me 262 fighter and sent into battle. Bär shot down 13 Allied aircraft, many of them heavy bombers like the B-17 and the B-24. EJG 2 abandoned Lechfeld Airfield for the airfield was under constant attack and was now threatened by the United States Army.
On 23 April, Bär transferred to the elite Jet Experten unit Jagdverband 44 (JV 44), led by Adolf Galland. The following day Bär briefed JV 44 pilots in Galland's absence. The air defences had detected an incoming American formation and Bär instructed the jet pilots on the appropriate tactical approach to take when the interception was made. Klaus Neumann, Walter Krupinski and Günther Lützow flew on the mission. Lutzöw was posted missing in action and remains missing to date.
On 26 April, he assumed command of the unit after Galland was wounded. Bär possibly flew his first operational sortie with JV 44 on 27 April 1945. Flying the Me 262 A-1/U5, a six MK 108 cannon prototype, he was accompanied by Major Wilhelm Herget and the non-commissioned officer NCO (Unteroffizier) Franz Köster when the trio engaged American fighters over Munich-Riem Airfield; Bär claimed one aerial victory. While not flying operationally, Bär spent most of his time giving hasty instruction to the new pilots still being assigned to JV 44. With JV 44, he achieved his final four aerial victories (3 P-47s and 1 Mosquito) on 28 April,[66] bringing his total to 220. All told, he had achieved 16 victories in the Me 262, making him the second most successful Jet Expert of the war, which he finished as a Lieutenant Colonel (Oberstleutnant).
During the final days of the Second World War in Europe, Lieutenant General (Generalleutnant) Adolf Galland attempted to surrender JV 44 to American forces from his hospital bed. At the same time Air General (General der Flieger) Karl Koller had ordered JV 44 to relocate to Prague and continue fighting. Bär, as a Galland loyalist, attempted to ignore the order. Bär was further pressured to relocate JV 44 when Major General (Generalmajor) Dietrich Peltz, commander of IX. Fliegerkorps, and Colonel Hajo Herrmann, commander of 9. Flieger-Division (J), unexpectedly emerged at the control room in Maxglan on 2 May 1945. A heated and violent dispute erupted between Bär, Peltz and Herrmann, witnessed by Walter Krupinski. He later recalled that Bär responded with "Yes, sir, but we are under the command of Generalleutnant Galland, and I will only follow orders of Generalleutnant Galland!"—a final act of disobedience that Krupinski believed could have led to Bär being shot for insubordination.
In the early morning hours of 4 May 1945, Bär gathered the pilots of JV 44 for a final briefing. Bär ordered the remaining Me 262 destroyed before going into captivity and interrogation by US Intelligence officers of the 1st Tactical Air Force's Air Prisoner of War Interrogation Unit, based at Heidelberg.
Details of the crash of a Boeing 720 Lufthansa 1964 that crashed on July 15, 1964 720 during a a test flight over Germany near the Middle-Franconian town of Ansbach, with the outcome that all three crew members died.
Table of Contents
1 Plane
2 Course of the accident
3 Causes
Plane
The Boeing 720, a sub-version of the Boeing 707 , with the aircraft registration D-ABOP was acquired by Lufthansa on January 4, 1962 and was given the name Bremen . The aircraft was Pratt & Whitney -Triebwerken type JT3D-1 equipped.
Course of the accident
The Boeing 720 Bremen took off from Frankfurt Airport at 9:33 a.m. on a test flight. At around 9:38 a.m., the pilots reported that they had reached flight level 130 and that the instrument flight had ended . They wanted to fly some test maneuvers between the navigation point Kitzingen and the Röthenbach radio beacon . The Bremen flew a full barrel roll , after which the pilots wanted to fly another barrel roll. However, during this maneuver, they lost control in the inverted position. The Bremen was overloaded and broke up at an altitude of 1200 meters (about 4000 feet). All three occupants - including Werner Baake and flight captain Hans Zimmermann - died.
Causes
The reason for the crash was that the aircraft was overloaded/overstressed by the barrel rollers; the pilots had flown the barrel rolls, although the guidelines of Lufthansa forbade such maneuvers with the Boeing 707 and the aircraft was not approved by the manufacturer and Boeing for it.
George BeurlingBeurling was recognised as "Canada's most famous hero of the Second World War", as "The Falcon of Malta" and the "Knight of Malta", having been credited with shooting down 27 Axis aircraft in just 14 days over the besieged Mediterranean island. Before the war ended his official total climbed to either 31[2] or 311⁄3. Beurling's wartime service was terminated prior to war's end, for repeated stunting and his lack of teamwork. Having found a way to potentially continue combat flying in the postwar era, Beurling was killed in a crash while attempting to deliver an aircraft to Israel.
Quotes on Beurling in Malta
He fired only when he thought he could destroy. Two hundred and fifty yards was the distance from which he liked best to fire. A couple of short, hard burst from there and that was usually it. He picked his targets off cleanly and decisively, swinging his sight smoothly through them as a first-class shot strokes driven partridges out of the sky. It was a fluent and calculated exercise... For Beurling the confirmed kill was the thing.
Nine of his kills on Malta were Italian pilots. About them he used to say: "The Jerrie are probably better over-all pilots than the Italians, but they certainly let the Eyeties do their fighting for them when the going got tough. When we get around to adding the final score for this show I hope somebody thinks of that".
On 6 July, he was flying one of eight Spitfires that were scrambled to intercept three Italian Cant bombers and 30 Macchi 202s, Italy's top-line fighter. The eight Spitfires dived straight into the Italians. In seconds, with one burst Beurling had damaged a bomber. Then, suddenly he was on the tail of a Macchi whose pilot (probably Sergente Maggiore Francesco Pecchiari from 51° Stormo), spotting the Spitfire, plunged into a dive. The Canadian chased his prey for 15,000 ft and, when the Italian pulled up at 5,000, Beurling let go a two-second burst from 300 yards away. It was a perfect hit. Although he wasn't aware that he had been fired on, when Beurling inspected his Spitfire back at Takali, he found it riddled with bullets. Undaunted, that evening, just before dusk, he was in the air again in a patrol of four Spitfires. Radar had shown two German JU 88s and 20 Messerschmitts Bf 109Fs, heading towards Malta. After the four Spitfires dived and split up the formation, Beurling followed a fighter trying to escape at low level over the sea. After he laid down a two-second burst the German crashed into the Mediterranean.
On his last combat mission over Malta, while engaging a third aircraft, another, taking him unawares, drilled his aircraft with cannon shells from behind. Screwball, injured quite severely by shrapnel, bailed out low down. He landed in the sea and got into his dinghy. Malta's air-sea rescue service quickly came to his aid. L.G. Head, a member of the crew of HSL 128 remembered that when they picked him out of the water he was most concerned that he was unable to locate a small bible that he had been given by his mother.
https://www.ahctv.com/show/air-aces-ahc-atve-usTheGreenGoblin wrote: ↑Sun Apr 10, 2022 7:00 pmGeorge Frederick "Buzz" Beurling, DSO, DFC, DFM & Bar (6 December 1921 – 20 May 1948) was the most successful Canadian fighter pilot and flying ace of the Second World War.
GBeurling.JPGBeurling was recognised as "Canada's most famous hero of the Second World War", as "The Falcon of Malta" and the "Knight of Malta", having been credited with shooting down 27 Axis aircraft in just 14 days over the besieged Mediterranean island. Before the war ended his official total climbed to either 31[2] or 311⁄3. Beurling's wartime service was terminated prior to war's end, for repeated stunting and his lack of teamwork. Having found a way to potentially continue combat flying in the postwar era, Beurling was killed in a crash while attempting to deliver an aircraft to Israel.
George Beurling
Quotes on Beurling in Malta
He fired only when he thought he could destroy. Two hundred and fifty yards was the distance from which he liked best to fire. A couple of short, hard burst from there and that was usually it. He picked his targets off cleanly and decisively, swinging his sight smoothly through them as a first-class shot strokes driven partridges out of the sky. It was a fluent and calculated exercise... For Beurling the confirmed kill was the thing.
Nine of his kills on Malta were Italian pilots. About them he used to say: "The Jerrie are probably better over-all pilots than the Italians, but they certainly let the Eyeties do their fighting for them when the going got tough. When we get around to adding the final score for this show I hope somebody thinks of that".
On 6 July, he was flying one of eight Spitfires that were scrambled to intercept three Italian Cant bombers and 30 Macchi 202s, Italy's top-line fighter. The eight Spitfires dived straight into the Italians. In seconds, with one burst Beurling had damaged a bomber. Then, suddenly he was on the tail of a Macchi whose pilot (probably Sergente Maggiore Francesco Pecchiari from 51° Stormo), spotting the Spitfire, plunged into a dive. The Canadian chased his prey for 15,000 ft and, when the Italian pulled up at 5,000, Beurling let go a two-second burst from 300 yards away. It was a perfect hit. Although he wasn't aware that he had been fired on, when Beurling inspected his Spitfire back at Takali, he found it riddled with bullets. Undaunted, that evening, just before dusk, he was in the air again in a patrol of four Spitfires. Radar had shown two German JU 88s and 20 Messerschmitts Bf 109Fs, heading towards Malta. After the four Spitfires dived and split up the formation, Beurling followed a fighter trying to escape at low level over the sea. After he laid down a two-second burst the German crashed into the Mediterranean.
On his last combat mission over Malta, while engaging a third aircraft, another, taking him unawares, drilled his aircraft with cannon shells from behind. Screwball, injured quite severely by shrapnel, bailed out low down. He landed in the sea and got into his dinghy. Malta's air-sea rescue service quickly came to his aid. L.G. Head, a member of the crew of HSL 128 remembered that when they picked him out of the water he was most concerned that he was unable to locate a small bible that he had been given by his mother.
Thanks for that link. I was not able to watch it from the UK, but copied the link to a virtual business machine I have running in the US and watched it that way. UK would be viewers will have to use a VPN or a US based proxy to watch it.PHXPhlyer wrote: ↑Sun Apr 10, 2022 8:01 pm
https://www.ahctv.com/show/air-aces-ahc-atve-us
Season 1 Episode 1
PP
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Old ... baea76f11cRobin Olds (July 14, 1922 – June 14, 2007) was an American fighter pilot and general officer in the United States Air Force. He was a "triple ace", with a combined total of 17 victories in World War II and the Vietnam War. He retired in 1973 as a brigadier general, after 30 years of service.
The son of Army Air Forces Major General Robert Olds, educated at West Point, and the product of an upbringing in the early years of the United States Army Air Corps, Olds epitomized the youthful World War II fighter pilot. He remained in the service as it became the United States Air Force, despite often being at odds with its leadership, and was one of its pioneer jet pilots. Rising to the command of two fighter wings, Olds is regarded among aviation historians, and his peers, as the best wing commander of the Vietnam War, for both his air-fighting skills, and his reputation as a combat leader.
Olds was promoted to brigadier general after returning from Vietnam but did not hold another major command. The remainder of his career was spent in non-operational positions, as Commandant of Cadets at the United States Air Force Academy and as an official in the Air Force Inspector General's Office. His inability to rise higher as a general officer is attributed to both his maverick views and his penchant for drinking.
Olds had a highly publicized career and life, including marriage to Hollywood actress Ella Raines. As a young man he was also recognized for his athletic prowess in both high school and college, being named an All-American as a lineman in college football.