Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: feeutfo on 14 September 2010, 13:06:57
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Story of one of the youngest world war 2 fighter pilots. 18years old in a spitfire.
Tells his story today.
Will be emotional I suspect.
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cheers chris, will have a look at that :y
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Just watched it Chris.
I found it very interesting, and emotional. I would urge anyone that missed it, watch it on iplayer. It's one of those programmes that makes you forget any of your own problems and think how lucky you really are, a very good programme indeed.
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Woha, just watched the HD version, yes emotional.
"Was it worth it?" the man said....Jesus Christ. What a question
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Many fine young men gave their lives during that time;
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDbkZoyBSA8[/media]
This was written by Pilot Officer John Magee RCAF (19 years old) shortly before his death in 1941.
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=1349
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I enjoyed it as well,I am not sure we will ever fully understand what those pilots went through and I hope there heroism is never forgotten
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A very good programme, I thought. Was good that they dramatised most of it rather than just another documentary.
To think I was "touching fabric" when I first solo'd a glider. ;D Add 1500 hp, someone shooting at you and your mates getting popped off one by one and it's hard to imagine what they went through to prevent us adopting English as a second language. :(
Kevin
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There was a documentary a couple of years ago, you may remember it, interviews with alot of the pilots stiil alive today, footage of stiil flying/restored spitfires, and recruiting young pilots to learn to fly in the two seated trainer with that lady pilot, os something along those lines....
...Geoffry Wellum was in that documemtary, fascinating, both programmes.
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http://www.theartsdesk.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=2197:first-light-bbc2&Itemid=27
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Yep....excellent and thought provoking... :y
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There was a documentary a couple of years ago, you may remember it, interviews with alot of the pilots stiil alive today, footage of stiil flying/restored spitfires, and recruiting young pilots to learn to fly in the two seated trainer with that lady pilot, os something along those lines....
...Geoffry Wellum was in that documemtary, fascinating, both programmes.
That will be the Grace Spitfire, owned and flown by Caroline Grace.
We'll be seeing a lot of her and her plane in the coming few days/weeks.
She was on the David Jason thing last week, and there's another program coming up with Euan McGregor and his brother that features the Grace Spitfire also.
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There has been some superb programs on in the last few weeks about the Battle of Britain.
I watched one this morning on the Nazi channel Yesterday called 'Fighting The Blue' (its on again at 9.00pm). It was very informative, realy enjoyed it.
It also nicely exposed the truth of how Sir Hugh Dowding was the hero behind fighter command and how he was booted after the battle of britain was won becuase he told them how stupid the idea of 'The Big Wing' was (it required a mix of Hurricanes and Spitfires which had a 50-100mph difference in speed)
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Just watched it Chris.
I found it very interesting, and emotional. I would urge anyone that missed it, watch it on iplayer. It's one of those programmes that makes you forget any of your own problems and think how lucky you really are, a very good programme indeed
Talk about forgetting your own problems- i was in a council house talking to the old tenant,a sprightly old bugger with a wicked (and dirty) sense of humour-turns out he was Torpedoed at sea and ended up in a japanese P.O.W. camp ! he seemed to have a slightly more laid back approach to life, as one of my collegues said" every day must feel like frigging christmas", somehow whining about a traffic holdup seemed not so important after meeting him :(
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My father was in the RN in WW2 and was a 3 time survivor after being torpedoe'd. He departed this mortal coil in the early 1980's without ever recounting to any extent of his experiences to the family. All the family know was that it was 2 Atlantic, one Med.
Greatest of respect to those who are able to recount their tales of courage and endurance, in all conflicts, not just WW2, so that we may learn lessons to avoid recurrence.
Sadly, we do not always act on what we learned.... :'(
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My father was in the RN in WW2 and was a 3 time survivor after being torpedoe'd. He departed this mortal coil in the early 1980's without ever recounting to any extent of his experiences to the family. All the family know was that it was 2 Atlantic, one Med.
Greatest of respect to those who are able to recount their tales of courage and endurance, in all conflicts, not just WW2, so that we may learn lessons to avoid recurrence.
Sadly, we do not always act on what we learned.... :'(
Sadly, we do not always act on what we learned
As it's in our collective nature (for the most part) H, few have and most never will.
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My father was in the RN in WW2 and was a 3 time survivor after being torpedoe'd. He departed this mortal coil in the early 1980's without ever recounting to any extent of his experiences to the family. All the family know was that it was 2 Atlantic, one Med.
Greatest of respect to those who are able to recount their tales of courage and endurance, in all conflicts, not just WW2, so that we may learn lessons to avoid recurrence.
Sadly, we do not always act on what we learned.... :'(
Must be a generation thing-people just got on with it and didn't make a fuss when they came back from war as not to appear a "flash harry"
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Stiff upper lip order of the day, evident in the programme, it was a relief to hear him throwing a few breaks about the cockpit with a 109 up his chuff. :o :-/
Did you catch the look on the actors face after his first landing, I giess that's the spitfire smile you get from flying one, made me smile, just watching it roll around the sky, both in film and at shows, it just looks like it was made to turn, aaaawwwhahaw, gizzago. Mwaaarhahaw :) to sit in that seat, where "they" sat....not worthy, not even nearly :'( :y
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Stiff upper lip order of the day, evident in the programme, it was a relief to hear him throwing a few breaks about the cockpit with a 109 up his chuff. :o :-/
Did you catch the look on the actors face after his first landing, I giess that's the spitfire smile you get from flying one, made me smile, just watching it roll around the sky, both in film and at shows, it just looks like it was made to turn, aaaawwwhahaw, gizzago. Mwaaarhahaw :) to sit in that seat, where "they" sat....not worthy, not even nearly :'( :y
Yes Chris, and repeatedly I have heard from Battle of Britain pilots over the years that the Spitfire flew you, you did not fly it; it strapped you in and flew you off 8-) 8-) A lesson learned by many new Spitfire pilots who usually only came unstuck by flying too level, too straight, for too long :'( :'(
Of course one is reminded of the famous story of Luftwaffe Ace, Major (later General) Adolph Galland, when asked by no less than Reichmarschall Herman Goring what they, the Officers, needed from him to gain victory. Galland replied "A squandron of Spitfires Reichmarschall"
That said it all! :D :D :D :D Thank God for R.J. Mitchell for designing the Spitfire when he did!!
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Old guy I once met would not recount any experiences he had being a "guest" of the Japanese in Malaya, and then later in Singapore. He said it was too painful to tell, and that if he was asked, he would just say... "yep, I was there, now I am here, lots ar'nt." I couldn't get him to say much else without tears running down his cheeks. That was 60-odd years after??
God knows what he went through there to make him so emotional all that time afterwards.
What he WOULD tell me, was that there were 8 thousand p.o.w's taken by the Japanese in that particular theatre of operation, only 900-odd came home afterweards, most died from dysentry, malaria, or simply worked to death. His total hatred of the Japanese has stayed to this day, and no amount of "forgive and forget" will wash with him. He got physically angry when you mention what an advanced nation Japan have become, he wonders why America only dropped 2 atomic bombs, and says they should have finished the job properly. quite a bitter man, but you have to understand why.
And we think we've got it hard sometimes??