Wednesday 23 February 2011

Seafire 899 Royal Navy Air Squadron

899 R.N. Air squadron. The squadron was used as an Operational Training Unit for ex Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) who transferred to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). In this WWII amateur home movie of variable quality the following scenes are included;





Spitfire type aircraft in flight filmed from another aircraft. Air carrier HMS Chaser. Supermarine Seafire F111 - naval version of the Spitfire.

Plane in flight. Diving. Planes coming in with a bumpy landing. Pilot climbing from cockpit. A huge crane hoists a Spitfire which swings overhead showing undercarriage, before being dropped and turned into position by men on the ground. Another plane is hoisted onto ground, somewhere wintry.
Views of two barges which pull the ship/aircraft carrier. Planes taking off. Two distant planes in the air and diving. Close up shots of planes in flight. Formation of planes. Aerial views of land below. Excellent shots of Signalman in action directing the planes coming in to land. Planes landing and use of arresting cable and crew running to help. Warships at sea.
A plane with wings folded, preparations for take-off, positioning plane and close up of pilot taking seat in cockpit. In flight and landings.



More of our friendly Signalman. The young crew stand in uniform. Overhead views of the aircraft carrier deck. Another ship at sea. A small poor quality colour section at the end of the film - more aerial views and Supermarine Seafires in flight in formation.