Saturday 20 December 2014

Beute Blenheim IV - Ebay photo find









Beute Blenheim wearing 21 Sqd codes seen here being recovered/readied for flight by the Germans. 21 Sqn's T2282 is recorded in Graham Warner's Blenheim book as being shot down by flak near Flushing on the night of 10/11 Feb 1941 and crashing into the Scheldt after the crew baled out. The serial does look like T?282, so maybe the aircraft made a reasonable landing on the river and was recovered? The last view below shows the machine quite clearly atop a shingle bank alongside an expanse of water. A single click on the images to view large..




Friday 19 December 2014

Wattisham Tiger 74 Squadron F-4 Phantom display early 1990s RAF Bentwaters



my thanks to Stuart Parish and his dad 'zeboczulu' for posting these rare videos of Wattisham 74 Tiger Squadron F-4 Phantoms. Below, some stills from the footage, a single click to view the videos here...
















More British Phantoms on this blog - here

56 Sqd scramble video on this blog here

Thursday 18 December 2014

Crashed Spitfire 64 Squadron ? - ebay photo find





A rather macabre series of pictures taken of the crash site of Spitfire coded SH-L. The dead pilot lies alongside the wreckage seen here being inspected by a high-ranking German ace. The entire series of pics is currently offered on Ebay (link below)

I'm surprised Ebay still has these photos on display. I am probably not the only one to find them slightly disturbing; German personnel having a nice chat within a few steps of a dead pilot, with no thought of either covering him up, or removing him for burial. My intention in posting them here is that they could provide an answer to a long-forgotten MIA perhaps.. Sad to think that somewhere out there may be a distant relative still wondering what happened to the pilot. Of course it is entirely possible that having checked out the aircraft the Luftwaffe would have notified the Red Cross and the family would have eventually been informed of their loss... RIP









http://www.ebay.de/itm/M-306-Absturz-Englische-Jager-Flugzeug-mit-Kennung-SH-und-Flieger-Pilot-/301442600956?pt=Militaria&hash=item462f610ffc


(edit- see link posted below for more info on the loss of this 64 Sqd pilot, P/O John Rowden
- note the Luftwaffe personnel are from JG 51 and the Spitfire came down on their own airfield, Mardyck near Dunkirk. In the pictures can be seen Hauptmann Josef Fözö, who may have shot the Spitfire down. John Rowden is buried in Dunkirk Town Cemetery, France.)