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I've seen that before. I often walk my dog along the airfield. The runways in part are still there. I often think about those poor men leaving from there for the very last time. They were only there for a year but lost something like 300 men I'm lead to believe. Such a waste of life.
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WW 2 History Buffs on 19:04 - Oct 1 with 1101 views
Not only am I into history, but aviation really is my thing!
It was a fascinating home movie because it captures a lot of day to day stuff and offers colour footage of how things looked.
Interesting that it covers the B24 period through conversion to B17Gs. The B24 never gets the credit it’s due. Despite its appearance, it had a high performance ‘Davis’ wing which made it fast for its type and capable of carrying big payloads. it was used in all sorts of roles in Europe and the Pacific. Its performance and big fuselage gave it that flexibility.
The biggest downside was that you could not fly it in as tight a formation as you could a B17. The footage shows just how close the B17s flew. They were called ‘box formations’. The idea was that aircraft flying in a tight pattern with 10+ 50 cal machine guns each would give mutual protection. It helped in that any Bf109 or Fw190 flying through it would get shredded, but it was really the P51 Mustang long range escort that provided the answer. It was a big factor in degrading the Luftwaffe to relative impotence in 1944.
The other advantage of box formation was that when the bombing leader dropped his bombs, you dropped yours. If the bomb aimer got it right, devastation on the ground would follow.
The other issue with the B24 was it was more vulnerable to damage than the B17. And as a nasty little aside if you made a wheels up landing and got it wrong, the gun turret behind the pilot would crash forward and crush both pilot and co-pilot. However this aircraft did great service alongside the B17 (its crews were very loyal to it) and for the RAF in Coastal Command. It was the aeroplane that closed the uBoat gap in the atlantic.
I note the reference to the film 12 O’Clock high. It’s a great film and based on a trues story. It contains original combat footage and is worth a watch for that alone. The original Memphis Belle film (not the ghastly 80s/90s movie) is a must see too.
[Post edited 1 Oct 2023 22:49]
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WW 2 History Buffs on 12:13 - Oct 2 with 716 views
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