Paging TOG: Spitfire Q

That's very authoritative.

How did you dig that up?

 

That was another part of my thought. I was just about to email Auntie
Beeb, as one does, when I thought I'd best check I'm right - and I just
knew some smartarse here would be able to put a finger on it.

Four years isn't "circa", especially at the rate of wartime development.

 

Wiv fur-lined hood.

 

I have an interest in the Polish squadrons of the RAF during WW2, as one
of my flying instructors in the late 60s was a Polish ex spitfire pilot.
<http://en.valka.cz/viewtopic.php/t/38085> will give you their kills
throughout the war and if you look at 1943 you will see Sgt. J. Durys
downed an bf-109 in this aircraft whilst operating out of Northolt in
September of that year.

Fabian

 

Spot on, Sir, and my thoughts too.

Lying bastard BBC caption writers, what?

 

' ... and Tally-Hos!'

 

<Very impressed>

 

I'm impressed by the skill and aggression of the Poles, especially
early in the war when they flew Hurricanes. They ditched standard
operating procedures and just attacked, often head on. This aggressive
spirit made the Hurricane a match for the superior me109.
and this was to prove its the man in the machine and not the machine
itself that really matters.

Fabian

 

I'm impressed you are still alive at your age

 

Ha! only just. Some woman in a Volvo wrecked me and my bike in June of
last year. Months of immobility and semi mobility gave me lots of time
to trawl the internet, usenet included.
My licences came in the wrong order, pilots first, then car and lastly
motorcycle, which I got in 1975 at the age of 27. So 35 years of
motorcycling before a serious accident is pretty good, I may even buy
another bike as 35 years more and I will be long past my sell by date.
BTW, 62 is only middle youth these days, so I'm told by the medical
profession.

Fabian

 

Oh you fit the UKRM demographic to a Tee

 

Sadly, the reverse is true far more often. Inferior combat aircraft just
waste pilots.

 

Which brings up an interesting factoid.
All of the Polish pilots were NCOs whereas every other RAF pilot was an
officer. This meant that they were paid rather less, basically because they
were not British Citizens so they could not be commissioned.
Similar to the current situation in the army where all of the Ghurka
officers are British.

 

Standard

--
Lozzo
Versys 650 Inter-Continental Hyperbolistic Missile , CBR600F-W racebike
in the making, TS250C, RD400F (somewhere)
BMW E46 318iSE (it's a car, not one of those 2-wheeled pieces of shite
they churn out)

 

Nice to see you using the correct designation.

--
Lozzo
Versys 650 Inter-Continental Hyperbolistic Missile , CBR600F-W racebike
in the making, TS250C, RD400F (somewhere)
BMW E46 318iSE (it's a car, not one of those 2-wheeled pieces of shite
they churn out)

 

Heh.
Err, when I said starboard, I meant port, and vice versa. memories
from my yoof had the model upside down when I painted it....

 

Y'know, it's nice to be a youngster again.

 

This is far from true. in fact most Polish pilots were officers, Pilot
Officers and Flying Officers mainly, rarely above this rank. The Sqn.
Ldr. was usually British. I refer you again to
<http://en.valka.cz/viewtopic.php/t/38085>


Fabian

 

Wouldn't one have to ride a scootah to own such a garment?

Fabian

 

CBA to Google but the name changed during the war, IIRC, so in the
correct. context, either was valid.