S2C Forum Archives
Main Section => Welcome to our virtual Pub Meeting ... => Topic started by: Alan Drover on July 01, 2023, 04:26:59 PM
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While out on my pre pub visit dog walk I saw a Lancaster Bomber fly over. 48 cylinders of Merlin power. It must have been part of the Wallop Wings and Wheels show at the Army Air Corps centre Middle Wallop, Hants. It's the first time I've ever seen one. My late father was a rear gunner in them in WW2
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And what a magnificent sound those 48 cylinders make.
Well deserved great respect to your late father and to all those men who flew in those wonderful airplanes :tiphat
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Thanks Fred. He was stationed in Lincolnshire and was awarded
the DFC now in my possession destined for the RAF museum at Hendon with his wartime record
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Yesterday a Flying Fortress flew low over my back yard.
They are impressively noisy too!
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The Pratt and Whitney engines always sound a bit rough compared itha Merlin though
Peter
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A few years ago I was driving a fast service from Tonbridge to Ashford one summer evening. It’s a 26 mile journey at 100mph, in an almost totally straight line. Around halfway I heard the sound of engines and when I looked out to my left I saw that I was being followed down the line by a Lancaster flying at low level. They kept pace with the train for a minute or so, then pulled up and away with a tip of the wings and, I think, a wave (I was having to watch where I was going too 🤣).
It was quite a moment. 😃
When I mentioned it to others at work, one of the old boys said that aircrew (on both sides) had used the railway lines to help navigate during the war, and that the pilot had probably taken the opportunity of pacing a 100mph train as a challenge they’d unlikely to be able to repeat. He also pointed out there are an unusual amount of ponds along that bit of line, and that they’re all round, because they’re the result of luftwaffe crew jettisoning their unused bombs on the way home.
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Hi,
Due to a case of "Its not what you know!" .... and telling his bosses to "get stuffed", my father finished the war building Halifax bombers. An amusing little tale. If anybody here didn't read it first time round ..... ?
Dad said the Halifax was a precision instrument, while the Lanc was a "lash up". But the Lanc was the better aircraft.
602
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Glen I bet that was spectacular to someone watching.