What started your WW1 aerial interest?

[DukeIronHand 8]

CaptSopwith's thread about "How you found OFF" got me remembering.

In thinking about it I had a flashback to the one defining moment that began my WW1 aerial passion - or maybe obsession is a better word.

 

I was a young lad of, I'm guessing about 10 years old, and had done some WW1 reading, was interested, but thats as far as it went.

 

Then, I remember it well, on late night television (or "telly" for our UK friends), I saw it...the Holy Grail so to speak...the movie "The Dawn Patrol" with Errol Flynn, David Niven, Basil Rathbone, etc.

 

Made quite an impression on my young mind and started me digging, more books, magazines, board games - Richthofen's War by Avalon Hill, Fight in the Skies by Mike Carr - and then the progression into the computer world starting with a C64 in the early 80's. The rest is history as they say.

 

Do you have one defining moment or was it a gradual progression?

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

My love affair with WWI aircraft began on Christmas of 1962 when my younger brother and I were each given a model kit: my brother receiving a Fokker DR1, and I a Sopwith Camel. After we assembled the relatively simple little kits, we staged endless dogfights above the braided rope rug Western Front of our living room, and while the battles may not have been historically accurate they were none-the-less exciting. We spent that entire winter reinventing WWI aerial combat to fit our limited knowledge and arsenal, and my admiration and interest for the real world inspirations of those Christmas gifts from long ago still remains.

 

There is something inherently elegant in the simplicity of the Great War aircraft. Their beauty lies in the very necessity that created them, and it is a timeless beauty indeed. Deceptively strong and durable despite their seemingly delicate appearance, they served their pilots and crews beyond well. And while they were not all equal in terms of strengths and weaknesses, they are all equally amazing in their own right. And their evolution in four years at the various fronts was a true miracle of reinvention and urgency. From wings of gossamer with nothing more threatening to offer the enemy than a wave, to deadly armored birds of prey capable of destroying an opponent in a heartbeat: all in 48 months. Little wonder there is such a romance about these craft and the men who flew and fought, and lived and died in them. I have been blessed with occasions over the years to sit in the cockpits of a few of these wondrous planes, and to say that the connection I felt to the past was ethereal and intense would be one of my classic understatements. Still, I can only imagine what it must have been like…all those decades ago…piloting such craft in the hostile sky. But then I’ve always been blessed with a very good imagination.

 

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[Hasse Wind 46]

For as long as I can remember, I've been fascinated by all kinds of flying machines, be they aircraft or satellites, so it was only natural that I became interested in WW1 aviation at some point. When exactly it happened, I can't remember anymore. I started reading about the world wars as a teenager and built my first aircraft models about the same time. There's just something about the pioneering spirit and the hectically creative atmosphere of the early years of aviation that has never ceased to amaze me. Things changed incredibly fast back then. Many of the WW1 airplanes are among the most elegant and beautiful ever made. Some are among the ugliest (Fee!), but I love them nevertheless. And I greatly admire the courage of the men who flew those planes and literally made history by doing things that were never done before their time.

[CaptSopwith 26]

.

 

My love affair with WWI aircraft began on Christmas of 1962 when my younger brother and I were each given a model kit: my brother receiving a Fokker DR1, and I a Sopwith Camel. After we assembled the relatively simple little kits, we staged endless dogfights above the braided rope rug Western Front of our living room, and while the battles may not have been historically accurate they were none-the-less exciting. We spent that entire winter reinventing WWI aerial combat to fit our limited knowledge and arsenal, and my admiration and interest for the real world inspirations of those Christmas gifts from long ago still remains.

 

There is something inherently elegant in the simplicity of the Great War aircraft. Their beauty lies in the very necessity that created them, and it is a timeless beauty indeed. Deceptively strong and durable despite their seemingly delicate appearance, they served their pilots and crews beyond well. And while they were not all equal in terms of strengths and weaknesses, they are all equally amazing in their own right. And their evolution in four years at the various fronts was a true miracle of reinvention and urgency. From wings of gossamer with nothing more threatening to offer the enemy than a wave, to deadly armored birds of prey capable of destroying an opponent in a heartbeat: all in 48 months. Little wonder there is such a romance about these craft and the men who flew and fought, and lived and died in them. I have been blessed with occasions over the years to sit in the cockpits of a few of these wondrous planes, and to say that the connection I felt to the past was ethereal and intense would be one of my classic understatements. Still, I can only imagine what it must have been like…all those decades ago…piloting such craft in the hostile sky. But then I’ve always been blessed with a very good imagination.

 

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Lou, I don't think you could have written that any more poetically if you tried. That was a great read.

 

As for me, the short version can be reduced to three words: Wings Of Glory.

 

The long version goes like this. My grandfather built me a few plastic model planes from WWII when I was a kid. Spitfires, Me109's, that sort of thing. I loved them, but since they were models and not robust toys, I often broke them in a few days. He was far more patient that I could ever be, and always built me more without question. I was fascinated with dogfights and planes from that age on. I remember mixing some Star Wars in with my WWII dogfights - giving the German planes the menacing howl of the Tie Fighters as they flew by.

 

Then, many years later, I stumbled upon the demo of Wings of Glory in a copy of PC Gamer magazine. Which, much to my happy surprise, is still going strong lo these many years later. (http://www.pcgamer.com/). The demo featured one mission from the game - flying an SE5 with Charles Dearing and two Rookies as you attempted to take down three observation balloons. Of course you run into a few skirmishes along the way, including a very angry and brightly colored Albatros CIII that fired in four round bursts - something I still catch myself mimicking when I fly to this day. It was only one mission, but I probably logged 100 hours on it. My parents bought me the full game for my Birthday the following year but alas, it refused to run on our computer and the whole thing - beautiful box, color manual and poster, all went back to the store. I wouldn't play through Wings of Glory until 2010.

 

Then a few years later, around October of 1998, I was shopping at Wal-Mart with my mom - I was 16 years old and still learning how to drive. We walked through the game section - a ritual of mine whenever we went there - and living in a tiny town in the South, Wal-Mart was usually your best bet for finding video games in the pre-internet era. There, sitting next to a collection of puzzle and deer hunting games was the box featured in my signature - complete with the sticker advertising a free coupon for Red Baron Pizza in the box. I've never begged so hard for something in my life. Mom caved, dropped 20 bucks, and the rest was history. I flew Red Baron II on our month old Dell computer - which still sits in the corner of my apartment in a place of honor - with only my keyboard, but I was hooked.

 

I found Delphi a few months later when we got dial up internet access and... half of a lifetime later, at 28, here I am.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Not stupid at all Creaghorn. I've a similar story to tell and did so a while back here in another thread about going back in time. Allow me to quote myself from that thread.

 

I've had this eerie feeling, ever since I was a very young boy, that I served in the air at least once before. One of the earliest recurring dreams I can remember involved me sitting in the glass nose of an airplane as it was plummeting towards earth. I had a machine gun in front of me and various instruments clustered around where I was sitting. The entire dream was simply me sitting in that glass nose watching the earth come up at an incredible speed, seeing the 360 degree horizion that wrapped around me disappear as this large grassy field filled my forward view. The last split second went into slow motion as I watched the muzzle of the gun dig into the dirt, and the tall waving grass push aside as the glass nose entered it. I could see the grass flattening as the glass came within a millimeter from the ground...and then I would wake up, every time. Never any sound in the dream...just dead silence all the way through. And it was in color because I remember how green that grass looked, more vivid than any green I've ever seen. As I grew up I explained the dream away as being some memory from when I was a baby and my parents had me plopped down in front of the TV while they were watching some old war movie that this scene was from, and it had embedded itself into my subconscious.

 

Now for the spooky part. When I was in the USAF I got to go through a restored B25 Liberator. As soon as I approached that plane my childhood nightmare came back as vivid and strong as it had ever been in my youth. I was overcome by a feeling of absolute dread, I wanted to leave but I was compelled to go forward. As I did so the feeling got more intense by the second. By the time I'd crawled up into the "greenhouse" I could hardly breath and I thought my heart was going to pop out of my chest. Still, something kept pulling me in and I sat down in the seat, and it was as if I'd gone into a trance. I felt like I was someone else, I knew where everything was. My hands went as if they were on auto pilot, checking the gun, and then the bombsight. There was a moment where I was sure I'd passed out. And then, I snapped back and jumped up and got the hell out of there, completely terrified. I am not someone who scares easily, but I can honestly say I've never been so afraid of something in all my life as I was of that, and I have never gone back near a B25.

 

Make of it what you will. I still can't decide, if it is nothing more than a movie memory imprinted on me as a baby, or if it came from "another life". I've never been a big believer in past lives, but this experience does make me wonder about it from time to time.

 

 

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

 

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And CaptSopwith, many thanks Sir for your high praise of my earlier post in this thread. Much appreciated Sir.

 

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[Dej 17]

I owe it all to W. E. Johns. My dad grabbed a copy of 'Biggles of 266' from a market stall when I was seven, to while away that rarity - a rained out British seaside holiday.

 

I'd always been interested in aircraft and had already built my first model Spitfires and Hurricanes etc. with Dad's help. So I was a receptive audience.

 

However, sharing the draughty, castor oil-stained cockpit with Biggles; listening to the wind in the wires; chilling to the sound of bullets tearing canvas; embracing the friendship of the pilots and their good-natured ribbing of each other; admiring the chivalry and respect shown their opponents and breathing in the whole atmosphere of WW1 air-fighting that Johns evoked - had me hooked from the OFF, ahem!

 

My best friend and I became keen aircraft modellers, but whilst he built anything and everything and painted them in pristine condition, I built mostly WW1 and some WW2 aircraft and loved dirtying them up and incorporating them in dioramas. This required more factual reading for peripheral information which made me ever the more absorbed and when I discovered that Lanoe Hawker was born a few miles down the road... well, I was committed... history on my doorstep.

 

I drifted away from WW1 in later years as The Battle of Britain, Operation Tidal Wave, Schweinfurt-Regensburg and other seminally important air combat events from history (not to mention X-Wing and Tie Fighter!) captured my interest but WW1 never lost its hook and one day whilst browsing for CFS3 mods in hope of improving my experience with it, I came across OFF P2 and of a sudden I was seven again! By that reckoning I'm now ten and I've loved every minute!

Edited February 18, 2011 by Dej

[Olham 164]

Gee, this kind of "goose skin thread" - wonderful!

 

Creaghorn, now you have made me (and I guess many others too) very curious, what your nightmare was about?

 

My interest was started in the early 70s, when I began to go to the cinema more often. One day, there was this poster:

 

 

 

I saw the movie (which I know today, wasn't very good - the "Blue Max" was far better) and was impressed

from this kind of air combat. But still, I was much more interested in the WW2 fighters.

Shortly after seeing the movie, I went to check the window displays of my local model kit shop once again.

And there, in one window, stood the assembled models of one Spitfire and one S.E.5a - both built and beautifully

painted by the same modeller. I preferred to build my own models, but realised I could never build and paint anything

as good. So I went in and asked, if they would sell them, but the answer was "no" - they were meant only for displaying.

 

But I didn't give up and asked again, when the window display had been changed, some weeks later.

The shop owner, Herr Adelmann, gave me a long look and finally promised to ask the model builder.

I should come back after a week. And when I went there again, he had both models there.

But they cost me a little fortune - 6,- Deutsche Mark each (which was in fact ridiculously cheap for such fine builds;

about 1 and a half dollar). Still though, for me it was a lot, cause I only received 2,- DM pocket money per week.

So I decided to buy the Spitfire first, and begged him to keep the S.E.5a, until I had more money.

He shrugged and said, he would sell it, if anyone else wanted it.

So I borrowed the money - the first mortgage in my life - to buy the S.E.5a too.

 

It was a "sleeping" first starter; and only later, when I had a computer and got "Wings of Glory" (yes, CaptSopwith!),

it awoke from a long slumber. It fell back to sleep after having also bought "Flying Corps Gold", wich looked good,

but I couldn't get to grips with.

In October 2008, I began a new search for WW1 air combat sims and typed in various search words.

Among the finds was "Over Flanders Fields", which I found sounded very poetic.

 

And so I came to OFF and met you all - and I want to express here, that this was one of the greatest treasures

I have ever found in my life - no less!

Edited February 18, 2011 by Olham

[Bullethead 12]

I came from the factory hardwided for it. I've always liked aviation of all sorts, so my WW1 interest is really inseparable from my other aviation interests. They all started when I hatched and have been pursued with equal vigor all my life. It's like having a fridge full of beer from all over the world. Some days I'm in the mood for a Brit IPA, sometimes a Belgian Trappist, sometimes an Oktoberfest. So it is with aviation. Some days I want WW1, sometimes WW2, sometimes even civilan.

 

 

[Rugbyfan1972 1]

My interest in aviation started at the age of 2 when my mum bought me a toy aircraft, as I am also interested in history (mainly military) I then when I was probably 9 or 10 started reading about WWII aviation, and then after I had got bored of that I started reading about WWI aviation, and the rest as they say is history.

 

I have now been reading about WWI aviation for the last 25+ years, but having found online book stores like abebooks, I now have the problem of storage and the cost of some of the earlier books that I am now wanting to read (especially after seeing |RAFL's library, damn you. LOL).

 

I now have to start weeding out some of the non historical books that I have and probably most of my fiction paperbacks.

 

Thanks

Rugbyfan1972

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

(especially after seeing RAFL's library, damn you. LOL)

 

hee, hee...sorry about that Rugbyfan.

 

 

 

Also, like Olham, I am very interested to know what Creaghorn's dream encompasses. Please consider sharing it here with us.

 

.

[+DoctorQuest 125]

I am with the folks who had a general love of aviation and got drawn in by a flight sim, in my case RB.

[JFM 18]

As a toddler I looked in the sky and saw a plane flying. I've loved all planes since; combat is incidental.

 

As far as WW1, the first I heard of it was via Florida's own The Royal Guardsman, when I was four.

[tranquillo 10]

My interest came from a couple of things. When I started building and flying WW1 RC planes I realised how much more interesting it was than the aerobatic/sport type and started finding out more. Further to that my grandfather joined the RAF in 1919 so I already had a half-interest from delving into his career.

[Lewie 7]

My interest was always there. Watched "The Great War" with my Dad as a kid, and my Aunt and Grandmother were always buying me books on aviation, because I had a big interest in it.

 

I also think my Grandmother was chuffed that we had another young bookworm in the family, because she was on the Directors Board of our local library. The 3 in 1Monogram 1/72" scale plastic model kit with the DH2, Albatross DII, and Nieuport 17 also helped. I blame the DH2, despite it's difficulty to assemble for an 8 year old, for my life long love of all things overtly strutty and latticey. The movies Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines and the Blue Max, were a influence along with many Guillows and Comet rubber freeflight balsa kits. That I still build small WWI and pre-WWI RC scale models I guess is a sign that I am in touch my inner kid.

 

I also started to make 3D models for a freeware RC simulation, Flying Model Simulator FMS Homepage with the help of the 3D program MetasequoiaLE. That simulation sparked an interest in WWI combat simming when I discovered an old copy of Flying Corps Gold at a thrift store a few years back, and then picked up a copy of RedBaron3D.

Edited February 18, 2011 by Lewie

[Davy TASB 0]

Biggles books and the film Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines probably influenced my interest in this era of flight.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4fVp-hEPOk

 

 

 

Mind you, the first book I remember reading when I was a little kid wasn't Treasure Island or owt like that, it was George Bourne's "I Flew WIth Braddock".

[Flyby PC 23]

Proud to say it was OFF that got inspired to read more about WW1.

 

Growing up in Scotland, you have an instinctive respect for all things military, and so there was always an interest, but WW2 was always the place to be. My interest matured as I did, and I played less and read more, and took great enjoyment to find stuff out and learn new stuff whenever I could. I did read some books on WW1, but somehow the absolute waste, the numbing stalemate and the seeming indifference to tragedy always tainted my interest in WW1. Every story you would read would end up with lives being squandered very cheaply in absolute misery, and apparently no imagination on how to avoid doing the same damn thing all over again the next time. Part of me still feels the same. You almost wish you could time travel and take back some modern day knowledge back to those times just to change the way things happened and stop the insanity of it all.

 

I think the formula for WW2 is easier to get to grips with for a young mind. It's easier to understand who's side you were on, and frankly, there's much more variety and dynamism to what actually happened. The storys you read are better than the comic books.

 

When OFF came out, I enjoyed it as a 'souped up' CFS3. Not ashamed to say I tore about Flanders Fields in my MkVI Mosquito manys a time. But then I began to read a bit more, then a little more, and suddenly WW1 comes alive. I could ramble on for hours, but to keep it aerial related as the thread beginss, the pilots fascinate me. Not so much later, when it's all about the killing, keeping scores, and fates of various aces, but earlier on, before the rule books were written. For the first time ever, young men were flying into battle in wonderous machines that could finally defy gravity. The very dawn of powered flight. It must have been so frustrating to be there, flying some cutting edge piece of machinery into the sky and glide through the clouds taking in the spectacle of the world as nobody had ever seen it before. Unfortunately, you couldn't afford to dwell on your escape from the ground below, because very soon there were other airmen trying to kill you, and every flight would be tainted by its purpose in that you were only there in the air trying to help your army kill people more efficiently. I forget what book starts "These were the best of times, and the worst of times", but that's what I feel about aerial combat in WW1. The purest ecstasy and limitless horizon the world had to offer blighted by the darkest carnage of war ever known to man. It must have torn those guys apart.

Edited February 18, 2011 by Flyby PC

[Olham 164]

Davy TASB, are you ever serious?

 

Creaghorn, your dream sounds spooky - as if a "drifting lost soul" of a WW1 pilot, who died this way,

had used you as a medium, to live through it again and again; perhaps to find out, who killed him.

He may have found his peace, when it stopped.

Your description is at the same time of little visual Hollywood sensation, as it is feeling very realistic.

I like such goose-skin stuff. Thanks for sharing.

It makes me understand the ernestness, with which you approach OFF.

 

I don't know how I would have been in RL there; I only know I felt related to all the aces who fell.

My whole way of flying OFF is, as if I know I would not be able to keep my nerves together through the

whole of the two or three years of this hell. I want to become an ace first, and then I know I will fall

sooner or later - exchanging the hell, from which no one can return intact, for the big sleep.

Edited February 18, 2011 by Olham

[Von Paulus 8]

In my case was the British TV series called "Wings" in 1978 together, around the same time, a collection of WWI air war stickers.

[von Baur 54]

Flyby PC, "A Tale of Two Cities", by Charles Dickens.

 

Spooky stories by Lou and Creaghorn. Definitely sounds like past-life memories, which I don't particularly believe in (although I won't argue with people who claim to have them, particularly when the person relating them are average everyday's instead of some ancient king or queen), but I accept the possibility of reincarnation.

 

Like many others here, I have been interested in flying for as long as I can remember. My father flew B-17's and B-24's in WWII; my hometown's swimming pool was in line with the municipal airport, so all summer every summer planes would be taking off over my head; a skydiving exhibition at my hometown's fair was a disaster (no injuries, but only one of three jumpers actually landed in the racetrack's infield, a second came down on the midway and the third landed several blocks from the fairgrounds) sparked a fascination with parachuting that I fulfilled when I got into the Air Force; but JFM and I probably share the closest bond when it comes to WWI.

 

I read "Peanuts" as a kid and loved the Snoopy-as-WWI flying ace-strips. I even have all three of the 'Snoopy vs the Red Baron' songs on 45 (and could probably stumble my way through them). But then one day I learned that there really was a Red Baron, that he really flew an all-red Fokker Triplane, and that the man credited with shooting him down was flying a Sopwith Camel at the time. That was the pivotal moment at which I had to learn more.

 

Having a paper route at the time gave me the money I needed so I bought books, fiction and non-fiction. I read "The Red Fighter Pilot", "No Parachute", "Fighting the Flying Circus", "Five Years in the RFC", "Ace of the Iron Cross" and other biographies and auto-biographies that I can't remember right now. I also read "The Day the Red Baron Died" and another book about MvR's final battle, the name of which also escapes me. I never did read "The Blue Max" but there was a series of fictional WWI aviation books (three, I think)...something like The Hostile Skies, or The Deadly Skies or somthing like that...that had a British, former infantry captain as the protagonist and an American flying for the RFC as his best friend (because both were considered outsiders by the rest of the squadron). I read every issue of the "Enemy Ace" comic books (in several "Flyboys" scenes I thought James Franco would make an excellent Hammer of Hell). I never did get into the 1/72 scale models, but I built squadrons of the Revell 1/32 scale Dr1's (all brightly painted, of course), Camels and S-XIII's, several of the best of which I donated to the local hobby shop when I went into the Air Force, where they remained on display until the shop closed down. I even did one of each with an electric motor to spin the propeller...and the Camel and Dr1 engines, too.

[carrick58 23]

Books

[Rickitycrate 10]

I don't feel that I can account for my interest. It started when I shared a bedroom with my elder (6 year) bother. He was a fair modeler I was a plastic butcher at age 8. One kit my brother made was Rickenbacker's Spad XIII released by Revell in 1/28 scale. His build fascinated me. The camo paint, Hat In the Ring emblem, the wire supported wings for some reason really turned me on. I had little or no knowledge or exposure to anything WWI aviation related at that time. After that I saw "Captain Eddie" with Fred McMurray and I loved that show the one time I saw it. One day in my back yard I heard a strange airplane engine sound. We lived by an airport and I saw planes every day. This was different... I looked up to see what appeared to be the Spad! It most likely was a Jenny or something else. I recall the angle of the sun lighting my side of the plane with a warm glow, ribbons afixed to the wings streaming behind. The plane was barely moving it seemed and the engine sound along with the overall appearance made me feel the craft was quite fragile and was miraculously inching along. I feared she would drop but I thought she was beautiful.

[Hellshade 110]

As a kid I just loved the look of the WWI planes. Open cock pits, guns right in front of you. It just seemed all very exciting to me. Then my parents got me the old WWI game "Dogfight", which I played obessively with anyone who would play with me. Then there was the old comic "Enemy Ace" of which I only got to read a few stories but from that moment I was hooked. I played Wings on my Commodore Amiga from the moment it came out. I tried a few others and naturally was hooked with Dynamix Red Baron II and Red Baron 3D. I even purchased a new, faster 266Mhz cpu in order to play it better too. That held me for awhile but then the market dried up and I moved on to mostly Fantasy RPG games. Over Flanders Fields Phase 3 rekindled the passion and it burns brightly again, thanks to OBD.

 

Hellshade

[Wayfarer 5]

This ties in with a particularly clear memory from when I was about three, around 1964. My dad and I were in a local newsagent/toyshop, with one wall that seemed to be covered in Airfix kits from floor to ceiling. My dad suddenly hoisted me up and asked which one shall we make. I instantly chose what seemed to be an enormous box which almost certainly was a Sunderland. I can remember dad laughing and explaining that we couldn't have one that big.

The smaller kits were still in the plastic bags then and I was attracted by by a 'red' kit, which was the Fokker Dr1. It was the first construction kit I had ever seen made. As I got older, I made them myself of course and read my dad's books on aerial warfare (Full Circle, The Fledgling, Bloody April among them). He had had a job as a commercial model maker and been in the RAF in the late forties for his national service, and was always telling me about aircraft and boats.

One of things particular that attracted me to WW1 was definitely the individual markings af the German pilots. Some weird psychological quirk means I am always fascinated by depictions of similar objects in different sets of colours; medieval heraldry has alway held an interest for me, probably for that reason.

In the seventies, 'Military Modelling' magazine ran articles on a WW1 wargame setup which used 1/72 models on poles with stands. This resulted in a frenzy of building WW1 models with the intention of using these rules. Unfortunately, as a kid, I couldn't seem to get hold of the necessary stands and poles and the project languished, as do some of the models still in my mom's loft!

There was something of a hiatus then, after leaving school, but as more realistic flight sims were developed for PCs I kept an eye out and got Flying Corps. It has been the the quality and atmosphere of of OFF, however, has really rekindled my interest.

[Hasse Wind 46]

Wow, you've had some pretty hardcore dreams, Lou and Creaghorn. Our brain is an extremely complex organ and we still don't everything about all the biochemical and neurological mechanisms that exist there. Some insignificant external stimulus that you pay no attention to while awake may cause some interesting events when the brain is resting, causing us to see weird dreams. But I'm no neuroscientist so I won't even try to delve any deeper into this fascinating subject.

[Flyby PC 23]

Flyby PC, "A Tale of Two Cities", by Charles Dickens.

 

 

Thanks von Baur. I knew it was one of the classics but I was too lazy to check.

 

The other thing which also contributed to an interest in aircraft was that my father was a wireless operator in Swordfish in 1938/9. My dad died when I was just 11, but the interest was there. Lots of it from photos. It's one of those complex things when you're a kid. You don't really know anything, but look at a swordfish and think why oh why couldn't my Dad have been a wireless operator in a 'cool' looking aircraft instead of some rickety old throwback to WW1 with rigging instead of machine machine guns? Naturally you learn much more as you grow older, and once you know what happened to the Bismark and the Italian Fleet at Taranto, the Swordfish is as cool as they come - in the hands of the Navy at any rate. When there's a direct family link, even after they're gone, you feel its your duty to find out all you can about what they did and what they flew. From memory, I think he logged some 200 hrs flying about Gibraltar and Malta, spotting for gunnery and submarine drills I seem to remember reading in his logbook. He was RAF though, not Fleet Air Arm which always confused me, but he did have photos of the Swordfish float planes being lifted abour ships, but there was no mention of him being on a ship. All flights logged were from airfields like Hal Far etc. I don't know the whys etc, but he was a sergeant in the RAF before the war broke out, and for whatever reason he was on the ground from 1939 onwards, on radios in Burma and Imphal. My mother told a story that he had the choice of going to Burma or being a tail gunner in a Lanc, and after seeming a tail gunner being hosed out of his turret he chose Burma. No problem with that except there weren't any Lancasters in 1940, and I don't think the RAF would go to the trouble of training a wireless operator to stick him in as a tail end Charlie in a Lancaster anyway. On the other hand, the wireless operator in a swordfish was also the gunner and no doubt skilled in air gunnery, so it isn't impossible. Women eh? So I don't really know. He wasn't around to ask himself, and you couldn't ask Mum because you ended up more confused than ever. I do remember asking him if he was ever in a dog fight, or 'in action' as such, -hey come on, I was 11 or younger, and he told me his only shot at the enemy was a Nip Zero which flew overhead when he was out hunting for game with a shotgun. Question 2 was did you hit it? And technically, he did have one mission behind enemy lines. When the British were running away from the Japs in Burma, some important radio equipment was left behind, and he and some others were sent back to get it before the Japs turned up. Not secret agent stuff, but I'm sure getting those particular orders would have made the heart beat a little quicker. One of these days, I intend to buy his service records and then I can learn much more. I reckon, if he hadn't past away, the chances are I might not have been tempted by the Parachute Regiment, (relax, just TA), because instead of jumping out half way, I might have been driving the bus instead.