What started your WW1 aerial interest?

[shredward 12]

I found a shelf full of Biggles books at the Kingston Public Library after I had gone through all the Dr Doolittle books. I must have been about eight. That, and the fact that my Grandfather and Will Barker grew up together. They wouldn't let my Grandfather sign up at first as he had a 'spot' on his lungs. Eventually, the MOs were forced to overlook that kind of thing, and he was in pilot training when the war ended. Just as well, if he had got in at the same time as Barker, I likely wouldn't be here.

 

Cheers,

shredward

 

 

[Creaghorn 10]

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.

 

yes. the brain is a strange godcreated computer with all kinds of surprises.

[DonL 0]

Like Bullethead I love all eras of aviation, in fact all things that fly including birds, butterflies, balloons, Fokkers and Thunderbolts. I grew up in the landing pattern of the Willow Grove Naval Air Station and also the Johnsville NAS. I can remember watching c-119s (and all kinds of other aircraft) on final approach looking like they were going to fly through my living room window. Model building, books, airshows and museums have all fueled my passion for aviation history. As far as Off is concerned I was looking for something better than Red Baron 3d and I read about OFF in a magazine which is what got me hooked.

[Wodin 0]

Watched Aces High when I was a whipper snapper of around 8 or 9....

 

Have had an obsession with WW1 and WW2 for a very very long time indeed...WW1 though has an atmosphere all of it's own which drags you in....talking on a meta physical level I wonder if people of a certain age are obsessed due to a previous life...many WW1 vets where dying of old age from around 1965 to 1975 as they where between 70 and 85...I was born in '71 so you never know....I have always felt I was there for some reason...in a strange way it feels like an old memory rather than something I just read about....I also have suffered from terrible nightmares every night from at least 7 years old...

 

Anyway once you start to get into WW1 you get sucked right in and it will never let you go again.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Anyway once you start to get into WW1 you get sucked right in and it will never let you go again.

 

Isn't that the truth Wodin. It's been almost 50 years since I became enamoured with WWI aviation and it's stronger now than ever.

 

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[Hasse Wind 46]

And you will never run out of reading on this subject if your memory is as bad as mine. I don't remember anything about the first books I read about WW1 aviation, so it's like starting the hobby all over again when I get back to them after all these years.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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My memory continues to grow shorter while my ears grow longer and I'm lucky to recall...things...from...I'm sorry, what were we talking about?

 

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[DukeIronHand 8]

My memory continues to grow shorter while my ears grow longer and I'm lucky to recall...things...from...I'm sorry, what were we talking about?

.

 

Oh, we were talking about the money you owe me. Now as I was saying mail the check to....

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Aaaah, got it. Now if I could just remember where I put my check book.

 

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[CaptSopwith 23]

actually it was something which we experience when playing often bhah but of course not with the apropriate feeling. in the dream my dream-self had a completely different feeling. the experience of being in real horror and death-panic, but also somewhat coolheaded. hard to explain.

 

scene begun always with me sitting in a singleseat biplane and flying straight without even thinking of beeing in a war or thinking about enemies. don't know which type or for which country. only know that both hands were holding the stick. all i was seeing in the dream was from own POV, so i didn't see myself.

suddenly i felt impacts of bullets in my craft. i tried to turn my head, but was only able to catch a glimpse of a part of a biplane wings, him beeing directly behind me. i was turning my head to the other side, and also just have seen part of biplane wings, but not the whole enemy AC. obviously i wasn't able to turn around completely due to beeing strapped into the seat, or maybe just beeing too erratic. then i looked to my left and saw a stream of bulletsholes appearing in my left lower wing. suddenly came black smoke or something directly into my face, blinding me totally, obviously from the engine. i threw the goggles away and banked to the left and looked behind. at that moment i just saw a flash, obviously from a machinegun and my head was thrown into my neck (maybe vusally like in the jfk tape). and that was always the moment i woke up. sometimes the dream ended a second before seeing the flash, sometimes when seeing it. anyway. with the age of five and the following years it was quite frightfull because i didn't have the slightest clou what had happened. within the years i woke up at that moment, but after some seconds took it as it was, more casual because knowing about it. occasionally also girlfriends i had in the past, have seen me dreaming it, while they were reading a book or something. from what they have seen (without knowing about the dream) they told my the i was sleeping quite wildly and then i suddenly woke up with throwing my head hard into my neck.

 

anyway. probably just a dream. maybe just a left memory of a poor rookie fellows death which somehow reached my brain like in radios when you hear some different frequency or whatever. don't know. it stopped some years ago.

maybe that's the reason why i (and louvert and others) fly the sim rather like an "anti-war-sim" instead of a "war-sim". the difference is that our alter-egos are knowing they are in a hughe mess known as war, with the simple goal to survive, while seeing it as a war-sim the attitude is more glorifying war, killing tons of enemies and getting promotions etc. don't know. .

anyway. that's my story how i began to research about ww1 aviation. first pc game which brought me some better knowledge about backgrounds was cinemaware's wings.

 

Thanks for sharing this one Creaghorn. I'm not one for re-incarnation by any means, but dreams like that do make me pause and scratch my head.

[Olham 164]

(When I was still drinking:)

When I had forgotten how many drinks I had, I just made new start.

Of course drinking didn't improve my memory - but it didn't bother me so much.

[TSmoke 2]

What got me interested in WW1 and WW1 aircraft was a book our school carried. Being Canadian and back in the early 60's they did teach Canadian history, not like now. Any ways the books were printed or distrubted by MacMillian and they were a whole series devoted to Canadian history. The books title was Knights of the Air and it dealt only with Canadians. IE; William Barker, Billy Bishop, Raymond Collishaw,Donald MacLaren, Andrew McKeever ect. Some very interesting people in my opinion.

 

For me it was like stepping back into time and watching the real thing.

[Mr_Dirt 1]

My interest was sparked by the fact I enjoy History even as a small boy. I read the book "Iron Men Wooden Wings" around the age of 10. I then started reading any thing on WWI pilots I could get. Like JFM the Royal Guardsmen tune "Snoopy vs The Red Baron" led to a search for more information about the Red Baron. Then a boardgame company came out with Richthofen's War and I was hooked on WWI aviation games. I then progressed to the computer and brought "Knights of the Sky" . I then brought every WWI flight sim I could find. I ended up with Red Baron modified with "Full Canvas Jacket" and another Modification I cannot remember. I had some problems running it and found OFF #1 to download and here I am today. What fun it has been! I have never lost my admiration for those men flew these box kites in combat.

John

[SteveLohr 0]

I started my interest in bi-planes in the late 60's when I read "Planes for Bob and Andy" as a very young tyke.

 

http://www.ioffer.com/i/aviation-readers-planes-bob-andy-1943-landau-illus-55852841

[Flyby PC 23]

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.

 

Learned a little more -

 

My father was with No3 Anti Aircraft Co-operation Unit based in Hal Far, Malta.

 

I always got confused about what he did, because he was definitely in the RAF, but whenever Swordfish flew, they flew as part of the Fleet Air Arm, as in Naval aviators. Now, I think I've got this right, but can somebody confirm this? - In WW1, you had the RFC Royal Flying Corps, which later became the RAF, Royal Air Force, but you also had RNAS, Royal Naval Air Service. Now, the RNAS also became part of the RAF, but somehow, the identity of a naval air service persisted with the formation of the Fleet Air Arm of the RAF in 1924, because the Fleet Air Arm reverted to Admiralty control in 1939. But when I say reverted to Admiralty control, the FAA had never actually been under Admiralty control, not since it existed as the RNAS? Have I got that right?

 

I could never understand why my dad in the RAF would be flying about in Navy planes. He has about 140 flights in his log book, all in Swordfish, but sometimes float Swordfish, and I do recall seeing pictures of Swordfish float planes being hoisted abour ships, and being confused all over again. I think I have it now, because No.3 AACU was indeed an RAF squadron, based in Hal Far Malta, and flew RAF Swordfish from 1937 to 1939, until the Fleet Air Arm was re-established, and the Swordfish went to sea due to their suitability as carrier based recon/ torpedo bombers. I think if my father had stayed with Swordfish, he'd have had to join the Navy as part of the Fleet Air Arm, but he stayed with the RAF, and somehow ended up in Burma.

 

That means all his flying experience was pre-war, and that he didn't actually fly during the war at all. It still seems odd, because he had 160 hours logged of a variety of missions, ranging from HF for Army or Naval Artillery, (I think the HF stands for Height Finding), recon patrols, searchlight co-operation, spotting for various ships (references to HMS Hood and Glorious, Glorious being a carrier), aerial photography, towing target drones, and various references to 'Queen Bee' patrols. I had always assumed the Queen Bee was a ship or some kind of landmark, but it turns out the a Queen Bee was pilotless radio controlled aircraft for Anti aircraft batteries to shoot at. I had no idea they even had such things in 1938.

 

It's all beginning to make sense now. Even the picture I have which he took of the British Mediterranean Fleet in 1938, with it's neutrality coloured red, white and blue front gun turrets.

 

Even the Gibraltar confusion is a little clearer, because No3AACU did move from Hal Far on Malta to Gib, then back to Hal Far. I don't know for sure, but I have the outlandish idea that it may have coincided with the period flying Swordfish Float planes. You certainly don't need floats to land at Hal Far.

 

Oh yes, and he was a corporal back then, but came out the RAF as a sergeant.

 

I really will need to get hold of his service record. I still have no answers to the perennial kidsquestion of 'what did you do in the war dad?' - but I am a lot clearer on what he did leading up to the war.

 

 

Edit Oh yes, and flew lots of 'sleeve' missions for ships. Anybody got an idea what that's all about? I'm guessing it might be a wind sock type target for ships to shoot at, - but I don't know.

Edited February 26, 2011 by Flyby PC