Dej

You have something there Lou. BOC really should be an institution (God knows we need one ) dedicated to WW1 roleplay insofar as OFF allows. Criteria for joining being varied, relaxed and normally involving making a WW1-obsessed fool of oneself in front of spouses, children, family or friends... Such as absent-mindedly observing to one's spouse as one passes the intended motorway junction that one is approaching the blimp over Halfords from the East to avoid the archie.

At least Flyboys is historically accurate... I mean, you know, it's got lions and all that. Hadn't meant to be quite so acerbic in my initial post, for which I apologise, but the portrayal of Lanoe Hawker in Red Baron I find genuinely offensive. And on the same point as your last, I do fervently hope that no generation will grow up thinking that yon idiot movie (nor Flyboys indeed) is an accurate depiction of a D.III's capabilities, nor those of any other machine therein depicted.

Oh well, if we are idly to speculate I think MvR in a D.III might actually have had cause to fear Lanoe Hawker in a SE5! Absolutely dreadful movie, I'm afraid, too ridiculous even to be entertaining. Worse than Flyboys, worse even than Pearl Harbour. But for me, what they did to the memory of Lanoe Hawker is the greatest crime... one that won't be eradicated 'til the replica DH2 flies over the new monument erected where he fell by the present No. 24 Squadron, this November... God willing.

Really? I thought we all had one of those...

Actually, neither Bertie nor Ginger flew with Biggles in WW1. Algernon Lacey or Henry Watkins would do.

Depends whose top... Bound to come away with a virus though.

Ooooh! Nice. So that's what they use F-117 leftovers for.

Very evocative WM. Considering the pilot though, how much more contentious if that machine had been a Nieuport 17 with the Lewis gun missing

That first shot of the BE with the Einie on its tail is a beauty. If the BE were more centred without a wing being cut off that'd be my new wallpaper! As for the rest... it's all promising so much that I'm speechless with desire and doubling my lottery-winning efforts with a view to a dedicated early retirement.

Hear! Hear! Mais chacun a son gout, n'est pas? Me, when I was flying regularly, I did so almost exclusively for the British RNAS, partly selfishly because of the point Hellshade highlighted, and partly because I find it a fascinating aspect of the Great War in the Air, with so many frustrating 'what ifs' compared with the contemporaneous RFC's often 'cannon-fodder' tragedy.

New house, new location, new job, new friends, too many interests... I have very little time for anything bar an odd QC here and there. I've too much of a backlog of WW! reading and research to do too. This forum is my main link to OFF and I'm glad of that. Things will change, but more money don't buy you more time, sure.

I second.

Nice find, Lou. Definitely needs a 'bit of work' though. So we'll regrettably be hearing from you less. Maybe your concession to the OFF time you're going to lose might be to give it a gleaming coat of PC10, with a Naval 10 nosejob! As for the competition... it was become something of a two horse race rather too early, which was no real fun for you considering the effort you're expending. I've no regrets if you'd rather pull it.

As we know we're getting Gothas I wonder if we'll have Home Defence... it'd be really good to land at Stow Maries in 1917 and then visit it for real today.

Very nice. But why do later film makers, especially with CGI at their disposal, always have a cannon-armed B wing model Spit? Only one squadron, No. 19, actually had them during the BoB. Assuming this is supposedly set in 1940, with those ranks of He 111s in the background?

Oh to be in England, Now that Winder's there...

Going 'over the tot', you might say. I wasn't implying your leave was wasted only that all of you were. Or perhap 'wasted' isn't an American idiom for 'blotto', 'smashed', '... as a newt', totally newcasted' etc.

Sorry to have missed the bender... on leave. Scuttlebutt up and down the line has it that you fellas can certainly pin one on... a legendary blow-out, apparently. On the other hand I did pick up a couple of toothsome strumpets in Leicester Square so my leave wasn't wasted... unlike you folks. Congrats on the milestone, Lou.

I say this with caution, quite certain that my fellows here will find contrary examples with which to shoot me down in good-natured flames, but I lean toward the notion that the early years of the air war may prove more fruitful for your essay. Not only was the technology new, but the whole concept of 'fighting' a flying machine represented a psychological hurdle too. The transition from 'unarmed stability' as the byword in design where pilots were in abject terror of 'the spin' to 'manouverable gun platforms' where agility was an asset, for example. It was in the early years that the techniques of air-fighting and the exploitation of technological mastery of the air were formed, IMHO, the later years just developed these true innovations further.

I look forward to the BBC documentary. Such a lovely machine, I like her almost as much as my beloved Tripe.

The British and their colonial brethren had a very much stiffer upper lip than is nowadays the norm

uniNformeddating.com is MUCH more fun.

Welcome Mafiozo. In the Scenery and Ground Objects part of the OFF Downloads section here on CombatAce you'll find five RAR files containing .pdf versions of much essential reading... kindly uploaded by RAF_Louvert. You will find some answers amongst them. There are several WW1 sites worth visiting too: The Aerodrome The Great War Forum (has an Air War Section) The Illustrated History of WWI: The Story of WW1 Aviation There's also an interesting thesis by Lt. Col Bradbeer on the Battle for Air Supremacy Over The Somme which should inspire you. Book-wise, considering the scope of your question Alan Clark's 'Aces High' and Aaron Norman's 'The Great Air War, whilst a little dated do cover the broad scope, the former more shallowly (and therefore readily digestible) than the latter. Both should be obtainable from the library. And there's Wikipaedia of course, with its attendant patchy realiabilty. But, being a diligent student you will of course cross-check your references anyway.

Aha, I thought that was my particular bad, Olham. Well then, it's Jasta 2 obviously, as that's the only other unit he flew with, I think.

Oh-ho! Hannibal flies for the Hun, eh? Nice work, Olham,