Olham

There was at least one film about the work of Alan Touring before this one. Touring's success in decrypting German messages might have been the key to winning the war. The tragedy for Touring came only little later. In the early 50s he had to undergo a chemical castration, because it became public that he was homosexual. The enforced treatment led to a deep depression, and Touring commited suicide two years later. What a sorrowful end for a man who had served his country so well! The trailer for this one looks very promising - I'll rent me a Blueray of it soon.

The cracking of the ENIGMA code was a great success for the Allied forces. Now they KNEW where each submarine was sent to operate.

...which was definitely a British tradition.

Yeah, in that respekt they almost rivaled, who's the more cruel leader.

I'm not so sure, if the early victories were Hitler's successes, or those of Generals like Erwin Rommel. The invasion with tank divisions through the Ardennes, bypassing the Maginot Line, was rather the unorthodox idea and leadership of Rommel, as far as I know. The Stuka was an idea of Ernst Udet - the Jericho trumpet included. With such "ingredients" a Blitzkrieg could be fought - in the beginning. But when the opponents had learnt their lessons, they came up with new strategies. And the Germans, fighting on several fronts, overstretched their armies, and did not have the long breath, like the Russians had.

Well, he only achieved the rank of a private in WW1, if I remember correctly. How can such a man decide about such strategies? And how could those who knew better follow him without much opposition? To follow the leader blind was a German characteristic back then. I am very glad that the outcome was like it was. I visited England several times, and I like the country and it's people, as they are. I cannot imagine them living under Nazi rules. And I am glad that the Allied forces finally beat the Nazi regime - I would not want to live under such conditions.

That, and then they also had only a limited operational time over England before they had to return cause the fuel went out.

Welcome, Robert - nice to see you here!

Thank you for the info, Jim. Goering should be called "Herr Meyer" in that video - that was the new name he had chosen for himself, if ever an Allied bomber should appear over Berlin. And we all know: there came many of them. Rudel was AFAIK definitely a staunch Nazi. Galland seems to have changed during the war, at least so far that he objected "Herr Meyer" several times, until he got arrested. The allowance for him to build up JV 44 came directly from Hitler. "Herr Meyer" might have been boiling about that.

Not sure if this colour footage was posted here before. I found it interesting to see Adolf Galland - the man who was first the youngest General in the German forces, and who got arrested after confronting Hermann Goering. When the Third Reich came to it's end, Galland was allowed to form the famous JV (Jagdverband) 44. Equipped with the first operational jet fighter Me 262, this unit intercepted Allied bombers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagdverband_44

Great to see you with that work, Tony - looking forward to more pics! Thank you for your kind offer! I confess that I have only yesterday begun to read Collishaw's "Black Flight", that you sent me some time ago. I got so far, where he learned to fly in England, on a Caudron G.III. So take your time with the new book - I'm a slow reader.

Well, you can't have it all; the day has only 24 hours, and you need 6 - 8 of them to recover. I wish you the best of luck and health for your work, your hobbies and your family, Jim! One day you will find time to fly again.

Well, I'm not sure how much I could tell, so you better ask JFM.

Great to see such detail photos - thank you for sharing, Jim! How's your new book about MvR getting on?

Tony, great to see you around here!

Yes, that makes sense.

Hey, Tony - great to see you around here! How's the Mosquito?

Well, the real Albatros V-strutters did have wing failures (especially early on), which may have been caused by only one main spar in the lower wing, held at only one point of the V-strut, which allowed the wingtip to flutter in longer steep dives. The wings were then reinforced by an additional metal rod which led from the V-strut to the lower wing's forward edge. If I remember correctly, a warning was made to all pilots, not to dive steeply for more than 1000 meters - which should mean, that the wings did not break as easily as in RoF or WOFF.

Thank you, Jim - great sketch! I wonder if the "5mm reinforcement tape" is a typo and should be "50 mm"? Or do they mean the thickness in this case - 5 mm thick?

Yes, I hope so too - I miss him.

Ah, you saw this thread - thank you for the details, Jim!

Check your PMs, Hauksbee - addy sent.

Well, if you have JFM's mail addy, you should ask him about this - I'm not the expert. I can only guess. Stitching the canvas on to the ribs would be difficult, if not impossible, because you would have to make lots of holes into the ribs for the thread to go through, and how would you find these with your needle? Instead, they stitched it onto a canvas tape, which is easy to find for the needle, as it's right under the canvas. But that is just my guess.

The D.V in WOFF is not as well to fly as I would expect it was, so I use Robert_Wiggins' Albatros FM. I am flying the kite for the reason you mention: it just looks beautiful. Von Richthofen didn't make this comment at the end of the Albatros D.V's operational life, but earlier. Just like Tutschek from Jasta 12, who also complained about the lack of performance. When the D.V appeared, it WAS a useful fighter - but it didn't take too long for the Entente to come up with better fighters. So the D.V was "obsolete" already soon after it's introduction. I wished JFM would be around here - he could be much more precise about this matter.

Other aircraft, like the Albatros, had tape over the stitching too. Salmon-coloured on Johannisthal-Albs, and light blue on OAW-built craft. There was also violet tape, but I'm not sure which company used that. You can clearly see those stripes on the WOFF skins, over every wing rib. This page from the build-gallery at the Vintage Aviator website shows the light OAW blue tape. http://thevintageaviator.co.nz/image/tid/153