Winged Heroes

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Re: Winged Heroes

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A lovely work of art! Thanks for posting it Ian and for all the work you do at the cemetery. :good:
We have to remember that of all those thousands of Lancaster bombers that flew missions during the war only half of them returned.
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Re: Winged Heroes

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They've put a fresh one on the pillar box on Post Office corner as well, It's the head of a soldier wearing a tin hat.
We used to see what I now know to be prototype Avro bombers flying about during the war and immediately after as Avro's base at Woodford aerodrome was just South of Stockport centre. I've always thought I saw one that had a jet engine in place of one of the Merlins.... But I'm not sure about that.
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Re: Winged Heroes

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I'm glad to see this pilot's story and that of the WW2 PRU being brought into limelight. But note that he not only contributed in the war, he made a significant but very different contribution during the rest of his life...
`World War Two pilot backs campaign to honour photographic unit' LINK
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Re: Winged Heroes

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A good piece Peter. I used to deliver cattle to a man at Summerseat near Bury who had been a POW in Japanese camps. He was blind in one eye and very deaf, all caused by the beatings he was given. I always remember thinking, unless we know about them we walk past these men and women and don't recognise that they are heroes.
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Re: Winged Heroes

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Re your last post Stanley.

Eric was our local Pearl Assurance agent and a good friend he also held a radio amateur licence, (G4GOZ).

The Barlick and Earby Times 1945

September 28th

An article on the front page records the following:

Out of Japanese Hands.

Signalman E. Cockerill

Sent a cablegram which reached his parents Mr & Mrs J.E. Cockerill on Friday stating that he is now safe in Madras and hopes to be home soon. From another source, Mr & Mrs Cockerill learned last week (for the first time) that their son had his right hand severed in a battle that developed as soon as his unit had arrived in Malaya 3 and a half years before. Signalman Cockerill was "missing" over 12 months after the fall of Singapore and it was only after protracted enquiries that news of his whereabouts was obtained.

October 26th

Home from Far East.

Eric Cockerill finally arrives home from his ordeal as a P.O.W. of the Japanese. Eric had to have his right hand amputated as a result of wounds suffered in Malaya. His hand was amputated the day before he was captured in Singapore. He was sent to Changi prison and put to work in the gardens growing vegetables and tapioca root for the inmates of the camp. The prisoners supplemented their ration with cats, snakes and snails just to stay alive. The Gaol was built to accommodate 605 prisoners, the Japanese held 6,000 captive on the site. Eric was 10st when he joined the forces in October 1939, he weighed just over 7st when he arrived back in Barlick and this was after hospitalisation in Madras where he was evacuated to by boat and then flown home to the UK by the R.A.F. He had served in the Reconnaissance Corps from September 1939 until his capture in Singapore in 1941.

Like you say Stanley, If you don't know the back story many are just old blokes. Eric died a few years ago RIP.
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Re: Winged Heroes

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I once had a fuel stop at Singapore on my way to Australia. It was a funny feeling knowing that the airport is built on the site of Changi prison camp. I doubt if many people realised that.
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Re: Winged Heroes

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I came across this and have never seen it before. The Beardmore Inflexible Monoplane of 1929. (LINK)
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Re: Winged Heroes

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Here's a YouTube video... Beardmore
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Re: Winged Heroes

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Impressive beast. The wing span was bigger than a B29.
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Re: Winged Heroes

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Image

See THISfor the Junkers g38. An impressive aircraft for 1930!
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Re: Winged Heroes

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I mentioned in another topic that I attended Roundhay High School in Leeds, the boys went to Roundhay School next door. This morning a ceremony is taking place at Roundhay School to unveil a blue plaque in honour of old boy Arthur Louis Aaron who was born 100 years ago today and was the only person from Leeds to be awarded the Victoria Cross. Arthur was a fighter pilot in WW2 and died aged just 21 soon after landing his badly damaged plane and its crew. You can read his story here:-

https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/200001/
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Re: Winged Heroes

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I've read the link Wendy, he certainly deserved his medal.....
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Re: Winged Heroes

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I watched a TV programme about America's F-86 Sabre jet fighter which made its debut in the Korean War. Some very good old film and lots of detail. A short bit at the end caught my attention in view of the present situation with Ukraine and Russia. Later in the 1950s China and Taiwan had been fighting each other for some years. In 1958 China began launching bombing raids on Taiwan. Although the US was committed to supporting Taiwan it didn't want to get into a war with China and therefore didn't send in its own troops, planes and warships (sounds familiar?). Instead it provided the Taiwanese air force with the latest model of Sabre jets and a stock of what was then a new weapon - the Sidewinder heat-seeking missile. The Chinese planes didn't have such weapons but they could fly at a higher altitude than the Sabre and thought they were safe. When a large formation of Chinese bombers next came over the Taiwan Straits the Sabres were able to approach from below and fire their missiles up at the bombers. When the Chinese crews started seeing their aircraft blown out of the sky they fled and didn't come back. Let's hope the similar strategy of providing the armaments but keeping back your personnel will be a success in Ukraine.
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Re: Winged Heroes

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Poland should allow the Ukrainian pilots to pop over and "borrow" their Migs.
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Re: Winged Heroes

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I agree Ian but the fact that this hasn't happened convinces me there is more to this than meets the eye.....
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Re: Winged Heroes

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PanBiker wrote: 06 Apr 2022, 11:07 Poland should allow the Ukrainian pilots to pop over and "borrow" their Migs.
Poland supplying its Migs to Ukraine was vetoed by Nato because Putin had threatened retaliation against Nato if it occurred. Clandestine provision by flying them there (new paint job, switch off systems that would allow detection etc) is still seen as too risky. They can't be taken by sea or overland either. It's discussed in this article from 11 March: LINK

Note this in the same article: Although there still are numerous MIG-29s around, they're not necessarily combat-ready. The aging Soviet-era jets typically require extensive maintenance. While Poland has the capacity to repair its fleet, Bulgaria and Slovakia have relied on Russia to fix their fighters. Just shows how much Nato has come to rely on Russia - rather like the Russians relying on the West for military parts!
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Re: Winged Heroes

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That doesn't surprise me. I thought there would be a reason we weren't aware of..... Mushroom Farm conditions, we are told what we need to know.....
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Re: Winged Heroes

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See THIS for an article on the Barling Bomber. Before its time and in the end Billy Mitchell was proved right. Peter's article on the new Chinese aircraft carrier reminded me of this.

Image
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Re: Winged Heroes

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We've been lucky and seen the Red Arrows twice, on consecutive days. They've been displaying along the south Devon coast and we saw them arriving in the south-west on Friday and leaving yesterday. The first sighting was them passing low in front of our house in 3 + 4 formation - they're operating 7 aircraft this season. The second when we were walking down a main road and they passed very low in front of us in a formation of 7 and trailing white smoke. Always impressive! They're very busy and passing over many towns and events. I suspect there's a wish to be seen `flying the flag' in these days of Russian aggression.

If Putin carries on with his aggression those pilots might be soon flying F-35 stealth fighters in Eastern Europe. I see that the US is also moving two of its squadrons of F-35s from their US base to RAF Lakenheath.
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Re: Winged Heroes

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Based only 300km from Odessa and getting to see Snake Island on their Typhoon missions - that's close to the action...
`War in Ukraine: RAF personnel reflect on Nato Romania mission' LINK
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Re: Winged Heroes

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I know that this is exactly the opposite of the feelings that piece was designed to engender but I wish we didn't have to spend the insane amounts of money involved in building and operating 6 Typhoon fighters when there is so much need in the world that such massive expense and effort could be expended on.
Perhaps all those nights spent in an Anderson Shelter listening to German bombs dropping on us had an effect on me. I can relate directly to those poor victims in Ukraine.....
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Re: Winged Heroes

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Red Arrows jets and Typhoon warplanes are only being used for essential flying due to a safety problem with their ejector seats. Typhoon operations to protect UK and NATO airspace will not be affected.
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Re: Winged Heroes

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The Tempest jet being developed by the UK's BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, European missiles group, MDBA and Italy's Leonardo....
`A mind-reading combat jet for the future' LINK
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Re: Winged Heroes

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I find that link intensely depressing Peter. The resources being gobbled up by that technology should be going into climate change mitigation and health not destructive technologies.... All right, that's Utopia and is impossible. That doesn't stop me regretting that it is happening. Put it down to my age.....
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Re: Winged Heroes

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A report on the BBC today says that a Russian jet fighter accidentally fired a missile near an unarmed RAF aircraft a month ago. The RAF plane was called an `RC-135 Rivet Joint' which meant nothing to me. I looked it up and from the photo I could see it was a surveillance plane developed from the Boeing 707. But I was wrong. Boeing developed aircraft as the KC-135A Stratotanker in the 1950s. Commercial airlines didn't want it as an airliner because of the cabin size being too small. Boeing sorted that and launched a modified version as the Boeing 707 airliner and, as they say, the rest is history! RC-135W
The 3 RAF aircraft are based at Waddington: LINK
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