Last Flight to Berlin

[Old Koreelah]

Just happened on this doco, which shows a Canadian tracing his father's last flight in a Halifax.

 

An emotional story and lots of historic colour footage I'd never seen.

 

http://www.smh.com.au/tv/military/last-flight-to-berlin-the-search-for-a-bomber-pilot-4320102.html

 

 

[Deskpilot]

To say that I enjoyed that seem somewhat callous. However, what a great story of discovery. God rest all airman the perished during that most dangerous time.

 

 

[gwaf]

Thanks for sharing this.... so sad that it needs a war to turn ordinairy good people into extraordinary heroes paying for it with their lives,but nothing achieved.

 

Cheers

 

 

[rgmwa]

Without wishing to detract from the original post, the title reminds me of a book called `The Last Plane out of Berlin' . It's the life story of Sidney Cotton, an Australian pilot and enterpreneur (inventor of the Sidcot flying suit, the special photo-recce Spitfires, shonky businessman, spy and gun-runner). His plane was a Lockheed 12 that was fitted with special German Leica cameras and used to photograph military installations in Germany shortly before the outbreak of WW2. Maybe not someone you'd want as your best friend, but a remarkable character nevertheless.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Sidney-Cotton-Last-Plane-Berlin/dp/0733615163

 

rgmwa

 

 

[Neil_S]

Just happened on this doco, which shows a Canadian tracing his father's last flight in a Halifax.An emotional story and lots of historic colour footage I'd never seen.

http://www.smh.com.au/tv/military/last-flight-to-berlin-the-search-for-a-bomber-pilot-4320102.html

Thanks for posting that, OK. Very interesting. My cousin in the UK did a similar search to find the history of her uncle shot down in a Lancaster over France.

 

She has visited the field where it crashed, tended, but never cultivated since, by a French farming family. She has some small pieces of the bomber.

 

I will forward this to her.

 

Cheers

 

Neil

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Thanks for posting that, OK. Very interesting. My cousin in the UK did a similar search to find the history of her uncle shot down in a Lancaster over France.She has visited the field where it crashed, tended, but never cultivated since, by a French farming family. She has some small pieces of the bomber.

I will forward this to her.

 

Cheers

 

Neil

Spare a thought for those who live on old battlefields; if every place of death was treated as a shrine we'd starve.

 

 

[Neil_S]

Spare a thought for those who live on old battlefields; if every place of death was treated as a shrine we'd starve.

According to the film you posted the ground where a bomber came down becomes contaminated with phosphorus from the incendiaries and little will grow - and anyway I'm not sure I would want to eat stuff grown in phosphorus-laced earth .....I might start to glow in the dark....

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

According to the film you posted the ground where a bomber came down becomes contaminated with phosphorus from the incendiaries and little will grow - and anyway I'm not sure I would want to eat stuff grown in phosphorus-laced earth .....I might start to glow in the dark....

On top of all the other damage, there must be an awful lot of lead in the soils of Europe.

 

 

[jcamp]

and anyway I'm not sure I would want to eat stuff grown in phosphorus-laced earth

You would get pretty hungry - that "super" stuff that gets spread on farms is superphosphate. Plants don't grow without phosphorus.

 

 

[cooperplace]

Without wishing to detract from the original post, the title reminds me of a book called `The Last Plane out of Berlin' . It's the life story of Sidney Cotton, an Australian pilot and enterpreneur (inventor of the Sidcot flying suit, the special photo-recce Spitfires, shonky businessman, spy and gun-runner). His plane was a Lockheed 12 that was fitted with special German Leica cameras and used to photograph military installations in Germany shortly before the outbreak of WW2. Maybe not someone you'd want as your best friend, but a remarkable character nevertheless.http://www.amazon.com/Sidney-Cotton-Last-Plane-Berlin/dp/0733615163

rgmwa

thanks for recommending this, just finished it; an interesting read. you're right about not wanting to be his friend, and his wives got an even worse deal. But there's some great aviation history there.

 

 

[rgmwa]

Glad you enjoyed it. He had his good points, but they were outnumbered by his faults. Even so, he achieved a lot and made a significant contribution to the outcome of the war. I wouldn't mind having his plane either.

 

rgmwa