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633 Squadron


matchlesswdg3

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Been a while since I watched this film and had forgotten just how good it is, at least if you like Mosquitoes and sundry British WW2 vehicles! Excluding the pre-CGI models used in the bombing close-ups, the flying sequences are wonderful and you get to see four Mozzies flying together. In one scene where the home airfield is strafed by a pair of Messerchmitts (not 109s though), a Mosquito and a Bedford tanker go up in flames......then another Mozz cras lands.......presumably they were at least non-runners, but I doubt that would happen now! Only problem I noted was that the base runaround Jeep they had sounded like its engine was about to expire! Motley lot of German M/v's as usual, including a Saladin (?). But overall, a real treat. When are we going to see a Mozzie flying in UK again?

Edited by matchlesswdg3
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The Australian pilot was played by John Meillon AKA Flight Lt. Gillibrand.

 

In 1984 I was working on a telemovie film set ( The Dunera Boys ) where John Meillon was working. He looked permanently drunk, with a red face and big red nose. He must have drunk the local pub dry. He eventually died from Liver Cirrhosis. Also on the set were Warren Mitchell AKA Alf Garnett and Bob Hoskins the short Cockney actor .

 

Another good movie with plenty of Mossie flying action is THE PURPLE PLAIN with Gregory Peck as a Pilot in Burma . Excellent scenes of the airstrip in the jungle .

Edited by goanna
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Been a while since I watched this film and had forgotten just how good it is, at least if you like Mosquitoes and sundry British WW2 vehicles!

WW2 vehicles which include at least two Land Rovers.....

Love the Mosquito action, though.

Edited by mtskull
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I forget his name, but I think parts from the Mossie that they burnt making the film went Yorkshire Air Museum and were made into the Aircraft they have there. I think it is named after the mans wife who mostly rebuilt it. Tony Agar I think. I know I could look it up but I am trying to keep the shrinking grey cells alive.

Edited by john1950
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I forget his name, but I think parts from the Mossie that they burnt making the film went Yorkshire Air Museum and were made into the Aircraft they have there. I think it is named after the mans wife who mostly rebuilt it. Tony Agar I think. I know I could look it up but I am trying to keep the shrinking grey cells alive.

 

I remember someone rebuilding a Mosquito in their back garden in Huntington near York back in the late 60s/early 70s, by the time it was finished a housing estate had been built behind it and the Mosquito had to be craned over the owners house.

Could this be the one at the Yorkshire Air Museum?

As an aside, around the same time there were 2 Dragonfly helicopters parked next to a garage on the outskirts of Huntington near the Portakabin factory, does anyone on here from the York area remember these or the Mosquito?

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I'm always amused by the cockpit/crew shots, flying along happily in an aircraft without any fin or rudder! Look out of the back of the cockpit.

 

Not to mention that every in-cockpit 'flying' shot has the aircraft apparently pitched so nose-up (note all the ground whizzing past behind the (yes - missing) tail of the aircraft) that it'd be in a permanent stall attitude!

 

The whole film is far more a snapshot of Britain in 1964 than it is 1944.

 

633 is utterly daft - but it's good daft!

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I remember someone rebuilding a Mosquito in their back garden in Huntington near York back in the late 60s/early 70s, by the time it was finished a housing estate had been built behind it and the Mosquito had to be craned over the owners house.

Could this be the one at the Yorkshire Air Museum?

As an aside, around the same time there were 2 Dragonfly helicopters parked next to a garage on the outskirts of Huntington near the Portakabin factory, does anyone on here from the York area remember these or the Mosquito?

 

HUntington is where I have lived since 1980.

Not known any garage near Portacabin but there is one in the middle of the village a bit further North.

Never seen any Helicopters or Mosquitos other than those flying overhead.

Any closer detail of whereabouts in Huntington they where?

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HUntington is where I have lived since 1980.

Not known any garage near Portacabin but there is one in the middle of the village a bit further North.

Never seen any Helicopters or Mosquitos other than those flying overhead.

Any closer detail of whereabouts in Huntington they where?

 

The garage with the helicopters was on new lane on the left after turning off Malton road, the Mosquito was somewhere near where the primary school is, but things have changed a lot since I went to school in York and left in 1972, some school friends and myself would cycle through Huntington on our way to Strensall ranges to collect used bullet cases, which is how I saw the Mosquito and helicopters.

Maybe if you spoke to someone who has lived in the area since the late 60s they should be able to help you more. I remember that there was an article in the Yorkshire Evening Press about the Mosquito being craned over the house, but I can't find their archives on line.

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Don't forget the left overs! Some scenes were used in the 1969 film 'Mosquito Squadron' which starred amongst others Ducky, from NCIS and Dirty Den from Eastenders :yawn:

 

Thank you, as a kid remembered watching a lot of WWII films and started to see same clips in different films, always thought I imagined it

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Hard to believe it will be 21 years this Summer since we lost the UK Mosquito. I got this fantastic display at North Weald about one month before the aircraft was lost. Might want to turn your speakers DOWN, as the video sound level is loud, and it starts with a generator running in the background.

 

Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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The garage with the helicopters was on new lane on the left after turning off Malton road, the Mosquito was somewhere near where the primary school is, but things have changed a lot since I went to school in York and left in 1972, some school friends and myself would cycle through Huntington on our way to Strensall ranges to collect used bullet cases, which is how I saw the Mosquito and helicopters.

Maybe if you spoke to someone who has lived in the area since the late 60s they should be able to help you more. I remember that there was an article in the Yorkshire Evening Press about the Mosquito being craned over the house, but I can't find their archives on line.

I have a vague recolection of the same thing happening.
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MODS is there a possibility of splitting this topic off into a new thread?

Huntington Aircraft or similar?

 

I had words with the current Huntington Service station owner this morning.

Mentioned about the Helicopters.

He said after racking his brain for an hour or two that there was another garage that I had forgotten about on New Lane midway between Malton Rd and Jockey lane that was more 2nd hand car sales. There were 2 helicopters at the back of the building and he thinks they were removed mid 70s and went to Tockwith. This site on new lane has now been built on with new housing.

He was going to ask someone else about the Mosquito

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Don't forget the left overs! Some scenes were used in the 1969 film 'Mosquito Squadron' which starred amongst others Ducky, from NCIS and Dirty Den from Eastenders :yawn:

 

Hardly call Ducky a leftover!! That might be his current incarnation, but he has been previously known as Lt Cmdr Ashley Pitt RN (The Great Escape). Flt Lt Carter RAF (Colditz), and a Man from U.N.C.L.E.

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Hardly call Ducky a leftover!! That might be his current incarnation, but he has been previously known as Lt Cmdr Ashley Pitt RN (The Great Escape). Flt Lt Carter RAF (Colditz), and a Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Don't forget those who went on to less distinguished things: The actor playing the CO's navigator (the sole survivor at the end if I remember rightly) became Shughie McPhee, the chef in Crossroads; also Johnny Briggs (the pilot killed in the aforementioned crash) who became Mike Baldwin in Coronation Street. 😳

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I was at the local library a few years ago when a guy came in and asked the librarian to search for anything re: a Mossie crash here in East Gippsland in the early 1950's , the chap said the pilot was his friend . We found the accident report and other details emerged with two fatalities reported. The hole in the ground is still visible today . It was a familiarization flight for a new pilot with the instructor . One of the Australian made Mosquitos by de Havilland in NSW .

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Hardly call Ducky a leftover!! That might be his current incarnation, but he has been previously known as Lt Cmdr Ashley Pitt RN (The Great Escape). Flt Lt Carter RAF (Colditz), and a Man from U.N.C.L.E.

 

Far be it from me to insult a Childhood Hero! :wow:, (Though I did want to be Napoleon Solo, much more suave) I meant the sweepings of the cutting room floor, used in other films. Anyway I thought Lucas is supposed to have got inspiration from the 1968 film Battle of Britain?

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