Mart

There wasn't any proper mechanism. Air gunners were encouraged to imagine "an arc of sky" or a "circle of sky" - but of course that was based on AirMin notions of a nice tight steady 1930s-airshow formation, ploughing steadily into Hunland with no vertical or lateral relative movement. The door-gunner in a USAAF heavy was particularly free in his choice of directions. There were some physical angle-and-direction safeguards in place on most bomber and fighter-bomber aircraft to stop mid-upper shooting off his own tailplane (in the First Lot, BE2C Lewis-gunners were known occasionally to put a burst through the tail, the propellor, or even the pilot). But apart from that, anything that strayed into line of sight in the general panic was able or even likely to get a line of 303s stitched across it, and there are many records of aircraft being wounded or even downed by friendly fire from within the defensive box. And that of course is to say nothing of depositing bombloads onto the aircraft directly underneath. This was filmed several times, so Lord knows how often it actually happened, especially on night raids. And since in the examples I have seen it amputated a wing, the chances of the crew escaping the centrifugal force were not good.

A few months ago I posted here asking for a little help on Friday June 2. We (local Volunteer Centre) are having an afternoon tea-party for 40-50 local war veterans who've been helping with an oral history project... we've lined up some period entertainment and a few civvy re-enactors, but it would still be really nice to see a few uniforms and ideally a vehicle or two. Could anyone spare a couple of hours? We'll be at a golf club near the A5/M42 junction in Warwickshire. I do appreciate it's close to the Normandy weekend.... but maybe someone might be passing by? Mart (mart@nwcvs.org.uk)

Military vehicles are not my line of country, but I thought y'all might be interested in a piece in the Coventry Telegraph this week, in which readers recall a World War 1 tank which was used as a war memorial. It stood on a concrete plinth in a park in the city centre from 1919 to 1936. At that time there was some reason why it wasn't wanted there any more, so a mechanic from Daimler came round. He put some petrol in, and after 17 years it started first time, whereupon he drove it to another park, where it remained until 1942 - at which point it was driven off to be melted down for recycling.

Thank you Degsy. I have spoken to the MVT's Don Higham here in the Midlands and he's promised to pass the word..... problem is, quite a few of the local lads seem to be planning a Normandy trip that week. Thanks for the thought, though.

Hello. I'm organising a bit of a shindig on the afternoon of June 2 in North Warwickshire for 60 or so WW2 Home Front veterans (ARP, Land Army, Home Guard) who've been kind enough to record their memories on tape for schools and the county museum. It would just be great if some kind souls might turn up with uniforms/vehicles/both to add some ambience to the afternoon. No positive activities required; just ability to cope with beer/sandwiches/petrol money/nostalgic pensioners. Anybody got a jeep, lorry, whatever? Mart: North Warwickshire Volunteer Centre 01827 718080