633 sqaudron

[private mw]

watching this film on itv4 today why is that a humber pig being used by the germans ....:shocked:

[private mw]

closer look its a saracen yes i think this has been mentioned before in previous posts :blush:

[ian2b]

Your right it was a Saracen

[schliesser92]

Your right it was a Saracen

 

look closer and you'll find a Landy somewhere in there, and at the end, I could have sworn that there was a MK VI crash tender near the tower!

[Jessie The Jeep]

What I want to know is how all those Mosquitos could fly without a vertical fin? It's there when you see the planes flying around and on the ground, but as soon as you jump in the cockpit, it vanishes!

[tim gray]

More airfix mossies lost during the making of that film than real ones during the war.....plastic all over the place!

[Fugly]

Hey ! Dont knock it - its one of my favourite films (warts and all !)

 

Shuey Mc Fee's early flying career certainly wasn't mentioned in ANY of the crossroads episodes ( probably didn't want to talk about the war..)

 

Its a great film - after watching that I developed a bomb release mechanism for my chopper and regularly bombed the cat.

[antarmike]

More airfix mossies lost during the making of that film than real ones during the war.....plastic all over the place!

 

plenty of real ones destroyed in the film making.

[tim gray]

plenty of real ones destroyed in the film making.

 

Fair comment antarmike, the mossie must be a nightmare on longevity due to the timber/ laminate construction. Dont even know how many static survivors never mind flying. I do recall they had constructional problems in the far east due to climate

 

Regards

Tim

[antarmike]

Although crash scenes into cliffs etc used models, Real Mossies were deliberately crashed.

 

Either two or three flyable Mosquitos were destroyed making 633. The one flying into a bowser was real, as was the undercarraige failure. Some people cite three Mossies destroyed but these two are definite.

 

Flying Mosquitoes, none. ( last mossie flown was the British Aerospace Mossie, that suffered breakup of the nose, resulting in total destruction in the ensuing crash, with the tragic death of those on board.)

 

Kermit week's Ex Strathallen Collection is due to fly. The wings were condemned over 10 years ago, but a new set are under construction in New Zealand. The Mossie Museum has one close to flyable.

 

The problem with any return to flight project is the unknown (possibly25-35 year) life of the Aeolite glue. X-raying shows condition of the wood structure but cannot indicate how strong the glued joints are, so everything is down really to guesswork, when assesing the structural strength of a Mossie.

Edited May 6, 2010 by antarmike

[Adrian Barrell]

 

Flying Mosquitoes, none. ( last mossie flown was the British Aerospace Mossie, that suffered breakup of the nose, resulting in total destruction in the ensuing crash, with the tragic death of those on board.)

 

 

 

Er no. I suppose the fact that the nose was the first bit to hit the ground followed by the rest makes that sort of true but the crash was nothing to do with any structural failure. It was a faulty carburettor that caused an engine problem at a critical stage of flight. Loss of control followed and there was insufficient height to effect a full recovery. But you are right, it was a tragedy.

[woa2]

Back to 633 Squadron, if you look carefully, the Bomb release switches they use are actually the transmit switch from an Army 38 mk3 Radio set.

 

Also, didn't the film makers buy the last Mosquitos from the RAF to use in the film?

 

Also, when Ron Goodwin wrote the music, he used 6 and 3 as inspriration. If you listen you can hear 6 beats followed by 3 slow beats in the beginning and through the music.

[Jessie The Jeep]

The full AAIB crash report on the Mosquito can be read here - http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources/dft_avsafety_pdf_501355.pdf

[antarmike]

Er no. I suppose the fact that the nose was the first bit to hit the ground followed by the rest makes that sort of true but the crash was nothing to do with any structural failure. It was a faulty carburettor that caused an engine problem at a critical stage of flight. Loss of control followed and there was insufficient height to effect a full recovery. But you are right, it was a tragedy.

 

Yes, someone corrected me on that one once already on this very forum, and still I haven't got it into my thick skull...

[antarmike]

With regard to the other Mosquito film "Mosquito Squadron" and the criticism of the story line, using the bouncing bomb, on land against ground targets, I found these links helpful

http://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-370062.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/27/a2163827.shtml.

 

It is clear at least one bouncing bomb was deliberately released over land, and Barnes Wallis seems to have spent some time trying to work out how to use the bomb against tanks, so maybe "mosquito Squadron" isn't the complete rowlocks some people claim it to be.....

 

It appears attempts were made to get the mine into railway tunnels......much like the "Mosquito Squadron" plot....

 

There is a much viewed youtube clip of an A26 dropping an American version of highball over land, and bringing itself down in the process..

Edited May 7, 2010 by antarmike

[tim gray]

My word, that must be a nightmare to attempt to put one back in the sky. Am i not right in saying that everything has to be exactly to original or it is classed as a prototype aircraft with all the extra that that entails.

 

I recall that they went to the ends of the earth to obtain a particular profile and steel mix to repair the spars

on the blenhiem. They were allowed to do so as they used the original RAF battle damage repair manual.

 

Regards

 

Tim

[Fugly]

Well Shuey McFee made the movie for me - There is a great clip of a Mozzie coming in to land with a stream of smoke coming from the wing root , this was actually caused by Shuey burning an omelette on a gas cooker situated near to the navigators position.. He was responsible for all in flight meals and entertainment . It looked great on his CV and many years later Meg Richardson commented on his ability to cook one handed., whilst holding a map.:nut:

 

Seriously though I love the mosquito, read about one disintergrating at high altitude over (India?) because the high temps had melted the glue holding some components. Catastrophic.

[N.O.S.]

... burning an omelette on a gas cooker situated near to the navigators position .....

 

:shocked::wow::shocked::wow::shocked::wow:

[steveo578]

Fugly

Seriously though I love the mosquito, read about one disintergrating at high altitude over (India?) because the high temps had melted the glue holding some components. Catastrophic.

 

 

As one historian put it, "a sudden cold draught and two merlin shaped holes in the Arakan plateau," however I believe the problem was resolved by 1944.

 

Steve

[woa2]

Shuey burning an omelette on a gas cooker situated near to the navigators position. He was responsible for all in flight meals and entertainment . It looked great on his CV and many years later Meg Richardson commented on his ability to cook one handed., whilst holding a map.

 

Yes, I understand the comment as I am old enough to remember 'Crossroads'.

[schliesser92]

Back in 1967 , whilst living in Gloucester, I visited the museum at Staverton. They had a couple of Mossies there that were used in "633 Squadron". I was given to understand that only 3 flying Mossies were used, the rest being non-flyable or replicas.

 

Whatever happened to the Staverton collection?

[alan turner (RIP)]

it was closed split up and most items ended up at Duxford,. Anson, Mossie and Oxford. Sra1 was part of collection I think and also went to Duxford before transfer to Southampton.