The 'Introduce yourself' Thread

Welcome to the forum, Russ and good luck with your project, Your username, snj5 do you also have one of those or just a fan of the navalised T6?

Pete

mbriscoe;118146 wrote:

There is a very well illustrated book on Scottish Aerodromes of the First World War , you might get a few ideas from the pictures there.

Many thanks - just ordered!

Had an SNJ for 9 years -- N3771M. A wonderful aircraft that taught me a lot.

Hello all.

Aviation, particularly military, has always been of interest to me. I come from a family with an extensive military background, on both my mothers and fathers side, so I feel asthough the military is 'in my blood'. I have a particular interest in the RAF, most probably from my paternal Grandfather serving in Bomber Command, and having a distinguished career in the RAF which lasted over 30 thirty years, and both my paternal Uncles serving for many years in the RAF - one having served as a fighter pilot, which has always impressed me. My Dad is a very keen aviation enthusiast, and so from a very young age, I have many fond memories of attending airshows, museums, and generally taking an interest in acquiring an extensive knowledge of military aviation, though I fear it will never live up to that of my Dad!

I'm currently an undergraduate at the University of Sheffield, in my final year reading for an Honours degree in History. At the moment, I am specifically conducting research for my undergraduate dissertation on Bomber Command. I am interested in questioning whether the official 'condemnation' of the Command, symbolised by their lack of recognition immediately after the Second World War ended, was an accurate representation of contemporary feeling of those people who lived near Bomber bases and interacted with bomber crews and reporting of the crews in the local press, of whether it was simply an official, moral position. I am focusing my search on squadrons based in Yorkshire, as that is from where I hail, and am focusing particularly on RAF Elvington and 77 Squadron RAF. I am interested in any examples of crews interacting with the local population in any way - marrying local people, attending village events, religious events, trips to local towns/cities etc., so if anyone has any knowledge of such things occuring, at RAF Elvington, or any other Yorkshire Bomber Command base, please do let me know!

I am glad my Dad directed me to this site, as it seems to be a fantastic resource of incredibly interesting information, and I look forward to browsing it extensively!

Thanks,
Jenny.

The SCRAN site and Britain from Above sites are especially spectacular. I am really interested in some of the hangars at Montrose, one even shown with a Camel inside! Will probably purchase one or two, and they even have construction drawings! Will wait on the Scottish Airfield book to arrive so as not to double purchase.
Many many thanks for the fabulous links!
Russ

Hi Jen and welcome to AIX ...
The WW2 Bomber Command aircrew were 'stitched up' by the politicians after the war...esp by Churchill...he left ACM 'Bomber' Harris to take the brunt of the criticism post war.
But that is politicians for you...I dont trust any of them

rgds baz

Of course Dresden is usually dragged into any discussion about the BC offensive and some quite outrageous casualty figures have been quoted widely (and believed widely !!) - the true figure is apparently 20,000 -25,000 instead of the much quoted '100,000' propaganda figure.
One other misconception widely believed is that he was referred to as 'Butcher' Harris...when in actual fact his nickname was 'Butch' which in those days meant forthright - ie did not mess about and was a plain speaker.
Harris did not plan the city bombing originally...I believe that was done by Portal and Churchill !

Short extract from Butch's Book

Page242, BOMBER OFFENSIVE, A T Harris

By December of 1944 we had devastated or very seriously damaged 8o per cent of all the cities in Germany with a population,before the war, of more than 100,000; yet more cities, especially in the east of Germany, were
devastated in 1945.

With the German army on the frontiers of Germany we quickly set up GH and Oboe ground stations close behind the front line and this ensured the success of attacks on many distant objectives when the weather would otherwise have prevented us from finding the target. At the same time the bombers could fly with comparative safety even to targets as distant as Dresden or Chemnitz, which I had not ventured to attack before, because the enemy had lost his early warning system and the whole fighier defence of Germany could therefore generally be out-manceuvred. In February of 1945, with the Russian army threatening the heart of Saxony, I was called upon to attack Dresden; this was considered a target of the first importance for the offensive on the Eastern front. Dresden had by this time become the main centre of communications for the defence of Germany on the southern half of the Eastern front and it was considered that a heavy air attack would disorganise these comnmnications and also make Dresden useless as a controlling centre for the defence. It was also by far the largest city in Germany, the pre-war population was 630,000, which had been left intact; it had never before been bombed.

As a large centre of war industry it was also of the highest importance. An attack on the night of February 13th-14th by just over 8oo aircraft, bombing in two sections in order to get the night fighters dispersed and grounded before the second attack, was almost as overwhelming in its effect as the Battle of Hamburg, though the area of devastation, 1600 acres, was considerably less; there was, it appears, a fire-typhoon, and the effect on German morale, not only in Dresden but in far distant parts of the country, was extremely serious. The Americans carried out two light attacks in daylight on the next two days. I know that the destruction of so large and splendid a city at this late stage of the war was considered unncessary even by a good many people who admit that our earlier attacks were as fully justified as any other operation of war. Here I will only say that the attack on Dresden was at the time considered a military necessity by much more important people than myself, and that if their judgment was right the same arguments must apply that I have set out in an earlier chapter in which I said what I think about the ethics of bombing as a whole.

rgds baz

Anthony Beevor, in his book The Second World War, claims that if one includes the Balkans and the Soviet Union that the Luftwaffe killed more people by bombing than the Combined Bombing Offensive of the Allies.

T