Spitfire 944

[gray eagle]

In 2005, an 83 year-old World War II pilot is surprised to see 16mm footage of his 1944 Spitfire crash for the first time.







Myth No. 1
Americans did not fly Spitfires in WWII.

Myth No. 2
Spitfires lacked the range to reach Berlin.

[olaf1924]

Thanks grey eagle for a great story.

[Skyhawk_310R]

Well that was a treat!

Most cool to see everything in that video.

Regarding myth 1, to be honest I had never before heard someone claim Americans did not fly Spitfires because that's just so wrong on so many levels! I mean a number of Americans in the Eagle Squadron flew them before America even entered the war! And they were used for photo recon as shown.

Regarding myth 2, well that was regarding the traditional warbirds. But, it's all about gas onboard. So, in those recon birds yes you just plop in two large fuel tanks, effectively doubling the fuel range, and yep indeed the Spit could do what they guy did so very well.

As I recall, an old member here, Tom Wood, had his grandfather fly the photo recon Spitfire during the war for Canada. I remember a story he told me years ago about when he saw his grandfather climb into the cockpit of a Spitfire decades after the war ended, and despite never having flown it since the war, performed a perfect takeoff, pattern, and as Tom worded it, "the softest touchdown landing he ever saw!" Tom also said that his grandfather taxied up, shut down, slild the canopy back and exlaimed, "Yep, she's a hot little bitch!" LOL!!!!

Gotta love it!

Ken