Jump to content

Waldo.Pepper

9. Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    364

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Country

    Canada

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Waldo.Pepper

  1. Charles Durning - who knew?

    in Jim's Place

    Posted

    Sorry Sged... this topic is a pony that has been ridden more than my ex girlfriend!

    Certainly it is tempting to regard the Veteran's remembrances of their own experiences as an excellent source of information. More valuable than our own opinions on the matter, under most cases.

    However, Louis Brown writing in his excellent Radar History of World War Two brings up some important points about such testimony.

    "I have come to find the interview a flawed method. Recollections of events half a century ago, called up in conversation with an interviewer uncertain of what needs to be asked and with neither party given sufficient time for reflection, generally extract little that is new and much that is misleading. There are numerous transcripts of such interviews and, though they certainly have value, they also disclose many errors, the result of the passage of years, the secrecy of the early times and the subsequent development of mythology."

    Despite the Veterans sincerity in his beliefs you cannot knock out a Tiger with a 50cal. It is not impossible, just damn near impossible.

    The video likely, almost certainly does not match the testimony.

    The video shows vehicles, not Tigers. Furthermore; I defy anyone to find an image of a Tiger with a trailer full of petrol. If it was done, it was rare in the extreme. I have never see one.

    It was often the case that when you spotted enemy tanks, they were reported as Tigers. Just like when the German pilot was shot down over England in 1940, they would refuse to believe that they were downed by a lowly Hurricane - and insisted that it must have been a Spitfire. Spitfire snobbery, is just as contagious as Tiger panic.

  3. Charles Durning - who knew?

    in Jim's Place

    Posted

    As Ive said repeatedly before on the ubi forum.....where do we find such men?

    You find them right next door, often enough. This is a fellow from my regiment in WW2, the South Alberta Regiment. As the link states, he was a mechanic, and a militia (reservist) volunteer. http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub.cfm?source=history/secondwar/citations/currie Quite a guy. Met his wife and grand-daughter in 1987. Great mess-dinner that one was! My brother commandeered the Lt. Gov.'s limo for an hour!

    Further to Currie for you...

    falaisesurrender.jpg

    The image is used on the cover of this excellent book, with the following caption.

    CaenCover.jpg

    Major D.V. Currie (second from left) rounding-up prisoners. His small force or armoured and artillery units and Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders captured St. Lambert-sur-Dives after heavy fighting. He was awarded the V.C. for this action.

  4. Charles Durning - who knew?

    in Jim's Place

    Posted

    a US pilot was saying that when they engaged a tiger, they always shot from behind towards the ground...the bullets would then ricoshe upwards, underneath the tank.

    I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

    Been watching Charles Durning lately as Tommy's Dad on Rescue Me.

  6. Gent with Balls as Big as Churchbells

    in Jim's Place

    Posted

    There are far too many passages to quote but this stood out for me.

    "I decided early on that any deficiency either type had could be offset by unbridled aggression. I had done some boxing, and had beaten better opponents by simply going for them, and I decided to use this tactic in the air. It paid off."

    His wartime tales are enough for several movies.

    Thanks.

  9. LWD Open Days '06 (Pics)

    in Jim's Place

    Posted

    Ouch!! Gees that thing dropped out of the air fast when the forward speed was washed off. A test I take it?

    Details... (sorry will stop spamming yer thread now.)

    Operation Credible Sport was a United States military operation plan in late 1980 to rescue the hostages held on American soil in Iran using C-130 cargo planes modified with rocket engines. The Credible Sport operation was to follow the dramatic failure of Operation Eagle Claw in which a C-130 Hercules and a Sea Stallion helicopter collided in the Iranian desert, killing 8 servicemen. Credible Sport was abandoned after the election of Ronald Reagan as President in November, 1980.

    The Credible Sport plan called for highly modified C-130 Hercules cargo planes to land in a soccer stadium not far from the American Embassy in Teheran and airlift the hostages out. Three aircraft were modified under a top secret project at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida to YMC-130H configuration with rocket packages blistered onto the forward and aft fuselage, which theoretically enabled the planes to land and take off within the confines of the sports arena.

    During a demonstration at Duke Field, Eglin Auxiliary Field 3, on October 29, 1980, one of the modified Hercules fired its braking rockets a few seconds early. The aircraft suffered an extremely heavy landing, tearing off the starboard wing, setting off a fire, and resulting in the airframe, serial 74-1683, being written off. Despite this, the entire crew survived.

    This failure, coupled with the defeat of Jimmy Carter by Ronald Reagan in the presidential election on November 4, 1980, led to the cancellation of this rescue mission plan. The hostages were subsequently released concurrent with Reagan's inauguration in January 1981.

    * Footage of the crash landing at Duke Field has become publicly available in recent years, sourced from a United States Air Force briefing film.

    * Duke Field was the location for much of the filming of the "918th Bomb Group's" flightline and story action in the 1949 film Twelve O' Clock High starring Gregory Peck and Dean Jagger, who won an Academy Award for his performance. This airfield, which is not open to the public, has also been used by the Central Intelligence Agency for covert operations into the 1990s.

    * One of the test pilots during the Credible Sport program elaborated on the test failure, the test with the footage now available. The pilot states that during the test the braking rockets did NOT fire prematurely, but right on time. It was the descent-arresting rockets, rockets that were supposed to fire after the braking rockets to slow the drop of the aircraft as the aircraft's forward velocity was halted and the wings ceased to provide lift that failed to fire. Looking at the video, it would appear that the braking rockets should be fired after the airplane touched down to quickly stop the landing roll. However, the braking rockets were supposed to be fired while in the air, then the descent arresting rockets would fire to allow a controllable and almost vertical landing. It was these rockets that failed, with the crash landing and aircraft breakup resulting.

    From here (full details)

    http://crediblesport.quickseek.com/

  14. ID this

    in Jim's Place

    Posted

    If they fly they crash, eventually.

    I am quite happy to see them preserved. Their primary enemy in such a setting is a fire. Hamilton almost lost their Lancaster in a fire. Museums in Florida have the additional peril of a Hurricane etc etc.

  15. ID this

    in Jim's Place

    Posted

    You can read that sign?

    PA48.jpg

    :) LOL No I cannot read the sign. I meant that the plane started out life as a Cavalier, then Piper took over the project - so the sign in the museum could have read either.

×
×
  • Create New...