Recent content by Grittis

Major over-sight on my part, mjfur. Thanks for the correction. It would have most probably been an L-4 and the purported account would have occurred somewhere in Germany.

All this L-2 talk reminds me of a thread I have wished to nail down in my own fathers memoirs. When dad got to a military hospital back in England, a fellow patient near him discussed his similar injuries. He was an L-2 pilot shot down in Belgium or Germany on or about 9 Apr 1945. He crashed...

Did the targets that were chosen for 8th AAF bombing missions during WWII come directly from a U.S. organization called the Enemy Objectives Unit? It was part of something called the U.S. Economic Warfare Department. Were they part of the military? They did produce target intelligence and...

This reference may not help for information on crashes as far north as Osnabrück, however, it may connect you with other groups that have catalogued crash sites: https://www.flugzeugabstuerze-saarland.de/ I have dealt with Klaus Zimmer, who has unfortunately passed away. One of the other...

I am particularly interested in the period before the Normandy invasion. My father participated in a number of 8th AAF bombing missions in what was called the transportation campaign leading up to the US invasion of France on 6 June. I have read many books on US bombing in the ETO and was...

Gentlemen, I have generated much more discussion of the dam busting than the ball bearing production question. Both were important strategic target categories for different reasons. I was not aware of the more complex problem of destroying such large features as were dams with different...

Geoffrey, I think it was Freeman's Mighty Eighth War Manual that had a spot on "purple passion" as the common British name for the experimental 130/150 grade fuel that was introduced in early 1944 to a few fighter groups for evaluation. It was dyed purple and basically was the highest octane...

Thanks for the memory jog from Freeman's book. I used to have a copy about... EwenS's reference showed the 60 km pipeline from Saffron Walden NE to Hethersett (Norwich). So by the end of '43, the pipeline system was in place to supply the 8th AAF bases. Q: what was the 'British grey pool'? A...

Thanks for the info on octane quantification. It's complicated, relying on standard equipment and testing protocol. Many different hydrocarbons have been tested for their effect on engine 'knock' or pre-ignition. Most, even if they slow the pre-ignition, can't meet the requirements of simplicity...

Thanks, Tom. I am also interested in the distribution of 100 octane fuel in East Anglia among the U.S. bomber bases. Pipelines did exist in a network that served the 8th AAF and RAF, although I have not seen their top secret wartime locations. To which ports did the ocean tankers deliver the...

EwenS, Without the effort on my part, I did not realize the complicated nature of these attacks. As most things in life or war, things are never as simple as the first blush would suggest. Thank you for your detail.

Thank you, MikeMeech and EwenS for your response. Great info. My father was a B-24 navigator out of Hethel in Apr, '44. He was trained on a Gee set after arriving. He could guide the plane down to either end of the runway with it. He didn't mention Darky even as a back-up so I assume that it was...

I am reading "Vanishing Act" by Dan Hampton (2024) which describes in detail the aftermath of the Doolittle raider which landed in Russia after bombing Japan on 18 Apr, 1942. While the raid itself has been dealt with in detail by a number of authors, and Lt. Col. Hampton has broken some new...

What do the numbers mean in the aviation fuel grade designation 100/130? Were the different fuel grades dyed different colors in the USAAF? What grade was referred to by the British term "purple passion?" While most of the American octane boosters involved tetra-ethyl lead, what were the main...

I am looking for an official description of the location system called "Darky" used by Allied aircraft over England during the years before GEE came into use. I have run across its mention in a few veteran narratives as a sound based network for location and vectoring of aircraft in low...