Recent content by The Bigfella

  1. The Bigfella

    Spitfires Found!

    The latest on this Hope Fades in Burma Search for Buried Spitfires RANGOON — A quest to unearth dozens of British Spitfire aircraft thought to be buried in Burma looks likely to come to an unsuccessful end in October, with monsoon rains hampering excavation efforts as the two-year search...
  2. The Bigfella

    Picture of the day.

    Dad was captured by them in Crete.... after what he described as "our glorious retreat without arms".
  3. The Bigfella

    Picture of the day.

    Gun camera footage from my uncle (father's brother). He flew with 456 Squadron in Beaufighters and then Mosquitoes before being repatriated with TB. First image is shots from another plane.... the rest from my uncle. In photo 5, the black dot near the top, left of centre... is a cannon...
  4. The Bigfella

    Dud Rates

    I spend a bit of time in Laos and the accepted wisdom there is that 30% of the ordnance didn't explode. Given the high number of cluster bombs in that lot, it is accepted that there are 80 million unexploded devices in the country. Less than 2% of the country has been cleared. On one trip, I...
  5. The Bigfella

    Great Photo Mossie and P-38 Side my Side

    Great photo. My uncle flew Beaufighters and then the Mosquito. He told a good tale of going up in a Beau with a P-38 that had just ferried in to the UK from the US. He showed the P-38 that they didn't turn as well as they thought they did at low altitude.
  6. The Bigfella

    Packard vs Rolls-Royce Merlins

    My understanding, based on what my uncle wrote in his autobiography (which I loaned out and haven't got back yet)... he was a Beaufighter / Mosquito pilot - and he did a course at RR as he was being proposed for test flying duties prior to being invalided out with TB.... was that the Rolls...
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