Very cool

197? That seems awfully specific. Was it aspies making the recording?

WOW
Muted the tv. sobering
Because of guys like that, we are free. I don't think all 197 came back.

/still have the tv muted
//Lifting my beer to honor those lost.

VictoryCabal: 197? That seems awfully specific. Was it aspies making the recording?

The RAF has records you know.

The sound of a Rolls Royce Merlin engine is more beautiful than the sound of a swallow any day.

The sound of 788 of them must have been heavenly.

VictoryCabal: 197? That seems awfully specific. Was it aspies making the recording?

Paperwork, my friend. Paperwork.

You couldn't draw a round of ammo without paperwork.

My father was a navigator on a B-17. Reading the de-briefings would make your hair stand on end.

My cat loved it.

Jon H: I don't think all 197 came back.

In the comments someone said 11 planes were lost in the raid.

GrahamManning: Very cool

This. Stuff like this always makes me think. I think of the crews of those planes flying towards the unknown, and I wonder what was going through their minds. Were they scared? Did they grasp the enormity of the struggle they were involved in or was it just a job to be done? Or were they just thinking of the girl they met the day before? I wonder what the people recording it were thinking, did they see it as just another daily occurrence or was it to something stand and watch? I wonder about the nightingales, what did they think about their skies becoming suddenly crowded with massive, noisy cousins flying faster and higher than they ever could? I wonder if all the people involved could even somehow grasp that a bunch of people not yet born would be listening to this one recording long after most of them were dead, discussing it on a medium that didn't even exist.

Now I'm wondering if I should put down the wine.

/makes me all pondery
//cool find subby

My wife's dad flew Lancasters and my dad was in flight school on V-J Day, he ended up flying B-29s, 36s and 52s, I agree, nothing like a Merlin, especially multiple Merlins. God, I love the BBC. And God Bless the RAF, clear skies to you, Billy.

Marcus Aurelius: VictoryCabal: 197? That seems awfully specific. Was it aspies making the recording?

Paperwork, my friend. Paperwork.

You couldn't draw a round of ammo without paperwork.

My father was a navigator on a B-17. Reading the de-briefings would make your hair stand on end.

My father was a waist gunner. Anyone who wants to spend a sobering afternoon or two can read the Stories from the 91st and the Airmen Diaries from his unit.

"I had to drop the bombs today. Toggleer went nuts."

miss diminutive: GrahamManning: Very cool

This. Stuff like this always makes me think. I think of the crews of those planes flying towards the unknown, and I wonder what was going through their minds. Were they scared? Did they grasp the enormity of the struggle they were involved in or was it just a job to be done? Or were they just thinking of the girl they met the day before? I wonder what the people recording it were thinking, did they see it as just another daily occurrence or was it to something stand and watch? I wonder about the nightingales, what did they think about their skies becoming suddenly crowded with massive, noisy cousins flying faster and higher than they ever could? I wonder if all the people involved could even somehow grasp that a bunch of people not yet born would be listening to this one recording long after most of them were dead, discussing it on a medium that didn't even exist.

Now I'm wondering if I should put down the wine.

/makes me all pondery
//cool find subby

The English attacked at night. They couldn't see crap, but their only nemesis were spotlights and radar equipped German fighters. The German night fighters would sneak up under the lead plane in the formation and strafe it with 20mm cannon fire, at which point the rest of the bastards would open fire on whatever bomber was close at hand.

The Americans attacked in broad daylight, and lost approximately 20% of their planes and crews during any given day.

This situation persisted until the summer of '44, at which point the P-51 Mustang was available in such numbers that only Axis jets dared challenge the bomber formations.

Difficult, though not impossible to dance to.

Marcus Aurelius: VictoryCabal: 197? That seems awfully specific. Was it aspies making the recording?

My father was a navigator on a B-17. Reading the de-briefings would make your hair stand on end.

I was at a dinner quite a few years ago at Kermit Weeks' museum in Florida and the guest speaker was Col. Bruce Carr. This is a man who took off on a mission in a P-51, got shot down, sneaked onto a German airfield, stole a FW-190, and flew it back across the lines and made a crash landing at his field. I sat 10 feet away from him listening to him tell the story and I still can't wrap my mind around that. Took off in 51, landed in a Focke Wulf.

And probably my favorite part though was we were hanging around outside before the dinner, when we hear a Merlin approaching, and a 51 comes smoking over our heads at about 50 feet and 300kts - with Col. Carr at the controls at age 80 something. Talk about they don't make 'em like that anymore.

Okay... I muted Roadshow for this. It better be wor...

Whoa.

That's a pretty fascinating find subby. In the comments, someone mentioned that 11 of the bombers didn't come back. So, hats off to all those brave bastards.

Marcus Aurelius: VictoryCabal: 197? That seems awfully specific. Was it aspies making the recording?

Paperwork, my friend. Paperwork.

You couldn't draw a round of ammo without paperwork.

My father was a navigator on a B-17. Reading the de-briefings would make your hair stand on end.

I went in a B-17 and a B-24 a few years ago. Those things were tin cans that would have been pretty scary to go up in with people shooting at you. Non-pressurized and freezing your ass off. Hard to imagine.

P/O Donald Stewart Bowes (right). Age 21, of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Pilot of Lancaster K-King of 419 RCAF Squadron, killed with 4 of his crew March 31, 1945 (three weeks before bombing operations against Germany were stood down).

They were on a daylight raid to Hamburg, and were late over the target, along with ten other bombers; the escorting fighters had returned with the main force. The Germans sent up several 262 jets, and eight Lancasters were shot down.

Look mummy, theres an aeroplane up in the sky

Oooooooo ooo ooooo oooh

Did you see the frightened ones
Did you hear the falling bombs
Did you ever wonder
Why we had to run for shelter
When the promise of a brave new world
Unfurled beneath a clear blue sky
Oooooooo ooo ooooo oooh
Did you see the frightened ones
Did you hear the falling bombs
The flames are all long gone
But the pain lingers on
Goodbye blue sky
Goodbye blue sky
Goodbye
Goodbye

My father might've been on one of those planes.

thisispete: I suddenly have an urge to watch Dambusters again.

Does anyone know what ever happened to the supposed Peter Jackson remake??
Was really looking forward to that.

Radioactive Ass: Look mummy, a small plane up in the sky.

Glad to see I wasn't the only one.

Oznog: This sounds like the opening to a Pink Floyd track.

Or even the second one.