Lancaster Bomber

[monkeybusiness]

Our local village fete somehow managed to arrange a Lancaster Bomber fly-past today. We arrived (unknowingly) about 5 mins before and wondered why there were loads of photographers with massive lenses - turns out we were close enough for my old iPhone to get a pretty good view! 

 

[Peasgood]

Brilliant.

Lucky you 👍

[Mark Bolam]

Majestic.

[Stubby]

I like the way the 4 Merlins set off a car alarm 🙂

[David Cropper]

My first wife's father was a rear gunner on Lancs, Wellingtons and then was waiste gunner on Catilina flying boats with Coastal Command for a spell. Nice little chap, about 5 foot 3 inches, typical of the Tail end Charlie, needed to be small to get into the turret.  He told me he remembered being freezing cold and frightened as you didn't see a lot on night raids, next thing you knew was the exhaust flashes from the German night fighters were alongside. He said you pointed the 4 Browning machine guns in the general direction and prayed and sprayed. Very brave blokes indeed. One of his good friends who went to the same social club to play cards was a German crew member of a Panzer captured and sent to a camp in U.K.  where he married and settled down. I never heard any adverse comments when ever I went for a drink with them although there was lots of ex forces from the war.

Edited May 15, 2022 by David Cropper

[Doug Tait]

There used to be a German fighter pilot called Walter that lived near us. He'd been shot down and ditched on a sandbank off the coast, he thought near Holy Island. Was picked up by a fishing boat and went to POW camp. After release he got work on a farm, married a local lass and was much liked in the community. Always said Scotland was more home to him than anywhere else. Shame he suffered a stroke and lost the ability to speak English. He ended up a cantankerous, angry man that communicated only by shouting aggressively in German, found him fairly intimidating after that.

[eggsarascal]

3 hours ago, monkeybusiness said:

Our local village fete somehow managed to arrange a Lancaster Bomber fly-past today. We arrived (unknowingly) about 5 mins before and wondered why there were loads of photographers with massive lenses - turns out we were close enough for my old iPhone to get a pretty good view! 

 

Just up the road from you, it came over Biddulph Moor yesterday. It was said its coming back this way later this afternoon.

[monkeybusiness]

1 hour ago, eggsarascal said:

Just up the road from you, it came over Biddulph Moor yesterday. It was said its coming back this way later this afternoon.

Yeah, it was supposed to be back over here again today, but I’ve been tied up elsewhere sadly. 

[Macpherson]

5 hours ago, monkeybusiness said:

Our local village fete somehow managed to arrange a Lancaster Bomber fly-past today. We arrived (unknowingly) about 5 mins before and wondered why there were loads of photographers with massive lenses - turns out we were close enough for my old iPhone to get a pretty good view! 

 

 

Sounds amazing on the laptop with decent headphones on and the volume right up, specially as it flies past you, got the hairs standing on the back of my neck.

I saw the same thing many years ago when working in the countryside near Glasgow, I heard it coming from far off and couldn't believe my eyes as it came past at about the same height, felt like I could reach out and touch it.. thanks for sharing👍

[spuddog0507]

10 hours ago, monkeybusiness said:

Our local village fete somehow managed to arrange a Lancaster Bomber fly-past today. We arrived (unknowingly) about 5 mins before and wondered why there were loads of photographers with massive lenses - turns out we were close enough for my old iPhone to get a pretty good view! 

 

Its been all over the UK this wk end to mark the end of WW11 and it will all so be the  80yr  aniversary of the  Dams raid tomorrow night 16th/17th may