A nice blue airplane seen yesterday in Quebec...

[Steve T]

Hi all--

Computer's behaving strangely at the moment...but am going to try posting this Sight For Sore Eyes blue airplane seen yesterday at Vintage Wings' open house event at Gatineau...



The markings, probably to remain for two or three seasons, were added just last week. Now registered C-GVWC, the aircraft is the former Gary Kohs "Spirit of Akron"...now has a certain Hamiltonian quality!

S.

[The Inspector]

Good looking aircraft!!

A few months ago there was a video clip, pretty grainy, of some SWPA P-40's flying in company with a couple of F4U's. Folks wanted to know who's they were, I volunteered that they were probably ANZAC because of the markings-
WELL! several 'big time experts' basically told me I was full of it as ANZAC aircraft 'never flew wearing big numbers on the sides'............
I donot reresent myself as an "expert' as I've discovered over the years that 'EXPERT' is two words, an EX is a has been, and a SPERT is a drip under pressure-

[Curtis Block]

I guess the memo made its way up north that the Olympic Flight Museum Corsair was in for a complete rebuild, and that paint job was no longer in use.

[K225]

Canadian Lt. Robert Hampton Gray RCNVR was deployed on HMS Formidable and carried out daring fighter escort and attack operations in the North Atlantic. Including the famous raids against the holed-up German battleship Tirpitz. HMS Formidable then fought in the Pacific theatre in 1945 the day the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki Lt. "Hammy" Gray won the Victoria Cross when he gave up his life while on a raid at Onagawa Bay, Japan. In that day's raid Hampton-Gray sank the Japanese Destroyer Amakusa, The Vintage Wings of Canada Corsair's markings honour Hampton Gray.

[K225]

It was on August 9th 1945, while a Boeing B-29 Superfortress nicknamed Bockscar dropped a second atomic bomb on Japan at Nagasaki, that Lt. Robert Gray lead a two-flight formation of Corsairs against airfield targets on the Japanese island of Honshu. With these targets destroyed before his aircraft were needed, he turned his attack to their secondary targets - enemy ships in Onagawa Bay. While leading his pilots to the attack on the Japanese frigate Amakusa, Gray’s Corsair caught fire under heavy anti-aircraft fire. With one of his 500 lb. bombs shot away, he pressed home his attack under withering fire, releasing his remaining underwing bomb. His aim was true but, as Amakusa exploded and capsized, Gray’s Corsair was seen to roll inverted and crash into the bay. Gray was awarded the Victoria Cross, the Commonwealth’s highest award for valour under fire, for his actions that day. Today there is a memorial on the shores of Onagawa Bay dedicated to Robert Gray - the only memorial to a foriegn combatant on Japanese soil.