Multinational Storches in action.

[JDK]

I wondered what might happen if you popped 'Storch' into the www.britishpathe.com website.



Not a lot, but I've not started digging around yet. Anyway, a Swiss Storch mountain rescue (with some footage from an EKW, IIRC).



A 1950s Indo-China French operated Storch (not great footage, a few bits of interest with schemes and a shot from the cockpit



And a British operated Storch in N Africa, in the same film as a bit on 112 Kittyhawk Sqn.

Pathe isn't the instant gratification of U Tube, and it's heavily watermarked, but you can download a free low res copy and then buy the high res (unwatermarked) if you want it. But it's the original stuff.

You do need to give name and address, and it does imply you'll be paying (but the low res versions are free) and then you can download it. You can pick out stills and download them, too. It's clunky, but unlike u tube, it's the original material as presented with the original voice-overs and soundtracks; and there's a LOT on there - including US newsreels. Have an explore.

2563.19 | ATTACK ON MACKHE POST IN INDO-CHINA. (1:34:03:00 - 1:36:52:00) 1951

Mackhe, Post-Indo-China (Vietnam?)

LS. Aerial view Mountainous terrain. LS. (Aerial view) River - bombed bridge. LS. French armoured cars moving along road. LS. French infantry marching along road (6 shots) LS. Troop carrying vessel on the river. LS. Motorised infantry driving through town LS. Tanks moving along the road. (2 shots.) LS. Tanks pull in to allow mules to pass. MS. Tanks moving along. LS. Motorised infantry driving along the road. (2 shots) LS. Shell bursting on hillside. MS. French infantry digging trench. LS. Mechanised artillery MS. Unhitching gun. CU. Propellor of observation plane. LS. Morane observation plane taking off. (Fiesler Storch.) Air to Air plane in flight. CU. Observer in cockpit. Aerial view River. MS. Field guns firing (2 shots) MS. Artillery officer signal `Fire' LS. Heavy artillery guns firing (2 shots) (Mute. F.G.)


1487.56 | (DAKOTA CRASHES IN ALPS) (1:53:23:00 - 1:57:27:00)
Thought to be Selected Originals from late 1940s material.

Swiss Alps.

The rescue of the occupants of the American Dakota which crashed in the Alps.

Various shots of the Alps, showing clouds lying low on the peaks. Various shots of the rescue party of Swiss guides, roped together and carrying heavy packs, groping their way precariously up the mountain side. M/S's of a Fieseler Storch (Swiss rescue 'plane) taking off and soaring over the mountain tops. Various shots of the US base at Meiringen, with jeeps, ambulance and nurses waiting.

L/S taken from the rescue 'plane. The line of rescuers can be seen far below near numerous snow-filled crevasses. L/S of the crashed Dakota, from the 'plane. C/U silhouette of the pilot at the controls. Various shots of the rescued on stretchers being put into the 'plane. C/U of the rescued people smiling. C/U U.S. General Tate embracing his son who was pilot of the Dakota. C/U as U.S. General Snaveley kisses his wife. C/U of Colonel Macmahon, U.S. Army, with his wife and 11-year-old daughter Alice. C/U of the two Swiss guides, Wilhelm Jost and Ernst Reise, who were the first to reach the wreck, enjoying a cigarette. C/U of the rescue 'plane taxiing across the snow, using extra skis for the purpose, which it leaves when airborne. L/S of the Alps. VS of rescued back at base - some loaded into ambulances. Aerials of the Alps.

Possibly connected with 46/95 - MD.


1344.22 | SALUTE TO RAF (1:43:55:00 - 1:46:29:00) 03/12/1942

Titles read: "SALUTE TO RAF".

Middle East.

General view of aircraft flying overhead a desert aerodrome. Panning shot of a Ventura bomber taking off from a desert airfield. Commentator pays tribute to the airmen and ground crews of the RAF who, "by magnificent technique, crippled the Luftwafe in this theatre of operations and dominated the skies from the outset of the great offensive".

Aerial view from a plane shows bombs falling onto German supply lines moving across the desert. Aerial view of RAF supply trucks moving along a road.

M/S of German military cemetery beside the road; lorries pass nearby. Ground to air shot of formation of Venturas. Various shots of a Kittyhawk with ground crew digging up their supplies of beer from an underground refrigerator in foreground.

M/S of Air Chief Marshal Tedder and Air Vice Marshal Arthur Coningham as they climb into an aircraft. We see this 'Grasshopper' aircraft take off. It is a captured German Fieseler Storch which has been painted in RAF colours.

The convoy moves off across the desert from their coastal position to an advanced position.

[John Dupre]

You gotta love Storchs. I have looked pretty closely at the Collings example and it is interesting that the data plate on the engine lists the maker and address in German and the postwar overhaul information in French.

I also read somewhere that the Germans had the French develop the all metal wing because the wartime French workers were constantly relieving themselves in the glue pots on the wood wing production line. This diluted the glue and cause failures only some time after the plane was completed!

One of my not so fantastic fantasies is to build a scale replica Storch with a Czech 6 cylinder inverted in line engine.