Street legal P-51s (kind of)[IMG]http://i252.photobucket.com
Wed Mar 12, 2008 2:57 pm
The famous Liver (Lie-ver) Building is in the background of the second photo. Note trams and cobbled streets - Liverpool is a lot smarter looking these days!
Wed Mar 12, 2008 3:32 pm
Incredible photos! Do you have any more?
kevin
kevin
Wed Mar 12, 2008 3:35 pm
Kevin, I have a P-47 somewhere. Will have to look. Gotta go to work right now!
Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:02 pm
P-38s in the streets of Liverpool.
Mudge the researcher
Mudge the researcher
BLIMEY!
Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:41 pm
Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:42 pm
Awsome pics!
I can't help but wonder how many brand-new aircraft that were shipped as deck cargo ended up on the bottom of the Atlantic courtesy of the U-boats. Of course, after being submerged in salt water for more than 60 years, even if you could find them I doubt they'd be restorable.
SN
I can't help but wonder how many brand-new aircraft that were shipped as deck cargo ended up on the bottom of the Atlantic courtesy of the U-boats. Of course, after being submerged in salt water for more than 60 years, even if you could find them I doubt they'd be restorable.
SN
Wed Mar 12, 2008 6:24 pm
What's the story behind the pics?
Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:50 pm
Clang...not sure what you're asking here. The easy answer is:
They're a/c that were being hauled through the streets of England, during WWII, on their way to a USAAF base to be assembled.
Mudge the puzzled
They're a/c that were being hauled through the streets of England, during WWII, on their way to a USAAF base to be assembled.
Mudge the puzzled
Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:56 pm
Once heard the firsthand story of California Lockeed enployee who claimed he got called to explain his recent activities in 1945, and just why he needed deferment, to his draftboard in Pennsylvania (Is this trip really nessesary?). Seems he told them his job entailed making sure that a certain number of brandnew P-38's, upon acceptance by the USAAF, got safely aboard a barge at Santa Monica, where they got unceremoniously dumped into a different place out at sea, each day(!!!).
Don't know if it's true. However have heard similar stories from others, supposedly in the know. The gent did say his "local" boad called Burbank to confirm his story. He got his deferment.
So, perhaps a greater number of P-38's were submerged by by pork barrel politics than any U-boat!
Don't know if it's true. However have heard similar stories from others, supposedly in the know. The gent did say his "local" boad called Burbank to confirm his story. He got his deferment.
So, perhaps a greater number of P-38's were submerged by by pork barrel politics than any U-boat!
Thu Mar 13, 2008 1:08 am
Doesn't really surprise me. I've heard numerous stories of "terminal inventory" aircraft flown directly from the factory to the scrapyard at the end of the war. One story claimed that once at the scrapper, the wheels were removed and shipped back to the factory to be used on the next batch of planes flown to the scrapyard. In many cases, partially complete aircraft were scrapped right on the assembly line when the contracts were cancelled.
I understand the government was very concerned about surplus military materiel suppressing the economy after the war. I heard one vet say the when he returned from combat in Europe, there was a guy at the bottom of the gangplank taking all the soldiers' army-issue watches and smashing them with a hammer. Another vet said his job was in a warehouse, where he took brand-new never-issued leather jackets and slashed them with a knife to make them worthless.
SN
I understand the government was very concerned about surplus military materiel suppressing the economy after the war. I heard one vet say the when he returned from combat in Europe, there was a guy at the bottom of the gangplank taking all the soldiers' army-issue watches and smashing them with a hammer. Another vet said his job was in a warehouse, where he took brand-new never-issued leather jackets and slashed them with a knife to make them worthless.
SN
Thu Mar 13, 2008 2:29 am
And the reason that late 40's to middish 50's cars had so much trim on them (ever spot an old rusty DODGE in a field and wonder why the chrome was so shiny?) was because the government had hundreds of thousands of rolls of very thin stainless steel that was for war production, end of the war, 'so whaddwedowitdisstuffHarry?' 'it's stainless and can't be remelted' so Buicks and Mercurys got gaudy. 
Re: Street legal P-51s (kind of)[IMG]http://i252.photobucket
Thu Mar 13, 2008 3:54 am
Dave Smith wrote: Note trams and cobbled streets - Liverpool is a lot smarter looking these days!
I for one reckon trams and cobbled streets looks alot smarter than potholed tar and buses
Cheers,
Matt
Last edited by Jollygreenslugg on Thu Mar 13, 2008 4:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
Thu Mar 13, 2008 4:11 am
this is how the aircraft arrived....
P-51B's being offloaded at Liverpool
P-38's and P-51D's on deck
and a small photo of P-51B's in the streets of Liverpool - similar to those posted by Dave, i.e. same corner as in photo 3
The aircraft were reassebled at Speke Airfield and ferried to BAD-2 Warton (Base Air Depot) where they were readied and modified for issue to combat units of the 8th and 9th USAAF.
Martin
P-51B's being offloaded at Liverpool
P-38's and P-51D's on deck
and a small photo of P-51B's in the streets of Liverpool - similar to those posted by Dave, i.e. same corner as in photo 3
The aircraft were reassebled at Speke Airfield and ferried to BAD-2 Warton (Base Air Depot) where they were readied and modified for issue to combat units of the 8th and 9th USAAF.
Martin
Thu Mar 13, 2008 7:43 am
The logistics of all that must have been quite impressive.
Thanks for posting these. We rarely see what it took in the background to make it all happen.
Thanks for posting these. We rarely see what it took in the background to make it all happen.
Thu Mar 13, 2008 2:10 pm
Thanks guys for all the comments, additional info and more photos. I hadn't seen the P-38s on the carrier shot before. Brilliant! The carrier with the P-51s was a a Royal Navy vessel HMS Nabob. If anyone is interested, the ship in the background, K25, is HMS Azalea, a Flower-Class corvette used for convoy escort. I'm still trying to find the promised P-47 shot.