Warbird Information Exchange

Just wonderful stuff. Thank you for posting the link.

The desert Hurricane footage in the second half is awesome.

Thanks for that, amazing stuff. There is more of that Mustang sequence somewhere on YouTube but I can't find it now.

Neat stuff! I'm always amazed at how calm and 'yeah, no biggie' the attitudes seem to be of Commonwealth pilots after sliding through the mess tent and flattening the outfits biffy, nothing derogatory, just an observation that it almost seems like an every day thing-and I really love the look on the mechanics face thats up on the cowl looking at the prop 'well, there goes tonights sleep.'
I'm surprised that some A-10 or AH-64 outfit hasn't glommed onto the 'flying can opener' logo on those Hurricanes, seems a natural

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

This is just a collection of 'grabs' from a series of Royal Air Force WW2 newsreels called "The Gen". The Imperial War Museum in the UK has put out a set of DVDs titled "Royal Air Force at War" comprising 2 DVDs with episodes of "The Gen" covering from No.1 released in May 1943 to No.19 released September 1945, along with a special end of war tribute edition of "The Gen". The DVD set also includes episodes of the RAF "Airfront RAF Operational Film Record" covering from June 1944 to May 1945. The DVDs give 6 hours and 20 minutes of footage. Some of it is quite enthralling to watch, whilst parts are certainly set pieces of wartime propaganda and others are travelogues of RAF operations overseas. If you want to see plenty more footage and in better quality than shown on youtube, I can commend the DVDs. As far as I am aware they are only available in PAL format, but the DVDs are region free encoding.

The Mustang sequence which features the low flying Mustangs of No.268 Squadron RAF, was filmed at RAF Snailwell on November 20, 1942. The footage was originally shot by a crew from Paramount Newsreels and used in "The Gen", British Paramount News, British Pathe News and a number of other newsreels. A low res version of the footage including some of train strafing gun camera footage can be found on the British Pathe website under "Train Busting Mustangs". One of the RAF pilots who flew those really low passes shown in the newsreel is still alive today and has recalled the Squadron OC making sure the newsreel cameras were placed so as to be able to get the best view of the action, but to be safe from the firing passes made on the vehicles set up as targets. The camera crew took some convincing to set up where the OC suggested. The OC flew the lowest of the passes caught on film and used in the newsreel.

Regards,

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Colin Ford
Canberra
Australia
No.268 Squadron Royal Air Force 1940-46
Historian by Appointment