Warbird Information Exchange

Captain Raymond Lancaster 359th FG 370th FS 8th Air Force with P-40 'Galveston Gal' in the US prior to shipping out.



Captain Lancaster with P-47 42-75253 CS-S 'Galveston Gal II' East Wrentham East Anglia UK.





Captain Lancaster with P-51B 42-106805 CS-F 'Galveston Gal III'.



When someone asked Captain Lancaster many years following the end of
WWII why some people referred to him as 'Ace', he replied, "They call me 'Ace' because during World War Two I was responsible for the destruction of six aircraft, fortunately three were emeny". (one P-40 - bailed out in the US after the rudder came off dog fighting a squadron mate, one P-47 - landed short of the runway trying to land at a Spitfire base, one P-51D - engine failure on an escort mission over Germany crash landed in Sweden - interned, one Me-109, two FW-190.

There was a Galveston Gal IV. Ray built one of the first VarEZes and kept it at Clover Field. I met and got to know Ray a little 30 years ago. I still see his son, Mark occasionally.

_________________
"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

Very nice pics. Thanks for sharing. It is threads like this that really make my day. Instead of just moldering away in some scrapbook somewhere, folks share their pics and a bit of personal history.
Thanks
Chris