Alex Henshaw

[emeritus]

Alex Henshaw was and remains one of my heroes.

This morning..Sept 15...he was interviewed on ABC FM albeit a repeat.

If you're interested the program can be heard by Googling .."Mornings with Margaret Throsby" and following the directions on the ABC website.

Who is Alex Henshaw you say?..tut tut!

Still holds the London to Cape Town and Return solo record and test flew Spitfires and Lancs during WW2.

Apparently his aerobatic displays in a Spitfire were something to behold.

If you have not read "Sigh for a Merlin" then your life is not complete.

Emeritus :ok: :ok:

[gaunty]

Thanks for that he's one of mine too.:ok:

[Paint The Sky Pink!]

When I was at Duxford visiting, I missed Alex by one day. He was doing book signings for 'Sigh For A Merlin'. Bought a few copies anyway, just wished I got them signed.

I am also sorry to see he has not been a part of the Spitfire Ace programme on ABC.

Cheers,

PTSP!

[gaunty]

He has, he was on the episode before last I think, talking about what a wonderful aircraft it was to fly.

[Paint The Sky Pink!]

Ooops, I must have blinked!

[gaunty]

It was short and to the point.

[Horatio Leafblower]

I saw him when he visited Australia about 1998, got him to sign a photo of 2 chippies in formation. Gaunty he seems like a very to-the-point type of fellow.

[Fantome]

Too right ! A classic, with British understated aplomb on nearly every page. When he put on a show in a Spit at Castle Bromich for visiting big cheese, the overcast was down to a few hundred feet. The demo was done all within the confines of the aerodrome boundary, with every possible convolution in the rolling plane. He describes his actions in detail, without a trace of big-noting.

Another priceless account in the book, is a description of barrel rolling a Lanc, while a new pilot recruit. . . a Yorkshireman. . . is standing alongside in the wheelhouse, getting very excited and concerned. . . "Careful boss. . . you'll have her on her back. . ." While inverted, Henshaw takes sadistic delight in gently causing the other's feet to come off the floor and back on again.

The original Throsby interview, when he was explaining the attitude of other air forces to Spitfire procurement, Margaret Throsby asked Alex Henshaw whether the Germans had Spitfires. This little gaffe was deleted from the other day's repeat.

(When I first read the book, I was so moved by one part that I said to the sardonic consort. . . "Listen to this. . ." and read the fragment aloud to her. Response? "I'm waiting for the sequel!" "What sequel? Do you know of a sequel to 'Sigh for a Merlin'?" 'Squat for a Crap', - watch for it." Oh. . . the sacrilege. . . oh. . . the need to wash out more mouths.)

[gaunty]

fantome :{ the things one endures for the love of a woman:rolleyes: Bring back Shariah Law I say:p

[tinpis]

Well I was sat all ready for Andrew Denton and Latham to pour buckets of ****e all over the ALP last night and bugger me got that drivel about Spitfires instead?
Is it me or is it tedious same old footage that gets dragged out over and over?
I mean the poor bugger spose to have had four hours in the plane now SURELY theres some footage somewhere of him actually flying the bloody thing?
Not sitting in the back bored as ****e looking out the window with his helmet strap UNDONE?

[gaunty]

tinpis correctamundo.

I don't actually tire of the aerials and the sound but the shots of Carolyn's "left hand down a bit" and the GIB having to put up with it do me in.

I really do enjoy the old fella's, must all be about your vintage tins. :p

Und ze Cherman goosestepping and saluting whilst he "reviews" the Vaterlands finest is a hilarious counterpoint to the boys having a chat and a cup of tea waiting for them to come so they can give em a seeing to.

How to clowns like Goerring get to the point where they can kill so many of their own kids as well as ours.:*

I was fascinated by the observation by the narrator guy that it was the British version of Teutonic efficiency and attention to detail by "Stuffy" that won the day in the defence of SE England.

[tinpis]

Goerings missus sounds like she mighta been a handful :hmm:

Baroness Karen von Fock-Kantzow.

http://fototime.com/%7B9CB114D9-D0F9-48FB-AF04-67803C49702B%7D/picture.GIF

[Brian Abraham]

Alex has another very good book "The Flight Of The Mew Gull" - about his pre war racing and Africa record breaking.

[gaunty]

Well Herr Goerring was working for Fokker at the time he met Ms von Fock.

"Aaaah von Fock, I work for Fokker I dont suppose you would entertain a little ................?:}

[tinpis]

:hmm: ...wasnt he a Starfish Trooper?

[Pinky the pilot]

'No, those Fockkers were Messerschmidts.'
I must agree with the views re the GIB in the Spitfire show on the ABC. I'd be interested to know just how much time was shown on him as regards to the commentry on what appeared to be yet another view on the Battle of Britain.
But I must also agree with Gaunty. I think that it is great to listen to the matter of fact commentry from the 'Old Fellas' who simply told it as it was.
I remember not all that long ago reading in a British Aviation Journal how only recently a group of young English Schoolchildren were absolutely amazed that sometimes Battle of Britain Fighter Pilots were sent back into battle the same day that they had been shot down 'without having counselling"
The mind boggles!!

You only live twice. Once when
you're born. Once when
you've looked death in the face.

[Heliport]

The great man passed away at the weekend.
He was 94.

Tributes here: Link (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=265662)

[robroy]

I have the book, " Sigh for a Merlin " and having sat behind one in a Mustang,in flight on numerous times and heard heaps and heaps of Merlin powered aircraft in Oz and at various Airshows around the the world, in particular, The Confederate Air Force at Harlingen, Texas, I can only say I am in total agreement with this magic man, when in the foreward of the book, he describes the day when He and a friend were walking through a English field when a BBMF, Spitfire flew overhead and they both stopped, and, " SIGHED "
Apart from wetting your pants, what else can you do when a Merlin goes overhead, but, SIGH
RIP
Alex Henshaw
A true Aviation Gentleman
Cheers
robroy

[bushy]

Alex flew in IMC without navaids, and the early sopitfires did not even have radio.

[brumbear]

It will flabbergast you even more to know then, that regards radios. None of the Spits on test from Castle Brom nor any of the dispersal factories, were ever fitted with radios. They were not fitted until the ATA lads and lasses had delivered them to their ops stations. I am not a pilot but imagine that extra complication when flying brand new aircraft out of an airfield perrenially blighted by the hollow that it sat in and the awful vagueries of our British Weather.

I am currently engaged in making a major feature film of my great friend Alex's life, focussing on that amazing Cape Dash.

I shall miss him dreadfully whilst he is off flying again.

John Barton (aka Jon Carver actor and writer)

[robroy]

Great to read that you are making a film about the Mew exploit.

Sir, I hope you will keep to the usual British film tradition and keep to the facts, unlike the American version of their idea of the facts, which is, Pek Pek Bilong Bulamakau.

Good luck with the Film, please keep us advised as to the name of the film and when it will be released.

Cheers and Apinun

robroy

[brumbear]

Absolutely. I am absolutely certain, that Dear Alex would make my life unberable if I so much as attempted to change anything. The trickiest job at the moment is working out how many times I can legitimately get away with scenes including Barbara. Anyone who has read Sigh for a Merlin, will know that they didn't actually meet until he offered to sell her Vega Gull after a post Cape skiing trip. Hey that's our worry though. It was her fondest wish that the book be made iinto a movie and to have the honour and thrill of doing so is both daunting and the most excititng thing too.

Please keep intouch.

Jon Carver (John Baton) J6moving image

[M14_P]

Finally something interseting to post about! Yep fantastic book. Bought the new edition 4 years ago. Have read it a second time. There is also an extensive interview divided into pieces throughout the Video MH434: A Spitfire's Story.
While on the subject of Alex, please do not forget the exploits of Jeffrey Quill.
His Bio is a good read too.

[brumbear]

Thanks for your comments. Jeffrey Quill will feature a little in The Mew Gull Movie and quite extensively in The television series A MIdlands Town, which will again feature Alex ofcourse. I would agree that Jeffrey quill is a good subject, however I don't want to make the film top heavy and With a 6 parter and a feature on the go....someone else come up to the plate for Jeffrey's movie.

All the best and I am emailable via this board, so stay in touch. I produce a newsletter periodically and when our new web site is finished, there'll be a blog on there.
Jon

[frangatang]

Well bugga me,here l am in hkg reading Jeffrey Quills book and l have got a signed copy of Sigh for a Merlin. The other one to read is Peter Townsends(Hurricanes) Duel of Eagles,all about the run up to and during the Battle of Britain.

[youngmic]

Fly For Your Life.

Biography of Robert Standford Tuck. Spitfire Ace/POW/

You can read it every 3 years or so for the rest of your life.