On this day..

[Al R]

.. in 1979.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/21/newsid_2525000/2525419.stm

2 Harriers collide in a mid air, one killing 3 people on the ground when it hits Wisbech. I wonder what happened.

[Airborne Aircrew]

MP Clement Freud

There's a name I hoped I had forgotten forever... :sad:

[Unchecked]

Wow! Never heard of that one, although it's a bit before my time. Sad about the baby.

The picture they used was an interesting one - a GR5/7 backed up by a Sea Harrier.

[Airborne Aircrew]

One of the planes reversed its jets to try and force the pursuing Harrier to overtake him.

Sounds like an attempt to "Viff", (Vector in Forward Flight)... The result is a lot like Maverick's favorite move in the movie Top Gun... Sudden deceleration causing the enemy to fly on by... IIRC the US Marines were "credited" with this but it was a "non-authorized" maneuver for RAF Harriers due to the stresses on the airframe that were cumulative and catastrophic...

That's what I remember about it...

[Wiley]

(Apologies for the huge thread drift, but the thread title is "On this Day".)

... and on this day in 1941, (to almost audible sighs of relief all round in beleagured Blighty), Herr Hitler made what was quite possibly his biggest mistake in WW2 in launching Operation Barbarossa. Six weeks late thanks to the Balkan/Greek sideshow forced upon him by the Allied... (call it what you will) into Greece.

Greece was a disaster for the Allies, but when viewed long term, it may well have been (an unwitting) war winnner. Put into chess terms, it was a bit like sacrificing your Queen early in the game, but because of that move, going on to win the game.

Quite a few historians have suggested that had the Germans invaded Russia six weeks earlier, as was their original plan, they would almost certainly have captured Moscow before the winter, and a book only recently released on the (until now largely ignored) 1941 Battle of Moscow makes it plain that had Moscow fallen, Stalin, and therefore Russia would almost certainly have collapsed.

...and quite probably, none of us would be here discussing anything even vaguely military - at least not in English.

[splitbrain]

There were 2 incidents involving 1(F) Sqn over a relatively short period of time IIRC, one at Wisbech and one at Holbech. The names of the two places gave rise to a rather cruel 'joke' which was used to wind-up 1 Sqn personnel at the time.
Thick of skin one has to be :ouch:

[Molesworth Hold]

(Apologies for the huge thread drift, but the thread title is "On this Day".)
... and on this day in 1941, (to almost audible sighs of relief all round in beleagured Blighty), Herr Hitler made what was quite possibly his biggest mistake in WW2 in launching Operation Barbarossa. Six weeks late thanks to the Balkan/Greek sideshow forced upon him by the Allied... (call it what you will) into Greece.

Which would be correct if today was 22 June.