Lancaster over S.Oxfordshire?

[Blues&twos]

Hello. First time I've posted in the History/Nostalgia forum...

I live near Goring in S.Oxfordshire (not far from RAF Benson). This afternoon (26Jul09) just after 15.10 what appeared to be a Lancaster flew very low directly over my house, flying in formation with another smaller aircraft. The two were circling (very wide circles!) just to the south of my house at low altitude until about 15.25.

The smaller aircraft appeared to have the same tail design as the Lancaster, but had two engines. not four.

As you may have gathered I'm clueless about WW2 aircraft, but they put on a good show!

Any idea what was going on? Was it a special event? I'm guessing they were from Benson.

Cheers, B&t

[airborne_artist]

I was going to ask about the smaller of the two - saw it at about 15.15, just like you, but from the top of Cholsey Hill. It then tracked NE along the Chilterns - had invasion stripes forward of the tailplane - I'm guessing it was a B-25 Mitchell?

The BBMF Lancaster displayed at Bradfield, then Cholsey (1440), then North Moreton (the Vachers' air day) and then went to another display in Gloucs., but to my surprise then returned, and overflew the Vachers, and Cholsey, before meeting up with the Mitchell as you report.

More info, please!

[Blues&twos]

Cheers airborne_artist! I thought it might have been a Manchester, but from a distance with your eyes all screwed up the Mitchell and the Manchester do look a bit similar! Looking at pictures this afternoon on the web I agree it looked more like the Mitchell.

[Fokkerwokker]

Bs&2s

T'was indeed a B25 in the form of N88972(Grumpy) accompanied by Spitfire T9 (PV202/IAC161/H98) enroute back to DX from a display near Bradfield

:cool:

[David Layne]

On another (non aviation) site a discussion was taking place about a warbird seen in the Nottingham area on Saturday July 25th. It was reportd as a twin, could this have been Grumpy?