Battle of Britain - Film vs Reality

[Maxibon]

Having spent a morning ironing an ever increasing pile of shirts and watching one of the finest films ever, a couple of things sprang to mind:

1. Why am I ironing when Mrs M is perfectly capable?
2. I understand that Major Faltke was representative of Adolph Galland but when Maj Brandt and his erstwhile navigator are sent for interview without coffee for bombing London, was this correct? Did Brandt's less than capable navigator actually cuff it and bombs were released in the wrong place? If so, who were Brandt and nav in real life and what happened to them.

Back to the domestics; you can teach monkeys to iron, tacatacatac...

[ORAC]

Germany bombs British towns and cities (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/events/germany_bombs_british_towns_and_cities)

Daylight raids begin

The first daylight raids began in Britain at the beginning of July 1940. On the first of the month 15 people were killed in Wick in Caithness when German bombers attacked the town’s aerodrome. On 9 July, 27 people were killed in Norwich during attacks on factories and iron works. There were more attacks throughout July including raids on Newport, and, as the month wore on, many towns on the South Coast were badly hit as the Luftwaffe targeted the Channel ports and their defences as part of Operation Sealion.

Southampton was badly bombed from June onwards and the International Cold Storage Depot in the city burned for over a week. Coventry was bombed in both July and August with the loss of several dozen lives. Liverpool, Wrexham, Bradford and Birmingham were attacked as well as intermittent raids on London.

Central London is accidentally bombed

The situation changed on 24 August when the Luftwaffe – accidentally, it’s now believed – dropped bombs on central London instead of the docks. Nine people were killed. Until this point, it is largely thought that civilian deaths had been collateral damage during the bombing of strategic industrial targets and from bombs scattered off-target to make a hasty getaway.

By the end of August, however, over 1,000 civilians had been killed by bombings and Churchill had already begun to think about an 'absolutely devastating exterminating attack by very heavy bombers from this country upon the Nazi homeland'. After the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk, bombing was the only way to open up a new offensive front.

So, on 24 August, Churchill and the War Cabinet decided to order an immediate strike by Bomber Command on Berlin. The following night more than 70 planes flew out to attack the heart of Nazi Germany.

Battle Over Britain - Francis K Mason: 24th August

..... From 2200 hours more than one hundred bombers were tracked over Kent, Sussex and Surrey and these made there way almost unopposed to the capital. These raids, however, were ill-defined and were not launched against any specific targets (apart from the oil storage farm at Thameshaven, which escaped damage) and fires sprang up all over the great sprawling city.........

[airborne_artist]

Ironing is so last century. Find your way to Lands' End (other online stores etc) and buy their non-iron shirts.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Ironing is why we have a batman

http://howzyerteeth.beacondeacon.com/Batman/28/Batman_ironing.jpg

[GeeRam]

2. I understand that Major Faltke was representative of Adolph Galland but when Maj Brandt and his erstwhile navigator are sent for interview without coffee for bombing London, was this correct? Did Brandt's less than capable navigator actually cuff it and bombs were released in the wrong place? If so, who were Brandt and nav in real life and what happened to them.

Hollywood license.

There were three seperate raids on the night of the 24th, so while it's always been pressumed that the first bombs that fell on East Ham, West Ham, Stepney, Bethnal Green, Hackney, Leyton, Walthamstow, Edmonton, Islington and Bloomsbury between the hrs of 23.00 and 01.30 was the result of an overflight of a proposed raid on the Thameshaven oil storage depot..... bombs also fell on Stepney, Bethnal Green, Hackney and Finsbury between the hrs of 03.00 and 04.00 which was clearly a seperate raid.
Bombs also fell in the areas of Esher, Kingston, Twickenham, Feltham and Staines to the west and south west of London between the hrs of 23.50 and 00.30 indicating a 3rd seperate raiding force.

Whether deliberate or accidental has never been 100% determined.

[NutLoose]

Blimey 4 replies and still no picture of Miss Yorks derrière..

There was an article a while ago in something like Flypast or Aeroplane, when they give Goering the Nazi salute as he boards his train... Galland threatened to walk off the movie saying they would never do such a thing, he relented when they proved to him they did. They went to great pains to get it right, though the destruction of the Duxford wartime hangar still rankles to some..

[A2QFI]

One wouldn't iron a delightful article like that derriere - one would gently press it!

[Milo Minderbinder]

well this dress Miss York is wearing is going to need ironing

http://thefilmexperience.net/storage/1960s/yorkhorses.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1295195749665

[green granite]

Blimey 4 replies and still no picture of Miss Yorks derrière..

Now you've done it NutLoose, BOAC will be along in a minute, get all excited in anticipation and need his medication again. :E

[JOE-FBS]

A mate of mine was telling me only this week that his Dad, while trainee ground staff at Digby in 1940, saw a scene which was replicated in the film of captured Luftwaffe aircrew being used to fill-in holes they or their colleagues had recently made in the airfield.

[Out Of Trim]

Here you go!

http://georgesjournal.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/susannah_york_battle_of_britain.jpg

:ok:

[MightyGem]

I take it that BEagle must be asleep, otherwise he'd have been in here by now at the mention of Miss York.

[diginagain]

He may have popped-out for some light relief.

[NutLoose]

And perhaps a cigarette afterwards :E

[BEagle]

I do not indulge in such a vile habit!


(Smoking, that is....)

When some Spam decides to attempt a CGI re-make of the original 1969 movie (whose premiere I attended), I wonder who they'll cast in the role of Section Officer Maggie Harvey?

[Maxibon]

Thanks for the replies, although I'd still like to know what became of Brandt.

Beags, I can only suppose that in modern day settings, Scarlet Johansen would have to suffice, or maybe Gillian Anderson - not sure which I'd choose, maybe have to toss for it.....

[Big Hammer]

Milo, would that be a case for extreme ironing? :)

[Lima Juliet]

Beagle

Cheryl Cole of course, dressed in an Anne Summer's French Maid's outfit...

"Whey eye, divent ya shout at me Mister Warreck, pet!"

:E

[The B Word]

http://cdn.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/multimedia/dynamic/00623/Showbiz_4-1_jpg_623626t.jpg

[orca]

A little off topic - but I was sat with a Polish bomber squadron at a formal dinner to mark the end of a bi-lat in south west Poland once. The topic of conversation moved to the Battle Of Britain.

I mentioned the (apparently incorrect....read on) scene wherein the Poles get a ticking off for their RT discipline.

One of the chaps was a little animated (incensed actually) about the film. His grandfather had flown in the battle and he (along with a considerable -somewhat drunk - supporting cast of Poles) was adamant that, quote <<My Grandfather wanted to kill Germans so badly he and his friends would have stayed silent forever to be given the chance.>> unquote.

Ooopsy. We talked about something else once the tumbleweed had made it out of the door.

[BEagle]

The B Word - can you please re-size that glamouflaged image.

It's 4288 pixels wide at present......and the PPRuNe limit is 850.

[The B Word]

Beagle

Unable as posted from an iPhone. Will delete and find another :ok:

[NutLoose]

Maxibon try

Feldgrau.net &bull; View topic - You can call me Meyer... (http://www.feldgrau.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=22361&start=0)


I suppose that brings a new meaning to the term, pouring on the Coles

[The B Word]

BEagle - howzatt?

[BEagle]

A bit tarty for my taste, actually....NAOF!