UK - programme on the Red Baron tonight

[AerBabe]

For those (like me usually!) who always forget to look at the TV listings, because we're so used to there being nothing interesting on...

18:50 C4
From Ananova:A re-creation of the last flight of the infamous German fighter pilot which resulted in six Allied servicemen claiming the kill. The programme charts World War One's aerial conflicts, and examines the historic fight using computer graphics and forensic techniques to reveal once and for all the person responsible for slaying Manfred Von Richthofen

[stiknruda]

Some nice shots of a thoroughly nice chap flying the Fokker tri-plane, must have been Mr Brown from Breighton.;)

Stik

[Kermit 180]

Interesting that this is in 'Private Flying', would thought it would be in 'History and Nostalgia', but nevertheless here's a link some of you who watch this programme might find interesting.

Who Killed The red Baron? (http://www.anzacs.net/who-killed-the-Red-Baron.htm)


Kermie

[david viewing]

Can anyone explain how those young men leared to fly a Sopwith Camel in 18 hours? None of the books I've read come close, and several explain how far beyond the skills of a modern PPL it would be.
So how was it possible?

BTW, we should never forget how sad it all was. WW1 seems remote to us now, but recently I went with my daughter to find the grave of my uncle, 19, in a military cemetary near Ypres. A more bleak and desperate place you could not imagine and we were both deeply moved.

[QDMQDMQDM]

Can anyone explain how those young men leared to fly a Sopwith Camel in 18 hours? None of the books I've read come close, and several explain how far beyond the skills of a modern PPL it would be.

Answer: they crashed a lot. Mostly, they survived, quite often they didn't. The ones who did survive went on to squadrons in France where they then didn't survive. It was a grisly business with a huge attrition rate which would be unacceptable today.

The two most beautiful books from the period which I've read are the classic 'Sagittarius Rising' by Cecil Lewis and the less well known but almost equally as good 'Wind in the Wires' by Duncan Grinnell-Milne. The writing in these is lovely and highly evocative, which distinguishes them from much of the literature of the period.

QDM

[david viewing]

QDM

Thanks very much for the nice reply. I found both books at ABE (http://www.abebooks.com/) and ordered them.

David