Originally Posted by snapper41
I think the pilots were serving Spanish AF chaps?
Correct, led by Spanish Civil War Pilot and ex-Luftwaffe pilot
Commandante Pedro Santa Cruz
Prior to the Spanish AF loaning the CASA 2111 (He.111) and the HA.1112 (Me109) some members of the Confederate Air Force had just purchased 4 of the HA.1112's and a Spitfire and agreed to let them be used in the filming as long as they were flown by CAF pilots.
Which pilots were flying the '109s' during the filming at Duxford (where the French airfield scene was filmed) I'm not sure.
Wilson 'Connie' Edwards still owns these '109s' including the only 2 seat trainer version, which is probably the one flown by Adolf Galland during one of his advisory visits to the film set.
Edwards lays claim to having been 'shot down' the most times during filming.
Originally Posted by robin
But Mosquito Squadron was, I think, purely a studio film. There were no aerial shots made for it - it used 633 Squadron and B & B stock shots.
Not so, Mosquito Squadron used 4 airworthy Mossies for filming at Bovingdon, and the opening low level sequence was shot for the film using 3 x Mosquitoes was filmed from the rear of a Shacketon MR3.
Originally Posted by pulse1
I think that at least one flying Mosquito was used for the film. It was owned by the City of Liverpool and I met the pilot just after the film was made. He was FO on a Viscount at the time and, during a stopover at Liverpool, he wandered into a hangar to look around and came across the Mosquito. Asked if he thought he could fly it he said that he could and ended up flying it for the film.
Yes, one of the 4 used was at the time technically owned by Liverpool Corporation, as it had been bought for display at Speke Airport after it had been retired by CAACU in 1963.
Not sure about the last part........the a/c was specifically surveyed by Les Hillman in 1968 with a view to being used in the film, and it was overhauled by Doug Bianchi's Personal Plane Services and then test flown by the late Neil Williams. Neil then flew it down to Bovvie for the filming.