I really don’t fancy being at many more of these repatriations, today was hard.
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The following is an extract from a book by a fighter pilot of the Free French Forces in WWII. He was writing about demobilization and leaving his Hawker Typhoon (Grand Charles) behind. Sometimes helps me through why we do these things:
I had that morning gone to say my farewells to Broadhurst and to the RAF. I had made a point of going to HQ at Schleswig in my 'Grand Charles'. Coming back I had taken him high up in the cloudless summer sky, for it was only there that I could fittingly take my leave. Together we climbed for the last time straight towards the sun. We looped once, perhaps twice, we lovingly did a few slow, meticulous rolls, so that I could take away in my finger-tips the vibration of his supple, docile wings.
And in that narrow cockpit I wept, as I shall never weep again, when I felt the concrete brush against his wheels and, with a great sweep of the wrist, dropped him on the ground like a cut flower. As always, I carefully cleared the engine, turned off all the switches one by one, removed the straps, the wires and the tubes which tied me to him, like a child to his mother. And when my waiting pilots and my mechanics saw my downcast eyes and my shaking shoulders, they understood and returned to the dispersal in silence.
Pierre Clostermann, 'The Big Show (Fortunes of War)' 1951.
Take care all, fly safe. Thanks Stu.
SB