Ormeside, I am greatly impressed by your revelation that you have released a jeep/trailer combination on airdrop from a Hastings (on reflection perhaps there never was a gun, and it simply got added in the telling?) Whatever you had hanging there as an external load I suspect that it was not alone in being 'not happy' and that you were mightily relieved to be well shot of it with the 'green on'.
Most will know of course, but Balbo meaning a large aircraft formation refers to Marshal Italo Balbo of the Regia Aeronautica Italiana. He was famed as having twice led large formations of Savoia-Marchetii S55 flying boats; 12 in 1930 from Italy to Rio, 24 in 1933 from Rome to Chicago! He died 28 June 1940 when he was shot down by his own anti aircraft guns at Tobruk (the RAF had been there just beforehand):-
Italo Balbo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
If he had still been around in 1944/45, I think he might have been impressed at just how large a Balbo could be!
You say that you already knew your towing crew for the Rhine, so a tow and glider crew were paired with each other? Makes sense if so, as they could train and co-ordinate their flying accordingly. You leave us hanging onto the proverbial cliff edge. Not for too long I hope!
harrym, your reservations about the Tiger Moth I would not care to challenge, (especially from one who trained QFI's!). I can only say that as a mere CCF cadet on a Flying Scholarship course at Thruxton in the late 50's, she was a veritable moonrocket! That was of course in comparison to our normal steed, the Thruxton Jackaroo. Now that was a lemon, with all the urge that might be assumed after a perfectly good Tiger Moth was broadened out to contain a supposedly 4 seater cabin in place of the two open cockpits. As it wasn't aerobatic we were able to don the Biggles type outfits provided and go learn about stalling and recovery in the real thing!
Hummingfrog, great pictures! Could the Blood Wagon that you show be the result of yet more proof of two nations being divided by a common language? Might it not be an Ambulance as we would expect, but something more macabre, a Hearse? It certainly has the gravitas of one, and are there not curtains at the rear?
Pom Pax, thanks for the Griff Rhys Jones film link. I must admit I did not know of the Gold Coast Regiment in Burma. You live and you learn...