Danny:-
Chugalug, come in !
Danny, I'm never far from this wonderful thread, but I fear that I have exhausted the meagre contents of my threadbare bag of anecdotes and blurred pics that now lie curling at the corners in its archived depths. In any case I have always felt that its true CofG lies, as per the OP, in those desperate and dangerous years 1939-45. So I join with you in encouraging roving to tell us everything he can of those years and in particular of the very hazardous job of low level photo recce. How ironic though that having survived his war Flt Lt Ken Lambden came close to submitting to a baying mob that was only held at bay by hockey stick armed WAAFs!
As to the thread title, anyone who browses this thread will have quickly realised that it has wandered far from its very specific title, which clearly shows that it is by no means restricted by it thanks to our ever indulgent and kindly mods. My two-penneth is that it should be aviation related and principally centred on WWII. One of my great regrets is that there was a chance of German WWII veteran pilots posting here that came to nothing. They were as brave and skilled as any. I stumbled recently on an interview with Hanna Reitsch. She may have been a Nazi and admired Hitler, but what an incredibly skilled and experienced Test Pilot:-