I think it's an eye-opening experience to hear first hand what it was like in those days,, particularly for people who've already read the Biggles books.
Biggles Media Archives: First Hand Accounts of WWI
This is an excerpt of a BBC documentary made of WWI, with real WWI pilots talking about what it was like to fly during the Great War. You can see footage of several WWI planes, although the quality of the video itself isn't very high (sorry), so if you find that it's a bit hard on the eyes you may want to just listen to the audio instead.
I think it's an eye-opening experience to hear first hand what it was like in those days,, particularly for people who've already read the Biggles books.
I think it's an eye-opening experience to hear first hand what it was like in those days,, particularly for people who've already read the Biggles books.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Every bit of video you post seems to be better than the last. This is indeed an eye-opening experience - and moving too.
ReplyDeleteThank you for finding it and posting it.
To be honest it's great fun to dig around the internet and find these videos and get all excited and want to share them with someone right away. (Someone who understands, that is. So many people just look at these videos and go, "Okay, it's a plane. So what?")
ReplyDeleteExtraordinary piece of footage - thank you so much for sharing it - first hand reports like this are so important and should never be lost. I too felt quite moved watching it.
ReplyDeleteIt was a poignant remark about the young C.O.s having to write to the families of pilots and airmen who had been killed, and that a young man of 21 shouldn't have to do that.
ReplyDeleteThat was real, not ficton - I had no idea the C.O.s were as young as that, but I suppose so many pilots died so fast, some people were moved up the promotion ladder very quickly.
It was also interesting when some chap said pilots never looked at their instruments once they were off the ground but used their ears to tell them if the mixture was too rich because of a, b, or c...
WEJ never flew a Camel so he didn't experience its tricky take-off habits, etc. at first hand, so he never mentions them - only its ability to turn mega fast in the direction of the torque of the engine (if that's the correct technical way to put it!).
Flying Spitfires in WWII must have been a dream to Biggles and Algy after Camels (much as they loved them).
Looking forward to the next media archive!
JJ-So glad you enjoyed the video! I couldn't agree more--things like these should be preserved for future generations.
ReplyDeleteSA-I think that Major Mullen himself wasn't a day over 25 (at least that's what it says in Rescue Flight). It must have been hard for all those young majors; as if it was't bad enough watching people die, you'd have to write such hard letters to next of kin, which must be even worse. At that age most people nowadays are clubbing until all hours. What a difference.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Biggles was the type of pilot who "flew by the seat of his pants". In one of the interwar books (Black Peril, perhaps?) Algy is flying the plane and musing about how Biggles disdained to use modern instruments in his planes.
Are you sure Johns never flew a Camel? I seem to remember in one of his forewords he talked about "H" shooting down another Camel and other such stories.
I'm pretty sure Johns never flew a Camel (though not 100%) because Camels are not mentioned in the WEJ biography, in the account of his time as a flying instructor (how he started with the RFC/RAF). He didn't go out to France to fight on the Western front till the end of July 1918 and he was shot down and taken prisoner on 16 September 1918. A very short time on active service, and all that time he flew DH4s - he was in a bomber squadron not a scout squadron.
ReplyDeleteHmm. I will see if I can find my book with the foreword. Maybe I just remembered it wrong or something.
ReplyDelete