The Bismarck was finally scuttled, which recent evidence from the seabed proves. As I said, it was one last act of defiance but futile, the ship was going down, come what may. There were over 2000 rounds of ordinance fired at the Bismarck from 4 5 6 8 14 and 16 inch guns, not to mention the torpedoes. If the Royal Navy wanted the sailors dead they wouldn't have spent the time, effort and risk of rescuing so many of them in the first place. If you care to look at youtube vids on the matter, you will find German sailors praising the RN saying they treated them like brothers, it was amazing" said one German sailor with tears in his eyes. As for the Hood, she was outdated and only had 4 inches of deck armour. Remember, she was not a battleship, she was a cruiser, built for speed. Before the war she was readied for a complete refit and that included doubling the thickness of her deck armour but alas it was not to be. The problem of plunging shells, those that come in from closest to the vertical, was well known to the navy and her captain was only too aware of it, which is why he did not open fire at a distance he could have but continued at full speed, straight on and into Bismark's T in order to cut down the angle. She was not close enough though and a shell did plunge through her deck and down into the magazine. I can't understand where you got the 'ineptness' theory from Tom, as it's not one I've ever heard of. The Prince of Wales had a raw crew, as she was a brand new ship, which had not even undergone her sea trials and sailed with civilian technicians aboard, such was the urgency. It was the Prince of Wales that hit the Bismarck with a 14 inch shell which ruptured her fuel tank, thus ending her mission, which was to prey on merchantmen. However, she had taken a number of hits and disengaged after the Hood went down.

First time for me that I ever heard it mentioned also Major. Was also surprised to hear the length of time that the plane could remain airborn to keep searching. I guess we will hear from Tommy now how the Americans sunk the Bismarck. lol

Geez Tommy you Johnny come lately's didn't bother showing up until the war was almost over. We had to fight big Germans while you got to fight guys half your size. Wasn't even a fair fight. lol

Question for you. Which aircraft has shot down more than double the figure of any other aircraft in history? Well I can't sit around all day watching you duffers scratching your heads and arses, it is the Messerschmitt BF109. Hardly surprising when you consider 33,000 of them were built, making it the second most numerous aircraft in military history and against the majority of other fighter models it faced in many theatres of combat, it was streets ahead. It's most famous adversary at the beginning of the war, the Spitfire had 24 variants, whereas the BF109 would have 9 main and 80 sub variants, which allowed it to keep fighting right until the very end of the war. It was as a result of Hitler's rearmament programme and came about following their aircraft ministry's competition to produce a single engine, single seater monoplane fighter, capable of 350MPH. Four companies vied for the contract but the Messerschmitt company won the order in 1935. At first it carried just two machine guns but unlike any other single seater of the time, a third machine gun was added, which fired through the propeller's central shaft. Its main initial fault was the positioning of the undercarriage, which was too close together and caused a veering to one side on take off and a basic instability which cost many new pilots their lives when trying to take off. They were first tested in combat in the Spanish civil war, which gave the Germans the necessary experience to sort out its problems, which led to the Daimler Benz  powered version with 4 machine guns, which was there at the beginning of the war and first saw action against Poland in 39.

I think a lot of those kills by the Me109 happened in Russia in the first part of exercise Barbarossa.

In its first true test against a comparable foe, the faults of the 109 were shown up. The E variant, which had sorted out many of the earlier problems had a major problem of its own in the Battle of Britain and that was its lack of range, which meant it only had 15 minutes over Britain before turning for home. Inevitably it was always going to be compared to its most famous adversary and that was the Spitfire. German pilots had perfected a superior flying formation than the RAF, which gave them an initial advantage in the battle but once things had changed, coupled to Goering's vanity mistakes, the losses of the 109 increased substantially. They were to lose 610 109's in the battle over England. It was a very rugged aircraft and well engineered, as you would expect. Initially it suffered from lack of overall vision for the pilots, due to an armoured plate behind the pilot's head but this was eventually replaced with glass. All pilots feared a fire in the cockpit but the 109's fuel tanks were behind the pilot, which gave them a certain psychological well being, which was not the case with the Spit. Where the 109 really came out on top was in firepower, as it had two formidable 20mm cannon. If one of these rounds hit you, you were in trouble, whereas 303 bullets did not have anywhere near the destructive power. Another advantage of the 109 was its Daimler Benz engine, which was fuel injected and therefore not prone to cutting out during violent manoeuvres, which the Spit suffered from. It was a pity for the Russians that the Battle of Britain ironed out just about all of the faults with this great aircraft and the new variant took on a more 'Spitty' streamlining to the body itself with the extra addition of rounded wingtips. It would be flown in all variants throughout the entire war, including being used as kamikaze planes against US bombers. It set records that will never be beaten.

Things did improve a lot for the 8th after they came up with a fighter that could escort the heavies all the way to and back from their targets. It was the P-51 Mustang, Cadillac of the Sky.

A mention now for the greatest pilot of all time, the amazing Eric Brown, nicknamed 'Winkle' because he was so small, 5'7" tall and weighed in at around 120lbs. He was a Scot, born in Edinburgh in 1919 and died in 2016. You couldn't make this man's life up, as it would sound too far fetched and it's a case of, where do you start with this man? He was a serviceman in the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm and although he did a lot of flying for the RAF, his heart and soul always remained in the navy, a branch in which he became the most decorated pilot in history. His flying story began back in 1936, when his parents took him to see the Berlin Olympics. There he actually met Jessie Owens but more importantly, through his father, who was a WW1 pilot, he met the German ace Ernst Udet, who took him on a crazy, stunt ridden flight, in which he completed every stunt in the book. Eric was hooked and before he left Udet told him to do two things, learn German and flying, Eric went off and did both. He returned to Germany in 1938 and was reacquainted with Udet and now saw first hand what the Luftwaffe was up to. He was actually in Germany when war was declared and so was arrested by the SS no less, who hung onto him for a few days before taking him to the Swiss border in his MG sports car. They actually told him to take the car away, as it was not German made and therefore inferior. If they had only known what they were letting go! His first claim to fame and tragedy came when he was serving aboard HMS Audacity, a makeshift aircraft carrier, built from a merchant vessel. He became the first man to shoot down a German Condor, using his own method of attack. The Condors were so well protected that attacking them was almost suicidal for the Fleet Air Arm planes, so Eric attacked it straight on, head to head, risking collision, but he succeeded and shot it down. He was involved in many other fights, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, "for his skill and bravery against enemy aircraft in protecting convoys." He was aboard HMS Audacity when it was hit and sunk by a torpedo. He was only 1 of 24 people who survived the sinking to end upon the sea and the only one of the 24 to survive the cold and be rescued. Time to take the dog for a walk, I'll finish it later.

Eric was the ultimate test pilot, so here's a few facts to be going on with. In his career he flew 487 different aircraft, that's not counting variants, which he didn't. He flew 14 variants of the Spitfire but counted them as one. The MK9 was his favourite, an aircraft he flew in combat over France. Then there's 30 types of helicopter, the first of which he flew in 1945. He holds the record for take-offs and landings on aircraft carriers, 2721 take-offs and 2407 landings. He survived 23 major crashes. Was the first man ever to land a twin engined plane on a carrier, the De Havilland Mosquito. He was the first to land and take off in a jet fighter. When he was coming into land on the carrier, the captain considered it too rough to land and had them call Brown but his radio wasn't working, so he just landed it all the same. Whilst testing G forces for Farnborough test centre, he became only one of two men ever to roll a Lancaster. He became a test pilot for German planes after the capture of Europe and ended up flying more German planes than any other German in history. Nobody has flown more Soviet aircraft and he has been honoured by Russia for his service and is the only foreigner ever to receive the award. After the war he went on an official invite to the US, where he helped the Americans flying a whole army of aircraft. It was whilst he was there that he first met Niel Armstrong, who became a life long friend. Eric thought Armstrong one of the greatest test pilots he'd ever come across. Eric even worked with the first US astronauts.

They actually told him to take the car away, as it was not German made and therefore inferior.

They were probably right. lol

Watched two different programs this week on two different subjects. One was on I think a Austin Healey sport car were they have taken the original style and revamped it with a 300hp+ engine. The cost of the new one will run around I00,000 pds. Can't remember all what they have done besides the large engine but it sounded impressive.

Next they had a show on the kidnapping of Lindbergh's baby. Apparently there are many investigators now that thing it may have been Lindbergh himself that had something to do with his boys death.

Apparently he had spent some time with a German doctor while in Germany that was all for creating a superior gene pool and he had been told by this doctor that he wanted him to be a part of it. Trouble was his son was born with problems and the boys head wouldn't stop growing and the skull wouldn't join together so this would have ruined his chances of getting into the gene pool. The German immigrant who was finally charged with it wasn't very well educated and still had his wife and family back in Germany. He probably only pleaded guilty to the charges because he was threatened that harm would come to his whole family if he didn't. The German immigrant never reviled where the body was but when it was finally found the heart and much of the internal organs had been removed and not by wild animals like had first been said. Also much of the boys face had been removed. Some of the police investigators from the very first suspected Lindbergh had a hand in it but couldn't prove it. They also though at the time Lindbergh didn't seem too upset or concerned with his son missing or even when it's body was found.

They never found any finger prints in the babies room of the German's or even of Lindbergh's. The babies bed wasn't even messed up which would have been the case if the baby had been sleeping in it. We keep saying baby but it was 20 month's old at the time.

Eric Brown's worst experience of his life was when he bumped into Brigadier Glyn Hughes in 1945, who was on his way to check our rumours of a camp called Belsen. As Eric spoke German better than the Germans, he went along with him and the horrors he found haunted him for the rest of his life. He interrogated the camp guards and also the two camp commandants. He was to interrogate many Germans in the coming year and he said he always found the women involved in the more horrendous aspects of Nazism to be more fanatical and sadistic. Hard to believe. He would go onto interrogate many high ranking Nazis, including Goering. Eric was the only pilot to do that. He gave the Yanks a tip off about a man dressed in civilian clothes, who he had suspicions of, he turned out to be Himmler. He also interrogated Messerschmitt and Heinkel. He then went onto fly all of the top secret aircraft the Germans had and was amazed by their technological superiority. Their rocket planes had killed dozens of pilots but they couldn't kill Eric. The Heinkel 219 actually had a form of ejector seat. Messerschmitt, Heinkel and Dornier all had very advanced aircraft of totally radical design. His records will never be beaten and I think he will remain the greatest pilot in history for all time.

Who were the first to fly across the Atlantic? Most would say Alcock and Brown in June 1919, they made the first non-stop flight, but the first (with a stop-over) were the US Navy crew in a Curtiss flying boat 100 years ago this month, May 1919.  

The initial plan was for four of the aircraft, each with a six man crew, to making the crossing together - the NC-1, NC-2, NC-3 and NC-4, but the NC-1 was damaged in a storm and parts from the NC-2 were used to make her airworthy, so only three were to make the flight.

All three took off from Rockaway NY on 8 May reaching their start point at Trepassey Bay, Newfoundland on 15 May. the NC-4 proving to be the most troublesome. The next day they took off and headed east into the unknown.

The route was marked out by a series of 22 US Navy vessels brightly lit to keep the flyers on the correct route to the Azores. The NC-1 never made it, it put down on the sea with structural problems, the crew were rescued but the aircraft sank whilst under tow. Similarly the NC-3 had to put down and was eventually towed into Ponta Delgada in the Azores. Only the hitherto troublesome NC-4 made it under its own power arriving on 17 May.

Three days later it took off for mainland Europe, but had to turn back with mechanical problems. It was not until 27 May (100 years ago tomorrow) that it was able to resume the epic flight. Following a line of 13 ships it reached Lisbon later that day. The Atlantic had been crossed by air. The flight took a total of 26 hrs 41 mins in two sections spread over 11 days.

The NC-4 (an ungainly looking thing, see below) is on display in the National Museum of Aviation, Pensecola FL.

The six men to make the historic flight were -

Lt Cmdr A C Read

Lt E F Stone

Lt  W Hinton

Lt J L Breese

Ensign H C Rodd

Ch Machs Mate E S Rhoads

I wouldn't fly across the street in that plane far less across the Atlantic Mark. I went to go to Trepassey Bay to have a look where it was and couldn't find it. The closest thing to it was Trepassey Harbour which is down in the lower south east corner of Newfoundland.