It is being organised by the Northern Lincolnshire Aviation Forum and will be open from 10am to 4pm on Saturday 14th, with displays of WW2 Hibaldstow and other WW2 airfields in Northern Lincolnshire.
The Friday evening talk remains unchanged - 7pm for 7.30pm. Tickets costing £5 are available from Brigg Tourist Information (£6 on the door), The speaker will be Sqd Ldr Andy Millikin.
3 comments:
The actual date of WAAF Maggie Horton's unscheduled flight sitting on the tailplane of Spitfire AB 910 was the 9th February, 1945 at RAF Hibaldstow.
Not certain whether Maggie H was billeted there, but at the time, Scawby Grove was a significant WAAFery accommodation block.
And I've said this B4, Spitfire AB910 is still flying - it is one of the aircraft with the Battle of Britain Flight.
If anyone remembers the late Vin East - he use to work for the Brigg UDC/Humberside and was for a long time the OC of 2222 Squadron ATC - Vin use to fly Dakotas to and from RAF Hibaldstow during the last few war years - he had some good stories.
It is somewhat ironic that the plane that takes the sky-divers airborne is a Donier....and Dorniers used to make bombers for the Luftwaffe Luft = Air; Waffe = Force....now were all pals...
In the RAF, Pilots were called 'Jockeys' while RAF padres were nicknamed 'Sky Pilots' - very confusing!
There was RAF slang for seemingly every conceivable thing, or event - it was like a foreign language and unless you knew the gen, you were completely out of it!
For example, the name for RAF issue underwear - was, 'Shreddies' which were sent to the 'Dohbi-Whalla' for washing,
Erks who worked radios and electronic equipment were called 'Fairies' and the section they worked in was the 'Crystal Palace'..
So in everyday conversation, it would make sense to RAF-types to say -
The Fairy put on his clean shreddies before going to the Crystal Palace to fix the gremlins (mythical creatures that made things u/s (unserviceable))on the squawk-box (radio communication equipment), but he still had time to go to to the Sally-Ann (Salvation Army butty van)...and get a wad and char....after which he replaced the squawk-box in the crate (aeroplane - alternatively, could also be 'bus' especially if the crate was transport a/c) on the pan (one of usually 4 grouped hardstanding dispersal points on the airfield and which, from above, looked like the shape of a frying pan)
In the 60's, I was once detached to the Royal Naval Air Station at Lossiemouth in Scotland. It was near the time when the airfield was to be taken over by the RAF, but at the time the Royal Navy were still in command.
The RN treated land-bases as if they were ships and had, to us RAF-types, rather strange and unaccustomed customs.
Sitting in the mess - it was getting late and in marched the duty Petty Officer. He marched down the deck (floor) and proceeded to hit the inside of the outside wall with his pace-stick...in a loud voice, he yelled. 'Bulkhead secure and watertight! - then did a smart about-turn and marched out.
Wanting to go into the local village, us RAF bods just ambled past the RN guard house...there were desperate shouts of 'Man Overboard' and we were ordered back to await the imagined liberty launch - after a while we got permission to form a small group and had to pretend we were in a boat. Some of use did rowing actions - which were frowned upon by the RN personnel on the gate.....
We did find ourselves on a bit of a fizzer (trouble) the next day were strongly informed not to take take the mick out of the Royal Navy.
On a more serious note, while at Lossiemouth, we did learn that while the RAF uses 'starboard' and 'port' meaning right and left respectively....the RN used the terms Right and Left when referring to naval/carrier-based aircraft.
The usuage was to avoid communication confusion during when aircraft flew near ships - ships had 'starboard' and 'port', while navy aeroplanes had right and left.
For example, if an airfraft was told to go to the starboard - it could cause confusion on whether 'starboard' referred to the carrier or aeroplane - hence the left and right....
Post a Comment