Bernard Osborn's Story

67 years ago to the day, (original article dated: 6th June 2011) Paul Fiddian's granddad was being towed over the channel to participate in one of the most famous operations of WW2: D-Day. In this article, he tells the story of his flying career, which took him from the green fields of England to the muddy grounds of Arnhem and back again.

With the kind permission of Paul Fiddian, Chalk would like to present a rather interesting article which I managed to stumble across during one a nice quiet afternoon whilst looking for anything related to the Glider Pilot Regiment... its amazing what you can find when you take the time to look!

Paul has very kindly allowed us to include the images taken from his original article on the Global Aviation Resource website as they really are extremely interesting pictures including a shot of the experimental 'white' Horsa as used in the Middle East and one or two of GP's and Airborne types on active service in Palastine 1946.

Please follow the link below and read Paul's article, if you'd like to leave any comments here then please do so.

Link: Aviation History

Horsa Gliders Built By Austin

Not all Horsas, but some of them (mainly the fuselage) were built by the Austin Company. Follow the link to this excellent site which chronicles the activities of Austin through two World Wars and beyond. You'll need to scroll down almost to the bottom of the page to find the articles relating to Horsa production - be sure not to miss the Short Stirling on the way down!

Link: Austin Memories

A Superb Pathé News Link

I love looking through the Pathé site! Always something nice to see. This link is excellent, a real feast for the eyes! Matt

Link: Gliders Being Loaded

Interesting Glider Pilot Story on BBC People's War Website

I'm always searching around on the 'net, looking for interesting GPR related stories and information and thought it might be a good idea to post some links on here for you all (to save you the job of having to look yourselves!) The first one I'm going to link to is a multi part story by former Glider Pilot SSgt Bernard Black. I'll try to link to articles that I manage to find as often as I can. Please note that there are 27 Chapters to this story and you'll need to keep reverting to the 'Contributed by Gliderpilotinhollan' page in order to read all of them. Matt.

Link: People's War Stories

Glider Sketch No1.

Just a couple of quick sketches for an upcoming larger project. Thought some of you might be interested? These are only roughs meant for composition. More to follow, when I get a minute! Matt

Glider Pilot Regiment 70th Anniversary 2012

Click on the image (to increase its size).

Glider Pilot Helmet (Reproduction)

Its done! Yes Christmas week television was so bad that I decided to knuckle down and work on this helmet project. Once I'd managed to procure a suitable helmet shell - thanks to Vaughan for the fibreglass FJ helmet repro. Once its flared rim removed with the Dremel then I had the perfect shape for the GP helmet, it just needed a little cosmetic surgery to make it look right. As the 'C' Type leather helmet I'd found was too small to fit me, I had to take it apart up the rear seam and use some of the damaged top part to create a fillet at the back so this would then fit me and at least be halfway useable. Then it was just a case of assembling all the elements; the leather helmet, the airborne helmet liner and outer shell followed by a bit of wear and tear for effect. Here's the finished article which we'll be able to use on display for this year's coming events. Cheers! Matt

Thanks are due to: Vaughan Tolley for supplying me with a decent basis for the shell, Luc Nijsten for photos of his original helmet, Frank Brown for photos of his original helmet and Geoff Pringle from Oldnautibits for sourcing and supplying the 'C' type, mask and earphones.

Polite note: I've based this helmet on the familiar images found in the Jean Bouchery DDay books. The helmet is for display purposes only and I'm very well aware (after extensive but obviously limited research) that other patterns of helmets were used by the Glider Pilot Regiment and also that, sometimes, helmets were not worn at all. I'm also aware that the mask is a post war example as the price of wartime pattern masks was prohibitive. The 'C' type helmet used in this project was damaged before I took a scalpel to it. The leather crown pad inside the helmet is stamped M WD 43; This a made up stamp (the 'M' stands for Matt) I've done this purely for personal identification purposes and for effect as I believe the helmet would've been stamped with an Air Ministry crown and serial number but my access to, or manufacture of, such a stamp was not possible.