News from the RAF Museum Cosford

Posted today on Facebook... Sad, but inevitable unfortunately. We can only hope that either the Museum of Army Flying at Middle Wallop or IWM Duxford can step forward and offer a home to these two... 

Post D-Day Glider Retrieval

Many times I'm asked if the wartime gliders were ever made to be used again, before I can answer someone else (with a bigger mouth) usually answers by saying...

"No! They were designed to be crash landed, can you believe that?!" 

At this point I wait patiently and then quietly inform that in certain cases, if the damage wasn't too bad and the area allowed for it then the aircraft could be salvaged and returned to duty... proof below...

Men of a Detachment of the Heavy Glider Servicing Unit repairing a damaged Airspeed Horsa in a field near St Aubin-d'Arquenay, Normandy. Photo courtesy of IWM.

A carpenter of a Detachment of the Heavy Glider Servicing Unit repairing the centre fuselage bulkhead of a damaged Airspeed Horsa in a field near St Aubin-d'Arquenay, Normandy. Photo courtesy of IWM.

Image courtesy of Flight Magazine Archive as previously reported on this site.

New Book: Arnhem on the Horizon

Countless books have now been written about Operation Market Garden, more generally referred to as 'Arnhem', that it would be easy to dismiss any new projects as unnecessary. However, in this instance, that would be a great mistake. Here, David Pasley tells the story of his Grandfather Sgt. Johnny Wetherall a member of the Glider Pilot Regiment who took part in one of the most famous battles in modern history.

I found it easy to read without being dull, informative without being stodgy and extremely moving. Many books written so long after the war can be rather removed from the human element of warfare, refreshingly David paints a fully rounded picture of his Grandfather which makes a refreshing change.

The book explains the overall plan of action for the battle and interlaces Sgt. Wetherall's experiences throughout, including the uncertainty of capture.

I'm fortunate to have many books relating to Market Garden, the Glider Pilot Regiment and British Airborne Forces as well as general Second World War accounts, I'm more than happy to sit this book alongside any of those on my bookshelves. You should be too.

Link: Amazon

Merry Christmas to you all!

S.Sgt Denzil Cooper and S.Sgt Les Cole GPR

This photo was recently posted on Facebook. It shows Staff Sgt's Denzil Cooper and Les Cole. 

Of interest here are their cap badges; Denzil is clearly wearing the plastic 'economy' badge whereas Les is wearing what looks like an embroidered badge with a cloth backing of some sort, but could this be a regular metal AAC badge with a cloth backing?

If anyone has any further thoughts please get in touch.

12th Battalion (Airlanding) Devonshire Regiment - 12th Devons!

Up until just recently, its always proved difficult to find any decent reference photos of 12th Devons circa Operation Varsity. Mainly due to the fact that there just aren't that many books out there dedicated to the Operation or this particular regiment, but now thanks to members of WW2Talk.com there I've been able to see more in the past few weeks than I have in the past few years!

Below are some of the photos which have recently been added to the WW2Talk forum, some by enthusiasts and some by family members, some of them are screen grabs from the British Pathe website, some from the IWM website and some are from private collections. Either way there are some very interesting kit and uniform details on display here. Its great to see this usually under represented airlanding unit given some screen time at last.

Follow the original thread here: Link: 12th Devons

 

 

Papier Maché Hat Displays

Not so long ago, in an antique shop in Bath I found a millinery head block. It was superb, a head shaped wooden block covered in cloth, it was old and would've been just the thing to display my beret and helmet collection (if I could find enough of them of course).... but the price!!!? How much?!!

I quickly scrapped the idea of using these original head blocks and sat down to think of a more affordable alternative, then I thought; 'papier maché'! So, a few days later and armed with balloons, wallpaper paste, sheets of newspaper and a bucket I set to making my first papier maché for many years... and I quite enjoyed it. I made two 'heads' as I soon realised that the structures wouldn't be strong enough for helmets but would work well for berets. I finished off each one with photocopied wartime newspapers and gave them a quick wash with a yellow/brown oil paint and varnish.

Now I just need to come up with something to display the helmets.... hmmm....