The 'Introduce yourself' Thread

Parabuteo;96909 wrote:

wont be able to contribute much, but find it all fascinating, particularly clearance and crash site digs.

Hi Parabuteo, Have you ever heard of the A.R.S ? Aircrew Remembrance Society. This is full of WW2 digs etc.

Thank you everyone, I hope I shall be able to contribute something to the site but I know I shall enjoy reading about all your research, I can tell how dedicated you all are. Yes indeed, the DH 110 crash certainly affected my life, I have never been so close to an aircraft's engine before or since!

Welcome to AiX Parabuteo. Plenty of WW2 history in Southampton! I lived in Varna Road for a couple of years in the '50s.

Welcome to the madhouse!

PETERTHEEATER;97059 wrote:

Welcome to AiX Parabuteo. Plenty of WW2 history in Southampton! I lived in Varna Road for a couple of years in the '50s.

Cheers All,

Yep, it is quite embarassing how folk live somewhere and never look!!

I live within walking distance of Calshot, and our lot are forever getting calls to go to the gravel dredging company at Marchwood. They keep pulling up 40mm Bofors and 2lb PomPom ammo apparently, it is routine.

We also have lepe just down the road with the Mulbery Harbours, the old tank sites for PLUTO out the back on the common, and of course the SOE history at Beaulieu.

Personally I would like to walk some of the old airfields with a metal detector, I used to love field walking as a kid, used to find all sorts as we were surrounded by gunnery sites (Wembury, Plymouth).

I walked over the ranges at Godshill several times, even picking up .303 bullets out of an old butts.

I knew they were ranges, but only when I bought a local book about the place did I realise how significant they were with the bouncing bombs and grand slam testing...amazing place.

God knows what is out there, a mate of mine trained as a chain saw operator as a nipper and remembers getting a rollocking for wrecking a chain on a tree, so he suggested his boss sort it out.

He then wrecked another, there was a 2" lump of shrapnel in the tree. Apparently the timber value of a lot of forest trees is sod all as many contain additives:lol:

We have needs ore point locally, and the airfield at hatchet pond (no idea what it is called, I think they called it Beaulieu airfield).

Just starting a school project with pupils with special needs for their Duke of Edinburgh award. We are going to try to trace the events of the last flight of Halifax dt578 which took off from Ricall on
17 10 1943 and crashed on Great Whernside. We have bare details and will be looking for the crash site as part of our expedition but would love more info about the airfield. Any ideas on where to look to flesh out the story would be great. I know very little about aircraft or airfields and have chosen this project because Ricall is still so accessible for visits. It might not be a famous event but with the navigator buried in Hull which is near to the school we should be able to piece together a story and bring events to life.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Bob.

Hello Bob, welcome to AiX. A lot of info available here on our Ricall thread:

/community/showthread.php?567-Riccall&highlight=ricall

airfields wrote:

Hi Gavin, Welcome to the Forum. Love the Scooter ! Long before we were old enough to legally ride one I had a Lambretta, my mate had a Durkopp that we were allowed to ride along a local farmers track. I also belong to the 100th BG, among others, have done on and off since 1986. Look forward to seeing your Scooter later this year. Cheers.

Welcome fellow Vespa rider from another new member. I have explored most of Essex Suffolk and Norfolk on the back of a Vespa, and even travelled down to Cornwall via central London. London buses were quite scary when you were on the back of a scooter then. I won't say exactly how long ago but there was a lot of rivalry between Vespa and Lambretta owners. I tried both but preferred the Vespa, although it may have been he who owned the Vespa who influenced me! I married him.

Hi, my name is Simon and I live in Aldborough, Norfolk. I have been trolling around many of East Anglias old airfields for a few years now and would like to share my photos and info that I have collected so far. I am very interested in aircraft as well as the airfields and still carry out a little plane spotting when I have the time. I am also very interested in WW1, WW2 and Cold War history.