The 'Introduce yourself' Thread

You could try the Français Libre website - may get you started on the right track.There is a list available with all Free French Forces members listed.
www.france-libre.net/trouver-un-francais-libre.php

Site is in French - Google will give you a rather quaint-sounding translation.

Welcome Antony.

As an ex RAF Armourer I always had good connections with the Ground Equipment section guys and we could 'scratch each others back' figuratively. The USAF and foreign air forces operating the USAF system used the posh name Aerospace Ground Equipment (AGE) and that is the acronym I remember more easily.

What are you working at in Belgium. Similar line?

Welcome hedgehopper.

That name triggers visions of a Piper Cub at low level across the fields.

Hi , Im new to the site , live close to the Hethel Airfield in Norfolk and am interested in the use of Church Towers to aid Navigation in our region during WW2 . Does anyone know of any information on this ? Thanks Carol

Hello Carol, welcome to AiX.

As PNK says, church towers were useful aids when navigating at low level across country but, as far as I know, they were used visually by aircrew who would have studied maps of their outward route and - especially - their inbound route in order to locate their home airfield. Ground fogs (typically radiation fog) were not unusual and from above church steeples/spires could protrude above the obscure layer and give pilots a recognisable feature by which they could orient themselves.

In this day of GPS and location aids it easy but an exhausted crew returning after a long duration bombing mission with damaged instruments often had to rely on dead reckoning and visual aids to decide their location so local knowledge of topographical features was neccessary.

When large 'raids' were assemble, aircraft took off from many airfields in an area (such as Norfolk) and had to 'assemble' according to a prebriefed plan. This was to ensure that they could form up and then fly to the target with ideal spacing for the bombing runs. Church spires again could have been used as turning points when flying 'racetracks' before forming up into the group.

I trust that you have read the forum HETHEL thread for info on your local 'field?

Just looked in when doing a bit of research in aid of my father's account of WW2 experiences. He was an AOP pilot and we know much of what he did between April 1943 and the end of 1945 but need to fill in some gaps before that.

I have posted a query here:

/community/showthread.php?6807-Anti-Aircraft-Command&p=142111#post142111

Any help would be much appreciated.

(Am also interested in Radar and Watson Watt, by the way but that's a side issue at the moment)

Thanks for pointing out the thread for Hethel . Ive checked this and plan to visit the Museum . Our Local church has a tall central square tower and we have been given stories by some of the oldest residents that the tower was a landmark for returning planes as it was the only central square tower church in this part of the county . Also the use as an assembly point was raised , so your description supports the story . Ideally Id like to find a Veteran account or something specific mentioning this church because of its unique shape . An ariel photo with this pin pointed would be the icing on the cake !

Hello and welcome - hope you find the info you are looking for.

Hello Carol, welcome to the ARG forum