WWII documentaries always fascinate me, this film by Ewan MacGregor is a brilliant insight into lives of the Lancaster crews of the war. There is some special significance here for me because my Great Uncle Alf was a bombardier or bomb aimer on the Lancaster during the war, he was one of the lucky ones who survived.
The Vought F4U Corsair was an astonishing airplane, I never knew it was this versatile though.
It isn’t widely known that there was a 4×4 Beetle produced in Germany during the second world war, the car was dubbed the “Volkswagen Kommandeurwagen” as it was primarily designed for use by the Wehrmacht.
In 1929 some of the first attempts at refuelling planes in flight were being undertaken. This famous photograph of Operation Question Mark shows a 10,000lb Fokker C-2A being refueled in flight by a modified Douglas C-1 transport aircraft.
I’ve heard rumours of balloon tires being used on WWII motorcycles in North Africa…
The inset text reads “A scout suddenly discovering the enemy flops his cycle to return fire with his Sub-Tommy Gun. Fort Knox, Kentucky, 1942.”
The classic World War II Jeep is a car that I’ve always wanted, perhaps not as a daily driver but certainly as a weekend warrior. Having an original WWII vintage, non-modified version with the military paint-markings still in place like the jeep here would be a major bonus and the temptation to smoke a cigar and shout at people whilst driving around in it would be almost too much to resist.
The Messerschmitt Me 323 D was the single largest fixed-wing aircraft of WWII, this behemoth had a maximum carrying capacity of 20 tonnes, was powered by…
The SR-71 Blackbird was so incredibly quick, that when it detected a surface to air missile launch, the pilot simply hit the throttle and accelerated to out run the missile, using raw speed as it’s primary defence mechanism.
The Vought F4U Corsair was originally built in 1940 and went on to see the longest production run of any piston-engined fighter in U.S. history. During WWII, the Japanese Zero pilots considered the Corsair to be formidable, with many fearing it far more than the P-51 Mustang.
The plastics revolution in the 20th century will probably be looked back on by historians as a good thing over all, though plastic products are difficult to dispose of they did allow us to build a lot of very cool new things.
It’s a little known fact that during the Second World War, a number of American female pilots made their way to England to fly…
