This is a story of an 18 year-old just out of high school who was trained to take pictures of damage done to German targets by B-17’s. He flew in a British Spitfire fitted with extra fuel tanks where the guns originally were located and his assignment was to fly over Germany totally unarmed just to take videos (aka photo recon)…unbelievable that he survived!
WWII American Spitfire Pilot
This is probably one of the best WWII film clips out there. Stored for 61 years in two suitcases of 16mm home movies that were inherited by filmmaker William Lorton from his great uncle who served as a Flight Surgeon during WWII. Those suitcases contained 3 hours of war footage that included a compelling crash landing of a Spitfire in 1944.
Filmed in a 2005 interview with the now 83 year old pilot of the Spitfire in the video and seeing the expression on his face when he realizes it is him in the cockpit, is something you won’t soon forget.
At 18 years old, he was all alone, behind enemy lines, with no guns, no escort, and he gladly did it. They just don’t make men like him anymore. He and his peers serving during that time were truly members of the greatest generation and we owe them so, so much.
Having really had the chance to sit down and watch that without interruption, really glad they tracked this guy down, showed him the film and got the back story. There are tons of never released footage from this war with dozens of related untold stories. All our lives we saw they same 100 or so Time / Life photos and the same footage from “World at War” and “Victory at Sea.”
When the wall came down there was a massive influx of new footage and declassified information. But there are still boxes of film in closets everywhere.
WWII was such a massive event. So many stories that have been lost to history and will never be known.
I learn something new about that time in our history almost everyday.
To this day, I’m still combing through stacks of old papers trying to locate the letter my great uncle sent home to my grandmother along with a Nazi swallowed tail banner he took down from a school house in Holland. I have the flag, but want the letter to authenticate it. When my grandfather passed away last year I found several Nazi artifacts he brought back from the war as trophies that no one knew he even had.
For those (like me …) who question the younger generation of ‘snowflakes’, here’s an inspirational story of a 19-year old from CA, who legally emigrated from India, comes from a family w/ zero military service members … and yet he spends EVERY minute of his free time and every dime he can earn … to travel the US to record the WW2 Vet stories.
Some of the recordings are the 1st time the Vet ever spoke of the “horrors of war” - they never told or shared it w/ their loved ones - and many wanted it shared with them, only after they had passed. I sent along a donation to this nice young man.
I’ll end by honoring my Dad, an Amercan who left the US to fight with the British Air Force before the US officially entered the war. Known as the ‘Eagle Squadron’, they eventually became part of the US Army Air Corp (air force created post WW2). He started out on Hawker Hurricanes, then to Spitfires, the P-47 ‘Jug’ Thunderbolts (better as a ground support role), P-38 Lightnings for a short time (too long for him, haha; they eventually shipped them out to the Italian theater of ops) … ending up with the famous P-51 Mustang (originally designed as the ‘Apache’, for the Brits).
4th Fighter Group, #335 Squadron, Debden, England … thanks Dad!
love it