When did you first become interested in Warbirds?

[beaupower32]

Yep, deffently would like to hear some of your experiences.

[Doughboy]

Echo the posts above ^^. Welcome to the forum.

[pbfoot]

Certainly as from Canada there much interest

[proton45]

Originally Posted by proton45

My Dad told me story's of flying gliders as a young man in Japan during the war...and I had an uncle who was with the 14th Air Force in China (I don't remember what he did), and one of my Great Uncles developed photo recon equipment out of Dayton OH during WW2 and the "Cold War", and my dentist flew fighters in the Pacific somewhere...and their was an airfield near my home in NJ that had Mustangs flying out of it (I'd love to know why), so it was always around me as a child.

I mis-remembered what my fathers friend (my dentist) did during the war...He was an American Japanese that was in "Military Intelligence". He was involved in monitoring Japanese broadcasts during the bombing of Hiroshima. He was from Hawaii and had been given a lot of grief (after the war) from fellow Japanese Americans (at home, in Hawaii), because they felt he was a traitor... My father was in Japan during the war, but was good friends with him...after the war. He used to tell me story's of watching fighter planes on some island in the Pacific, and I think I must have confused his story's with those my uncle Gene told me...he was connected with the 14th in China....anyway, I just thought I would set that right.

The reason I became interested was because so many adults (as I grew up) talked about the war like it had just happened...It made me curious.

[edit] Gene was in the 14th Air Force...uncle Robert drove a half track in Europe (Battle of the Bulge)

[Dark Matter]

I loved planes when I was 3, when I used to open the car doors while we were driving becuase I thought they were wings.

[fass]

First it was Crewchief only (I would translate that as "Oberschwarzmann" ...) but as more people are now joining in, I know that this thread is still active and everybody is not taking time off in exotic holiday resorts. I'll write in separate batches to avoid overly long messages that nobody reads anyway...

"Flying machines" are among my very first memories. From 1934 until 1937 we were living near Ypenburg airfield (in the vicinity of The Hague) where the "Luchtvaartafdeling" (military aviation department) was flying machines like the Fokker CV biplane, and regularly flew over.

But by far my most vivid memory was the zeppelin Hindenburg flying over our house in 1936 (I was 2 then!). That was not the flight that ended in disaster, by the way. A silver cigar of almost 250 metres long that stays in the air despite almost standing still looks impossible and it's no wonder that I can recall that image after more than 70 years...

In early 1940, I could read fairly well and one of my first serious books was about aircraft, teaching me the difference between air-cooled and liquid-cooled engines, for instance. The attack in the West, on May 10th, 1940, began with bombing and paratroop landings. By then we were living in the Hague, about a mile from one of the royal palaces that was the target of a paratroop detachment - an operation that failed. We stayed indoors so I did not see anything, but the next day "we ran out of milk" and because that was an intolerable situation, of course, we did some shopping. Even in the midst of war, people try to continue their normal life and shops were open for "business as usual". A bit earlier, a Ju52/3M had crashed on a block of houses and as we passed that street I spent ample time on examining one of the engines, which was lying in the middle of the road. I was quite interested to see that it was made by BMW, I knew they made cars, but their range in aero-engines was new to me...
The smoke from the bombing of Rotterdam on May 14th, 30 miles away, could be seen from the roof of our house. In the week after the country capitulated, I saw several Ju52/3m machines that had crashed in the meadows around the city.

Next time the scene will change and I shall discuss aircraft recognition.

[river]

Hi,

My uncle who flew (RAAF 1 Squadron - Hudsons) and died in WW2 was my influence from a young age when I wanted to know more about him. His old RAAF repair manual for Merlin, Hercules and Gypsy Major engines was given to me and I read it about 100 times and still do look through it.

At about 6 years of age at school one lunch we heard a plane flying very low. It did a few circles above the school at what seemed like only a few hundred feet. It was noisy and did not sound well. One engine stopped and the plane sort of wallowed in the air and then gradually sank down and flew off rather slowly. I found out some time later that it was a Grumman Tracker.

We lived a few miles from the airport and I remember seeing the DC6, DC4, DC3, Connies and Electras taking off and landing over our house.

I vividly remember a DH Heron coming in very low with #1 engine dead.

That got me more interested and I just started from there. If it's got pistons and props then I was interested and still am.

river

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Originally Posted by fass

First it was Crewchief only (I would translate that as "Oberschwarzmann" ...) but as more people are now joining in, I know that this thread is still active and everybody is not taking time off in exotic holiday resorts. I'll write in separate batches to avoid overly long messages that nobody reads anyway...

"Flying machines" are among my very first memories. From 1934 until 1937 we were living near Ypenburg airfield (in the vicinity of The Hague) where the "Luchtvaartafdeling" (military aviation department) was flying machines like the Fokker CV biplane, and regularly flew over.

But by far my most vivid memory was the zeppelin Hindenburg flying over our house in 1936 (I was 2 then!). That was not the flight that ended in disaster, by the way. A silver cigar of almost 250 metres long that stays in the air despite almost standing still looks impossible and it's no wonder that I can recall that image after more than 70 years...

In early 1940, I could read fairly well and one of my first serious books was about aircraft, teaching me the difference between air-cooled and liquid-cooled engines, for instance. The attack in the West, on May 10th, 1940, began with bombing and paratroop landings. By then we were living in the Hague, about a mile from one of the royal palaces that was the target of a paratroop detachment - an operation that failed. We stayed indoors so I did not see anything, but the next day "we ran out of milk" and because that was an intolerable situation, of course, we did some shopping. Even in the midst of war, people try to continue their normal life and shops were open for "business as usual". A bit earlier, a Ju52/3M had crashed on a block of houses and as we passed that street I spent ample time on examining one of the engines, which was lying in the middle of the road. I was quite interested to see that it was made by BMW, I knew they made cars, but their range in aero-engines was new to me...
The smoke from the bombing of Rotterdam on May 14th, 30 miles away, could be seen from the roof of our house. In the week after the country capitulated, I saw several Ju52/3m machines that had crashed in the meadows around the city.

Next time the scene will change and I shall discuss aircraft recognition.

Why don't you start your own thread, it would be easier for people to focus on your recollections that way.

[Doughboy]

Yes, please start your own thread....That WOULD BE AWESOME!

[Condora]

Hi!

I'm not sure of exactly what and when my interest in warplanes started. My country was neutral during WWII, so I did not have a relative introducing me to airplanes.

I remember being in primary school - about 7-8 years old -, drawing Spitfires and Hurricanes all the time. Looking everywhere for... Battling Briton's (the name was changed here, I think that's the original name) comics. I don't know what started first, but through the comics I found out about other airplanes - loved the Whirlwind twin-engine.

At the time, any chance of an aviation carreer went to the toilet, because I started having myopia, and it increased real fast - more than 5 dpt a year -, so that before I got to high school, I was blind as a bat without a radar (even the infantry would not take me, they took my glasses away, and told me to read the letters at the end of the corridor, and I could not see the corridor... ). I never lost the interest, though, and when I was a teenager I found some Bill Gunston's book, which at the time I knew by heart, almost destroyed it because I almost slept with it.

Since that time, whenever I have a chance to know/read/see something related to warplanes, I do it.
Not much chance to fly, though. I *almost* had a little flight on a C-130 two weeks ago, but it was sent to Afghanistan a couple of days before! My wife got mad at me because she wanted to go to the beach, and I did 200 kms the other way to fly a plane that was not there...

Just to finish, a few years ago, someone told me there was some new surgery to cure myopia, and it worked. Too bad they don't accept over-the-hill aircraft loonies in the Air Force.

Do you think I could pull it off by claiming "age discrimination" to get in?

[fass]

Doughboy, thanks for creating the new thread and can you remove the first alinea on the new thread and substitute the one I suggested in my previous message? I can't edit your messages, of course.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Well I would have made one properly for you fass (since I have the ability to move posts and what not), had doughboy not tried to do so...

Anything else you would like to do doughboy?

[Doughboy]

Originally Posted by DerAdlerIstGelandet

Well I would have made one properly for you fass (since I have the ability to move posts and what not), had doughboy not tried to do so...

Anything else you would like to do doughboy?

Sorry.

[fass]

Oops, am I glad I did not try to do anything myself and did suggest "Oberschwarzmann" create the thread... As your powers are apparently unlimited, dear Eagle, would you please also add the sentence:

I was born in 1934 and experienced WW2 living in The Netherlands (Holland), which was occupied by Nazi Germany from May 1940 to May 1945.

at the beginning of the new thread? Then I can safely start scribbling. Heaven knows whether anybody will look at that thread. For those who join this thread later: the new thread is to be found under:
ww2-general/personal-recollections-ww2-20085.html

[Doughboy]

Originally Posted by fass

Oops, am I glad I did not try to do anything myself and did suggest "Oberschwarzmann" create the thread... As your powers are apparently unlimited, dear Eagle, would you please also add the sentence:

I was born in 1934 and experienced WW2 living in The Netherlands (Holland), which was occupied by Nazi Germany from May 1940 to May 1945.

at the beginning of the new thread? Then I can safely start scribbling. Heaven knows whether anybody will look at that thread. For those who join this thread later: the new thread is to be found under:
ww2-general/personal-recollections-ww2-20085.html

What does "Oberschwarzmann" mean.... Does it mean Der Crewchief?