WIX Archives
Re: Rolls Royce Spitfire Mk.XIV RM689 G-ALGT - That Hampden
Posted by PeterA on Mon Dec 23, 2002 05:07:37 PM
In reply top Rolls Royce Spitfire Mk.XIV RM689 G-ALGT posted by Paul McMillan on Mon Dec 23, 2002 01:50:34 PM
The Hampden story has got slightly 'adjusted' over time.
It is much more 'spooky' than that. I for my sins was tasked with recovering the Hampden from the Rotterdam to UK leg of it's journey and also with the negotiation with the RAF Museum. Although the serial number of the replacement donor tail from the Hereford was visible in the 'Russian' photographs, it was not until the remains were safe at Skysport, just up the road from Cardington, and positionally laid out, that the RAF serial, P1344, became evident on detachable panels and just discernable over the 'weathered' Hereford serial L6012. Due to the delicate negotiations with the RAFMus, this was a very low key event with zero publicity. The RAF serial therefore had just been known for a matter of a few days to myself and Tim Moore before the delegation from the RAF Museum came to make their formal inspection of the remains. Ray Funnell, who headed up the Cardington RAFMus contingent, was at that time President (or whatever) of the Handly Page Association from his long association with the former company. He took me to one side and said that he had recently received a letter, via the HP Association, to which he had yet to reply, requesting help to locate video of Hampdens. It was for an amatuer video this chap was making about his father, who was lost on a Hampden in Russia/Finland, and he quoted the serial number. Ray said you are not going to believe this but I think this may be the same aircraft. I drove instantly with Ray back to Cardington, he produced the letter from one Jim Robertson and sure enough it was P1344. With Ray's approval I telephoned Jim Robertson that evening and told him not only was Hampden video available but prepare yourself for a mighty big shock, "we have your father's aircraft here in the UK". That following weekend Jim visited with me and I took him to see his father's machine. There was much more than he had anticipated. It was a very special moment for him and I left him for some half an hour with his thoughts as he slowly circled the machine, the bullet holes still visible in the fuselage where his father, Sgt JM Robertson, was mortally wounded. Jim would have been perhaps three years old at the time. It was a wonderful and moving moment. He went on to make his video, I did a little piece to camera on the recovery and with his special effects graphics it went on to win the prize he sought some months later.
Jim made a further visit to to see see P1344, before it moved into Cardington, and I duly hosted a lunch including the son and daughter of the pilot, Perry, who survived the crash and the surviving passenger ground crew, whose name escapes me as I write this. Wonderful stories and moments.
Somebody might care to work out the odds, fifty years after the event, of Jim Robertson's letter crossing paths with me and the recovery of P1344. Jim borrowed a folder of copy negatives of the crash in Russia, to send prints to his mother. They mysteriously disappeared from his car in transit from his house to mine and were never ever found. The son of the pilot took half a roll of film of the remains at Skysport and the other half at a wedding. All the Hampden photos came out blurred, the wedding shots were fine. The daughter of the pilot took down lots of technical details at the lunch including all the addresses. This paper record again mysteriously disappeared and had to be re-requested.
Spooky - and it still raises the hair on the back of my neck.
Merry Christmas.
: has jsut made a re-appearance back on the UK register afte
: r her fatal crash at BAe Woodford in 1992
:
: This has generated a heated debate about the rights and wr
: ongs about this on the Air Britain forum..
:
: One posting (not mine) caught my eye though, and I thought
: it would be worth sharing...
:
: Subject: Spitfire G-ALGT
:
: "I think maybe we should look at this question from the pe
: rspective of the relatives of the deceased, and in this ca
: se the rebuild may be questionable. However, the following
: story may indicate differently, even though it does not i
: nvolve a flyable aircraft.
:
: Some years ago I was being shown around the RAF Museum res
: toration centre at Cardington, and the subject of the Hamp
: den remains came up. Our guide said that not long before,
: he was showing a party round and explaining the origins of
: the aircraft, and one of the party said that a relation o
: f his had been killed in similar circumstances in a Hampde
: n; as the conversation progressed, our guide became uncomf
: ortably aware that this was in fact the Hampden in questio
: n. He said that for a few minutes he agonised over whether
: to tell the visitor or not, but that he decided to and di
: d; the visitor, after getting over the immediate shock of
: the announcement, apparently expressed gratitude at being
: told and was pleased that he was able to see the very airc
: raft in which his relative had died!
:
: I'm not sure that that would have been my reaction in simi
: lar circumstances, but it takes all sorts....... "