RAF market garden question

[stona]

He must have been one of the 1,500 'RAF' pilots seconded to fly gliders due to the shortage in the Glider Pilot Regiment. British glider pilots, unlike their US contemporaries, were fully trained infantry soldiers and were expected to fight once they had landed the glider. Your man should have received some rudimentary infantry training before becoming a glider pilot, Wright mentions a three week course, but that would not have made him close to an effective infantry soldier. He probably received some basic training, enough to prevent him being a liability to himself or his comrades! The most dangerous rifle on the battlefield might be the one in the hands of the man next to you, particularly if he is an RAF pilot, barely trained as an infantry soldier


On the 12th he towed a glider in some kind of practice, 'local' means exactly that, local to the base. On the 13th he performed an air test on the aircraft mentioned, that is also self explanatory. The aircraft may have undergone some maintenance which required it to be test flown.


I can't see the picture of the Dakota and PoWs. 


Cheers


Steve

[Guest]

Steve, this guy was a SAAF (RAF) Dak driver :-)


Here is that pic of the POW's Note the stripes under the fuse of KG 330

[stona]

Yep, got a bit confused there


I don't know when that photograph was taken or who the  prisoners are. Invasion stripes should have been gone by 1945, but who knows. The first concentration camps were not liberated by the western allies until April 1945, though the Soviets had liberated others in mid 1944.


A few PoWs did end up in concentration camps, but they were exceptions, most were held in camps run by the relevant arm of the Wermacht. For example, allied airmen taken prisoner became the responsibility of the Luftwaffe


Cheers


Steve

[Guest]

When were the pow's mostly liberated frm the Wermacht camps? Before Varsity?


Would the russians have handed allied pow's over to the UK even by '44?

[stona]

I don't think many would or could have been, they were mostly in Germany.


I don't know off the top of my head, but there were problems getting US and UK PoWs liberated by the Russians home.


Cheers


Steve

[Guest]

OK, so then is could be that KG330 as per pic stil had the striped on after it was supose to  be removed??

[stona]

It's possible, but they were supposed to be gone by 31st December '44.


Cheers


Steve

[Guest]

Just goes to show what was supose to be and what was were two different things LOL


Interesting to see the patchy look on the tail, maybe repairs made and painted with new paint.


Would you say that plane is basically all green over grey and not green/earth camo?


Where can I go look to see what the tail code was for KG 558?


T

[rickoshea52]

That cab looks like it has had quite a bit of touch up applied and the squadron codes changed maybe. If you look closely you can make out where the white and black stripes were just above the roundels. The cargo door might even be a replacement from a donor aircraft.


I built a Dakota recently and the colours were Olive Drab over Neutral Grey.

[Guest]

Ah yes I see the stripe marks, they were then clearly washe off and  not over painted....well spotted.


It will be rather tricky to replicated that on the model.


Theuns