Ron Altier Posted April 13, 2020 Report Share Posted April 13, 2020 An 18-year-old just out of high school was trained to take pictures of damage done to German targets by B-17s. He flew in a British Spitfire fitted with extra fuel tanks where the guns were. In other words, he flew over Germany unarmed. 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. 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 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 them like that anymore. It was truly the greatest generation and we owe them so much. Click this link: American Spitfire Pilot in WWII https://www.youtube.com/embed/ie3SrjLlcUY Link to comment
Larry Buskirk Posted April 13, 2020 Report Share Posted April 13, 2020 They sure don't make them like that anymore! Link to comment
FlGatorwood Posted April 14, 2020 Report Share Posted April 14, 2020 Wow! What a mission and landing. Very impressive. We had an F4 Phantom land on the flight deck of the USS America in 1970 without his landing gear down. There was very little damage to the F4 and no damage to the ship. It was impressive. And, this man lived to share his story. Link to comment
LarryS Posted April 14, 2020 Report Share Posted April 14, 2020 Thanks Ron. That was neat to watch that Link to comment
Artie Posted April 14, 2020 Report Share Posted April 14, 2020 That was awesome! After I had gotten married, and moved away from the town I grew up in, I had gone to Ma’s house for a visit. I was driving a company work van. One of the neighbors driving by (One of the few still left from my growing up years) saw the van, and figured it was me. He stopped in and asked if I could do him a favor, he had a short circuit in his garage lights. So I told him I’d be by in 10 minutes. It was good to see Mr Willet was still with us. I fixed the short, he tried to pay me, I refused. We started talking. One of the boxes I had to move in the garage had a fabric of some kind with a swastika on it. I asked him about it, and it turned out that was one of the boxes of stuff he had brought back from Germany. I had never known he fought in WWII. He grew up in Presque Isle Maine, and had never been out of the state of Maine until he went to boot camp. The stories he had that died with him is what we’ve lost now. You can read the accounts, you can watch the actual movie footage, but the people aspect that explained what it felt like, smelled like, tasted like, could you sleep, and so on, is almost completely vanished now. Understanding the reality of it is so much deeper when there is a person telling you what they went through, how it was from their experiences, versus reading it in a book. Mr Willet told me that somewhere buried in his basement was a German handgun he had liberated. He wasn’t sure how he should handle getting rid of it, if he found it. We had a very enjoyable talk that day. That was over 7 years ago, and he was over 90 years old then, so I suspect he has joined my parents in the hereafter. Link to comment
Cal Posted April 15, 2020 Report Share Posted April 15, 2020 A great film, what a story. Thanks for posting that up Ron. Link to comment
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