Dornier 17 [flying pencil]

[John Stiles]

WWII German bomber found off UK in the English channel, high-tech sonar shows the Nazi plane is in mostly one piece, the story here:    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110408/lf_nm_life/us_britain_warplane

[M Spencer]

Hope they get the thing up quickly, before its pilfered.

Nazis lost 92 ooo aircraft in W.W. II .62 ooo to Russians.
Wonder how many .303 holes the D-17 has in it , Amunition
dateing to W.W. 1 stocks.CRIMINALLY NEGLEGENT,(OOPS)

O.k. Anyone know if they got the early P-38 out of Pendene sands yet,
the poms tend to prevaricate around a bit .Charge those Machine Guns.
Wot . Damn Cowards. I'll have them shot .Did the have ' black adder ' on TV in the US ?

[Balsa Butcher]

If it is the P-38 I recently read about, it is again covered in sand awaiting a plan of action. TIGAR, the folks that are always looking for Amelia Earhart are working with the Brits on that recovery. Hopefully, it will go well. 

[Elwyn Aud]

I wouldn't put a lot of faith in TIGAR. They seem to be considered pretty much of a joke on some of the full scale forums I visit. In their entire history they have saved or recovered zero airframes. Their main claim to fame seems to be searching for Earhart and claiming possible success with any scrap of metal, shoe, or bone fragment they come across.

[Balsa Butcher]

I wondered about that but they are really talking up that wreck on their web sit plus additional TBD Devestator recoveries in the South Pacific. Guess they have the $$ and hopefully will hire the right experts.

[Neville Legg]

I don't live too far from the Channel, there must be dozens of aircraft down there! We have a number of locally written books published over here, using eye witness accounts and RAF reports. During the Battle of Britain, there were aircraft going down daily in the Channel. Then after 1940 many a bomber didn't quite get back across the Channel after a raid. If they get this Dornier up successfully I shall go down to Dover and have a look If that's where they bring it in?

Cheers

[john e. holliday]

To me it is hard to imagine how many young people went down during the wars.   All of them.  Anytime a peice of history can be restored, I am for it.  Have visited many museums of aircraft in my travels for the phone company.  Also with Melvin to the Smithsonian and the Air Force Museum.  The latter has sure chnged since the first time when we were there for the 76 NATS.

[Steve Fitton]

Wot . Damn Cowards. I'll have them shot .Did the have ' black adder ' on TV in the US ?

I have Black Adder goes forth on DVD here in the US.  Outrageously funny!

[M Spencer]

 " there must be dozens of aircraft down there " .

I think it would be Thousands . Dozens or Hundreds of Lancasters , etc , etc .
Read too many books , The No's of R.A.F. Typhoons , Spitfires etc ditched is appalling.

The notorious scenario of a Lanc comeing in , shot up , on one engine trying to get through
a gap or lowering of the Cliffs , if it can maintain hight is creepy enough, let alone poor
suckers sitting in a turret behind the little pop guns when the oppo's had cannon is attrocious.

Note the post war Lincolns had 2 x 20 mm Cannon Turrets .

Wasnt till Spits had 2 x .50 & 2 x 20 mm cannon that they could do any immediate damadge.
.303s had to be point synchronised and aimed surely by a marksman for anything other than
a chance shot to do any deciseive damadge.

37 mm Cannons worked pretty could , with the machine guns just used to register on the target
then letting loose a few rounds to disintegrate the opposition .

How Deep is the English Channel ?

[Neville Legg]

This Dornier sits in 50' of water on the Goodwin sands, cricket used to be played in the middle of the Channel on these sands during particularly low tides One of the Hovercrafts from Dover used to take a bunch of nutters out there for a lark about game. The sands shift and used to catch out many an unwary sailor It's about 250' at it's deepest, and 21miles at it's narrowest. You can see France most days when its clear. There is a story of a Spitfire whose engine failed at 30,000' over France, and managed to glide to RAF Hawkinge, which is a few miles inland from Folkestone.

Cheers