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Guy Martin's Spitfire
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Did anyone watch the repeat of Guy Martin's Spitfire last night?
http://
It was about finding Squadron Leader Geoffrey Stephenson's Spitfire that had been buried in French sands for decades.
Apparently he was shot down over Dunkirk during the BEF evacuations and escaped before giving himself up to the Germans and later confined to Colditz Castle.
Two things didn't seem to ring true for me though.
1/ The crashed plane was an attraction to the German troops and there were photos showing them sitting on the top of the fuselage posing, well it was hardly likely that at the beginning of the war they would have then just abandoned it to the sea for the rest of the war, no the Luftwaffe would have soon hauled it away, ready to be stripped down and examined, especially at that time when the Spitfire was of a revolutionary new design.
2/ After the team had removed the corroded spitfire from the sands and took it to Duxford for restoration, rather than restore it, it would seem they built an entirely new plane and I doubt that not much of the original plane went into the new one, and yet they invited the two daughters of Squadron Leader Stephenson, to watch the plane take it's maiden flight as if that was the actual plane that their father had flown.
http://
It was about finding Squadron Leader Geoffrey Stephenson's Spitfire that had been buried in French sands for decades.
Apparently he was shot down over Dunkirk during the BEF evacuations and escaped before giving himself up to the Germans and later confined to Colditz Castle.
Two things didn't seem to ring true for me though.
1/ The crashed plane was an attraction to the German troops and there were photos showing them sitting on the top of the fuselage posing, well it was hardly likely that at the beginning of the war they would have then just abandoned it to the sea for the rest of the war, no the Luftwaffe would have soon hauled it away, ready to be stripped down and examined, especially at that time when the Spitfire was of a revolutionary new design.
2/ After the team had removed the corroded spitfire from the sands and took it to Duxford for restoration, rather than restore it, it would seem they built an entirely new plane and I doubt that not much of the original plane went into the new one, and yet they invited the two daughters of Squadron Leader Stephenson, to watch the plane take it's maiden flight as if that was the actual plane that their father had flown.
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Funnily enough AOG, I watched it over the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it although, like you, thought it was a bit of a con. As for '1' I can't comment other than to say the Germans probably thought their ME109s were far superior, or their pride wouldn't let them admit so (in fact, they were superior to the Mk1 Spit in several ways - I believe there was a thread about this some time ago).
As for '2', I don't think ANY part was original to Stephenson's machine, so it was virtually a complete new aircraft.
I thought it was rather disingenuous to the team of experts to call it 'Guy Martin's Spirfire' and I think he was a bit embarrassed by it. Why not call it Guy Martin and the Spitfire?
Still, an excellent educational programme.
As for '2', I don't think ANY part was original to Stephenson's machine, so it was virtually a complete new aircraft.
I thought it was rather disingenuous to the team of experts to call it 'Guy Martin's Spirfire' and I think he was a bit embarrassed by it. Why not call it Guy Martin and the Spitfire?
Still, an excellent educational programme.
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