Daveymac wrote:
Those are remarkable pictures.
Indeed, interesting album.
Daveymac wrote:
Thank you for sharing them. I paints a pretty good picture of what Europe was like near the end of the war. War machines scattered everywhere, left until there was time to clean them up.
Certainly Europe was a mess, but they didn't leave any aircraft around for long. If they crashed in German-occupied territory, they were shipped off and melted down ASAP, if they weren't usable. The Allies would get them back asap to go back into service or for canabalisation. You're right, in a way though, because as fast as they were removed, more came down!
For instance, this Hawker Typhoon, of 193 Squadron, RAF (DP codes) would be salvaged promptly, and quite likely repaired and back into service. BTW, that's not a Jeep windscreen in the foreground, is it? Anyone know for certain what it is?
Interesting. A Spitfire Mk.IX, I'd guess, perhaps crashed on / near an airfield, if that's foam in the foreground. That doesn't square with the removed armour glass and missing panels (they'd be left there if it were in Allied hands) Note the guns' ammo already removed. I'd conclude it
may have crashed on or near a German airfield and been stripped by the Germans. I could be dead wrong though!
The Shuttleworth Collection's airworthy Spitfire Mk.V is in the same Squadron markings - 'NN', which is 310 (Czech) Squadron RAF. The Shuttleworth machine escorted a certain Memphis Belle IIRC.
Just a little more, HTH. I'm sure there'll be a Spitfire expert along shortly...