Warbird Information Exchange

Wow Dante....great link. TKS

Hi Guys,

The main photo of these 3 x 'Messerstangs' was taken in November 1969 at RAF Manston, where they were clearing customs about to exit the UK en route to Spain for the filming of 'Patton'. They were all ex Battle of Britain film Spanish Buchons repainted as 'wolf-in-wolfs-clothing' to look like Mustangs.

At the time I was a gliding instructor on an RAF school Based at RAF Bovingdon, Hertfordshire. We shared our hangar with quite a few of these 'Buchons', a couple of Spitfires and Hurricanes, a Mosquito and two 'Prukas', which were Percival Proctors all dollied up to resemble Stukas.



(Saying goodbye to the trio outside our hangar)

I took a couple of pics of these Buchons in USAAC colours and fitted with dummy belly scoops pop-riveted on to look like P51's. They were flown by ex-Royal Navy pilots and the last one to leave us to go to Manston where your lead post pic was taken, had a lot of trouble getting started, in fact the mag-drop on run up was horrendous, with the whole airfame shaking and the Merlin farting as if it had eaten a ton of dodgy Vindaloo the night before.



(The 'farter' taking off from RAF Bovingdon to go to Manston)

The next year my unit was transferred to Manston and I recognise the hardstanding and dispersal area, even the Invicta Airways Vickers Vanguard in the background.

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Little Johnny : "When I grow up I want to be a pilot!"

Johnny's Mother : "Don't be silly Dear - you can't do both!"

What about the P-51A used as a 109 look a like in the WW2 movie 'Sahara' with Bogey and Dan Duryea (and a bunch of other later, big stars) about the tank crew in Africa-

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

that landing gear just does not compute and to change all that out in a P-51 seems really crazy to me.

Methinks someone is about to have a major "DOH!" moment here...

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He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

Here you go. At almost the same time, in California ...





August

MesserStangs in color ...

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Zero Surprise!!...

Almost certainly taken in Spain: those in post #1 at Manston, Kent.

Ordinarily I loathe CGI, but those photos make it preferable.

Wow.....talk about zombie thread!!!!I posted this over 12 years ago.

Where did you find these Mark?????

Impressive.

Funny Dave......but I totally agree....lol....

Greetings Michel, the first photo is from an ebay sale, the others are from just a bit of googling. I'd love to see some better resolution photos. Even though these things look real hokey, they almost have an appeal about them. But that's just me I'm sure.

FWIW there are many threads from way back that have quite a bit still to offer. Just takes a bit of searching the archives.

M

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Zero Surprise!!...

To add some information that might not be known. As stated above, all 3 Buchons (or Messers as the Spanish AF called them), flew in the BoB movie. Now the good thing: All of them still exist, 2 of them static exhibits in museums, 1 was airworthy (flying a lot) until a recent take-off mishap. Those 3 MesserStangs were registered G-AWHG, G-AWHL and G-AWHS. G-AWHL (c/n 186, C.4K-122) and G-AWHS (c/n 228, C.4K-170) came to Germany for promoting of the BoB film (after their Patton endeavour), and stood quite some time at Siegerland Airport with a CASA 2.111 outside in the weather. The owner at that time, LSV Hellertal wanted to sell them, but no one wanted them. So G-AWHS was donated to a technical university (RWTH Aachen), after some years went to Auto und Technik Museum Speyer and Sinsheim, where she resides now, converted to a static 109 G-10. G-AWHL stood at Siegerland quite long, finally purchased by Doug Champlin for (reportedly) then 6,000 DM (roughly 2,300$ then, 12,500$ now), I guess scrap value. She was converted to a 109 E-3, now residing in the Museum of Flight in Seattle. G-AWHG (c/n 139, C.4K-75) was damaged in France, later bought by the German MAC group, finally ending at Airbus Group / Messerschmitt Stiftung - Flugmuseum Messerschmitt (Foundation) at Manching. She was converted to an airworthy 109 G-4, flying a lot till recently (several incidents and belly landings, so there might not be much of the original Buchon left).

I thought you might be interested what became of the 3 MesserStangs. Below some links to the museums.

http://sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en/2/ ... e-109.html

http://www.museumofflight.org/aircraft/ ... -bf-109e-3

http://www.flugmuseum-messerschmitt.com ... index.html

Maybe you want to explore this site dedicated to the Bf 109, very good information and mostly up to date, not all info in English though.....:

http://www.me109.info/

Michael

P.S.: G-AWHL (the one now in Seattle) in front of the CASA 2.111 at Siegerland Airport ca. 1971:

http://www.flugzeug-bild.de/bilder/me-1 ... d-9637.jpg

The P-51/HA.1112's in Patton are in the film, it's just that they are in very wide shots flying in formation in the background during the Battle of the Bulge Sequence when the skies clear.

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."