OT - WW2 photo recce pilot sees footage of his war service for the first time

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Was shown this link on another forum and thought you guys would find it interesting.
http://www.wimp.com/warfootage/

The pilot in question, Mr John Blyth, was a USAAF photo recce pilot during WW2 and hearing his story and seeing his reaction to the footage is fascinating.
He, like all the other unarmed photo reconnaissance pilots have my utmost respect - to fly alone, deep into enemy territory without any defensive weapons and no escort fighters, they truly had the biggest balls of any pilot and balls made of steel at that!
And for any Spitfire enthusiasts, this footage is an interesting document of the USAAF use of the Spitfire PR Mk XI.

[Targan]

Watching that brought a tear to my eye. Thanks for the link, Stainless. Very, very good.

[Medic]

A lovely story.

The numbers of WW2 veterans are diminishing - in Finland, there is only one recipient of the Mannerheim Knight Cross alive out of 197 recipients. About 38000 veterans remain with their median age being 90 years. About 5800 of them have a permanent disability from their service.

I honour those men and women greatly, as they kept the country free from being invaded by the Soviets. Many of the paid the ultimate price, including my maternal grandfather, who got to see his daughter only once as she was a couple of weeks old and he was on leave from the extra refresher training that was being held right before the war begun - he left for the front and fell in combat there two months later.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by Targan

Watching that brought a tear to my eye. Thanks for the link, Stainless. Very, very good.

Yeah I was feeling the same way mate. I was so fascinated by the whole story that I watched it again straight after it ended.
I really enjoyed the no-bullshit, no-bragging way Mr Blyth described his experience and also the look on his face not only when he saw the footage of his landing, but also when he learnt more about the guys who were interviewing him.

[Littlearmies]

Thanks for that Stainless, that was super stuff. Half an hour over Berlin on your own - you have to admire that (and Mr Blyth's matter of fact attitude to the whole thing "no bulletproof glass - if they got that close you were dead anyway). And fantastic resolution on those photos for the altitude he was flying.

I found this too:

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2398213

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by Littlearmies

Thanks for that Stainless, that was super stuff. Half an hour over Berlin on your own - you have to admire that (and Mr Blyth's matter of fact attitude to the whole thing "no bulletproof glass - if they got that close you were dead anyway). And fantastic resolution on those photos for the altitude he was flying.

I found this too:

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2398213

Nice find with that photo!
In regards to Mr Blyth, the other things that stood out for me was, first, his memory of many aspects of his flying time in WW2, like the problems with the supercharger on the P-38 and his mission over Berlin that ended with the wheels-up landing
And second, his affection for the Spitfire. His parting comment that every pilot should fly a Spit at least once made me grin.