:salute: Sometime last week I simulated part of a historic flight that is described in Alan Moorehead's book "the Desert War".
Alan was a passenger in that flight and it involved a Bristol Bombay flying from Cairo, Egypt to Iran in late August 1941. Iran was named Persia at the time. Alan's job, along with other war correspondents' on the same plane, was to cover the invasion of Persia by a mix of Russian and British military forces acting in cooperation It was about 1000 miles away. They took off from Heliopolis airfield, near Cairo.
The conducting officer was a fellow named Kim Mundy and nicknamed "the Flying Tank", as he had joined the RAF in the last war and the Tank Corps in thisThe flew east from Cairo in the morning and came down in Lydda near Jeruslaem.Then cruised along the Iraqi desertand landed at Habbaniyeh, an RAF base, in the heat.Next morning they flew along the brown course of the Euphrates river and over the confluence with the Tigris and thence to Basra on the Persian Gulf...
Then they followed the war from the ground, missing most of the engagements as they arrived too late in most cases.
This was the first time in the war that Russia and Britain had fought together against someone.
The book is highly entertaining in these pages andI decided to try the flight in FS9.
I downloaded brbombay.zip by Willian Dickens, changed the panel somewhat and added an autopilot window and replaced some of the cfs2 gauges, and I took off from Cairo West, HECW. After flying 126 nm I landed at El Arish, HEAR, in a hurry, as it was 4 a.m my local time by now and I had to go to bed. I shut the PC and bolted to bed.
Next day I flew a 2nd leg, from El Arish to LLJR Jerusalem, a distance of 85 nm. I had made a flight plan with FS Navigator and I flew curving up and northeast along the coast of Egypt and flew over the Gaza strip. The surprise was that nearing Gaza the terrain changed from arid and flat desert to green and lush, with palm trees etc and I immediately realized why the Gaza strip has been a bone of contention in the area, with wars to capture it. FS9 default scenery captures the terrain change well.
Another interesting aspect is that the Bombay has a dropout window with 2 fuel gauges. The upper gauge allows you to switch from left to right to central fuel tank and the lower gauge needle moves according to the fuel left in each tank. At some stage, my center tank was empty and I had to switch to a side tank just in time, as my engine started to splutter and cough. I flew in hard settings all those flights.
My 3rd leg was from LLJR Jerusalem to an airfield named OR1J in the desert (there is no name for that airfield in fs9, only a code), again with an FS Navigator flight plan, a distance of 239 nm.
The Bombay lands at 59-64 knots in hard settings and in full flap. One has to switch tanks often on the way.
I found these flights very rewarding. The aircraft represents a Bristol Bombay Mk. I of 216 sqn painted in midstone/dark earth overs with light grey unders, coded C-SH in white, serialled L5857. It was in the same aircraft that General William Gott was killed when he was strafed on the ground by two Me-109's of JG27. There is a painting of the strafing on the net.
Ironically, this very popular general of the 8th Army was known as "Strafer Gott", and he was killed by being strafed himself while taking off in the same fs9 plane I used, about a year later than my flight...
I set a date of late August 1941 (30th) to fly and used internet real weather.
The painting is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ww2images/6949628610/
Details and the story of the attack here:
http://weaponsandwarfare.com/?p=4753
Information on Gott here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gott
and here:
http://weaponsandwarfare.com/?p=4754
Perhaps you can try this flight if you like this sort of historic pseudo-simulation.
I had lots of fun and will continue my legs...
There is Bombay for FSX, but not one of 216 sqn Begs for a repaint, that one.
I have flown Paul Clawson's FSX aircraft and it is not in the middle east camouflage and shows no serial or code letters.
I may try to repaint it in desert colours or perhaps someone else could do it. Villa or Radice, could you help with the repaint please?
This link shows photos and serials of Bombays and a good photo of the cabin with passengers..:
http://www.adf-messageboard.com.au/i...showtopic=2024
:isadizzy:I have also found this additional information:
Greek Royal Family:
On 2 May 1941, Bombays of No. 216 Squadron RAF evacuated the Greek Royal Family from Crete to Egypt. (Source: Wikipedia: Bristol Bombay)
The Bristol Bombay was a British medium bomber and troop transport aircraft flown by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. (Source: Wikipedia: Bristol Bombay)
British Expeditionary Force (World War II):
Although it was outclassed for the European theatre, it saw some service ferrying supplies to the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940. (Source: Wikipedia: Bristol Bombay)
Italian invasion of Egypt:
This included ninety-six obsolete Bombay bombers and Blenheim medium bombers. (Source: Wikipedia: Italian invasion of Egypt)
Battle of Bardia:
Air raids on Bardia resumed in the lead up to the ground assault, with 100 bombing sorties flown against Bardia between 31 December 1940 to 2 January 1941, climaxing with a particularly heavy raid by Vickers Wellington bombers of No. 70 Squadron RAF and Bristol Bombay bombers of No. 216 Squadron RAF on the night of 2/3 January 1941. (Source: Wikipedia: Battle of Bardia)
=============
That is why another Greek friend, Stavros Verras, told me earlier on the phone that Bombays had been through Greece. They evacuated the Royal family...
Your comments are welcome.
Best Regards,
Nick Tselepides
Athens, Greece
10th Feb.2013
Alan was a passenger in that flight and it involved a Bristol Bombay flying from Cairo, Egypt to Iran in late August 1941. Iran was named Persia at the time. Alan's job, along with other war correspondents' on the same plane, was to cover the invasion of Persia by a mix of Russian and British military forces acting in cooperation It was about 1000 miles away. They took off from Heliopolis airfield, near Cairo.
The conducting officer was a fellow named Kim Mundy and nicknamed "the Flying Tank", as he had joined the RAF in the last war and the Tank Corps in thisThe flew east from Cairo in the morning and came down in Lydda near Jeruslaem.Then cruised along the Iraqi desertand landed at Habbaniyeh, an RAF base, in the heat.Next morning they flew along the brown course of the Euphrates river and over the confluence with the Tigris and thence to Basra on the Persian Gulf...
Then they followed the war from the ground, missing most of the engagements as they arrived too late in most cases.
This was the first time in the war that Russia and Britain had fought together against someone.
The book is highly entertaining in these pages andI decided to try the flight in FS9.
I downloaded brbombay.zip by Willian Dickens, changed the panel somewhat and added an autopilot window and replaced some of the cfs2 gauges, and I took off from Cairo West, HECW. After flying 126 nm I landed at El Arish, HEAR, in a hurry, as it was 4 a.m my local time by now and I had to go to bed. I shut the PC and bolted to bed.
Next day I flew a 2nd leg, from El Arish to LLJR Jerusalem, a distance of 85 nm. I had made a flight plan with FS Navigator and I flew curving up and northeast along the coast of Egypt and flew over the Gaza strip. The surprise was that nearing Gaza the terrain changed from arid and flat desert to green and lush, with palm trees etc and I immediately realized why the Gaza strip has been a bone of contention in the area, with wars to capture it. FS9 default scenery captures the terrain change well.
Another interesting aspect is that the Bombay has a dropout window with 2 fuel gauges. The upper gauge allows you to switch from left to right to central fuel tank and the lower gauge needle moves according to the fuel left in each tank. At some stage, my center tank was empty and I had to switch to a side tank just in time, as my engine started to splutter and cough. I flew in hard settings all those flights.
My 3rd leg was from LLJR Jerusalem to an airfield named OR1J in the desert (there is no name for that airfield in fs9, only a code), again with an FS Navigator flight plan, a distance of 239 nm.
The Bombay lands at 59-64 knots in hard settings and in full flap. One has to switch tanks often on the way.
I found these flights very rewarding. The aircraft represents a Bristol Bombay Mk. I of 216 sqn painted in midstone/dark earth overs with light grey unders, coded C-SH in white, serialled L5857. It was in the same aircraft that General William Gott was killed when he was strafed on the ground by two Me-109's of JG27. There is a painting of the strafing on the net.Ironically, this very popular general of the 8th Army was known as "Strafer Gott", and he was killed by being strafed himself while taking off in the same fs9 plane I used, about a year later than my flight...
I set a date of late August 1941 (30th) to fly and used internet real weather.
The painting is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ww2images/6949628610/
Details and the story of the attack here:
http://weaponsandwarfare.com/?p=4753
Information on Gott here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gott
and here:
http://weaponsandwarfare.com/?p=4754
Perhaps you can try this flight if you like this sort of historic pseudo-simulation.
I had lots of fun and will continue my legs...
There is Bombay for FSX, but not one of 216 sqn Begs for a repaint, that one.
I have flown Paul Clawson's FSX aircraft and it is not in the middle east camouflage and shows no serial or code letters.
I may try to repaint it in desert colours or perhaps someone else could do it. Villa or Radice, could you help with the repaint please?
This link shows photos and serials of Bombays and a good photo of the cabin with passengers..:
http://www.adf-messageboard.com.au/i...showtopic=2024
:isadizzy:I have also found this additional information:
Greek Royal Family:
On 2 May 1941, Bombays of No. 216 Squadron RAF evacuated the Greek Royal Family from Crete to Egypt. (Source: Wikipedia: Bristol Bombay)
The Bristol Bombay was a British medium bomber and troop transport aircraft flown by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. (Source: Wikipedia: Bristol Bombay)
British Expeditionary Force (World War II):
Although it was outclassed for the European theatre, it saw some service ferrying supplies to the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940. (Source: Wikipedia: Bristol Bombay)
Italian invasion of Egypt:
This included ninety-six obsolete Bombay bombers and Blenheim medium bombers. (Source: Wikipedia: Italian invasion of Egypt)
Battle of Bardia:
Air raids on Bardia resumed in the lead up to the ground assault, with 100 bombing sorties flown against Bardia between 31 December 1940 to 2 January 1941, climaxing with a particularly heavy raid by Vickers Wellington bombers of No. 70 Squadron RAF and Bristol Bombay bombers of No. 216 Squadron RAF on the night of 2/3 January 1941. (Source: Wikipedia: Battle of Bardia)
=============
That is why another Greek friend, Stavros Verras, told me earlier on the phone that Bombays had been through Greece. They evacuated the Royal family...Your comments are welcome.
Best Regards,
Nick Tselepides
Athens, Greece
10th Feb.2013
Great pictures.
