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discussion in a chatroom,not sure about it

Daveroo

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i was talking to an old guy tonight,he is allways talking about stuff like he is an authority on it..no mater the subject,tonight,several people were talking about Malta,and someone said it was an important place/site during world war two,and this guy said "yes,the american B-25s flew from Malta to bomb germany,mainly Berlin"....all i said was...seems like a long haul to me..and he got mad....ive looked online,and havent found much about any aircraft on malta during the war..most of what i could find starts in 1949....anyone know more?....did B25s fly from malta during the war..specifically to germany?

and while im asking..this same guy told me that when he was in england,he was starting flight training on his own..and the first plane he was flying was a "spad" with a flight instructor in back....were there any spad two seaters?....ive not looked for spad trainers..but i know ive never seen one
 
Malta to Berlin is almost exactaly 1,000 nm.

The B-25 depending on load/configuration only had around 1,100 nm of range.

Have some fun and irritate him by providing him that information. That type of person will never admit they are wrong.
 
Gotta agree with Dave. Maybe the British did operate B-25s from Malta. But a Berlin mission from there is a bit of a stretch. Maybe Goering let them gas up for the return trip.
 
There were actually several different models of two seat Spads, The SA-2, Spad 11 and the Spad 13, but I don't think any of them were intended as trainers and all were of WWI vintage
 
Wellingtons, Marylands and Baltimores, along with a motley selection of Swordfish, Albacores comprised Malta's bombing forces, although one should really disregard the Marylands as their primary role was PR.
Maybe USAAC Mitchell's staged through Malta but given the success of Operation Torch I doubt it.
As for Malta-Berlin operations ......... :173go1:
 
To an elderly person whose memories date back 70+ years, any 1930's vintage biplane trainer might be remembered as a "Spad" to them. This guy is probably one of those "know it all, done it all" types that get defensive if you try to correct them. You have to be considerate of seniors and if the tales move from reality to fiction, just let it slide.
 
To an elderly person whose memories date back 70+ years, any 1930's vintage biplane trainer might be remembered as a "Spad" to them. This guy is probably one of those "know it all, done it all" types that get defensive if you try to correct them. You have to be considerate of seniors and if the tales move from reality to fiction, just let it slide.

Yea be kind to us old farts :))
 
To an elderly person whose memories date back 70+ years, any 1930's vintage biplane trainer might be remembered as a "Spad" to them. This guy is probably one of those "know it all, done it all" types that get defensive if you try to correct them. You have to be considerate of seniors and if the tales move from reality to fiction, just let it slide.

Always remember: The story might not have happened exactly the way an "ole boy" like me might tell it. Nevertheless, it is still "true."

RD
 
Used to know an old fellow called Scotty.....oddly enough, he was from Dublin. He'd come in and work part time. Light duty stuff to pay for a little drinking. He was in his late seventies, pension was not all it had promised to be.
He had stories. He fought in every major battle on every front in WW2...even if they occurred at the same time in opposited ends of the globe. It was totally amazing....this guy was pure magic, transcending time and space like that. No wonder the Fascists never stood a chance. It'd make a good Terry Gilliam movie...Munchausen of the Eight....
I used to listen to him while working...nod the head...smile. Good stories. Maybe they were third person recounts. Maybe he peeled potatoes or welded in a shipyard during the big fight. But they were somebody's stories. I'd always buy him a few rounds of draft after work...

A friend of mine really dug into the old fellow though. Called him a liar in front of the whole crew. It was demeaning and made everbody feel bad. It hurt Scotty's pride terribly.
In time, ol'Scotty faded and then passed away. We went to his funeral, and found a best friend that had been recounted in many stories...who turned out to be real.
The friend told us that in fact, Scotty had served in the Eight Army in North Africa, and had distinguished himself.
The other stuff....who knows.
We took our hats off and had a drink to him. I can't forget this little fellow...his piercing eyes...his stories of the desert Fuzzy-Wuzzies with their single shot long rifles...more dangerous than the Germans. (If you could see one...you were plainly within his range of fire...and potentially a dead man.....)

LoL....

Let'em talk. The whole planet was into it. We youngsters have seen nothing even remotely like it.
 
If he's a more-or-less harmless guy who just posits this nonsense, play along with it, maybe give him the range info quoted earlier and see what he says about that, but there's no point in confronting this guy about anything - unless he's defaming someone's memory or acting disrespectfully toward them. It's possible he's led a rather humdrum existence and this is the only way he's got of spicing up an otherwise rather drab life.

Worked a case one time where a guy came to our attention from the reader of a metro Chicago newspaper. We had a retired admiral visiting area elementary and junior high schools in uniform (this is allowed for honorably discharged veterans) and talking about his exploits in WWII - you know, the Big One. He was present at Pearl Harbor, saw Coral Sea and Midway, Guadalcanal, and other Pacific battles happen, then went to Europe for D-Day, plus Anvil-Dragoon in southern France. Was in Berlin as a naval rep when it fell, then back to the Pacific for Iwo Jima and Okinawa and was in Tokyo Bay when it all ended. There were some inconsistencies in his accounts that were amusing, and if you crunched the numbers you discovered he was in the USN as a 13-year-old seaman in 1941, and ended the war as a LCDR. Obviously a fraud, but a harmless one. Normally we'd ignore something like this as there's nothing criminal about what he's done - however, supervision was concerned this individual may have tried to use NAVHOSP Great Lakes (back when there was one), the commissary, or other services and defrauded the gov out of those services, so off to his house we go. Went to the door, gave it a knock; I and my partner identified ourselves and stated politely we just wanted to ask him a few questions about him possibly visiting GLAKES. His first words were, "What's the penalty for what I've done?" We calmed him and reassured him we were checking into his possible patronage of the above-mentioned facilities. A previous check of their patient records, prescription lists and other records disclosed he wasn't on any indices, so we figured there was a good chance this was nothing at all. His interview confirmed this. This guy wouldn't shut up about why he had done what he did - he had in fact been in at the end of WWII as an E-1 and made it to E-2 before being mustered out in 1946, and he felt inadequate somehow, that he should have done more. He insisted we take everything he had (uniforms, sword, medals, etc) and we did to make him feel happy; gave him a receipt, too. He said he wanted to come clean about things. We both felt so sorry for him, after putting everything into evidence and briefing the boss, we called a few times in the ensuing days and checked on him to ensure he was OK, and eventually took everything back to him with the (false) stern admonition to not do this sort of thing again. Before we took it back, the "real" admiral in charge of NAVTRACEN Great Lakes wanted to take a look at what this guy had in his wardrobe - he even had a "fore and aft" admiral's hat and boat cloak, and a very nice sword (our admiral said it was better than his own). This was an unusual incident and we briefed him on it. Our impostor had even been rubbing elbows with the real admiral at the Navy Day Ball and associated events at GLAKES for a few years and had so successfully pulled off his masquerade no one at any of these gatherings suspected anything. He still sticks out in my memory. I've wondered what ever became of him.
 
during world war two,and this guy said "yes,the american B-25s flew from Malta to bomb germany,mainly Berlin"

I think he may have confused Malta with Sardinia or Corsica - my (often faulty) memory doesn't recall US units being based on Malta, but I'm pretty sure US B-25 units were on Sardinia and/or Corsica - the (brilliant) novel Catch 22 is based on this real-world deployment I believe.

I don't think they would have been going to Berlin though ...

cheers,

Steve
 
Friend of mine had an uncle with wide ranging experiences. He was described as having "flown submarines in the western desert."

Oddly enough my father who picked up two mentions in despatches in Burma didn't talk so much about it.

Although his views on Errol Flynn winning the war in Burma single handed without a mention of the British or Indian Armies could not be repeated on a family forum.
 
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