Andy Saunders 🇺🇦
@1940Andy
Historic aviation TV & film consultant, author, founder ‘Iron Cross’ magazine and Tangmere Aviation Museum. ‘History is just one f*****g thing after another’
Thank you, Alex! You know, I’m sure, how much pleasure I have derived from helping, mentoring, pushing forward, and even employing young history writers like you. You are a shining example among them. Keep on keeping on young fella! 😉👍
(6/6) As an aside, it's nice to be sharing magazine space with my mentor @1940Andy again. Andy put me on my writing career path over a decade ago. I owe him so much for that. His piece, "No Known Grave," details the search for the final resting place of a fallen Canadian pilot.
Here’s hoping. 🤞
The brick walls of Hangar 3 still stand, hopeful of future rejuvenation. The remaining original hangar brick rubble piled up in the centre. We as a community encourage the owner to continue with the restoration, especially as Listed Building Consent was approved over a year ago.
Remembering #FallenUKFirefighters on 18 July @LondonFire @EastSussexFRS #FFNeverForgotten
Not keen on these ‘memory’ things that repeatedly crop up. How can this have been 11 years ago?! 🤷♂️ Planting ceramic poppies in the moat at The Tower of London was quite something, though.
Cherries, anyone? Just some of this year’s extensive harvest. Lots still on the tree, and freezer space exhausted for the those being stoned and frozen. I think some just won’t get harvested this season due to time and space constraints 🙁
My dismay at the loss of farmland at New Barn Farm, Hailsham, and the site where Fg Off Percy Ross Frames Burton was killed in action 27 September 1940, was assuaged yesterday by discovery of new street names which honour him. Another, more pertinently, is Ross Frames Way.
An amazing day visiting the Lee Miller archive @FarleysHG and privileged to be shown around by Antony Penrose, son of Roland Penrose and Lee Miller. Turns out we were acquainted long ago, in 1970 - when I probably had no idea who Lee Miller was! WHAT a day! WHAT an archive! 😳
Here is ‘my’ DH9 looking fabulous in the Duxford sunshine. Can’t quite register that it was 25 years ago that I hauled this aircraft, and the IWM static example, out of a Rajasthan elephant stable.
If you haven’t been, make sure you do - before it is too late. A terrible decision by @I_W_M IMO. 🙁
Please visit the Gallery before it’s closed… @I_W_M
As ever, a joy to work with @sommecourt on the Mannock VC episode. My input aside 😉 it will be well worthwhile signing up to @OldFrontLinePod for Air War Month, starting this Saturday.
Air War Month starts this Saturday on @OldFrontLinePod with an introductory episode followed by interviews with @1940Andy & @Joshua_Levine followed by a special QnA & an Episode looking at what we find of the RFC/RAF on the battlefields today. [click on image for schedule!]
A fantastic image of the most numerous Spitfire PR type produced. Can’t wait to see AA810 in the same position in a few years! @SpitfireFilly @spitfiregin @SpitfireSteve @stevedarlow @1940Andy @HistoryOnz @DrHelenFry @angie_buk
SPITFIRE SUNDAY Today’s subject is the prototype Spitfire PR.XI EN654. This aircraft first flew in May 1943 before service with 16 Sqn from October. In June 1945 it was modified as a mail carrier for Fighter Command Communications & was eventually sold off in August 1947.
Following up on the ‘start’ date of Battle of Britain, fighters engaged raid by Do 17s over SE England with some success, 3 July 40, but train driver killed in Sussex. This is a photo of damage and plaque unveiled at Bishopstone station last week although not sure about wording!
He played a significant part in the very early days at the museum and was one of my co-directors. Often, his input was in very, erm, unconventional ways! He would never take ‘No’ for an answer, either.
Sad news, I met Al several times at @MuseumTangmere and he was always informative and entertaining to chat to. Another remarkable 'rebel with a cause' has left us, blue skies, Sir.
Al Pollock was briefly one of my co-directors when we were setting up @MuseumTangmere in the early 1980s. He was quite the character - and truly a maverick. RIP, Al.
When I win the lottery, I still want this Spitfire table which, incidentally, I had some ‘input’ to with its creator, Huw Edwards Jones. Incredible piece!
On this day in 1940, Siegfried Schweinhagen captained this Heinkel 111 shot down at Selsey. In 1979 I visited him and got his story. Told in hindsight, and without the odious ‘taint’ of ideology etc., a contemporaneous account might have been different @SpitfireFilly 😉
With the Bayeux Tapestry in the news, it’s time to resurrect this absolute classic of historical re/enactments.
