AviationBanter - View Single Post - B-17s straffing & IJN Aoba, & UK POWs

**Ian B MacLure**

Gordon wrote in news:26c83642-7103-45c5-a0dc-
:

On Apr 6, 9:50*am, "Jim Wilkins" wrote:
-"Gordon" wrote
-For decades, we had a docent taking tickets at our front desk that
-kept a photo nearby of his "Black Cat" following a successful mission
-- they were hit on their run and a shell carried away one of their
-props, narrowly missing the cockpit as it careened on by with a roar.
-Already committed, the pilot got his bombs off and accounted for a
-troop ship with his single-engine Catalina. *Just a little reminder
-that men that go to war in elegant, pedestrian seaplanes are just a
-little different than most.

I'm impressed that they patrolled for reported (MAGIC) enemy carriers,
trusting their lives to their ability to hide from the CAP in whatever
clouds they might find.

"This is Strawberry Five. Have sighted enemy fleet. Please notify
next of kin."

almost as classic as, "Peccavi."

Which is apparently what a teenage girl thought Napier ought
to have said. Peccavi being a Latin announcemnet of the capture
of Sindh in what is now Pakistan. Translates as "I have sinned".

But I digress.

Leonard Birchall certainly had a Strawberry Five experience.

IBM