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frustratedpilotHey.
If I didn't mention it before...my mother's hometown hero during WW2 was the flying ace Francis Gabreski. I've been interested in him since we visited his family's grocery in the Seventies (on the occasion of being in that town for the funeral of my maternal grandmother) and afterward receiving an autographed picture of him.
Well, part of his story was how, because he was the son of Polish immigrants, he was able to take exchange duty with one of the Polish exile squadrons in the Royal Air Force in the time between the entry of the U.S. into the war and the establishment of regular American combat units in Britain.
The plane he flew on his missions with the RAF was a Spitfire Mark IX, serial number BS410. He had good luck in surviving his missions against enemy fighters but never got to shoot down an enemy with it either. After his tour was over, BS410 was reassigned to another pilot, who was brought down in France and captured. Gabreski took his education in air combat from the Poles to the 56th Fighter Group of the Eighth Air Force and wrecked 31 German planes under the guns of his P-47 Thunderbolt.
The crash site for the Spitfire was found and excavated in recent years. Pieces of the plane were collected.
Some of these pieces are being included in the brand-new build of a Spitfire that will have the serial number BS410.
I don't know whether I should consider that to be a tribute or a disservice to history.
If I didn't mention it before...my mother's hometown hero during WW2 was the flying ace Francis Gabreski. I've been interested in him since we visited his family's grocery in the Seventies (on the occasion of being in that town for the funeral of my maternal grandmother) and afterward receiving an autographed picture of him.
Well, part of his story was how, because he was the son of Polish immigrants, he was able to take exchange duty with one of the Polish exile squadrons in the Royal Air Force in the time between the entry of the U.S. into the war and the establishment of regular American combat units in Britain.
The plane he flew on his missions with the RAF was a Spitfire Mark IX, serial number BS410. He had good luck in surviving his missions against enemy fighters but never got to shoot down an enemy with it either. After his tour was over, BS410 was reassigned to another pilot, who was brought down in France and captured. Gabreski took his education in air combat from the Poles to the 56th Fighter Group of the Eighth Air Force and wrecked 31 German planes under the guns of his P-47 Thunderbolt.
The crash site for the Spitfire was found and excavated in recent years. Pieces of the plane were collected.
Some of these pieces are being included in the brand-new build of a Spitfire that will have the serial number BS410.
I don't know whether I should consider that to be a tribute or a disservice to history.
