USAF museet ved denne ærerike flyplassen er flott. Denne gangen er det to jubileer som feires, begge amerikanske. (Red.)
Vintage
planes turn back the clock at Duxford
By
KYLE ALVAREZ
STARS AND STRIPES • July
24, 2022
Reenactors portraying WWII-era U.S. Army Air Forces service members stand in front of the B-17, most commonly known as the Sally B, at the Duxford Air Show. (Kyle Alvarez/Stars and Stripes)
DUXFORD, England — The Duxford Air Show paid
tribute to a pair of notable anniversaries this year.
The show Saturday on Duxford Airfield marked the
80th anniversary of U.S. troops coming to England and the 25th anniversary of
the American Air Museum.
Visitors had front row seats to an air show
displaying a variety of American and British planes from different eras,
watched reenactments of WWII-era soldiers going about their routines and ate
and drank from an assortment of food trucks.
The airfield served in both world wars for the
Royal Air Force and was taken over by United States Army Air Forces in 1943, a
little more than a year after 1.5 million U.S. troops arrived on British
shores.
Duxford was home to the 78th Fighter Group, whose
primary job was escorting fleets of bombers in allied attacks on Germany. The
group also launched every available P-47 Thunderbolt to support the D-Day
invasion across the English Channel.
Reenactors portraying WWII-era U.S. Army Air Forces aviation armorers and mechanics work together to place a propeller for display at the Duxford Air Show. (Kyle Alvarez/Stars and Stripes)
The sense of more than a century of cooperation
between the two countries was displayed not only in the attendance of hundreds
of attendees from both countries, but in the museum — an offshoot of the
Imperial War Museum, Europe’s largest air museum that’s located on the same
site.
“The whole purpose of that [American Air] Museum
for me is to, first of all, acknowledge the sacrifices made by the American
soldiers who came over during the second world war,” said Chris Warne, a WWII
history enthusiast who found a passion for refurbishing WWII era aviation
equipment in 1995 and now volunteers and specializes in reenactments for
aviation armorers and mechanics. “I don’t know how the war would have turned
out if the Americans hadn’t supported us.”
Warne’s team acted like they were Americans living
and working on the base and prior to the show, they refurbished a propeller
from a WWII-era plane and put it on display.
Visitors took in what the museums offered before
many left to get good spots to watch the air show.
Those that could not find spots on the fences took
to grassy areas alongside and pulled out chairs and picnic blankets.
An F-15 from RAF Lakenheath’s 492nd Fighter
Squadron did a fly over to open the show, followed by a pair of sleek P-51 Mustangs.
They started their engines and launched into the air, performing tandem aerial
movements that left them surprisingly close to each other at times.
The real crowd pleaser was a B-17 also known as
the “Sally B.” As the propellers came to life, a crowd of children could be
heard yelling “Sally B! Sally B!”
Other planes followed, including a British Tiger
Moth and the American P-47 Thunderbolt.
Ingen kommentarer:
Legg inn en kommentar
Merk: Bare medlemmer av denne bloggen kan legge inn en kommentar.