The Hurricane That Saved London !

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I see here in the states , this Sunday at 10pm est ( eastern standard time), the History Channel is showing this hour long program on a British RAF Hurricane pilot , Ray Holmes who rammed his Hurricane into a German Bomber and brought it down during the Battle of Britain. The program says a team comes to the site where it crashed and excavates the site not far from
Buckingham Palace. The History Channel website says this is the only fighter plane to crash in the street of London during the Battle of Britain? I take it they are refering to the Hurricane belonging to Ray Holmes, which crashed after he use it to ram this German bomber ( JU-88 ?) Looks like a good program...guess you guys & gals have already seen it ? Can you give us a review of the program.

Thanks!
BlueNoser352!

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The live programme was OK, for me the best part was Ray Holmes showing more interest in the female presenter than the dig. At his age !!!!

They tried to make the whole event exciting as possible for the general public, how you make digging a hole in the ground exciting beats me. In general it was a OK programme. Though I would say Time Team have the edge when it comes to this sort of thing, especially the Spitfire dig which had one of Newport Pagnells finest along for the show.

I heard/read recently they're now looking into the possibilty of excavating the bomber.

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Ray Holmes Hurricane

I see here in the states , this Sunday at 10pm est ( eastern standard time), the History Channel is showing this hour long program on a British RAF Hurricane pilot , Ray Holmes who rammed his Hurricane into a German Bomber and brought it down during the Battle of Britain. The program says a team comes to the site where it crashed and excavates the site not far from
Buckingham Palace. The History Channel website says this is the only fighter plane to crash in the street of London during the Battle of Britain? I take it they are refering to the Hurricane belonging to Ray Holmes, which crashed after he use it to ram this German bomber ( JU-88 ?) Looks like a good program...guess you guys & gals have already seen it ? Can you give us a review of the program.

Thanks!
BlueNoser352!

This programme went out more or less live last year on British television, the road was closed off and the estimated point of impact was dug out in the road, fortunately it was spot on. The problem with the programme was that the presenters were really ' in your face ' and new little about the subject, it wasn't helped by dear old Ray Holmes giving the impression that he couldn't see what the fuss was about and probably prefered to be somewhere else, preferably with the female presenter!
Various bits were pulled out of the hole, including parts of the control column I recall, however, if they ever show the Time Team dig of a Spitfire crash site in Northern France on US television I thought it was a much better programme.
Cheers.

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I forgot, another Time Team one to look out for was the excavation of 2 USAAF A25 Invaders near Liverpool, shown a few months ago, seemed to cause a bit of contraversy on these pages, but a good programme.

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The Hurricane That Saved London !

Guess the title worked on that one. Could do with blocked capitals and more exclaimation marks though. - Nermal

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The Time Team where they excavated the Spitfire in Northern France was on earlier this week on History Channel International and yes, it was a really good program. It was amazing to see a Spitfire crushed into a block upon impact like that.

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I forgot, another Time Team one to look out for was the excavation of 2 USAAF A25 Invaders near Liverpool, shown a few months ago, seemed to cause a bit of contraversy on these pages, but a good programme.

They did one a while back on 2 B-17's.If memory serves, they came up with a throat mike, some other cockpit bits and pieces, and a prop.

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The prop had already been excavated, they found part of the bomb bay and undercart as well

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BlueNoser352 Here:

Thanks fellow FlyPaster's for the note on the program....looks like Ray Holmes is my kind of guy ! Still keeping his eyes open for target's of opportunity. LocoBuster missed that one on the History Channel International. They are showing another "Spitfire Ace" tonight at 11 pm est on History Channel International. Will check to see when they might air that Time Team program. Thanks again for the notes on the show !!!

BlueNoser352!

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The thread title got my attention ! :D

When I read the first post about the pilot 'ramming' his Hurricane into a German bomber, I thought it was a kamikaze-type mission .........but he's still alive ???!

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A-26 Invaders on Time Team

Spoke to the Time Team production Company last week & they confirmed that this years series including "our" Warton dig on the Invaders will be shown on Sky next year. So it should be aired several times at least for those who missed it.

Also Ken Ellis has confirmed that our article on the dig will be in Flypast as soon as space is available - there are some good shots that you missed on the programme including the complete upper turret being lifted intact - (before EOD blew it up :confused: ) Still we are busy cleaning and reassembling the pieces at the RAF Millom museum & the turret is starting to look pretty good :)

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The thread title got my attention ! :D

When I read the first post about the pilot 'ramming' his Hurricane into a German bomber, I thought it was a kamikaze-type mission .........but he's still alive ???!

He used his ammunition despatching another Dornier (or two??) and decided to use his wingtip to take the tail off another, thinking the tail structure would be the weakest point of the bomber. It worked - but he took half his wing off with it!

What's even more amazing about this episode is that the crashing Dornier was captured on film going down!!

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I thought that one came down in Victoria Station, instead of hitting Buck Palace

was there anyone on the ground there at the time?

Love Jay

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I thought that one came down in Victoria Station, instead of hitting Buck Palace

was there anyone on the ground there at the time?

Love Jay

You're right it came down close to Victoria Station, there are moves afoot to excavate the site of this crash as well.

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The Hurricane That Save London !

Watched it twice last night on our version of "The History Channel" and the Time Team production with the Spitfire in France was on The History Channel International as well. I thought the program on the Hurricane was fantastic and what elements to the story. Speaking as someone who works in television news , the wonderful archieve material and the mere fact there was footage of the actual crash of his fighter and the German bomber to use. Plus its been over 60 years since that happened and the Pilot of the Hurricane and his ground crew member are both still alive to be interviewed. Plus the added fact of the local people who still remember that day back in 1940....that is truly amazing. Hats off to the recover team for their hard work to do this and get premission from the government to do so. I bet there were many local levels of government to deal with to make that happen. With commerical's here , it ran about 55 minutes on the History Channel. Was it a longer program when it aired on UK television. Which broadcasting company carried it live on tv...BBC ? Channel 4..? What a great way to tie in history and teleivsion. Could not ask for a better way to tell and story with the key figure alive and their at the end of the program. The Time Team program on the Spit was excellent as well and makes you wonder how many other WWII crash sites are out there to explore?

Thanks!
BlueNoser352!

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Was it a longer program when it aired on UK television. Which broadcasting company carried it live on tv...BBC ? Channel 4..? !

Hi BlueNoser

The programme also included a 130 (Punjab) Squadron Spitfire XIVe AP-J RN203 (shot down on 19 April 1945) which was being dug up near to Veelboken, in Eastern Germany, so the whole programme was about 90 mins.

It was on UK Channel 5 - the pilot of the Spitfire (Vic Murphy) passed away a few weeks ago, round about the 60th anniversary of being shot down in the first place. His incredible story was overshadowed by what was found in London.

cheers

Allan

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what i can never understand is why Ray never got a medal,i suppose it could be that they frowned upon the deliberate waste of a precious hurricane? Nicholson got a VC for shooting down 1 plane,i know his hurri was on fire, but what is the real differnce, a lthough interesting i agree with some that the france spitfire dig was better

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Thanks alan125 for the note on Hurricane Dig!

Thanks for the notes on "The Huricane that saved London ", we only got the very limited version of the program and sadly the US version was a voiced by an american announcer and not the woman presenter ( we say anchor here in the states). I was hoping for that version of the program here and remove the commericals that aired and you get maybe 50 minutes of a program. Not familiar with the Vic Murphy story that you speak of on Channel 5. We are getting the Time Team porgrams here on History Channel International. Thanks for the update on those programs!

A note of thanks from:
BlueNoser352!

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Hurricane London

Hi Malcolm Weale here Radar guy who accuratly located the wreckage of Rays Plane in Buckingham Palace Road last year, We are looking at excavating to see if any wreckage remains of the Dornier which crashed on the forecourt of Victoria station, hopefully in September this year when the Queen unviels the new Battle of Britain Memorial. check out my website for any future news www.geofizz.co.uk also for interest Chris Bennet the leader of the project has had made a very limited no of Sculptures of Hurricanes cast from unidentfiable fragments from the Merlin Engine of P2725..

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Malcolm congrats on the Hurricane project !

Malcolm:

Saw the fruits of you labor here in the states and really enjoyed watching this wonderful project unfold . Enjoyed reading your website and looking at the types of radar you use in your work. What were the names of the streets or intersection in London where this dig took place? Next time I am in London would love to see where this took place. Must have taken quite an effort to convince London city offficals to allow such a dig to take place and block off traffic on this busy London street. Fantastic program on taking a event that took place 60 plus years ago, use old photographs & film clips to find the location of the Hurricane ! Are you currently looking for any more WWII aircraft crash sites with your company? Thanks for the link to your site!

All the best!
BlueNoser352!