Well, as it turns out this island is a small place. Sir Geofrey's niece (I think) lives in the next condo over, one floor down from me. Also, he knows my father well and they have sat on a number of Boards and Committees together.
What a nice guy, and what a nice house.
We chatted about a number of things, but I didn't want to really do the whole "reporter thing". I took no notes and no pics. We will be talking again soon as I have borrowed a book on the history of the Royal Navy Air Arm and he said I was welcome to come over anytime, so no big deal. If anyone wants to know something just ask.
One really interesting story he told me was that he was involved on four separate attacks on the German Navy Battleship Tirpitz. After the war it was determined that four of the 1,600 lbs bombs dropped by his squadron were direct hits. He doesn't know if any of them were one of his or not...but apparently only two of them exploded after penetrating the armour. The other two bounced off the deck.
Most of his flying was done in anti-submarine patrols. His squadron sank a number during the war.
He was never engaged by fighters himself but knew of instances where German aircraft augered while trying to dive in on their bombers. He said that a fighter couldn't have touched him especially low and on the deck as he could out turn any of them.
You gotta love this guys spirit!
He had to ditch in the North Sea once and was in the water for 20 minutes before being rescued. "Rather chilly that" was his comment.
The interuptor gear on the rear gun of the Baracuda didn't always work. While on a gunnery practice run his tail gunner shot off half his vertical stablizer. He said the landing was "hairy", but as it was on an airfield it was not difficult. Doing it on a carrier would have presented a bigger challenge.
2Stony..his flight suit is on display at our Maritime Museum.
Dunno about dweedy bombing, but he said that torpedo runs on ships were made at 50ft and 100mph. No flaps were deployed as the stall speed of all the aircraft he flew was lower than 80mph. When I told him the rule we followed in the Midway scenario was below 200ft and 200mph he said "At that speed the torp would likely flip end over end" and a release at that alt (200ft) would make it certain to do so...even for the British torps which were longer and slightly more stable after they were released from the rack.
Unfortunately I'm not sure it is even worth suggesting he fly AH. His eye sight is extremely poor, which is a shame because you would never guess he was over 80 otherwise.
Amazing man, I'm looking forward to our next meeting.
