Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: steely07 on February 06, 2003, 05:05:54 PM
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My Dad has been friends with this Gentleman since he was a young man,as he's getting older,my dad decided to go and visit to try to get some stories on tape.
It didn't work out exactly,i don't think the pilot wanted to sit and talk into a mic for hours,but by the sounds of it he had some adventures during the war,attached is some text from a messenger convo i had with dad last nite,funny stuff :)
Dad: had a few hours again with John Critchley, pitty he does not want to go on tape, but he has some very interesting tales
Steely: ya,i find it's not often omeone wants to sit down and talk about the war....
Dad: seems his DFC was recommended several times, but each time after recommendation he did something to get in the Sh t and it was withdrawn, many times
Steely: hehe
Dad: seems he liked to Beat up thingts for little reason, eg, after a daylight raid, he approached Dover below cliff top height
Dad: then he just soared over the cliffs, the bomb aimer said to avoid a US airfield they were approaching, it had a jeep on it, so, starting at 1000, he cut power and dove on it from behind
Steely: lol,in a lanc?
Dad: coming over it, opened all 4 merlins, climbed steeply to a STALL TURN, AND CAME BACK FOR ANOTHER BEAT UP, his mistake, they got his number
Steely: wahahahahahahaha
Dad: by time he got back to base the yanks had been onto Group, who got onto Base, who had squadron leader waiting for a please bloody well explain as soon as he landed
Steely: lolol
Steely: thats funny
Dad: all he could say to Huggie Edwards VC, (Actually he was a Winco, not S/L) ws that he was practicig low flying. Huggie was not pleased, and told him the mistake was to do a return run.
Steely: lol,it was ok once LOL
Dad: that was the inference
Steely: hehe
Dad: nother time in a Hotspur (Glider) he was on remote release and deceided if he could get back to airfield before tug
Dad: so he put nose down and went for it, into cloud, there was a large industrial complex below, and the cloud changed colour, and he got 5 minutes of "lift" from the factory chinneny heat, broke out with airfield in site, & he was high
Dad: so he investigated ground effect along the road adjoining the airfield, so much so that the tail touched the ground once or twice )
Steely: lolol
Dad: comming around the corner of Rd was a staff car with Brass, and truck following, he swooped up over the car, slid over the hedge and glided across airfeild at zero feet and stopped over far side amongst te other gliders.
Steely: hahahahah
Dad: the driver of car suddenly saw glider at street level in her window, hit brakes, causing brass to fall fotward, truck slammed on brakes to avoiud car, both felt the blast of the pressurised air stream.
Steely: lol
Dad: the next drama was a week later when an Army capt, was on station investigating the shoot up of these vehicles, he wsanted details of all aircraft flying that time, had already done all the powered airfields & was getting frustrated. He accused John Critchley, who said how, in a glider. The Glider CO dismissed John Critchley, so he never had to answer, because the guy never got around to asking him if it were him
Dad: just an interesting incident,
More info on John Critchley
Here
http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/460sqdn/critchley.htm
And more on George
http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/g4george.htm
Steely
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wow thanks for posting great read