Colour footage of WW2 glider take offs ... ?

I suspect this video will be old hat for most of you. It's so rare to see colour footage from the time that I tend to get a little over excited. Any idea what the occasion would be here, possibly an exercise? I assume the paras jumping in the second half are Americans?





There is no sound unfortunately, some music might have helped. I was hoping to stick this on the back of an existing thread, but couldn't find an appropriate one. It makes you wonder what else has yet to come to light.

Cheers

 

Cee,

All new to me! That's a great find, thanks.

Brig Chatterton is the officer watching the gliders take off.

Steve W.

 

Cee great find. I gave not seen this before, at 01:02-3 the man in the red beret is Brigadier Chatterton.

Filmed early '44 or '45?

Lieutenant-Colonel George Chatterton

 

I agree, good find, haven't seen that before.
According to this useful Wiki page
List of RAF Squadron Codes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
BE indicates a 284 Sqn aircraft or possibly No 8 OTU but that seems unlikely.
Can't make out the code on the Stirling at 47 secs but it isn't BE.
Intriguing - some of the gliders have 'invasion stripes' indicating post D-Day but not all the aircraft seem to have them. Could this be a composite piece with pre and post D-Day footage? I can't make out enough of the paras to be sure if they are US or British.

 

Superb find Cee, have posted the link to Paul Hendriks at the glider exhibition, fairy sure he will not of seen it, thank you, a great find.

lofty

 

Hmm strange. A quick Google search indicates that 284 Sqn was an air sea rescue unit and never operated Stirlings.

Attached a couple of screenshots, can anyone make out the squadron code on the second Stirling?

 

Thoroughly enjoyed that Cee,thanks for posting.

 

Ok thanks guys,

I'm glade to see it wasn't a regurgitated bit from a doc that I had missed and was new to most of you as well. Needless to say I was totally surprised by the Chatterton identification which could easily have been a missed if he didn't turn towards the camera in those last seconds.

The fact that there are invasion stripes on the horsas may help with a time frame. You have to like the little dance the ground crew underwent with each hook up.

Oh and similar thoughts to you Mike on the possible composite nature of the clips from various times.

Cheers

 

The Halifax at the 1.02 mark has the code "2P". According to Wikipedia, this is No. 644 Squadron - No. 644 Squadron RAF - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

And the Stirling at 19 seconds in has the code "8E" - can't make out the letter after the roundel. Again according to Wikipedia, that's No. 295 Squadron - No. 295 Squadron RAF - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Well spotted Chick. So used to seeing letters in sqn codes I didn't think to look for a number 8!
Does it look like the 8 has been recently painted on the first Stirling?
With evidence of 295 and 644 sqdns it will take a bit of looking into to find what base(s) were used for the footage etc. My estimate at this time is still that it is a composite of several operations and exercises, since there is glider cockpit and glider and parachute landing zone ground footage. I know that camera units went into action on drop zones but this just looks a bit too good to be 'live' footage.
Intriguing.

 

The paras leave the plane in a blurry hurried fashion. I did a step through and it appears there is a front bulge apparent on a couple which may indicate the extra parachute the Americans carried. But I wouldn't place a strong bet on that. And do I see waco gliders in the short clip preceding the jump scenes?

I'll leave the RAF squadron identification to you guys, which is quite beyond me at this point. There is a short aerial view of part of the runway with gliders lined up at one end. I doubt if it would be enough to identify an aerodrome location.

Later ...

 

This is one I will follow Cee, got me intrigued.
I think I am favouring the paras being American although difficult to tell from the video but I think the British para smock would appear darker and I can't see the cam pattern. If you can make out a reserve chute this would id them as American I believe.
I still think this is is some sort of composite footage, perhaps we will find out with further research.

 

Great footage.

 

The Tractors towing the gliders have a yellow stripe arround the body - which I thought was a post war RAF vehicle marking, also the signal lamp trolley in yellow - again I thought that was post war only.
Ted Angus is the man who will know.
Noel

 

Is this possibly, film from the pre-D Day exercises carried out, rather than operational.

 

Gliderrider, from what I understand the invasion stripes were painted immediately before D-Day, in a very rushed manner, possibly shortly before take-off so I don't think it can be pre invasion. The absence of obvious invasion markings on some aircraft is what makes me think it might be a composite and of course those shots could be pre D-Day.

 

The Tractors towing the gliders have a yellow stripe arround the body - which I thought was a post war RAF vehicle marking, also the signal lamp trolley in yellow - again I thought that was post war only.
Ted Angus is the man who will know.
Noel


yellow markings for aerodromes was in force certainly from soon after BoB- although the regs were mostly ignored. prior to that aerodrome vehicles should have carried a yellow double disc on a pole. The colour film of Lancs at RAF Hemswell was late 44 and an all yellow disarmed Morris LRC was towing the runway control caravan. and other vehicles had yellow markings.

But I do believe it is a composite piece of film; The Daks are dropping over an aerodrome (see 2.10) - I don't think any of our D Day, market garden or later rhine crossing DZs included an aerodrome ?? so this or some of it could well have been a post D Day exercise pre MG etc ???? Also note most lads handling the gliders have tank suits, great coats, PVC coats and wellies on. so have we anyone who knows the weather situation at the time of the big 3 Ops involving gliders ??


TED

 

Mike,

Your second still appears to me to be showing NY which fits in nicely to a Glider Tug Training unit as per this website details.
1665 HCU
FO, OG, NY
5.43 to 3.46
Waterbeach; Woolfox Lodge 6.43; Tilstock (Glider tug training?) 1.44
I, III, IV


stirlings

Regards
Tom