I was talking on the phone with my mother today (4th july 2004) and she told me that she saw a WW2 bomber fly over her house this week, I presume it was on a memorial or test flight in the area, My mother lives in Walsall in the West Midlands. when I asked her if it was a Lancaster she said that she did not know but it it had four engines and was flying light (ie unloaded). On making further enquiries of her she revealed that She had heard it first from inside the house and had identified it as a four engined British WW2 bomber flying unloaded from the noise it made before going outside to take a look at it and that she could tell this because she had heard it many many times during the war. My mother was 15 years old in 1945 and it amazed me that she could pick up so much detail from a sound that she has not heard in over 60 years. Brum
Brummy,you will never ever forget the sound of a Merlin engine,whether built by RR or by Packard or Ford under licence, the sound is immortal. You will never forget the noise of the engine exhausts popping with the aircraft on the threshold of the runway prior to take off. Once experienced,never forgotton. The aircraft your mother saw would be the Lancaster MK1 PA 474 City of Lincoln of the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight operating out of RAF Coningsby. The BBMF support aircraft,a C47 Dakota,decked out in wartime colours can sometimes be seen with the Lancaster.
I too remember the sound of German bombers from during the war, they were quite distinctive, and we could easily tell they were German! I was still a child when we were bombed, during the "Clydebank Blitz" for those who do not know, Clydebank is on the banks of the River Clyde, it was assumed naturally, that the bombers were aiming for the shipyards and munitions factory (Singers in particular was near where I lived) but this could not have been true, on the first night we were bombed, there was brilliant moonlight, and amongst the first bombs to land,the nearby gas (or petrol) tanks were set alight, so the whole area was lit up, the bombers MUST have been aware that they were hitting houses and not shipyards etc. It was not something to be easily forgotten, I am now in my middle 70`s and recall it all most clearly.
You never forget those sounds. My rabbi in New Zealand, Jeff Leverton, who was born and raised on my uncle's block in Harrow, was in a UXB detachment in Italy. When we did the V-E Day Plus 50 ceremonies, in came the Warbirds Over Wanaka to "beat up" the airfield. Jeff had not heard a Spitfire Mark 14 in 50 years, but he could tell the Spit was not operating at full throttle when it zoomed over town.
Where I live, we get a fair amount of air traffic and two or three times most summers Spitfires fly over, presumably making their way to an event somewhere. My husband was born in 1942, so he was very young during WWII, but he can still recognise the Merlin sound before the Spitfire comes into view.
That really is amazing how a sound that long ago can bring you right back.Both my parents are from England and they both can remember german bombings.My father is from london,even to this day all they way over here in Canada my father gets nervous and jumpy when we have a bad thunder strom.It must have been a horrible experience to have lived through that hell.
I could readily distinguish between the the sound of the Dornier and Heinkel bombers as they came in over Manchester -- I believe it was the Dornier "flying pencils" that used to reverse their engines preparatory to dropping their bombs. It was 65 years ago, but I can still recall the engine sounds vividly. BTW, there are links to actual Air Raid sounds (including bomb impacts) and a V1 "Doodlebug" in flight/engine cut out/impact on my page ..... http://www.jp29.org/2ar.htm
