TheLocalYokel
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[textarea]Plaque for flight 777 is unveiled at Bristol Airport
A plaque has been unveiled in memory of the passengers of a plane which was shot down during World War II.
The Hollywood actor Leslie Howard was among 17 people who died on Flight 777, which was travelling from Portugal to Bristol when it crashed.
Ivan Sharp, whose grandfather died on the flight, said that he wanted the plaque to ensure those lost on the flight were not forgotten.
"There was nothing on either side to commemorate the people that died."
Mr Sharp added that a permanent reminder in both countries was essential.
"Because it was classed as a civilian flight there are no graves to mark the dead.
"As a result I got in contact with Bristol Airport about four years ago asking if we could do something.
"Last year we went over to Lisbon and there was a memorial service and a plaque at Lisbon airport.
"Now we're doing the same thing this year at Bristol Airport."[/textarea]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/bristol/hi/ ... 715825.stm
The story of flight 777 is not widely known but it formed part of Britain's only regular civilian landplane connection to the rest of the world in World War 2.
At the outbreak of WW II the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) aircraft were moved to Bristol's then municipal airport at Whitchurch on the southern outskirts of the city. When the Netherlands was overrun by the Germans in the spring of 1940 some KLM DC 3 aircraft and crews managed to escape to Britain and, with the consent of the Dutch Government In Exile in Britain, were subsequently placed on the British register and took their place at Whitchurch alongside the BOAC aircraft.
Their most important duty was maintaining the 4 x weekly link with neutral Portugal on the route between Whitchurch and Lisbon's Portela Airport. Lisbon was a city of intrigue and German civil aircraft used the airport alongside their British/Dutch counterparts.
The Germans were well aware of the route and their agents, as well as those from Britain and the USA, kept a close watch on comings and goings at Portela. In many ways the link was useful to both sides for different reasons.
All sorts of people used the route though of course their identities were not made known at the time: senior military officers including Eisenhower; escaping allied officers; businessmen important to Britain's war effort; government agents; Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the US President; famous entertainers such as Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (incidentally returning to the city of Bristol where he had lived for a short while as a small child); VIPs important to the war effort and many others who had the ear of the British government.
For the most part the Germans ignored the route because it involved a neutral country and because it was quite useful to them to monitor. There had been previous sporadic but unsuccessful attacks on the DC 3s operating the route, including two on the Ibis the aircraft eventually destroyed, but the UK government and allies deemed it of such importance that they kept it operating.
Then on 1st June 1943 Ibis (originally PH-ALI but then G-AGBB following its switch to the British register) was returning to Whitchurch from Lisbon with seventeen people on board - four Dutch flight crew and thirteen passengers - when it was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by eight Luftwaffe Junkers 88 multi-role aircraft. No-one on the DC3 survived.
Since the war there have been many conspiracy theories concerning the flight's fate.
On board was the famous British Hollywood actor, Leslie Howard, of Gone With The Wind and many other films. He was returning from a lecture tour (really a propaganda mission) on behalf of the British government and some believed he was actually a British spy and that the Germans, aware of this, arranged his demise.
Another theory favoured by others is that Howard's agent, who was accompanying him, bore a strong resemblance to Winston Churchill including a liking for large cigars and that German agents at Portela might have mistaken him for the British PM.
Some also believe that German agents might have thought that Howard was RJ Mitchell, the designer of the Spitfire, whom Howard had played in a movie The First of the Few made before the war. The snag with this theory is that Mitchell had been dead for six years.
Others on the flight were an important industrialist and a prominent British member of the Jewish community in the UK, both figures the Germans would have been keen to see the back of.
Then there is the mysterious catholic priest who left the flight just before it took off to take a telephone call but never returned to the aircraft and was never later traced or identified. Some think he received a warning of some sort.
All this is fertile ground for the conspiracy theorists but the most likely reason for the shooting down is that often seen in wartime - lack of communication and a series of unfortunate coincidences.
Documents and accounts after the war show the Junkers had been on patrol seeking two U-boats that they were to escort. They failed to find them but soon afterwards saw a lone camouflaged aircraft that they thought might be a British deHavilland Mosquito, a military machine much faster than theirs, and so attacked it. It is said that they were unaware of the Lisbon link and broke off the attack when they realised it was an unarmed civilian airliner but by then the DC3 was in flames. The Luftwaffe pilots said that three figures parachuted from the DC3 but they perished along with everyone else on board.
I've read a couple of books on this subject and have seen one tv documentary on it. I believe the incident was not premeditated and was a result of the fog of war, though many who love to conspiracy theorise will disagree.
On a personal note, I flew from Bristol's current airport at Lulsgate to Lisbon Portela and back on easyJet A319s a couple of years ago. I had the Leslie Howard incident in my mind and it was a slightly eerie feeling on the return leg.
The Whitchurch Airport site can still be traced in many parts though it is gradually being developed with the latest buildings including a hospital and major health complex.
A plaque has been unveiled in memory of the passengers of a plane which was shot down during World War II.
The Hollywood actor Leslie Howard was among 17 people who died on Flight 777, which was travelling from Portugal to Bristol when it crashed.
Ivan Sharp, whose grandfather died on the flight, said that he wanted the plaque to ensure those lost on the flight were not forgotten.
"There was nothing on either side to commemorate the people that died."
Mr Sharp added that a permanent reminder in both countries was essential.
"Because it was classed as a civilian flight there are no graves to mark the dead.
"As a result I got in contact with Bristol Airport about four years ago asking if we could do something.
"Last year we went over to Lisbon and there was a memorial service and a plaque at Lisbon airport.
"Now we're doing the same thing this year at Bristol Airport."[/textarea]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/bristol/hi/ ... 715825.stm
The story of flight 777 is not widely known but it formed part of Britain's only regular civilian landplane connection to the rest of the world in World War 2.
At the outbreak of WW II the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) aircraft were moved to Bristol's then municipal airport at Whitchurch on the southern outskirts of the city. When the Netherlands was overrun by the Germans in the spring of 1940 some KLM DC 3 aircraft and crews managed to escape to Britain and, with the consent of the Dutch Government In Exile in Britain, were subsequently placed on the British register and took their place at Whitchurch alongside the BOAC aircraft.
Their most important duty was maintaining the 4 x weekly link with neutral Portugal on the route between Whitchurch and Lisbon's Portela Airport. Lisbon was a city of intrigue and German civil aircraft used the airport alongside their British/Dutch counterparts.
The Germans were well aware of the route and their agents, as well as those from Britain and the USA, kept a close watch on comings and goings at Portela. In many ways the link was useful to both sides for different reasons.
All sorts of people used the route though of course their identities were not made known at the time: senior military officers including Eisenhower; escaping allied officers; businessmen important to Britain's war effort; government agents; Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the US President; famous entertainers such as Bing Crosby and Bob Hope (incidentally returning to the city of Bristol where he had lived for a short while as a small child); VIPs important to the war effort and many others who had the ear of the British government.
For the most part the Germans ignored the route because it involved a neutral country and because it was quite useful to them to monitor. There had been previous sporadic but unsuccessful attacks on the DC 3s operating the route, including two on the Ibis the aircraft eventually destroyed, but the UK government and allies deemed it of such importance that they kept it operating.
Then on 1st June 1943 Ibis (originally PH-ALI but then G-AGBB following its switch to the British register) was returning to Whitchurch from Lisbon with seventeen people on board - four Dutch flight crew and thirteen passengers - when it was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by eight Luftwaffe Junkers 88 multi-role aircraft. No-one on the DC3 survived.
Since the war there have been many conspiracy theories concerning the flight's fate.
On board was the famous British Hollywood actor, Leslie Howard, of Gone With The Wind and many other films. He was returning from a lecture tour (really a propaganda mission) on behalf of the British government and some believed he was actually a British spy and that the Germans, aware of this, arranged his demise.
Another theory favoured by others is that Howard's agent, who was accompanying him, bore a strong resemblance to Winston Churchill including a liking for large cigars and that German agents at Portela might have mistaken him for the British PM.
Some also believe that German agents might have thought that Howard was RJ Mitchell, the designer of the Spitfire, whom Howard had played in a movie The First of the Few made before the war. The snag with this theory is that Mitchell had been dead for six years.
Others on the flight were an important industrialist and a prominent British member of the Jewish community in the UK, both figures the Germans would have been keen to see the back of.
Then there is the mysterious catholic priest who left the flight just before it took off to take a telephone call but never returned to the aircraft and was never later traced or identified. Some think he received a warning of some sort.
All this is fertile ground for the conspiracy theorists but the most likely reason for the shooting down is that often seen in wartime - lack of communication and a series of unfortunate coincidences.
Documents and accounts after the war show the Junkers had been on patrol seeking two U-boats that they were to escort. They failed to find them but soon afterwards saw a lone camouflaged aircraft that they thought might be a British deHavilland Mosquito, a military machine much faster than theirs, and so attacked it. It is said that they were unaware of the Lisbon link and broke off the attack when they realised it was an unarmed civilian airliner but by then the DC3 was in flames. The Luftwaffe pilots said that three figures parachuted from the DC3 but they perished along with everyone else on board.
I've read a couple of books on this subject and have seen one tv documentary on it. I believe the incident was not premeditated and was a result of the fog of war, though many who love to conspiracy theorise will disagree.
On a personal note, I flew from Bristol's current airport at Lulsgate to Lisbon Portela and back on easyJet A319s a couple of years ago. I had the Leslie Howard incident in my mind and it was a slightly eerie feeling on the return leg.
The Whitchurch Airport site can still be traced in many parts though it is gradually being developed with the latest buildings including a hospital and major health complex.
