I am still reading the August issue and have just finished the very very interesting and very comprehensive article on the making of the film Battle Of Britain. I thought this a relevant time to bring this up it being around that time of year.
You may have all read it but for those that havn't I am going to list some facts that amazed me ......
Adolf Galland himself tipped off the film makers about the Hispano Buchons (Bf 109s) and Casas (HE 111s) still in service in Spain - sure enough the Spanish airforce provided 32 Spanish Casa 2 - 111s ( as HE 111s) free of charge for ground and aerial work (18 were seen en masse in the opening scene filmed at Tablada in Spain) - and the film unit bought by tender from the Spanish airforce 28 (YES 28) Buchons as BF 109es - 18 airworthy - 6 taxiable - and 4 for crash scenes ... all were Merlin powered (where on earth did they all go after filming????)
Huelva beach near Madrid was dressed to double as Dunkirk in the french evacuation scenes.
B25J Mitchell N6578D which was the aerial camera platform had its rear tail unit and fuselage vividly colour coded - Green to port and Red to starboard - Yellow and Black stripes on the wings - and engine nacelles in White and Yellow... this enabled pilots to format more easily and accurately for filming.
Concrete bombs were manufactured in Spain and dropped in the sea to simulate the London Blitz - camera angles and post production did the rest.
Only 3 Hurricanes could be found for flight - one of those was privately owned and imported from Canada (a MK XII) - several Buchons were painted as Hurricanes for aerial scenes and can be seen at the back of formations - a mould was taken of LF751 and the full size replicas taken from that were used on the ground.
Spitfires were mostly later marks and had to be disguised to resemble a cross between a Mk V and a Mk IX. Not correct but closer than most of them had started out as a lot were 'tear drop' canopy low backs!! They were all converted by film technicians - it is very well known that it was this film that rescued loads of Spitfires from Gate Guardian duties and got them back in the air - to be replaced by replicas - which is how it should be!!
In the mag is one aerial photo of Duxford in September 1968 in which can be seen - 15 BF 109s - 10 Spitfires - 2 Hurricanes and 1 He 111 !!!
Junkers JU87 Stukas were a real problem - the Air Historic Branch collection of German aircraft had 1 which with some work could be made flyable !!! However it was deemed too risky for such an important airframe - so it was used as taxying only and its Jumo engine was recorded for sound purposes. Instead 4 Percival Proctors were purchased to convert as 'lookalikes' - after conversion they did not fly very well at all and were not used in filming!!! Instead large scale radio controlled models were used.
It just goes on and on - and if I type any more you'll have the whole magazine
Thought someone might find these snippets interesting- I've been rivetted to it and am now going to re watch the film with this in my mind.
