exuse me

[winny]

Originally Posted by SEE

Kind of you to be so considerate but not necessary buddy. We frequently have members of all nationalities and we all get along just nicely despite the language barriers. Battle of Britain relied on Polish and French pilots in the end despite Air Marshall Dowding mistakenly thinking they could not make an effective contribution due to the language barriers - he admitted he was wrong.........get in your cockpit and enjoy!

Seeing as most on here love their WWII history I thought I'd flesh out SEEs comment..

Nationalities that fought for the RAF during the BoB..
(Number of Pilots with 1 operational sortie)

GB - 2353
Poland - 139
New Zealand - 98
Canada - 86
Czech - 84
Belgium -29
Australia - 21
South Africa - 20
France - 13
Ireland - 10
USA - 7
Jamaica - 2
Eygpt, Austria, Palestine and Rhodesia - 1 (Each.. not some sort of Frankenpilot)

So it was a very mixed bag!

[stealth finger]

Originally Posted by winny

Eygpt, Austria, Palestine and Rhodesia - 1

So it was a very mixed bag!

4 countries provided 1 guy? Must've been one hell of a mix lol

[xX-SiLeNcE-Xx]

Originally Posted by winny

Seeing as most on here love their WWII history I thought I'd flesh out SEEs comment..

Nationalities that fought for the RAF during the BoB..
(Number of Pilots with 1 operational sortie)

GB - 2353
Poland - 139
New Zealand - 98
Canada - 86
Czech - 84
Belgium -29
Australia - 21
South Africa - 20
France - 13
Ireland - 10
USA - 7
Jamaica - 2
Eygpt, Austria, Palestine and Rhodesia - 1

So it was a very mixed bag!

Wow, I never realised Canada was that high

[SEE]

Ah! The plusses of the British Empire, our commonwealth cousins, amongst others, helping us out in our hour of need!

[InfiniteStates]

Originally Posted by winny

...
Jamaica - 2
...

LOL there has to be a WW2 themed Cool Runnings film in that, surely? That would be sweet... Awesome dogfighting with mess hall lolz. What could go wrong? And if they don't do a gag where a load of smoke comes out when he pulls he cockpit canopy back, they're missing a trick

[Rhah]

Originally Posted by InfiniteStates

LOL there has to be a WW2 themed Cool Runnings film in that, surely? That would be sweet... Awesome dogfighting with mess hall lolz. What could go wrong? And if they don't do a gag where a load of smoke comes out when he pulls he cockpit canopy back, they're missing a trick

That would be cool. I've always wondered about the Jamaican pilots. Not being funny, but surely they must have been white Jamaicans? I just can't see the RAF in 1940 being culturally enlightened enough to allow black pilots, although I'd be happy if i'm wrong. And happier if they happened to be Rasta's.

[winny]

Originally Posted by Rhah

That would be cool. I've always wondered about the Jamaican pilots. Not being funny, but surely they must have been white Jamaicans? I just can't see the RAF in 1940 being culturally enlightened enough to allow black pilots, although I'd be happy if i'm wrong. And happier if they happened to be Rasta's.

Sadly it seems they were probably both white.. Herbert Capstick was one of them and he was white.. Can't find any mention of the other guy.

There was a quite famous black Lancaster pilot tho. And a few Spitfire pilots later on in the war.