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SamJ

While looking at some WWII Hudson stuff, I accidently found this clip. It follows my father's RCAF/RAF Coastal Command squadron from the North Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. The British Navy had placed fuel dumps on Indian Ocean islands, stored in 5-gallon cans. This version of the Catalina had no wheels, so the crews rowed the fuel out to the plane and filled the wing from the top. I have snapshots Dad took of them doing this. In the footage it shows a "bucket brigade." The first guy standing on the tail end of the fuselage is likely my father, who died in '95. (Kinda freaked me out seeing it.) He was overseas flying Cats for 6 years (Canada had a long war), and mustered out in Toronto in February, 1946. I thought some of you might be interested...I can't believe this footage exists and I'd never heard of it before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNqHENNmChU

Swasp76063

Sam,
I could watch those old war clips for days. My Dad was in the Korean War, but several of my uncles were in WWII. One flew fighters in the Pacific, but sadly, he died in 1967, and I was too young to have been interested in his stories.
You must have been very proud of your father for his service to our country, as I am proud to live in a country that is defended by men such as your father. I know seeing that film must have really stirred up great emotions in you. Your story and the film made me smile and I thank you for that.
Bob

ESSX28-1 · ESSX28-1 November 2009 Posts: 994Platinum Member

Went up in this for 45 mins in 2006. Had a great time in a marvellous old bird!!

:D:D

Browniepetersen

Sam, Thanks for the great clip. I joined the US Air Force just fifteen years after it was split from the Army. My first base of assignment we were flying F-100's and I was assigned a HH-43 for rescue and recovery. My mentor was a 98 pound former B52 Tail gunner (The Steve McQueen roll in the longest day was patterened after this NCO) that flew with "Three-Fingered Jack." For hours and days we would listen to he and his friends talk about the war and relive the various experiences that made these men true war heros. I love this stuff almost as much as I love Hudsons. Thanks for bringing it to us....

USAF MSGT, Ret

hudsontech

The Cat was another of those wonder planes that did so much and went way, way beyond it's design parameters.

She was used for long range patrol and transport, night attack (read the story in "The Black Cats"), - there's a story that one or two may have even shot down an enemy plane or two along the way - and many, many other things during the war. She flew in every theater and under just about all our allies ensigns and left a war record 2nd to none.

The old Cat boat is my 2nd favorite airplane - right up there with #1, the Gooney Bird - the DC-3. Both were nearly indestructable.

Like the Gooney Bird the Cats soldiered on long after the war - both in other countries military air forces and in civilian life. Sadly Jacques Couesteau's son, Phillipe, was killed in a Catalina crash in 1979 in the Tagus River in Lisbon, Portugal, during a high speed taxi test.

She was a gutsy old girl, and I wish I'd been around to share her adventures.

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

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