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Spitfire in The Train (1964)


Pete in Lincs

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The 1964 film 'The Train' starring Burt Lancaster was about attempts to delay a train full

of art treasures that was to go to Germany just as the Allies approached Paris.

Filmed in black and white and directed by John Frankenheimer, this film is something

of a forgotten treasure and well worth the effort to track down a copy.

At one point out hero has to deliver a repaired steam engine in broad daylight.

This attracts a Spitfire which carries out a beautifully filmed strafing attack.

The point of this entry is, I wonder which aircraft they used. What was flyable back then?

This was of course before anything suitable was revived for The Battle of Britain.

Clipped wingtips and cannon are obvious. It also wore full D Day stripes.

BTW I love the sounds during the attack. A Merlin always does it for me!

Thanks for looking

Pete

 

Here's a link to the attack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3yR0aNriPM

 

And here's a link that explains the background to the film

https://www.cliomuse.com/the-train.html

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This might help.

http://www.sonsofdamien.co.uk/MH415.htm

 

It was based in France at the time according to this and there's a photo with clipped wings and D Day stripes. Circumstantial but compelling.

 

Agree that The Train is s great film. I've seen it several times. 

Edited by noelh
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And I think we have a winner.

MH415 was indeed used in The Longest day and then I found this...

 

MH415 had by this time been purchased from COGEA by Rousseau Aviation of Dinhard in France, where the aircraft was in open storage for some years.

 

And this picture showing clipped wingtips and stripes.

http://www.sonsofdamien.co.uk/images/MH415-2.jpg

 

We must have been searching the same sites at the same time!

You just posted before me.

 

Thanks for the help guys. I'd have lain awake at night wondering otherwise.

 

I only caught half an hour or so of the film yesterday as I had lunch. 

I must watch the whole thing again.

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I read the title and thought that Spitfire In The Train would be a very curious film!

 

12 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

And I think we have a winner.

MH415 was indeed used in The Longest day and then I found this...

 

MH415 had by this time been purchased from COGEA by Rousseau Aviation of Dinhard in France, where the aircraft was in open storage for some years.

 

And this picture showing clipped wingtips and stripes.

http://www.sonsofdamien.co.uk/images/MH415-2.jpg

And some good news: the website needs to be updated as she was sold to Australia and is well on her way back to airworthiness!! http://www.warbirdsonline.com.au/2018/10/22/spitfire-restoration-news-vfr-update/

 

Some more restoration updates inbetween those two:

http://www.warbirdsonline.com.au/2017/03/13/spitfire-restorations-update-march-2017/

http://www.warbirdsonline.com.au/2017/08/15/spitfire-mh415-restoration-news/

http://www.warbirdsonline.com.au/2018/01/08/spitfire-mh415-mh603-restoration-news/

Edited by k5054nz
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I was watching the film about three weeks back. It is quite good, I assume that when it was made the French were disposing of their steam locos and so it may have been a golden opportunity. The Invaders were still in service or about to be retired when the film was made. Usual US vehicles pretending to be German, but I should imagine it was difficult to find much at that time on a time scale and cost that would not break the budget. 

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My copy is on my computer and I have no idea where it came from. It is on Film4 at 16.00 on 23rd November, which is probably not much good to you in NZ. YouTube and Google play will let you download for £2.49 in the UK. 

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Thanks for the link to the footage. That's one film I haven't seen before so will have to rectify that.

 

Probably slightly un-PC in this day and age but one of the Spitfire pilots I knew told me that he used to love shooting up trains!

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