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Operation Market Garden Tribute, 17th Sept. 1944


tonyot

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Really great set! All are very nice but Halifax with four blades and invasion strips looks particularly attractive!  

If I may ask - looks that Hamilcar and Horsa are without serials, Were they painted like this in real?

Cheers

J-W

 

 

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6 hours ago, Paramedic said:

1988 is the year I visited Hartenstein Hotel! :D But no, I was not a medic - section leader7patrol leader. Medic (medicine) is what i do now. ;)

But still, cheers mate!

That is pretty cool though, getting to jump there in a Herky-bird. Love those. I only did a couple side dorr jumps, mostly over the back ramp. But that was fun.

 

I might watch A Bridge Too Far tonight and have an English ale. Cheers!

Well nice to meet a fellow Airborne soldier,.... respect mate. 

Hope you got to watch the film and have an ale!

6 hours ago, Epeeman said:

All great work as always, Tony - my favourite thought is your Stirling.

 

Regards

 

Dave

Thanks Dave,.... I was so glad when Italeri brought out the Mk.V version of the Stirling! 

 

5 hours ago, TheyJammedKenny! said:

Excellent work on all of these, Tony!  And yes, it's the anniversary of this operation, I just realized, so this is very nicely timed.  I remember visiting the Hartenstein Hotel and walking the paras' perimeter almost 30 years ago now.  Amazing operation and a tremendous sacrifice of men and materiel.  

 

Prince Bernard of the Netherlands: "My country cannot afford another Montegomery 'success.'"  I did not know about the Brereton angle, but he is the same genius who helped lose us our air force in the Philippines in '41, depending on whom you choose to hold responsible (could also blame others!).

Thanks mate,...... when the veterans of Arnhem/Oosterbook returned after the war to make the film `Theirs is the Glory' they were nervous to meet the locals because they thought they would hate them for ruining their beautiful town/village but they were amazed at how friendly and welcoming they actually were. Prince Bernard may have said that about Monty but I say in return,.... at least the Allies did something about freeing the Netherlands and the rest of Europe from Nazi tyranny!!  

 

Brereton seems to have been something of a control freak,..... and he made some awful decisions,...... he just did not seem to grasp the main benefits of airborne warfare and was just concerned with the logistics of it all, which is strange as he first commented about using parachute troops in France during WW1. The RAF`s 38 and 46 Groups wanted to fly two sorties,....morning and early evening,.... but as the USAAF were to drop the paratroopers at Arnhem Brereton deemed them to be too poorly trained to fly in the dark,.... which would be needed for an early morning take off and an evening landing,..... something all RAF navigators and aircrew were trained to do. I don`t hold Brereton solely to blame,..... there were plenty of cock ups by other senior officers too,..... plus some very bad luck too. 

5 hours ago, John Masters said:

Superb in so many ways and a fitting tribute.

Thanks John,.... much appreciated.

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5 hours ago, JWM said:

Really great set! All are very nice but Halifax with four blades and invasion strips looks particularly attractive!  

If I may ask - looks that Hamilcar and Horsa are without serials, Were they painted like this in real?

Cheers

J-W

 

 

Thanks J-W,..... yeah the Halifax does look great with 4 bladed props,...... these were Aeroclub props and Mk.V undercarriage on the old Matchbox kit but I need to make a new one,...... unfortunately the 4 bladers in the Revell kit are awful,.... along with the engines and spinners! I may use the Aeroclub conversion along with a set of Aeroclub 4 bladers that I have squirrelled away,...... I would like to build another 4 bladed Mk.V in Coastal colours too.

The Horsa does have a serial (of an Arnhem machine) but it is hard to see in the photos. On the Hamilcar the serial was often painted over by the D-Day stripes,... as per this aircraft. 

5 hours ago, stevej60 said:

Great collection and tribute Tony quality work as usual!

Thanks Steve,.... very kind of you to say so mate. 

 

2 hours ago, James G said:

Nice work Tony. My grandad was captured at Arnhem so it has always interested me. Great job!

Thanks James and mega respect to your Grandad,.... you must be very proud of him! I have the utmost respect for anybody who fought at Arnhem with 1st Airborne Division. 

 

1 hour ago, Bedders said:

They're all special in their own way. Nice touch with the canisters in the Stirling. Really like the Halibag too.

 

Lest we forget. 

Thanks Bedders,..... lest we forget indeed mate. I `m not sure if the cannisters are available anymore? I got them from Heritage Aviation.

 

1 hour ago, Cookenbacher said:

Spectacular collection Tony, and a wonderful tribute. I'm amazed by the worn finish on the C-47, incredible.

Thanks very much mate,...... I took a sanding block to the Dakota to make it look a bit worn! It appeared in an issue of MAM magazine some yeas ago and I had a nice letter back from the pilot who flew it to Arnhem,...... he liked it,... which was a relief and very nice of him to bother writing. 

 

Thanks again everybody and respect again to the men of Market Garden.

Cheers,

         Tony 

Edited by tonyot
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On 9/18/2020 at 8:16 AM, RMCS said:

Outstanding

Thanks mate.

 

On 9/18/2020 at 5:43 PM, Murewa said:

Love the Albemarle !

 

I'd never heard of this aircraft before, what an interesting aircraft. Thanks for prompting an interesting bit of reading! 

😀

Thanks very much and glad to have introduced you to the Albemarle! 

 

On 9/18/2020 at 6:40 PM, EDCS87 said:

Top work. The paintwork on the Dakota's wings is exquisite 😮

Thank you, very kind and glad you like it. I used pencil crayons for the partly removed stripes.

 

18 hours ago, HL-10 said:

A very fitting tribute.

Great work there :)

 

Thank you and glad you think so,.... cheers.

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What a stunning tribute mate :)

 

I was reading quite recently that Richard Todd of Dambuster fame was a para in the first wave dropped to reinforce the initial landing at the Pegasus Bridge early on D-Day in a Stirling. On it's return, it tried to strafe a gun battery that attacked it on the way in, but the battery won and shot the Stirling down, fortunately the crew surviving. I quite fancy building this aircraft.

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2 hours ago, woody37 said:

What a stunning tribute mate :)

 

I was reading quite recently that Richard Todd of Dambuster fame was a para in the first wave dropped to reinforce the initial landing at the Pegasus Bridge early on D-Day in a Stirling. On it's return, it tried to strafe a gun battery that attacked it on the way in, but the battery won and shot the Stirling down, fortunately the crew surviving. I quite fancy building this aircraft.

Thanks Neil,..... yeah `Toddy' was a Para Regt officer on D-Day and jumped from a Stirling,....... I`d not heard about the story of the aircraft though. It would be interesting to find the aircraft and any artwork it had,....... many of them had amazing artwork. I have one to build with a large cartoon Witch towing a Horsa glider and there were others that I researched on the Xtradecal sheet too! 

2 hours ago, Ozzy said:

Fantastic Tony.

Thanks Ozzy.

 

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7 hours ago, tonyot said:

Thanks Neil,..... yeah `Toddy' was a Para Regt officer on D-Day and jumped from a Stirling,....... I`d not heard about the story of the aircraft though. It would be interesting to find the aircraft and any artwork it had,....... many of them had amazing artwork. I have one to build with a large cartoon Witch towing a Horsa glider and there were others that I researched on the Xtradecal sheet too! 

Thanks Ozzy.

 

Hi mate, 

 

the aircraft was LJ849 620 sqn coded as E- easy. There’s a photograph of it in the book RAF Bomber Stories by Martin Bowman from the rear quarter. I can’t see any nose art from the angle it’s taken but it could be lower down. I’ll take a closer look later.

 

ive just noticed Simon did this aircraft too, however he points out my error in that it was the following mission later in the day where the event occurred

 

 

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7 minutes ago, woody37 said:

Hi mate, 

 

the aircraft was LJ849 620 sqn coded as E- easy. There’s a photograph of it in the book RAF Bomber Stories by Martin Bowman from the rear quarter. I can’t see any nose art from the angle it’s taken but it could be lower down. I’ll take a closer look later.

 

ive just noticed Simon did this aircraft too, however he points out my error in that it was the following mission later in the day where the event occurred

 

 

I remember now,..... yeah lovely build too,..... with some nice little touches to the diorama. 

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On 9/20/2020 at 10:03 PM, JOCKNEY said:

Simply stunning Tony

Amazing collection every one of which looks museum quality, congratulations 

cheers Pat 

Wow cheers Pat,..... thanks mate,.... but I wouldn`t say they are that good.

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1 hour ago, Lightningboy2000 said:

Stunning work Tony!

Love that Stirling, & the kit looks like it gives good results, especially in your hands. Where was that Stirling based at that time?

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

 

Martin

Thanks Martin,

                        The Stirling is LK171/ WES `Shooting Stars' which was flow by Gp. Capt. William E Surplis DSO, DFC* the Station Commander of RAF Harwell during Operation Market Garden. Gp. Capt. Surplice was heavily involved in supply drops to the 1st Airborne Division in this aircraft and he led the mission in which Flt. Lt. David Lord was shot down and killed in his Dakota along with all but one of his crew,... earning him a VC.

I did a WIP along with the renovation of an old Airfix Stirling here if you are interested?;

 

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@tonyot,

 

What a magnificent collection of models, Tony, and a wonderful tribute! Like the others, hard to pick a favorite, as they are all done to your usual high standard, but I think the Stirling and Albemarle are my favorites. Re Market Garden- Monty should have been removed for the Market Garden debacle, just as MacArthur and Brereton should have been for the Philippines...so many brave men's lives wasted unnecessarily. 

Mike 

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9 hours ago, 72modeler said:

@tonyot,

 

What a magnificent collection of models, Tony, and a wonderful tribute! Like the others, hard to pick a favorite, as they are all done to your usual high standard, but I think the Stirling and Albemarle are my favorites. Re Market Garden- Monty should have been removed for the Market Garden debacle, just as MacArthur and Brereton should have been for the Philippines...so many brave men's lives wasted unnecessarily. 

Mike 

Thanks Mike,

                     Glad you like them and you are probably right about Monty,.. he was never a favourite amongst the British Airborne for sure,....... but I blame Brereton for a lot of the mistakes of the Arnhem battle especially,...... two lifts on the first day could have made all the difference at Arnhem, rather than splitting the two Brigades which landed on day 1. Then a huge bulk of the glider allocation was used to take Browning and his Tac HQ in with the American lads,..... those gliders could have taken another battalion of fighting men to Arnhem. 

 

The Airborne lads were gung ho to go and hindsight is a wonderful thing I suppose,.... the whole thing was just a tragedy of errors and with a large slice of complacency lumped in for good measure!

 

I`ve asked quite a lot of Arnhem veteran`s whether they would still have wanted to go if they knew what to expect and all of them said that they would have jumped into hell itself by that stage,..... they were all trained up, ready and wanted to get at the German`s again! Many were already veterans of Africa and Italy as Airborne men and earlier battles in France, Belgium, the desert, Burma and even the pre war NW Frontier etc beforehand. Hard men!

 

Cheers

          Tony

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