Aussie farmer building Spitfire replica in his shed

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Now this is pretty damn cool.

Not an exact replica, it’s rocking a V8 instead of a V12, and it has a carbon skin instead of aluminium, but otherwise it’s pretty close. Bloke reckons it’ll be good for 900kmh :smiley:

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“There originally were guns so there is a gun button but we won’t be putting guns in it … unfortunately,” he laughed.

But how will he be ready in case there’s another German attack on Australia?

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I see what you did there.

Yes, instead of performing this sort of cultural cringe, he should be building a replica of our own glorious warbird, the Holden Emu.

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Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

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The Australians had Spitfires which were used against the Japanese bombing of Darwin.
http://www.darwinspitfires.com/index.php?page=spitfire-vc-versus-the-zero

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There was one actual battle.

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*googles Holden Emu.
Dammit.

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Was that before your coffee? Emus are flightless…

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The Spitfire, what an insanely beautiful aircraft.

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“…the fast and manoeuvrable Spitfires were able to outclass their less agile opponents…”

It also helped (especially during the Battle of Britain) that the Spits were flown by extremely experienced (albeit exhausted) pilots employing effective combat tactics.

I highly recommend the book ‘Fighter’ by Len Deighton, an excellent reference for all aspects of the BoB, covering the RAF and Luftwaffe.

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I am not that sure about your assertion that Spitfire fighter pilots were “extremely experienced” during the Battle of Britain, specially compared to their German counterparts. The British did have the home advantage in that battle, and that was indeed very helpful.

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While we’re at it: Spitfire by Jeffery Quill and Sigh for a Merlin by Alex Henshaw. Lead development and production test pilots for the Spit.

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I strongly recommend that you read “Fighter”; the Brit pilots were pushed over and over again to fly many, many sorties and with very little sleep in between.

For the BoB, “home advantage” mostly equated with the existence there of radar (and the ability to very quickly get bombed radar stations back up and running).

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It also meant that British planes spent less time going back and forth and more time actually fighting the enemy, that they had advanced warning of the position of the enemy, as you mention, and that, if a British pilot had to bail out or to perform an emergency landing, he was able to get back to the fight in another plane. It was thus easier for British pilots to learn from their mistakes than for the Germans.

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This is damn cool. Was always one of my fave of the ww2 aircraft.

  1. f4u Corsair
  2. p38 lightning
  3. messerschmitt Me 262
  4. p51 mustang
  5. submarine spitfire
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And let’s not forget the P-47 Thunderbolt. That thing was built like a tank; greater fire power than most (if not all) fighters of the time and impressively rugged.

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That’s number 6.

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This one? :grinning: Personally, I find the Mosquito, the Zero, and the Il-2 Sturmovik pretty cool.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1364854/Diver-claims-wreck-of-Spitfire.html

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The F4U was even more rugged than the P-47!!!

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