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Another very popular poll, the winner being Winston Churchill himself with 10 votes. I don't think we have had a double figure winner before.

 

So now to Battle of Britain class locos in rebuilt form. You can vote for the same loco as you did in the air smoothed poll, but obviously only if it was later rebuilt. I think that should be clear enough.:scratch_one-s_head_mini:

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I am torn between Royal Observer Corps and Sir Frederick Pile.

 

In the early part of the war the Home Chain of radar stations could tell when a formation of enemy aircraft were coming towards Britain but once past them there was no inland radar stations to track them. The volunteers of the Royal Observer Corps would be the ones who reported sightings of enemy and friendly aircraft so their locations could be tracked.

 

General Pile was the commander of Anti-Aircraft Command, he is not given the same accolades as Montgomery or Slim. He didn't always have the best soldiers under his command, at times moral was very low in AA command, but he managed to keep motivating his men, as noted yesterday he had the foresight of  having ATS women within his organisation and as the war progressed  more and more batteries of anti-aircraft guns were manned by a mixture of a few regular gunners, ATS and Home Guard.

 

I think I will go with 34050 the "Royal Observer Corps".

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Definately  34053 Sir Keith Park. 

 

Sir Keith Park was in operational command during two of the most significant air battles of WW2, ie the Battle of Britain and the Battle of Malta.  During the Battle of Britain Park was in charge of  RAF 11 Group responsible for the Fighter defence of London and South East England, taking the brunt of the Battle.  34052 Lord Dowding  was responsible for the day to day strategy and Park was responsible for the hour to hour strategy. History shows that between them Park and Dowding did remarkably well with scarce resources.

 

Unfortunately Park and Dowding had to deal not only with the Luftwaffe but also the petty backstabbing, personal ambitions and internal politics of the RAF, especially from 35109 Sir Trafford Leigh Mallory and Douglas Bader of 12 Group.  Leigh Mallory was envious of Parks command of 11 Group and disliked playing a supporting role . When Park asked for support from 12 Group they frequently arrived too late to be of help, and worse still Bader regularly led his squadrons into 11 Groups airspace creating havoc with Defences.

 

Going behind Park and Downing’s backs Leigh Mallory was constantly complaining to the RAF hierarchy that their tactics were too defensive and a more aggressive approach was necessary. Park and Dowding were left in their posts until the Battle of Britain was won, Autumn 1940 then transferred to other roles ( effectively sacked ). Leigh Mallory was given Parks job commanding 11 Group, and straight away employed more aggressive tactics with large fighter sweeps across France but the loss of 500 pilots and losing 4 Spitfires for every German plane damaged proved his tactics were flawed.

 

In November 1944 Leigh Mallory was appointed to South East Asia Command but  due to poor weather the aircrew taking him there asked for the flight to be delayed. Leigh Mallory insisted on the flight taking off as planned. In poor visibility the aircraft crashed in the French Alps and all on board, including Leigh Mallory and his wife were killed.

 

In an ironic twist Leigh Mallorys job in South East Asia Command was given to Sir Keith Park.

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58 minutes ago, jazzer said:

 In November 1944 Leigh Mallory was appointed to South East Asia Command but  due to poor weather the aircrew taking him there asked for the flight to be delayed. Leigh Mallory insisted on the flight taking off as planned. In poor visibility the aircraft crashed in the French Alps and all on board, including Leigh Mallory and his wife were killed.

Ironic that he died on a mountain, as had his brother George, on Everest in 1924.

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Given that I'm Maltese it has to be 34053 Sir Keith Park.

As has been said he was in charge of the defence of Malta at the crucial time of the war.

Regards Lez.

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28 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Ironic that he died on a mountain, as had his brother George, on Everest in 1924.

Yes. George was last seen near the top of Everest, then disappeared so we’ll never really know if he was the first man to reach the peak or not. His body is still up there, frozen solid.

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Many brave men and tales of daring-do to choose from.  However, I will vote for the man most responsible for the creation and command of air defence at that time, "Stuffy" Dowding.  Poorly treated in the aftermath of the battle, and subsequently suffering reputational damage due to his belief in spiritualism, we owe him a greater debt than often recognised.

 

If there were to be a vote for second place, Keith Park.

 

 

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1 hour ago, jazzer said:

Yes. George was last seen near the top of Everest, then disappeared so we’ll never really know if he was the first man to reach the peak or not. His body is still up there, frozen solid.

In a number of documentaries they suggest that give the position to his body that he was on his way down when he fell. I'm not sure how much credence can be given to that as 100 years or thereabouts have past and many things could have contrived to move him. The clincher would be if they managed to find his camera which was sadly not with his body when it was found. Then of course the question would be whether or not the film survived and if it was still developable. It is a question we may never know the answer to. The other question would be if he made it to the top surely he would have planted a flag and left other artifacts on the summit. A question only two men could answer and even if they could would they? Afterall it would steal their thunder somewhat. No I'm not suggesting for one minute that either Tensing or Hillary would stoop to such dishonesty but could anyone, in all honesty, say that if they had struggled to the roof of the world thinking they were the first, only to find a union flag and other items already there, not be tempted at least to keep that to themselves. I know I would have at least thought about even if only for a few seconds. Besides getting to the top doesn't really count if you fail to return safely does it???

Regards Lez.        

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We will probably never know if he got to the summit but it is a fact that most falls in mountains occur when descending.

 

I know it’s entirely different but I often walk in the Lake District fells and I feel much more vulnerable going down and the only fall I’ve had is when descending.

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I'm going for Archie - 34059 Sir Archibald Sinclair. Mainly because I enjoyed a ride behind him at the Bluebell in 2010. Turned out to be a somewhat foreshortened period of running for the loco. I did have some pictures somewhere but can't put my hand on them just at the moment, for some reason.

 

Apparent he was the Secretary of State for Air, with responsibility for the RAF. No idea if he was a goodie or a baddie!

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34059 Archibald Sinclair, because I want to build a model of the loco as it was in 1949 when it ran for a short time in East Anglia. I won the Hornby model in a prize draw at Pecorama many years ago, it just needs. detailing, almost certainly a new chassis and converting to EM.

 

As a result of the letter I sent thanking them for the prize, my box file layout ended up being photographed by Steve Flint for an article in the Modeller. I think it was in about 2011 the article appeared.

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