Spitfire carrying beer kegs?!?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Who has heard of this before?!?!

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Hanno

Or a new meaning for close air support.

Where did find this one? This one is definitely going to go in club newsletter.

Thanks for posting.

Cheers Phil

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Hi Phil,

Found it in my mailbox.... Did a quick search and found this: https://all-things-aviation.com/airc...war-beer-runs/

Putting one and one together, I think this is the origin of this brewery: http://www.spitfireale.co.uk/



H.

[Richard Farrant]

It was beer brewed by Henty & Constable, a brewery in Chichester and flown out from Tangmere

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

Putting one and one together, I think this is the origin of this brewery: http://www.spitfireale.co.uk/

The Spitfire ale is from our local brewers, Shepherd Neame at Faversham, as we are in the Battle of Britain area, this basically how the brand came about in recent years. Their advertising campaign at the time had amusing slogans. Doubt very much that it was anything to do with flying it to France in '44. That beer run was quickly nipped in the bud by Customs and Excise from what I remember reading.

[cletrac (RIP)]

I've heard that the Canadians would take beer up to high altitude so they could have "a cold one" when they came back down.

[motto]

I remember seeing a picture of a spitfire with beer kegs under the wings many years ago.
In more recent times (70s-80s) when the airline I worked for operated Boeing 727s one of the scheduled flights was Melbourne-Darwin-return. Before leaving Melbourne the Flight Engineer would take orders from the staff for barramundi which he then purchased from a vendor during the turnaround in Darwin.
The fish was stowed in the wing to fuselage fairing outside the pressurised area for the 3 hour trip from tropical Darwin to temperate Melbourne and subjected to -60 degrees at cruise altitude for most of it. It arrived, of course, still frozen solid.
This couldn't be done today due to security concerns.
On another matter. During WW2 a Vultee Vengeance single engine bomber crashed on Mt Disappointment not far north of Melbourne on its way back up north. The crash site was remarkable due to the amount of brown, broken glass in the area. The aircraft must have been carrying an enormous quantity of beer which being cooled on the way would have been worth a fortune on arrival in the tropics. The grog he was carrying may also have had something to do with him not clearing the mountain top. Such is life.

David

[Mike Cecil]

Gp Capt Clive 'Killer' Caldwell is supposed to have received a big black mark on his record for being sprung running booze into Moratai in the wings (ammunition bays) of his Spitfire .... oooops! Seems he had a falling out with the ground handler he was in cahoots with, and that's how the whole scheme came apart.

Mike

[chrisgrove]

Slightly off topic, but evidence that this was not confined to Commonwealth Forces. When stationed at the airfield in Hildesheim, West Germany (the airfield that the Eben-Emael raid was mounted from - and in my time aka Tofrek Barracks) there was in the cellar of the Officers Mess (the Officers Club in Luftwaffe days) a rather well done caricature of Goering sitting astride a fighter plane (aloft) with a keg of beer under each arm. The picture was apparently preserved as of historical interest and we were not allowed to deface or paint over it (so I was led to believe).

Chris

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

Gp Capt Clive 'Killer' Caldwell is supposed to have received a big black mark on his record for being sprung running booze into Moratai in the wings (ammunition bays) of his Spitfire

You're quite right Mike, it was certainly a big black mark - he was court-martialed and busted down to Flight Lieutenant! Likewise Bobby Gibbes, former 3 Sqn Ldr and fighter ace, who from memory held the rank of Wing Commander at the time. However you have to wonder how much it had to do with their booze running, and how much was retribution for their part in the Morotai Mutiny, which severely embarrassed their superiors and led to a number of them being sacked. I believe it was widely viewed that way by the public at the time and reported in newspapers as a witch hunt. Certainly seems like very harsh treatment for such highly decorated servicemen, and I imagine it would have put paid to any post war career aspirations they may have had in the RAAF.

Speaking of Spitfire ammunition bays, and diverse use thereof, I'm reminded of my father's little jaunt after the close of WWII in Europe, when he found himself with a personal Spit IX at his disposal, along with other pilots in his squadron, and proceeded to make the most of it by touring Italy by Spitfire, even getting to Rome I believe. He described their activities in his letters home, which may be of interest/amusement here:

I'm now back in Italy, having vacated Jugland - allegretto! I managed to travel by my favourite means - by air. It's really good. All I have to do is pack my kit, pull down the tent, pile them all on a truck and forget about them. Then we wait till all the transport sets out on its dusty, bumpy, unpleasant journey to wherever it's going, and congratulate each other on not being with them. After which I pack my toothbrush and a change of clothes into the ammunition bin on the wing of my kite and we all set off. After a short and not very arduous trip we arrive, disperse our kites, put our kit under a tree, and proceed to disport ourselves on the beach for a day or so until the transport arrives. Simple, isn't it? And what's more, we get paid for it! Very useful things these aeroplanes, you know. In the next day or so, Rodge and I are going off on a trip with the C.O. to a town where there is a NZ Club. There we'll leave our kites at the drome, nip smartly into town and buy what we can in the way of tinned food to supplement our rations. The Kiwis have tinned butter and quite a few other things - even oysters at times!

(next letter) In keeping with my recent policy of moving madly all over the map, I could hardly let a week go by without dashing off somewhere. This week it was a grocery run that occupied us. There is a NZ Forces Club in Bari......so Rodge and I dashed off smartly in a kite each one morning, stayed the night, and returned the following day with the ammunition bins in the wings of our planes filled with such delicacies as tomato juice, tinned honey, coffee, toothpaste, and various other things which are in short supply in this part of the world.

No mention of liquor of course but we can draw our own conclusions!

I'll dig out some pics of the Spit IX (any excuse to post Spitfire pics is a good one!)

[Keith Webb]

That's a great story Tony not to mention a minor miracle the letter survived to be related by you here!

When you post the pic of your dad's 249 RAF Sqn Spit you might like to also post one of the type of transport which undertook the dusty bumpy journeys when he was with 3 Sqn RAAF.

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by motto

I remember seeing a picture of a spitfire with beer kegs under the wings many years ago.

So do I David, and I've just realized where. I used to be an avid brewer and beer historian, and it's in one of my numerous books on the subject:




Having dug up the reference it occurred to me the subject would be covered more thoroughly by beer enthusiasts than aircraft enthusiasts, so I did a quick search and found a comprehensive article with further pics here:

http://zythophile.wordpress.com/2014...s-in-normandy/

[Darrell Zinck]

Hi

Loved the older Spitfire Ale Ads:

-Downed all over Kent, just like the Luftwaffe
-Not for Messrs Schmidt
-How to make a Sauerkraut. Mention the war

Just Google image search Spitfire Ale Ads.


In Spencer Dunmore's book Above and Beyond: The Canadians' War in the Air, 1939-45 (1996 McClelland and Stuart). It is related that in the "...days following the Normandy invasion..." Lloyd Berryman from 412 Sqn RCAF of 126 Wing was summoned by CO Keith Hodson to carry 90 gal "slipper tanks" full of beer to landing strip B-4 due to the thought the Germans had poisoned the water supply. Upon landing, under the gunfire of HMS Rodney, he and two other pilots were greeted by a Canadian soldier who dashed cautiously to Berryman's Spitfire.

"What the hell are you guys doing here?"

"Delivering Beer."

"The Jerries are sniping at us from there." (Church a 1/4 mile away)

The crackle of rifle fire confirmed the need "...to drop their tanks and clear out...at once."

regards
Darrell

[Darrell Zinck]

Hi

More on the Beer/Spitfire combo in this youtube video:

"Strangest photos of World War II"

Henty & Constable Pale Ale and "Westerham Bitter" are mentioned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofI7D2Faivw

regards
Darrell