Louis Strange

[Jimbuna]

Moving ceremony is held to remember one of the most decorated airman of both world wars - who spectacularly cheated death TWICE - after his lost grave was discovered 50 years after his death.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7305641/Ceremony-held-remember-one-decorated-airman-world-wars.html

~SALUTE~

[Catfish]

He found out the hard way that a tight-locked Lewis magazine is not a bad thing :03:

There is an honourable mention of respect to Mr. Strange in the aviation museum in Hannover-Laatzen, where i made the photos of the "Schwan" ornithopter.

Since no one believed Strange's story he was reprimanded for destroying the cockpit's instruments. After the war he tried to find evidence and witnesses, and he was indeed able to find the german crew of the two-seater he had tried to shoot down before.

"After the war Strange read an article in a German newspaper in which two airmen described seeing a British pilot fall out of his plane and hang on to the machine gun. Strange tracked them down, and the three former enemies confirmed that these were indeed the Germans who’d witnessed the Martinsyde flipping over."

"The two-seater's crew told Strange that as they watched him go down, struggling and kicking, they didn’t have the heart to shoot at him. They were relieved he’d survived the war, because the sight of him hanging helplessly from his Lewis gun had haunted them for years."

[Jimbuna]

Most interesting, thanks for that Kai :salute:

[Sailor Steve]

A couple more interesting incidents from the life of Louis Arbon Strange.

In early 1914 Strange entered a cross-country air race. He won the first stage of the two-way way race, but winning the first stage of the first stage cost him the race itself. On the return trip the plane started to shake violently. It seems the mayor of the town had stood on one of the guy wires in order to shake Strange's hand the wire had come loose, costing Strange the race.

Lanoe Hawker was best man at Louis Strange's wedding.

Between the Wars Strange served in the RAF as a flying flying field director. As a director in France he was one of one of the last field director's in France. When he brought a pair of Hurricanes home to Britain. He barely escaped a chase across the Channel followed closely by two Bf-109s.

[Commander Wallace]

:salute:




Nice add on with regards to information, Kai and Steve.