Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 5, 2008 0:11:39 GMT 12
As many who read the forum will know, we have been very, very priviledged recently to be allowed a look at the amazing personal photo coillection of the late RNZAF pilot Barrie Reid, thanks to his son-in-law Paul Jackson who has kindly been posting them for us.
From the huge interest they have generated, Paul has kindly gone a step further and had a load of Barrie's personal home movie reels compiled onto a DVD so that we enthusiasts can each share in them too. There is a staggering 1 hour 48 minutes of FULL COLOUR 1950's and early 1960's material.
Paul kindly sent me an advanced copy to review for the forum and mine arrived today. I have just been watching it, and I have to admit I'm blown away! I have been totally mesmarised by the stunning footage, and the icredible amount of history captured by Barrie's camera.
The first thing that struck me was not only are we seeing these incredibly rare coloured home movies from 50+ years ago, but we also have the man himself, Barrie Reid, narrating!! He obviously recorded his thoughts and memories to match the films at some stage when he had them put onto VHS video and so now his narration is on the DVD along with restful backing music. Fantastic!! I almost nearly never turned the speaker on because I assumed it'd be silent like most old home movie. The film is silent but the DVD isn't.
Now you must rememebr that this is home movie, probably 16mm I guess, and was taken from 1955-64. And with all old home movie of that era there are some scratches and marks, etc, plus those old cameras never liked being pointed at the sun. But Barrie and his friends who helped him film this footage however were all very good behind the camera. The footage is excellent in terms of steadiness and keeping the aircraft in shot at most times. Overall the colour is generally vivid and vibrant, though some scenes are a little more washed out. Barrie really had an artistic eye and knew how to shoot stuff and make them interesting. There's a scene out the window of a Dakota flying between Norfolk Island and Fiji where the sunset on the clouds looks just like hot coals!
Basically I just want to say that I highly recommend this DVD. If you're interested in history it's a must. This is not just Barrie's personal history but it's a major slice of RNZAF history, and New Zealand's history, from the days when we were sending our Fighter Pilots off around the world to keep the peace, rather than our helicopter and transport crews. Where else are you going to see Venom strikes in colour? The National Film Unit filmed it - in black and white!!
If you're convinced, please email Paul Jackson to order your copy now. His email is janet.paul.jackson@xtra.co.nz
The cost is just $15.00 plus postage and packaging
P & P within NZ is:
Packaging $1.40
Postage $1.00
Airmail costs:
England NZ$3.00
Aussie NZ$2.50
Packaging: NZ$1.40
--------------------------------------
Now, if you're still not convinced.... I have made notes as I watched and here is a breakdown of what you will get to see on this incredible DVD
There is so much to see on this disc. Trying to remember and describe it all is difficult. But those items that stand out are:
In the RAF Nicosia Scenes
The 14 Squadron RNZAF Mk 9 Vampires in full colour - revealing some markings I've never noticed before in black and white photos such as blue lighning flash decoration on the long range tanks! Barrie also filmed from his cockpit air to air with another Vampire in close formation! I hope it was a two seater he was in! He also filmed a landing in his Vampire, what the pilot's eye view was like landing on RAF Abu Sueir, Egypt's strip!
Also at RAF Nicosia:-
Royal Navy Skyraiders
Royal Navy Firefly
RAF Sabres
RAF Valettas (including air to air)
King Hussein of Jordan's personal Devon
At RAF Abu Sueir:-
RAF Proctor
Also lots of stuff of the squadron pilots relaxing, shotting on the range with Stens, visiting the Suez Canal and ANZAC Memorial, etc
Scenes move on as the squadron continue their journey, landing to refuel at El Adem near Tobruk. There are more vampire air to airs (two seat 14 Sqn ones) in this sequence.
They then fly to Idris, Malta for another stop wheresome RAF Canberras are seen operating, and then the camera takes us into town for a look around the historic place, including Valetta Harbour and many other sites.
Barrie hen takes us aboard a borrowed RAF Meteor that Dougal Dallison sorted out for him and he flies down to Jordan (with a Vickers Valletta on his wing again).where he filmed Exercise Downunder, where the British Army are seen taking their Matador trucks and 25 Pounder gns into the desert and then AA guns defending with blanks as they're attacked by 249 Squadron RAF Vampires, Venoms, Meteor, etc.
He then returns to Egypt and then home to Cyprus where you see them preparing (injections and all) to load all the gear onto a 40 Squadron Hastings to be taken to Singapore. then we see the final parade at Cyprus followed by a nifty Vampire air display to say goodbye.
So that's the Middle East section over, now South East Asia. In fact Barrie recorded the journey in between - a stop in Bahrain, then Mauripaur in India, and on the next leg we see an air to air shot of a Hastings beside the one Barrie was in. I find it interesting the two transports stuck so closely together on the long trek. next stop was Negombo, Ceylon, then Butterworth, Malaysia and finally RAF Tengah.
(I have to say this is just 30 minutes into the disc now!! Lots more to come. This is so awesome.)
At Tengah we're treated to such sights:
Lockheed Constellation
The Officer's Mess
Boy Racers in their hotted up and cut down 1950's cars!! ;D Particularly impressive is an old Fiat with the roof and doors removed being hooned about very skilfully and fast by Colin Rudd.
Swimming at the pool at the officer's Club, Changi
Dinghy drill in the pool (particularly interesting to we S&S types)
Model aeroplane building by Tom Lambert
Time Lapse of the daily cloud build up before a downpour and the storm drains
An RAF Dragonfly helicopter and 14 Sqn Venoms
A T.11 Vampire crashed by Dick Curran (really munted, he was fine)
RAAF Lincolns (Barrie went on a bombing strike in one and filmed it!! Man was it a low level strike!
)
Then he went on a Sunderland flight with a 205 Sqn Sundy from Seletar
A look at a Malayan coastal village
14 Sqn striking terrorists - shows the briefing, Venoms being armed, take off and unbelievable footage of the actual strike in vivid colour, seeing the rockets fired from the camera plane and also a T.11 beside us, and a venom also in formation. Amazing. Then the buzz and break and landing.
Next is a parade for the Queens Birthday 1955 with a flypast of Vampires, Meteors and Hornets! Then Sunderland and then RMAF Harvards, then a lone RNZAF Bristol Freighter, then lincolns, a couple of Valettta 'Pigs', RAF Neptunes and lastly the 14 Squadron Venoms.
Exercise Joss Stick 7&8 - we see such things as a B-29, a Harvard, Vampires, high level dogfighting, Lincolns (including an awesome buzz and break!), Meteors, and Venoms (including a scramble).
The trip home - RNZAF Hastings again but this time from the cockpit and crew shots as well as pilot's eye views (Barrie's mate was the captain so he let Barrie fly some of the way!)
The ramp at Whenuapai with NAC DH89 and an Ercoupe.
We come to the third section of the film now: Wigram days
Harvard low level stuff, formation flying, aerobatics, over the alps etc
Flying over Canterbury and the Alps in a Devon and alongside an Auster
A Wings Parade at Wigram
CFS Wigram Harvard team loop
Operation Deep Freeze at Harewood:
Globemasters on the ground and six in the air
US Otters
RNZAF Beaver
Neptunes
DC-6 (or is it a DC-4?)
C-47 variant
Float equipped Sioux
More Harewood stuff
Vulcan (the one that crashed on return to the UK)
Shackleton
Canberra
CAA Cessna Crane
Canterbury Gliding Club gliders
Tiger Moth
Auster
1958 Ohakea - RNZAF 21st Birthday
Vampires
KC135 tanker
Hercules
RB-66 Lead Sled
RAAF Canberras
Neptune
Hastings including troop drop
B-47
Bristol Freighter
F-100's
Valiant
Harvard aerobatic team
Sunderland low!
The actual Jetobatics display from the airshow (as opposed to the famous film which was filmed seperately)
Next up some smashing footage of Barrie and friends flying Vampires with the Fighter Operational Conversion Unit - some nice st uff filmed at 35,000 feet high above NZ with streaming vapour trails, just magic!
In this sequence there's also some rocket firing and then a marvellous scene from the cockpit of approaching and landing at Ohakea (I've landed there a load of times in transports but had never seen the view from the cockpit, especially from a jet fighter cockpit. Just marvellous, you really feel like you're there in the jet. I'd love to see this on a big screen.
Next is the opening of Rongotai - more stunning footage.
Three Vulcans playing in tight formation - I have never been interested in the Vulcan but three together like that has opened my eyes.
Lovely footage of the Sunderland on approach and floating just above the runway but alas Barrie must have switched the camera off just before the impact. oh well.
Harvards
US jets of varying types
Hercules
B-29
At Ohakea after the show
F-101
Vulcan
Vampire jet team
Beverley
RNZAF Canberras
Aircrew Initial Training:
Students firing weapons in field at West melton range
Harvard dropping supplies and then doing low turns
Survival training in the bush behind West Melton - really neat to see the survival camping skills use then, much like today
Norfolk Island 1959
Flying in on a Dakota to pick up a woman patient, also site seeing
To Fiji, then hopped onto a Sunderland
Various stops at islands
To Apia, Samoa
To Nukunono (sp) in the Cook Islands to monitor French nuclear test
CFS Wigram Aerobatic Team
Harvards start
Devon formation take off
Harvard team take off
Lots and lots of footage of the CFS Harvard Team that Barrie lead, including Wigram and Queenstown, the latter low over Lake Wakatipu. It was really interesting to see these early displays. People who flew in the teams then have described them to me but seeing is understanding. They were a four-ship then, three in formation and a soloist. That sounds a lot like the Warbirds Harvard displays of latter days when they do their fourship, but I think the CFS display was different enough to be distinctive. This sadly was the end of the film, I was so engrossed I wanted more.
Thanks Paul very much, and a huge posthumous thanks to Barrie!
Get yousrself a copy!
From the huge interest they have generated, Paul has kindly gone a step further and had a load of Barrie's personal home movie reels compiled onto a DVD so that we enthusiasts can each share in them too. There is a staggering 1 hour 48 minutes of FULL COLOUR 1950's and early 1960's material.
Paul kindly sent me an advanced copy to review for the forum and mine arrived today. I have just been watching it, and I have to admit I'm blown away! I have been totally mesmarised by the stunning footage, and the icredible amount of history captured by Barrie's camera.
The first thing that struck me was not only are we seeing these incredibly rare coloured home movies from 50+ years ago, but we also have the man himself, Barrie Reid, narrating!! He obviously recorded his thoughts and memories to match the films at some stage when he had them put onto VHS video and so now his narration is on the DVD along with restful backing music. Fantastic!! I almost nearly never turned the speaker on because I assumed it'd be silent like most old home movie. The film is silent but the DVD isn't.
Now you must rememebr that this is home movie, probably 16mm I guess, and was taken from 1955-64. And with all old home movie of that era there are some scratches and marks, etc, plus those old cameras never liked being pointed at the sun. But Barrie and his friends who helped him film this footage however were all very good behind the camera. The footage is excellent in terms of steadiness and keeping the aircraft in shot at most times. Overall the colour is generally vivid and vibrant, though some scenes are a little more washed out. Barrie really had an artistic eye and knew how to shoot stuff and make them interesting. There's a scene out the window of a Dakota flying between Norfolk Island and Fiji where the sunset on the clouds looks just like hot coals!
Basically I just want to say that I highly recommend this DVD. If you're interested in history it's a must. This is not just Barrie's personal history but it's a major slice of RNZAF history, and New Zealand's history, from the days when we were sending our Fighter Pilots off around the world to keep the peace, rather than our helicopter and transport crews. Where else are you going to see Venom strikes in colour? The National Film Unit filmed it - in black and white!!
If you're convinced, please email Paul Jackson to order your copy now. His email is janet.paul.jackson@xtra.co.nz
The cost is just $15.00 plus postage and packaging
P & P within NZ is:
Packaging $1.40
Postage $1.00
Airmail costs:
England NZ$3.00
Aussie NZ$2.50
Packaging: NZ$1.40
--------------------------------------
Now, if you're still not convinced.... I have made notes as I watched and here is a breakdown of what you will get to see on this incredible DVD
There is so much to see on this disc. Trying to remember and describe it all is difficult. But those items that stand out are:
In the RAF Nicosia Scenes
The 14 Squadron RNZAF Mk 9 Vampires in full colour - revealing some markings I've never noticed before in black and white photos such as blue lighning flash decoration on the long range tanks! Barrie also filmed from his cockpit air to air with another Vampire in close formation! I hope it was a two seater he was in! He also filmed a landing in his Vampire, what the pilot's eye view was like landing on RAF Abu Sueir, Egypt's strip!
Also at RAF Nicosia:-
Royal Navy Skyraiders
Royal Navy Firefly
RAF Sabres
RAF Valettas (including air to air)
King Hussein of Jordan's personal Devon
At RAF Abu Sueir:-
RAF Proctor
Also lots of stuff of the squadron pilots relaxing, shotting on the range with Stens, visiting the Suez Canal and ANZAC Memorial, etc
Scenes move on as the squadron continue their journey, landing to refuel at El Adem near Tobruk. There are more vampire air to airs (two seat 14 Sqn ones) in this sequence.
They then fly to Idris, Malta for another stop wheresome RAF Canberras are seen operating, and then the camera takes us into town for a look around the historic place, including Valetta Harbour and many other sites.
Barrie hen takes us aboard a borrowed RAF Meteor that Dougal Dallison sorted out for him and he flies down to Jordan (with a Vickers Valletta on his wing again).where he filmed Exercise Downunder, where the British Army are seen taking their Matador trucks and 25 Pounder gns into the desert and then AA guns defending with blanks as they're attacked by 249 Squadron RAF Vampires, Venoms, Meteor, etc.
He then returns to Egypt and then home to Cyprus where you see them preparing (injections and all) to load all the gear onto a 40 Squadron Hastings to be taken to Singapore. then we see the final parade at Cyprus followed by a nifty Vampire air display to say goodbye.
So that's the Middle East section over, now South East Asia. In fact Barrie recorded the journey in between - a stop in Bahrain, then Mauripaur in India, and on the next leg we see an air to air shot of a Hastings beside the one Barrie was in. I find it interesting the two transports stuck so closely together on the long trek. next stop was Negombo, Ceylon, then Butterworth, Malaysia and finally RAF Tengah.
(I have to say this is just 30 minutes into the disc now!! Lots more to come. This is so awesome.)
At Tengah we're treated to such sights:
Lockheed Constellation
The Officer's Mess
Boy Racers in their hotted up and cut down 1950's cars!! ;D Particularly impressive is an old Fiat with the roof and doors removed being hooned about very skilfully and fast by Colin Rudd.
Swimming at the pool at the officer's Club, Changi
Dinghy drill in the pool (particularly interesting to we S&S types)
Model aeroplane building by Tom Lambert
Time Lapse of the daily cloud build up before a downpour and the storm drains
An RAF Dragonfly helicopter and 14 Sqn Venoms
A T.11 Vampire crashed by Dick Curran (really munted, he was fine)
RAAF Lincolns (Barrie went on a bombing strike in one and filmed it!! Man was it a low level strike!
)Then he went on a Sunderland flight with a 205 Sqn Sundy from Seletar
A look at a Malayan coastal village
14 Sqn striking terrorists - shows the briefing, Venoms being armed, take off and unbelievable footage of the actual strike in vivid colour, seeing the rockets fired from the camera plane and also a T.11 beside us, and a venom also in formation. Amazing. Then the buzz and break and landing.
Next is a parade for the Queens Birthday 1955 with a flypast of Vampires, Meteors and Hornets! Then Sunderland and then RMAF Harvards, then a lone RNZAF Bristol Freighter, then lincolns, a couple of Valettta 'Pigs', RAF Neptunes and lastly the 14 Squadron Venoms.
Exercise Joss Stick 7&8 - we see such things as a B-29, a Harvard, Vampires, high level dogfighting, Lincolns (including an awesome buzz and break!), Meteors, and Venoms (including a scramble).
The trip home - RNZAF Hastings again but this time from the cockpit and crew shots as well as pilot's eye views (Barrie's mate was the captain so he let Barrie fly some of the way!)
The ramp at Whenuapai with NAC DH89 and an Ercoupe.
We come to the third section of the film now: Wigram days
Harvard low level stuff, formation flying, aerobatics, over the alps etc
Flying over Canterbury and the Alps in a Devon and alongside an Auster
A Wings Parade at Wigram
CFS Wigram Harvard team loop
Operation Deep Freeze at Harewood:
Globemasters on the ground and six in the air
US Otters
RNZAF Beaver
Neptunes
DC-6 (or is it a DC-4?)
C-47 variant
Float equipped Sioux
More Harewood stuff
Vulcan (the one that crashed on return to the UK)
Shackleton
Canberra
CAA Cessna Crane
Canterbury Gliding Club gliders
Tiger Moth
Auster
1958 Ohakea - RNZAF 21st Birthday
Vampires
KC135 tanker
Hercules
RB-66 Lead Sled
RAAF Canberras
Neptune
Hastings including troop drop
B-47
Bristol Freighter
F-100's
Valiant
Harvard aerobatic team
Sunderland low!
The actual Jetobatics display from the airshow (as opposed to the famous film which was filmed seperately)
Next up some smashing footage of Barrie and friends flying Vampires with the Fighter Operational Conversion Unit - some nice st uff filmed at 35,000 feet high above NZ with streaming vapour trails, just magic!
In this sequence there's also some rocket firing and then a marvellous scene from the cockpit of approaching and landing at Ohakea (I've landed there a load of times in transports but had never seen the view from the cockpit, especially from a jet fighter cockpit. Just marvellous, you really feel like you're there in the jet. I'd love to see this on a big screen.
Next is the opening of Rongotai - more stunning footage.
Three Vulcans playing in tight formation - I have never been interested in the Vulcan but three together like that has opened my eyes.
Lovely footage of the Sunderland on approach and floating just above the runway but alas Barrie must have switched the camera off just before the impact. oh well.
Harvards
US jets of varying types
Hercules
B-29
At Ohakea after the show
F-101
Vulcan
Vampire jet team
Beverley
RNZAF Canberras
Aircrew Initial Training:
Students firing weapons in field at West melton range
Harvard dropping supplies and then doing low turns
Survival training in the bush behind West Melton - really neat to see the survival camping skills use then, much like today
Norfolk Island 1959
Flying in on a Dakota to pick up a woman patient, also site seeing
To Fiji, then hopped onto a Sunderland
Various stops at islands
To Apia, Samoa
To Nukunono (sp) in the Cook Islands to monitor French nuclear test
CFS Wigram Aerobatic Team
Harvards start
Devon formation take off
Harvard team take off
Lots and lots of footage of the CFS Harvard Team that Barrie lead, including Wigram and Queenstown, the latter low over Lake Wakatipu. It was really interesting to see these early displays. People who flew in the teams then have described them to me but seeing is understanding. They were a four-ship then, three in formation and a soloist. That sounds a lot like the Warbirds Harvard displays of latter days when they do their fourship, but I think the CFS display was different enough to be distinctive. This sadly was the end of the film, I was so engrossed I wanted more.
Thanks Paul very much, and a huge posthumous thanks to Barrie!
Get yousrself a copy!
? ;D
