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Post by corsair5517 on Mar 14, 2024 9:54:57 GMT 12
Anh…thanks David!
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Post by corsair5517 on Mar 13, 2024 22:43:37 GMT 12
OK... so NOT Canada, but Cactus, perhaps? I'e seen the photo of Dad's section before, but not this one of the whole squadron... annotated long after the event, I'm picking... Nissan Island 1 copy by John Stokes, on Flickr Nissan Island 2 copy by John Stokes, on Flickr ... note that he's listed the personnel in vertical columns, with those stood on the wing to the right of the picture...
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Post by corsair5517 on Mar 13, 2024 22:36:23 GMT 12
Now, these aren't the best photos ever taken but they are annotated on the reverse, so have some value?! Aircraft copy by John Stokes, on Flickr ... well, this one doesn't but it is a different view of the Zeke that W/C Kofoed flew in... Aircraft 1 copy by John Stokes, on Flickr Aircraft 1a copy by John Stokes, on Flickr ... I have trouble remembering that he was just 20 when this was all going on!! Aircraft 2 copy 2 by John Stokes, on Flickr Aircraft 2a copy by John Stokes, on Flickr Evidently, drogue towing wasn't a favoured task!! Aircraft 3 copy 2 by John Stokes, on Flickr Aircraft 3a copy by John Stokes, on Flickr Apparently, these USAAF pilots in their P-63s made an impression on the young NZers...
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Post by corsair5517 on Mar 13, 2024 22:20:18 GMT 12
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Post by corsair5517 on Mar 8, 2024 12:22:08 GMT 12
A reminder, gentle readers. of the happenings around the Disney gift of a Corsair to the RNZAF by way of a thanks for their help... Dad kept a bunch of newspaper clippings, amongst which was this... Newspaper cuttings 3 by John Stokes, on Flickr
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Post by corsair5517 on Feb 22, 2024 16:37:25 GMT 12
…I think it’s pretty special, and this is not a good photo of it… IMG_1166 by John Stokes, on Flickr
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Post by corsair5517 on Feb 20, 2024 11:42:54 GMT 12
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Post by corsair5517 on Feb 20, 2024 0:45:32 GMT 12
I’ve got Dad’s pale blue sidecap on display in our lounge, if that’s what you’re after??
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Post by corsair5517 on Feb 20, 2024 0:21:58 GMT 12
Dad carried three… the issue revolver and 2 automatics that he picked up in San Francisco on his way back from Canada… he had those 2 pistols hidden away for many many years and only got rid of them - to Elios Gunshop in Dunedin, for a bloody pittance! - in the mid 90s!!
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Post by corsair5517 on Dec 1, 2023 16:21:00 GMT 12
Thanks, David!
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Post by corsair5517 on Dec 1, 2023 10:59:51 GMT 12
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Post by corsair5517 on Nov 5, 2023 0:07:00 GMT 12
French? They must have been old stock? France would most likely not have been exporting glasses to the Pacific in 1944. Unless this was post liberation and very late in the year? He bought them in Canada, Dave… where there’s lotsa snow in winter… when he was there… 😁😎
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Post by corsair5517 on Nov 3, 2023 23:49:15 GMT 12
Thanks, everyone! From the meagre resources I could find, it would appear that Tone Ray were French, at least in 1944 they were, and snow glasses were apparently different to sunglasses; Dad also had a set of Ray Bans which my sister now has.
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Post by corsair5517 on Oct 31, 2023 20:55:09 GMT 12
Dad made a note here about buying some Tone Ray snow glasses; quite a sensible purchase, given the Canadian winter, but I’ve never heard of them… …. anyone got something?!? IMG_1310 by John Stokes, on Flickr
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Post by corsair5517 on Oct 24, 2023 13:49:10 GMT 12
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Post by corsair5517 on Oct 23, 2023 12:46:28 GMT 12
Thanks, David… what a palaver, eh?! And he finished the war years as a Flying Officer, so I wonder what that’s about?
He’d long since gone back to civilian life and had married in 1948, so this may have come as something of a surprise to him, I reckon!!
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Post by corsair5517 on Oct 22, 2023 16:38:12 GMT 12
A set of photos I've scanned from negatives today taken by my uncle Pat Stokes, dated 15.11.1960 when he was living in Wellington... Pat:1 by John Stokes, on Flickr Pat:1 1 by John Stokes, on Flickr Pat:1 3 by John Stokes, on Flickr Pat:1 2 by John Stokes, on Flickr ... can anyone shed anymore light onto these?? I would imagine, too, that developed properly the prints would be pin-sharp as Pat was an accomplished photographer.
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Post by corsair5517 on Oct 22, 2023 16:16:24 GMT 12
What's going on here, chaps?? The promotion date is 1944 but the date it's signed is 1949... or am I missing something?? Dad's promotion by John Stokes, on Flickr
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Post by corsair5517 on Oct 5, 2023 15:56:14 GMT 12
… Dad left a small legacy for his children and I used some of mine to go flying in a T-6 out of Camden Airport; I asked the pilot to aerobat, and after checkingbthat I wasn’t going to be violently airsick, he did just that, though gently as the air raft is 1943 vintage!! Chandelles, rolls, slow rolls etc.; SO much fun and a visceral reminder of how Dad spent 3 years of his life - he always reckoned there was nothing like flyng upside down at speed, and though the speed he was talking about was probably a little more than I experienced, I can vouch for the uniqueness of that attitude in space!! DSC_3337 by John Stokes, on Flickr DSC_3297 by John Stokes, on Flickr DSC_3331 by John Stokes, on Flickr … aloft over Camden!!
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Post by corsair5517 on Oct 5, 2023 15:49:39 GMT 12
… a further example of what might well have disappeared; Dad was about to bin these many years ago until I expressed an interest in them… they are now in a reversible frame and displayed… IMG_0257 by John Stokes, on Flickr IMG_0260 by John Stokes, on Flickr … his notes on starting the Corsair and the P-40…
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