Grid Caldwell

[harvard1041]

Thought I'd start a thread on Grid Caldwell - he was NZ highest scoring WW I ace - and CO of 74 Sqn - and went on to have an equally interesting post War / WW II career ... yet no-one has written a biography up ( that I know of ). I know Dave has a lot of good info on his Wings Over Cambridge site - which is very nice.

www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/Keith%20Caldwell.htm

Also a display in the Wigram Museum and also one down at Wanaka.

...but there must be more - especially his between the war career etc.

Here's one photo I have - to start things off - who can identify the other people here ?

Rgds
Hvd1041

- RNZAF Museum-

[Dave Homewood]

Malcolm 'Mad Mac' McGregor second from left, and Len Isitt in the middle I believe, next to Grid.

[errolmartyn]

Aug 13, 2010 0:28:35 GMT 12 harvard1041 said:

Thought I'd start a thread on Grid Caldwell - he was NZ highest scoring WW I ace - and CO of 74 Sqn - and went on to have an equally interesting post War / WW II career ... yet no-one has written a biography up ( that I know of ). I know Dave has a lot of good info on his Wings Over Cambridge site - which is very nice.

www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/Keith%20Caldwell.htm

Also a display in the Wigram Museum and also one down at Wanaka.

...but there must be more - especially his between the war career etc.

Here's one photo I have - to start things off - who can identify the other people here ?

Rgds
Hvd1041

- RNZAF Museum-

This photo also appears on page 65 of my recently published 'Swift to the Sky', the caption for which reads:
Pictured in front of a Bristol Fighter is a group of pilots attending the first refresher flying course at Wigram. Left to right: (Frederick S. Gordon?), Malcolm C. McGregor, Leonard M. Isitt, Keith L. Caldwell, and (Maurice D. Sinclair?). MUS090123

Incidentally, the highest scoring New Zealand fighter pilot in WWI, in terms of aircraft credited as being destroyed, was Ronald Burns Bannerman, not Caldwell.

Errol

[harvard1041]

Thanks for the replies, Dave & Errol.

Sadly don't yet have a copy of your new book Errol - but will get a copy shortly - sounds like a great read.

Can you elaborate a bit on these 'crashed' totals from WW I - I've seen Caldwell listed as 24 & 25 and believe his logbook talks about 27.

What do we know of his between the wars and WW II career ?

Thanks again
John.

[errolmartyn]

John,

I don't have time to go into details at the moment (busy on my early NZ avhist book), but the key word is 'destroyed' - the inlcusion by some of so-called 'out-of-control' victories (victories only in the moral sense) are what wrongly take Caldwell's score above that of Bannerman (Caldwell 10 & 1/3rd OOC, Bannerman (1 OOC).

This is no reflection on Caldwell, just that both were fighting different wars at different times in different machines under a uniquely British propaganda/morale-boosting scoring system.

Errol

[obiwan27]

I think it is Grid Caldwell's lucky escape, after a mid-air collision with another RAF aircraft during a dogfight in World War One, that is depicted in this display at the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre.
His aircraft's wings were damaged as a result of the collision and after stepping out of the cockpit at low level he found that he could retain some control while positioned as shown in the display.
He managed to get the aircraft down and himself in rather extraordinary circumstances.