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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 3, 2008 23:32:32 GMT 12
The documentary Night After Night about New Zealanders in Bomber Command is to repeat on Maori Television this coming Sunday, the 8th of June, at 9.00pm.
It first screened on that channel on ANZAC Day but the broadcast in thise area was corrupted by some sort of signal problem and the sound was all waivery making it unwatchable. So this time I shall hopefully record a better version.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 8, 2008 22:00:01 GMT 12
I'm watching 'Night After Night' as I type this. It's really good. The production quality is a little on the amateur level at times, but the stories are fascinating and brilliant, and it's good to see the girl who made this film located loads of NZ aircrew who've not been interviewed before (I hate the way some documentaries chrun out the same interviewees who've appeared a dozen times previously in docos).
When this first aired on ANZAC Day some sort of broadcast transmission problem meant that in this area the sound didn't come out (I discovered it wasn't just my tape, others found the same thing). So I'm so glad Maori TV are repeating it so soon.
After this was broadcast I read a letter in the Waikato Times or Herald or somewhere where the guy was saying it was revisionist and slanted towards how evil the RAF were for bombing civilians and old buildings. I persoanlly do not think it is anything of the sort. It's well balanced and gives views from NZ and British aircrews, relatives of airmen in NZ, French civilians, German night fighter pilots, the lot. One man said it was a shame they were destroying old buildings, but that's about it.
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Post by skyhawkdon on Jun 10, 2008 10:07:26 GMT 12
I watched it too Dave and also really enjoyed it. It gave a very personal insight into the effects the war had on people on both sides. We owe that generation a lot.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 10, 2008 14:13:17 GMT 12
I was chatting with Ron Noice again last night (he's the bomb aimer who the director made wear his old uniform, and who was seen in the nose of the MOTAT Lancaster). He's a great old bloke, was still farming till about two years ago. That outdoor interview was shot on his farm. He now lives in town about a block from me.
He was saying last night they used to often fly with the markers (he was a Pathfinder) and a cookie and drop them together. One night the markers dropped but the cookie didn't. Over the Channel they tried to cut through the floor of Lanc above the bomb hooks to get rid of it but the axe wouldn't penetrate the floor. So the pilot told them to brace themselves and then he tried to shake hell out of the plane to try to shake the cookie loose. No joy. In the end they landed with it, among much fanfare from the fire crews and ambulances waiting for them. But thankfully it didn't go off.
I've interviewed Ron, and though it wasn't mentioned in the doco, when he bailed out on his 30th mission and landed, he saw his crewmate land safely and some Germans murdered him. This was only hinted at in the doco but not specifically stated. All the crew landed safely but one was then murdered and another beaten badly.
Ron said last night too that often they'd be sitting in their Lanc ready to go on an op, and they'd just be awaiting the Met plane to return. Often it would and the crew would inform them of 10/10ths cloud so they'd scrub the op. They'd all pile down to the Mess and get drunk. On occasion they'd be in the Mess for an hour or so and then the order would come through that the cloud had cleared and they had to go!
As Ron mentioned in the doco he wrote a diary for the whole war, and then wrote it up into an autobiography in 1945 by compiling it all into a hand written book. I've seen the book and it's priceless. There must be very few books written with such clarity as it was just after the war. He has just one copy and is not keen to have it published, but I'm working on him to relent as I'd love to put his story on my Cambridge Air Force site. He's lived in Cambridge for many decades now so it's appropriate.
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Post by shorty on Jun 15, 2008 12:23:25 GMT 12
It's all very well for you people who live in a part of the country where you can get Maori TV!
All I can get is TV1, TV3 and a snowy version of TV2
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 15, 2008 13:15:01 GMT 12
Where are you at then Shorty? I thought MTV had a fairly national coverage. I think, like Prime, it's also carried by Sky TV to remote areas, but then you have to pay for the priviledge.
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Post by shorty on Jun 15, 2008 15:22:40 GMT 12
In the foothills of North Canterbury and I don't fancy paying for Sky. (Petrol and Dairy products are bad enough!)
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 15, 2008 15:40:38 GMT 12
Yeah, I don't want Sky either. It's basically a waste of money inho.
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