01.07.2010, 18:37
ANOTHER SKINPACK ! 
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Douglas DC-3 = Tragedy of Flight 777 = 3 skins
- Put in C-47 skins folder -
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Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 1893 – 1 June 1943), better known by his stage name Leslie Howard, was an English stage and film actor, director, and producer.
He is perhaps best remembered for his role as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind (1939), but he was uncomfortable with Hollywood and returned to England to help with the World War II effort. He starred in a number of World War II films including 49th Parallel (1941), Pimpernel Smith (1941), and The First of the Few (1942, known in the U.S. as Spitfire), the latter two of which he also directed and co-produced.
![[Image: Flight777_01.jpg]](http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/ac247/lrrmullen2/Flight777_01.jpg)
Howard died in 1943 when he was flying to Bristol, UK, from Lisbon, Portugal, on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines/BOAC Flight 777. The aircraft, a Douglas DC-3, was shot down by a German Junkers Ju 88 aircraft over the Bay of Biscay.
There were rumours that the Germans believed that UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who had been in Algiers, was on board the flight. Howard's manager Alfred Chenhalls physically resembled Churchill, while Howard was tall and thin, like Churchill's bodyguard, Walter H. Thompson. Churchill himself seems to have been to blame for the spread of the rumour; in his autobiography, he expresses sorrow that a mistake about his activities might have cost Howard his life. The overwhelming majority of published specific documentation of the case, however, repudiates this rumour.
In the television series “Churchill‘s Bodyguard” it is suggested that German intelligence was in contact with members of the merchant navy in Britain and had been informed of Churchill’s departure. It’s suggested that German intelligence had known the route Churchill’s plane would later be travelling along, so had ordered an air attack against the Prime Minister. But German scouts watching the airfields of neutral countries had mistaken Leslie Howard and his manager Alfred Chenhalls (as they boarded their plane) for Churchill and his bodyguard, both men were physically very similar. Churchill’s bodyguard had remarked that this was not by any means the first time his Prime Minister had seemed agitated and suspicious of the journey ahead. The bodyguard Walter H. Thompson had written that Winston Churchill sometimes seemed clairvoyant to personal danger, it is suggested that Churchill knew of the Germans plan to shoot down his plane and so decided to move his flight to the following day.
![[Image: Flight777_02.jpg]](http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/ac247/lrrmullen2/Flight777_02.jpg)
It is suggested that the British code breakers had decrypted several top secret Enigma codes, which detailed the assassination plan. It’s mentioned that Churchill had asked one of his men to tamper with his plane, if the plane had an engine problem it would take time to fix it. This gave Churchill an excuse not to travel at that time.
As far as anyone knew the plane was simply being inspected before their journey, no one seemed any the wiser to Churchill’s plan to stall the plane. Churchill wanted to protect any information that had been uncovered by the code breakers so that German intelligence would not suspect that their enigma machines were actually a source of vital information to British intelligence, hence the need to make it seem like Churchill’s plane had had mechanical faults.
Whether or not the code breakers were aware of the Germans sighting of Howard and Chenhalls boarding their plane remains unknown. What is known is that Howard’s plane was remarkably similar to that of Churchill‘s, the timing of Howard's take off and the route he took was remarkably similar to Churchill‘s, making it easy for the Germans to mistake the two planes.
Howard had been traveling through Spain and Portugal, ostensibly lecturing on film, but also meeting with local propagandists and shoring up support for the Allied cause. The Germans in all probability suspected even more surreptitious activities. (German agents were active throughout Spain and Portugal, which, like Switzerland, was a crossroads for persons from both sides of the conflict, but even more accessible to Allied citizens.) Ronald Howard was convinced the order to shoot down Howard's plane came directly from Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in Nazi Germany, who had been ridiculed in one of Howard's films and who believed Howard to be the most dangerous propagandist in the British service.
![[Image: Flight777_03.jpg]](http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/ac247/lrrmullen2/Flight777_03.jpg)
Howard was flying on a regularly scheduled flight that did not pass over what would commonly be referred to as a war zone. The Luftwaffe records indicate that the Ju-88 Staffel was sent beyond its normal patrol area to intercept and shoot down the aircraft, even though this flight had never before been disrupted. There were about fourteen other passengers, most of them either British executives with corporate ties in Portugal, or various British, comparatively lower-ranked, government civil servants. There were also two or three children of British military personnel.
The DC-3 was attacked by eight German Ju-88s, when normal Luftwaffe patrols in the nearest normal vicinity usually consisted of single planes. According to German documents, the plane was shot down at longitude 10.15 West, latitude 46.07 North, some 500 miles (800 km) from Bordeaux, France, and 200 miles (320 km) northwest of A Coruña, Spain. The German pilots photographed the wreckage floating in the Bay of Biscay. After the war, copies of these captured photographs were sent to Howard's family. According to author William Stevenson in his book Intrepid, however, the Germans knew about Howard's mission and ordered the plane shot down. Stevenson further claims that Churchill knew in advance of the German intention to shoot down the plane but decided to allow it to proceed to protect the fact that the British had broken the German Enigma code.
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![[Image: Banner_Flight777_1.jpg]](http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/ac247/lrrmullen2/Banner_Flight777_1.jpg)
In this skin package you will find the original aircraft in KLM colors (Royal Dutch Airlines 1936), nicknamed "IBIS", and the later two versions in which the aircraft escaped to Britain following the Nazi invasion of the Low Countries and was flown by the B.O.A.C. (British airlines at the time). Which of these versions of the aircraft that was shot down no one knows. But according to some researchers the camouflaged version of teh airplane is the most likely as the BOAC flew also military missions of transportation and were painted in camouflaged colors but without the RAF roundels.
SKINS Available at Mission4Today
http://mission4today.com/index.php?name=...ads2&c=199
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I hope you enjoy these skins and have a great flight in IL-2.
Cheers
MAX-theHitman
-
Douglas DC-3 = Tragedy of Flight 777 = 3 skins
- Put in C-47 skins folder -
-
Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 1893 – 1 June 1943), better known by his stage name Leslie Howard, was an English stage and film actor, director, and producer.
He is perhaps best remembered for his role as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind (1939), but he was uncomfortable with Hollywood and returned to England to help with the World War II effort. He starred in a number of World War II films including 49th Parallel (1941), Pimpernel Smith (1941), and The First of the Few (1942, known in the U.S. as Spitfire), the latter two of which he also directed and co-produced.
Howard died in 1943 when he was flying to Bristol, UK, from Lisbon, Portugal, on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines/BOAC Flight 777. The aircraft, a Douglas DC-3, was shot down by a German Junkers Ju 88 aircraft over the Bay of Biscay.
There were rumours that the Germans believed that UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who had been in Algiers, was on board the flight. Howard's manager Alfred Chenhalls physically resembled Churchill, while Howard was tall and thin, like Churchill's bodyguard, Walter H. Thompson. Churchill himself seems to have been to blame for the spread of the rumour; in his autobiography, he expresses sorrow that a mistake about his activities might have cost Howard his life. The overwhelming majority of published specific documentation of the case, however, repudiates this rumour.
In the television series “Churchill‘s Bodyguard” it is suggested that German intelligence was in contact with members of the merchant navy in Britain and had been informed of Churchill’s departure. It’s suggested that German intelligence had known the route Churchill’s plane would later be travelling along, so had ordered an air attack against the Prime Minister. But German scouts watching the airfields of neutral countries had mistaken Leslie Howard and his manager Alfred Chenhalls (as they boarded their plane) for Churchill and his bodyguard, both men were physically very similar. Churchill’s bodyguard had remarked that this was not by any means the first time his Prime Minister had seemed agitated and suspicious of the journey ahead. The bodyguard Walter H. Thompson had written that Winston Churchill sometimes seemed clairvoyant to personal danger, it is suggested that Churchill knew of the Germans plan to shoot down his plane and so decided to move his flight to the following day.
It is suggested that the British code breakers had decrypted several top secret Enigma codes, which detailed the assassination plan. It’s mentioned that Churchill had asked one of his men to tamper with his plane, if the plane had an engine problem it would take time to fix it. This gave Churchill an excuse not to travel at that time.
As far as anyone knew the plane was simply being inspected before their journey, no one seemed any the wiser to Churchill’s plan to stall the plane. Churchill wanted to protect any information that had been uncovered by the code breakers so that German intelligence would not suspect that their enigma machines were actually a source of vital information to British intelligence, hence the need to make it seem like Churchill’s plane had had mechanical faults.
Whether or not the code breakers were aware of the Germans sighting of Howard and Chenhalls boarding their plane remains unknown. What is known is that Howard’s plane was remarkably similar to that of Churchill‘s, the timing of Howard's take off and the route he took was remarkably similar to Churchill‘s, making it easy for the Germans to mistake the two planes.
Howard had been traveling through Spain and Portugal, ostensibly lecturing on film, but also meeting with local propagandists and shoring up support for the Allied cause. The Germans in all probability suspected even more surreptitious activities. (German agents were active throughout Spain and Portugal, which, like Switzerland, was a crossroads for persons from both sides of the conflict, but even more accessible to Allied citizens.) Ronald Howard was convinced the order to shoot down Howard's plane came directly from Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in Nazi Germany, who had been ridiculed in one of Howard's films and who believed Howard to be the most dangerous propagandist in the British service.
Howard was flying on a regularly scheduled flight that did not pass over what would commonly be referred to as a war zone. The Luftwaffe records indicate that the Ju-88 Staffel was sent beyond its normal patrol area to intercept and shoot down the aircraft, even though this flight had never before been disrupted. There were about fourteen other passengers, most of them either British executives with corporate ties in Portugal, or various British, comparatively lower-ranked, government civil servants. There were also two or three children of British military personnel.
The DC-3 was attacked by eight German Ju-88s, when normal Luftwaffe patrols in the nearest normal vicinity usually consisted of single planes. According to German documents, the plane was shot down at longitude 10.15 West, latitude 46.07 North, some 500 miles (800 km) from Bordeaux, France, and 200 miles (320 km) northwest of A Coruña, Spain. The German pilots photographed the wreckage floating in the Bay of Biscay. After the war, copies of these captured photographs were sent to Howard's family. According to author William Stevenson in his book Intrepid, however, the Germans knew about Howard's mission and ordered the plane shot down. Stevenson further claims that Churchill knew in advance of the German intention to shoot down the plane but decided to allow it to proceed to protect the fact that the British had broken the German Enigma code.
-
In this skin package you will find the original aircraft in KLM colors (Royal Dutch Airlines 1936), nicknamed "IBIS", and the later two versions in which the aircraft escaped to Britain following the Nazi invasion of the Low Countries and was flown by the B.O.A.C. (British airlines at the time). Which of these versions of the aircraft that was shot down no one knows. But according to some researchers the camouflaged version of teh airplane is the most likely as the BOAC flew also military missions of transportation and were painted in camouflaged colors but without the RAF roundels.
SKINS Available at Mission4Today
http://mission4today.com/index.php?name=...ads2&c=199
-
I hope you enjoy these skins and have a great flight in IL-2.
Cheers
MAX-theHitman