You can see larger versions of the photos by clicking on them.
My friend Bruce (excuse me, Herr Doktor Professor Bruce :)) sent me an email with these photos embedded. They purport to be uncirculated, or at least rarely circulated.
Whatever their status, though, they are cool and very interesting. Enjoy!
The original author had this to say about the picture of the Spitfire “tipping” a V1 (second to last image on second row of second page; text lightly edited to improve readability):
At first V1’s were shot down by gunfire. Optimum range was inside 200yds, which was marginal for survival. Many planes were damaged and quite a few pilots killed. Basically at such high speed and low altitude a plane had to fly though the explosion and hope.
With the high risk of being blown up some of the best pilots started tipping the V1’s wing. Later on, because of damage to their wing tips, they developed a tactic of disrupting the airflow by placing their wing very close to the V1’s wing, causing it to topple.
Not every pilot did this. At night this was not possible, the flame from the V1 blinded the pilot to everything else, though some Mossie pilots flew past closely in front of the V1, again causing it to topple. The thought of doing this at 450mph, 4,000 feet above the ground, at night and being blinded gives me the willies.
Which just goes to prove how incredibly courageous the Spitfire pilots were.
