Wednesday, April 10, 2013

War Stories: The Whispering Death


Wow! And it's near Cremona, too. I have a connection. Now I must get to see it. The Bristol Beaufighter is one of my favourite WW2 aircraft.  Despite being somewhat eclipsed by the sexier and faster DeHavilland Mosquito, the Beaufighter was a very capable aircraft. It was heavily armed and bristled with no fewer than 10 cannon and machine guns. In addition it could be fitted with rockets, torpedoes and bombs. It's large fuselage easily accommodated radar and the Beau excelled as a night fighter. It was also formidable in ground attack and anti-shipping roles.  Oh, and the name "Whispering Death" was apparently coined by the Japanese and is attributed to the aircraft's quiet Hercules engines that made use of sleeve valves instead of the more commonplace (and noisy) poppet valves. Oh Lord, I'm such a geek!

PS Seeing one of these aircraft in its physical form has been a bucket list item for quite some time. If the Italian site is not accessible there is always this one in Greece.

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