Why Spitfire Avian Pest Control
A little has been explained on our Team page about how the name Spitfire Avian Pest Control came about but there is a it more to the story than there was room to tell on the team page.
The Video and the above photograph where shot at Prkos (Zadar), Croatia,Yugoslavia in April 1945. The Lead Spitfire is my Father.They were all Taxing up from having loaded the bombs under the wings before going on a briefing to go out and hit a German Troop train later on in the day. According to my father the film and photo was taken around 10am. The Spitfires are IXs and 73 Sqn was part of the 281 Wing, Balkan Air Force.
Now for the rest of the story about our name. I told Dean about another photograph I had from my Fathers collection and showed him the photo. The story was one my Father had told me many time and as a child I really did not understand until I joined the British Army myself. Then It all make sense. Maybe that's the wrong way of putting it I should say the story had a meaning .
At the end of 1939 my father Left basic training after joining the RAF and went to RAF Flying School in Southern Rhodesia.At the end of his Flying training a photograph was taken of everyone that had learnt to fly and passed out on his course. The photo is below,he carried this with him not only during World War II but after the war up until he retied from the RAF in the Late 60's.After this the photo has always been in a Music book on his Piano and is still there Today. Yes he is still with us 94 years old and determined to make 100.
It's very easy to spot my Father in this photo but what really moved Dean was the rest of the story behind the Crosses with circles my father marked on this photo.
There are 39 young pilots in this photo as You can see my father is the only one alive today.Out of the 28 that are dead only 2 survived the war. I'm not sure now and due to my fathers dementia he is unable to tell me which 2 in the photo. But what I do know is one of them died 2 days after the war ended flying a Beaufighter back over the Mediterranean to Gibraltar,it had engine failure and crashed into the sea. The other young man made it into civilian life and Civil aviation flying airliners and was in an civil aviation accident in the 1970's and was killed.Now what really brings everything together and when I realised the meaning behind the story about this photo is my father told me everyone else in this photo had been killed in action within 5 months of joining the squadrons and going into combat.
Well that's how we chose the name Spitfire Avian Pest Control in Honour of not only my Father and all in the photo but in honour of all who have served and in Honour of all those who have served and paid the ultimate sacrifice from all Commonwealth and Coalition forces past and present.
Lest we forget