SPITFIRE 944

COL Mikel J. Burroughs, I've posted this before, but whenever I think of Spitfires, I always think of the poem High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. He died in a training accident in England on 18 August 1941 (only 19 years old), while flying a Spitfire Mk I. He wrote the poem just a few months before his death, and it is arguably one of the most famous "war" poems ever written. The poem, High Flight, reads as follows:

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
– Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."

CPT (Join to see) LTC Stephen F. SP5 Mark Kuzinski

My mother's brother, William LaBarr, flew photo recon over Germany in Spitfires before the US entered the war. He's long passed now. He transitioned from the Army Air Corps to the US Air Force and retired as a colonel. He later operated a charter aircraft out of Oceanside, CA. I know little else. It would be interesting if someone could connect this story and his.

Thanks for sharing Spitfire 944 COL Mikel J. Burroughs. Here is a video which consists of gun camera video from a spitfire during the battle of Britain as ME-109's, FW-190 and Heinkel He 111 bombers are being shot out of the air. There may be a Dornier 17 kill but it is hard to distinguish.
The film includes images of Spitfires and concludes with a spitfire landing and tipping over as the landing gear was damaged - the pilot gets out and walks away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B49lFkruq6U
FYI LTC Stephen C. LTC Greg Henning Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown CW5 (Join to see) CW5 Charlie Poulton SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SFC William Farrell SSgt Robert Marx SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" SSgt (Join to see) TSgt Joe C. SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski SPC (Join to see) SrA Christopher Wright