Lizzie: "Lady of the Night" (Westland Lysander) 

When I was in the UK fire brigade 20 or so years back, one afternoon I was fitting smoke detectors in the house of an elderly gentleman. While I was filling in the necessary "paperwork" I spotted the familiar blue and white diagonal ribbon of a "Distinguished Flying Cross" framed on a wall of his living room. When I asked him who the DFC had been awarded to, his eyes opened wide with surprise that I would know what it was. He then told me how in 1939 as a Lysander pilot in RAF No.2 Sqd, he had flown observation missions over the French/Belgian border during the 1939/40 "Phoney war". He then told me how in early june 1940 his squadron then got orders at short notice to evacuate to the UK. He said that the last 8 airworthy lysanders took off from north eastern France to hop over the channel, and that during the flight they had been attacked by Me109s. He had managed to evade multiple 109 attacks, and his rear gunner even managed to send one of the attackers banking away with smoke streaming from it. When they arrived in the UK only 4 of the aircraft had made it, the other 4 aircraft and their crews were lost in the channel. It is quite possible that that footage of the Lysander going down was one of his squadron mates. He said he later flew SOE operatives into and out of France during the German occupation and was awarded the DFC in 1944. Just a little old white haired man in his 80s.... and yet an outright bloody HERO. God bless his memory.

Finns noted that Lysander was really sitting duck on day. We used mostly Heinkel He-115 on similar nighttime LRRP retreaval ops. It helps that we have tens of thousands lakes on our side of border, and another on eastern neighbours side.

The Lizzie, one of my favourite aircraft.

There is another flying Lysander, one of only two flying in the world at the moment, at the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden, just outside Biggleswade in Bedfordshire, UK. She flies regularly at airshows and is an amazing sight.

The site of the Special Duties aerodrome at Tempsford has long been on my list of places to visit. (The glass case containing the flowers held at my father's funeral has the windscreen panel from a Lysander).

I just loved the Lysander as a kid. I don't know why but I remember building a model of it at the age of about twelve in balsa and doped paper. Today the more about its role with SOE makes me love it even more. Good old Westland and nepotism!

I built the model from a plastic kit. My first. It hung suspended from the basement for years. Thank you for the story!

Great narration with a natural and expressive voice. Thank you for posting.

The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is known as the most versatile plane of WW2 (that alone is worth a video, agree?), but one of the roles it played is unknown by many: in the colors of BOAC, it made several flights to Sweden transporting agents and special cargo in the bomb bay, rescuing pilots and people who wanted to flee occupied Europe to contribute to the Allied war effort. And it was precisely in one of these situations that the Mosquito had its greatest highlight in this role: in October 1943 it transported the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics, Niels Bohr, who would come to participate in the Manhattan Project that created the 1st Atomic Bomb in History. Greetings from Brazil.

Thanks for video. An amazingly versatile aircraft. Those SCW pilots must have been quite something - very challenging missions but they managed to do it. Petter spending time to gather operational requirements from crews rather than just meet the Ministry spec. seemed to work out quite nicely at the end of the day.

As the Fieseler Storch and the Piper Cub it was a great plane for what it should do, And doubling in as a role for ground attack too. And if you had Gestapo on your neck in France the plane was a beauty to behold.

Excellent video of a LIZZIE.....Thanks so much my friend..... Shoe🇺🇸

Yes this was a very unique aeroplane specially designed for the low speed landings and wing lift items and stabilizer position required much pilot expertise . Dropped many spies into the enemy areas

Petter designs were always intriguing - the wonderful Whirlwind for instance - but Westland was always a company that thought out of the box(the Pterodactyl springs to mind). Bit like a British non-Nazi Blohm & Voss (Herr Doktor Vohgt being their Petter equivalent)

There is a full-size (non-flying) replica Lysander which was used in a Hollywood film and then donated to Tangmere Museum in West Sussex in England.

took long enough to get to the Most Important Job of Resistance Suport Behind ENEMY LINES! this system did Very WELL! "I Think!" my brother's Father In Law was one of these pilots! as he imigrated to Canada in about 36, after he paid for his own flight lessons at 17yrs old, then flew for the RCAF, RAF, and the USAC while he had Medals from EVERY Allied government that existed! some Enemy's! got kicked out of the WAR after D Day when he Stole an air ship and flew an Un Autherized Mission into France behind Enemy Lines! and was "Invited" to go Home as a Court Martial would have Very Bad PR! with his Box O Medals!

Good stuff 👍

Beautiful. On the short list of airplanes I would love to be a passenger in.

The Germans were keen to get an intact Lysander for testing. They finally caught one stuck in a field in France recovered it and loaded it on a truck to take it back to base. Ufnortunately the truck got stuck on a railroad crossing and the truck and aircraft were destroyed when they were hit by a train. Bad luck that.

Came from the podcast, stayed for the images.

Excellent

It was used with 161sqn not 138 sqn at Tempsford, they actually flew from Tangmere which was considerably closer to France.

Love hearing the RAF March Past. Best military march ever.

Very interesting and well presented video. Thanks a lot Colin UK 🇬🇧

Beautiful

Back in the 1960's, there was an action war series on British TV called "Moonstrike" which was staged around the special ops and French resistance, and of course a Lysander featured in the series. The programme came in for a bit of a caning because it was very downbeat, the Nazis were shown to be smart and subtle and a match for the allies and often came out on top. So far as I'm aware, none of the episodes survive...

Cool video, I hope you make more.

Great to hear a human voice. RU-vid is being overrun by AI narrations now.

It's not fast or sexy but it was reliable and got the job done.

It was light strong could fly low and at stall speeds it could take in a plough filed ideal for private fops abroad

A friend of mine flew one as a target tug he said it was a great plane to fly but the job was a little frightening their is also another one in Canada it at War Time Heritage Museum at Mount Hope Ontario

Excellent video the Germans had a good aircraft for this sort of work in the Storch but the 80 mph cruising speed would have been a problem I suspect as Rommel noted which is why he also used a German twin Foche Wulf comparable to the Avro Anson that was also used for similar SOE work on occasion. I hope you do well with this and will sub to you. Another aircraft that might be worth your time is the Fairy Swordfish if that fits in your preferences.

Funny to see the swastika on a Lizzie. It is not a Nazi, but Finnish Airforce swastika. The FA has stopped using the swastika, in 2020, but the FA use of this symbol predates the rise of National Socialism.

“Please and Thank You” … Definitely Canadian

It did exactly what it was meant to do.

The wing being manufacture at 5:30 are NOT Lysander wings

One of these shot down a Heinkel 111 over France.

A super air craft!

Apparently they flew in pairs so one could land while another circled nearby so its engine noise would conceal that the other had landed? I don’t know if true or how often this happened.

excellent video

Well done narrative. Fascinating details.

Have you looked into a well known(in the UK) small 2 stroke engine used in all sorts of garden and light machinery known almost generically as a Petter engine, As a 69yr old Brit motor mechanic I repaired loads in my Civil Plant days,

More like forward facing wings?

Is it the Lysander that is pictured in one of the first foo fighter UFO images?

What is the term used to describe the fuselage? Is it corn cob fuselage? My imagination is obviously not up to scratch. Corn cob ?

This be Great personal aircraft, maybe downsized by quarter?

It's beautiful in a fugly sort of way

lt is one of the small number of ugly/beautiful aircraft. another l would nominate is the Fairey Gannet.

Bravest pilots of WW2, leave England at dusk find a field in southern France in the dark, unload and pick up an agent and get back before dawn.

So, the British Air Ministry NEVER specifically sought-after a SOE, clandestine insurgency-use STOL airplane ?? How Short-Sighted of these club-house Politicians. 😂

i would rather fly a lysander than a p 40