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 nor ever 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.
- John Gillespie Magee Jr.
9 June 1922 - 11 December 1941
A World War II Anglo-American Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot and war poet, who wrote the sonnet High Flight. A Pilot Officer in No. 412 Squadron RCAF based at RAF Wellingore in Lincolnshire, flying convoy patrols and bomber escorts across the channel to occupied France.
He was 19 years old when he was killed in a mid-air collision, flying his Spitfire through a break in the clouds after practicing air fighting tactics with fellow squadron members. Just below the cloud base he collided with an Airspeed Oxford trainer piloted by another 19-year-old, Leading Aircraftman/Pilot Under-Training Ernest Aubrey Griffin.
Produced by
Knut Åshammer
Music
Moby - Memory Gospel
Pilot
Lars Ness
Spitfire LF Mk XVIe LN-BSP
Owned and operated by Biltema
www.biltema.no...
www.norwegians...
----------------
The Norwegian Spitfire Foundation endeavours to honour the tremendous efforts and sacrifices of the Norwegian squadrons during World War II.
We need help in funding the restoration/rebuild of Spitfire PL258 to flying condition. Please support Norway's only Spitfire with wartime history. Any donation, small or large is most welcome.
«We are not asking for monuments - we are only asking for the preservation of our history.»
- WWII Spitfire pilot General Wilhelm Mohr
More info: donate.norwegia...
PayPal: www.paypal.com...
Norsk kontonummer: 1503.88.18845
VIPPS: 97071
29 сен 2024
