Sam

I took your advice and here I am! I am fascinated by the posts, the question I have to ask is "Why did you search the web for Tatton Park and parachutists"? There has to be a connection that I am missing, maybe you knew someone who was a Parachutist In WW II?

Recently, the MOD as an economy measure did away with Balloon jumping and now the first jumps are made from an Aerovan.

As far as I know the only two planes that used a hole in the floor were the Whitley and The Halifax. In the case of the Halifax there was o hole in the floor aft of the bomb bays that housed a radar set, either Gee or H2S so that when they wanted a plane to parachute people into Europe they just pulled it out and put a door over the hole and they were in business.

"Ringing the bell" as you pushed off into the hole your parachute pack hit the back of the hole and your face hit the other side. Broken noses were very common!!

Enough about that, getting back the songs, There was an old Artillery song to the tune of the Eton Boating song entitled "The Screw Gun" It re-surfaced in the First World War as "Tarpaulin Jacket" The verses that I remember go something like this:-

A young aviator lay dying
at the end of a bright summers day
His colleagues around him were gathered
to hear the last words that he would say

Take the piston rod from my kidneys,
the butterfly valve from my neck
From the small of my back take the cylinder
Theres's a lot of good parts in this wreck

When the Court of Inquiry assembles
Tell them the reason this young aviator died
That a flat spin so faintly resembles
The maximum angle of a glide

The chorus between verses

Wrap me up in a tarpaulin jacket
and say a poor fellow lies low
Then stand by your glasses steady
Drink a toast to the men of the skies
Heres to the dead already and
Hurrah to the next man to die

I may have missed a line in the chorus Any comments?

John

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 22-Mar-03.