Скачать или смотреть CRHnews - Aero Legends 'Poppy Drop' Remembrance Sunday 2019

#RoyBriggs #GeorgePrichard #RAFNorthWeald

POPPY DROP WW2 plane flanked by Spitfires drops 750,000 poppies above Dover cliffs in stunning tribute to British war dead

Mark Hodge The Sun 10 Nov 2019,

After a minute’s silence at 11am to mark Remembrance Day, around 1,000 people in Kent watched the poignant moment

The poppies were dropped from 500ft by a Dakota, a military aircraft used in D-Day, which flew alongside two Spitfires – the fighter planes synonymous with the Battle of Britain in 1940.

People watched near the coast in Folkestone and on the nearby cliffs at Capel-le-Ferne.

Five veterans - including RAF servicemen who served in the Second World War - were aboard to oversee the poppy drop.

After several passes over the packed crowds below, the three-aircraft formation turned and headed along the coast before heading back to North Weald Airfield in Essex where the Dakota is based.

WWII veteran Warrant Officer Roy Briggs, 94, was one of those who went up in the Dakota today.

He served as a wireless operator on Lancaster aircraft with 576 squadron, conducting raids at Plauen and Bremen.

Speaking to Press Association, he said he spent the flight thinking of a Lancaster crew he knew, who all lost their lives during a wartime mission.

He said: "I am 94 and they are still 20 and 21. They will never be anything else to me."

Mr Briggs said the flight on Sunday was something of a surprise, revealed just a few days before.

He said: "I couldn't really believe at 94 I was getting involved in something like this."

Flight Lieutenant George Prichard, 96, said the Dakota flight was "wonderful".

He said: "It was a great, great day and I was thrilled to be part of the event.

"Something I had never expected I would be doing. Something I shall remember for a very, very long time."

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1031689...