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AOP: from D-Day to the Rhine

2019 marked the 75^th Anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy, the liberation of much of occupied Europe and the hard-fought campaigns that saw our forces poised for the final battles in Germany.

There will be many commemorative events that will obviously include fitting tributes to the aircraft of the bomber, transport and fighter squadrons.

This year’s Wings & Wheels will salute the quite remarkable and vital contribution made by the ‘little-warbirds’…..the scores of fragile and unarmed AOPs.

The Air Observation Post squadrons that operated out of primitive grass-strips scarcely a few miles from the front line – and frequently flew beyond it.

Scores of personal invitations have been sent to the owners and pilots of the British Austers and American Pipers and we hope to see a number of genuine WW2 aircraft as well as numerous ‘retro-marked’ post-war examples.

With the Red Arrows in the USA and BBMF committed elsewhere, our commentary team will have the chance to tell, the all-too-often untold, stories of the planes and the pilots who flew ‘Unarmed into Battle’.

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