Wing Commander G.P Gibson VC, DSO, DFC inspects the Headquarters at Trent Lane

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Wing Commander G.P Gibson VC, DSO, DFC inspects the Headquarters at Trent Lane

From the collection of

MACE is the strategic lead organisation for screen heritage for the East and West Midlands regions. An independent charity based at University of Lincoln, MACE preserves and makes accessible a collection of more than 100,000 historic moving images representative of the diverse cultures and histories of communities throughout the heart of England from the Lincolnshire coast to the Welsh border.

Wing Commander G.P Gibson VC, DSO, DFC inspects the Headquarters at Trent Lane

Media Archive for Central England
Nottingham
1944-01-01
Silent
2m

The hero of the Dambusters raid meets Nottingham's airmen of the future.

The Nottingham wing of the Air Training Corps has an important visitor in RAF hero Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC of the legendary 617 Squadron: the Dambusters. He is visiting the ATC headquarters on Trent Lane to present the Sword of Honour to the most promising cadet. Gibson's death soon after these rare colour images were captured brings home the fragility of life for RAF pilots and aircrew during World War Two.

We open with shots of the statue dedicated to a pilot of an earlier era, Albert Ball of the Royal Flying Corps. The filmmaker was Albert Ball's brother, Cyril Ball, also an RFC veteran and commanding officer of the Nottingham Wing of the Air Defence Cadets. Guy Gibson was the commanding officer of 617 Squadron that led the famed Dambusters raid on dams in the Ruhr valley in 1943. He was killed in a crash over Holland in September 1944.

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