An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 9 battles Among the Clouds by SGT JIMMy HAyLES, AIR CORPS PRESS OFFICE PhotoS LT COL KEN ByRNE (RETD) "We've tolerated you here because we've had to! One day, Stachel - or should I call you Bruno? - one day, I'm going to shake you up considerably. I wonder if you're as good as you think you are..." Willi von Klugermann, the blue Max I n 1965 Hollywood came knocking at the gates of Baldon- nel and as a result the Air Corps' pilots got to display their flying skills to international acclaim on the silver screen. Filming of The Blue Max provided sensational sights for ev- eryone watching from around the area and when viewing the spectacular dogfights on screen, many a Dubliner was able to say nonchalantly:"Sure I saw them live!" In the late '60s early '70s, in addition to the The Blue Max (1966), which starred George Peppard as a German fighter pilot on the Western Front, Air Corps flying officers choreo- graphed and flew in many wonderful dogfight scenes in films set during the Great War, like Darling Lili (1970), a musical starring Julie Andrews and Rock Hudson; Von Richthofen and Brown (aka The Red Baron -1971) a story of the German air ace's battles with Canadian Lt Brown, starring John Phillip Law and Don Stroud; and Zeppelin (1971) a spy thriller starring Michael York and Elke Sommer. Not only was the standard of the pilots high enough for the Hollywood filmmakers, but many Air Corps ground crew worked on making set props and also took part as film extras. The films, however, did have their downside and sadly a few tragic deaths happened during filming. Many interesting tales remain from this period including this one from Eddie Bourke: "A friend who was involved in manufacturing Mini Marcos cars at the time got some work making fibreglass props. One request was for 20 dummy pilots' heads to go in a line of planes that the props department had built. Having great difficulty finding a head to use as a mould, he eventually bought a bust of Eamon de Valera and used that. He didn't tell anyone, however, as 'Dev' was President of Ireland at the time and his 'head' and 20 copies got blown up during the filming!" It just goes to show that a career in the Air Corps can offer you some excellent and unpre- dicted opportunities and can take you to some unbelievable places. "During my service, not only was I lucky enough to fly in dogfights with the Red Baron but I was also involved in pioneering helicopter operations in Ireland, flying life-saving search-and -rescue and air ambulance missions, and training the next generation of Air Corps pilots" - Lt Col Ken Byrne (retd)

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