Talk:Raymond Baxter

Untitled
Is the date of the V1/V2 raid correct ? According to some refs, Baxter's raid took place on 14 Feb. Robma 11:13, 16 September 2006 (UTC)


 * According to Baxter and his log book it was February the 14th when his No.4 'Cupid' Love fired on a launching V-2 rocket that had just taken off. He mentions the incident in the 1977 BBC TV Series The Secret War episode "Terror Weapons". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.148.221.26 (talk) 19:59, 8 June 2015 (UTC)

obit info
At 14 he flew with Alan Cobham's flying circus and had a love affair with planes ever since. At 18, he joined the RAF at the recruiting centre at Lords and, disguised as a civilian, was sent with other hopeful pilots to train in Canada and the American Mid-West. He qualified as a pilot and was posted to No 65, a Spitfire V fighter squadron based in Scotland, which mostly dealt with shipping reconnaissance. In the New Year of 1943, following the Operation Torch landings in Algeria and Tunisia, Baxter was posted to the North-West Africa Air Force, joining No 93, a Spitfire IX squadron covering the First Army, in July. After a year, he was sent home to instruct at No 61 Operational Training Unit in Shopshire; though he had disliked being taken out of active service, he later said that the experience was "just about the happiest six months of my life". Instructing fighter pilots for the last three weeks of their training offered, he recalled, "all the fun of operational flying and the responsibility of leadership without having the enemy around". In September 1944 he returned to operational flying himself with No 602. This was a Spitfire IX squadron (re-equipped from November with XVIs) which had just been recalled from Normandy. From Coltishall in Norfolk, he was one of the pilots who dive-bombed Germany's V-2 sites. He was mentioned in dispatches for his part in these raids. Towards the end of the war, while still a serving officer, he got his first job in broadcasting, as an announcer with the Forces broadcasting station in Cairo. ref:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/16/db1601.xml

81.86.144.210 07:02, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

BBC Career
The article discusses Baxter's commentating on state funerals in the UK: "He provided radio commentary on the funerals of King George VI in 1952 and Winston Churchill in 1965, the former commentary given while suspended from the ceiling of Westminster Abbey." King George VI's funeral was in St George's chapel Windsor, and Winston Churchill's was at St Paul's cathedral. The "suspended from the ceiling" can't refer to either of these two events.

Jhlister (talk) 18:12, 1 September 2021 (UTC)


 * If Edward Heath was, in fact, a giant lizard, I don't see why Baxter couldn't have been something equally surprising. Martinevans123 (talk) 18:20, 1 September 2021 (UTC) p.s. this book promo blurb says "speaking to the nation while suspended in a box near the roof of Westminster Abbey" which, I suspect, might be nearer the truth. But yes, those venues don't fit.

Filmography
He also appears (as himself) in the 1954 film, Mask of Dust 2.29.28.5 (talk) 08:10, 3 May 2023 (UTC)