January 2018

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Plagis - Post

John Plagis

JOHN AGORASTOS PLAGIS

Dear friends we added John Agorastos Plagis, short biography in Fighter Pilots section. The unique feature of this biography is that except two very small paragraphs in the begging and the end, the text was written by him, in a letter we have the honor to posses in our collection. Visit his subpage in the following link and take a look in some great photos and profiles while serving with the No. 64 Squadron. Our team believes that while reading the profiles caption many things about his personal Spitfires during his duty with the No. 64 Squadron will be clarified....enjoy.   

https://www.greeks-in-foreign-cockpits.com/pilots-crews/fighter-pilots/john-agorastos-plagis/

Photo: Greeksinforeigncockpits via Jill Plagis, colorized by Markos Danezis

New Biography / News - 01/26/2018
Manos Family Post

Meet Manos Family

Today we received photos and commentary from William S. Manos family. We are very honored who trust us his archive and memoirs in order to tribute him in Greece and make his story known to his fatherland. Especially to his fellow villagers of Roeino, Arcadia Region. Their words warmed our hearts and strengthen us in order to continue our research for all these unknown heroes to Greece. We can only feel grateful for their contribution and we are happy to know that the book met their expectations.

MANOS
manos 2
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Hello, Dimitrios

Words can’t express how thankful we are for the wonderful gift you have given my sister & I, our children, our granddaughter and the generations that are to come. This book is indeed a keepsake, a treasure, and will always be a part of our family. We truly had no idea how much detail you would touch on our father, William Stanley Manos Sr. 406th Fighter Pilot when you first contacted us stating that you were interested in adding and writing a chapter about him. All we knew was the book was to be about World War II, Fighter Pilots of Greek Descent. We were honored to have been asked, and quite honestly kept our excitement minimal, and kept a “let's wait and see mentality,” as we expected it to be a small mention. We waited with anticipation, upon receipt, we were speechless; WOW, what a BOOK, what a BEAUTIFUL and WONDERFUL BOOK!!!

Dimitrios, you have discovered so many things about our father that we did not know about, and for that, we are extremely thankful. What’s also exciting is that people that have read the chapter on our father have contacted us to ask questions about finding his wrecked P-47 Thunderbolt. We couldn’t be more excited to see what comes from this. From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU, Dimitrios for all your hard work and dedication you have poured into this book, it means so much not just to our family, but so many others. We wish you the best in all your future endeavors and discoveries.

Best, William Stanley Manos Jr. (64) (Son of William Stanley Manos Sr.); Cathy Sue Manos (63) (Spouse)
Our Children:
(Son)William Stanley Manos III. (39); Brandi Marie Manos (37) (Spouse); Brooklyn Alexandria Manos (1) (Grand Daughter); (Daughter) Ashley Marie Davlin (33); Jared Davlin (35) (Spouse)
My Sister:
Debra Ann Manos (65) (Daughter of William Stanley Manos Sr.)
Her Child:
(Son) Nickolas George Manos (36)

Follow his short bio and veterans and relatives comments on the links below:

https://www.greeks-in-foreign-cockpits.com/pilots-crews/fighter-pilots/william-s-manos/

https://www.greeks-in-foreign-cockpits.com/comments/veterans-relatives/

 

Notes
406th FG Thunderbolts Photo via http://www.americanairmuseum.com/media/3879 - Roger Freeman Collection FRE7432
William Manos colorized picture by Markos Danezis
Commentaries / News - 01/22/2018
Bentwaters - Post

'GIFCs' & BCWM

Bentwaters Aviation Society Meeting Book Presentation 14th Dec 2017-0006...2
Bentwaters Aviation Society Meeting Book Presentation 14th Dec 2017-0009...

During our research for the top Greek Ace, John Agorastos Plagis, we tried to contact various individuals researchers, as well as museums. Knowing that John Plagis, became one of the two Acting Flying Wing Commanders in Bentwaters Wing during the opening months of 1945, we tried to establish a connection with the museum located there. Unfortunately, the Museum named as ‘Bentwaters Cold War Museum’ or BCWM, and as such, they couldn’t provide us with information regarding the WW2 History. However, these fine gentlemen, namely Andrew Horex and Simon Gladas, running the BCWM, proved more than willing to help us in our project and also to know more about the Bentwaters WW2 history and the famous Greek Wg.Cdr. Needless to mention that we donate a copy of our B’ Volume to the museum for all they have done for us and most important for their ethical support!

These days we also gathered all the information we have about Bentwaters in WW2, especially Operations Record Books of Bentwaters Wing as well as Plagis Logbook extracts from that period and mailed them for the museum archives. The BCWM regularly organize sessions for its members and enthusiasts, covering many subjects concerning its Cold War history. To our surprise, Simon Cladas honored us by presenting the book to their members and sent us pictures from their meeting!

We encourage our followers to take a view of their lovely website, and for the lucky ones, to visit.

http://www.bcwm.org.uk

UK, Mustang Mk III, KH479, SK-B, John Plagis, No 165 Squadron, early 1945
Before John Plagis was assigned a personal Mustang Mk.III to lead the Bentwaters Wing over Germany, escorting RAF Bombers, he flew four missions using this No. 165 Squadron Mustang Μk.III (SK-B/ΚΗ479). Plagis qualified on type on December 12, 1944, while flying with No. 126 Squadron. Until his promotion to Wing Commander, he had 6 1/2 hours flying North American’s fighter. (Copyright Gaetan Marie)
The wing and squadron commanders of the Bentwaters Wing, several of them established aces, gather for a photograph in early 1945. Even though the conflict in Europe was in its final stage, sadly, not all of these men would survive the war. They are, from left to right, Sqn Ldr Tony Drew (CO of No 118 Sqn ), Sqn Ldr Barry Gale (CO of No 165 Sqn), Sqn Ldr Peter Thompson (CO of No 129 Sqn), Wg Cdr Johnny Plagis (Bentwaters Wing leader), Wg Cdr Mike Donnet (Andrews Field wing leader), Sqn Ldr ‘Jas’ Storrar (No 234 Sqn CO), Sqn Ldr R E Green (No 64 Sqn CO) and Maj Arne Austeen. (D.Vassilopoulos Collection via Jill Plagis, caption by Andrew Thomas)
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Book Presentation - 01/21/2018
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We are On-Line!!!

Dear friends...we are finally on line!

After four months we finally managed to upload it on the net. Our good friend and partner, Bertrand Brown, designed our internet page and we hope that you will enjoy it. Here we will upload short biographies of Greek parentage pilots and crews who flew and fought from WW1 till our present days. We will include fighter and bomber pilots, navigators, bombardiers, gunners etc. We have hundreds of men to present and we need more than one lifetimes in order to present them in our books. So this webpage will have information about men for whom neither we have not much information nor much time to proceed to deep research because of other priorities. For the beginning we present some of the pilots covered in our two books and as a preview of things to come, a short story of a South African Greek who was killed in action during his first mission in Korea, 2nd Lt. Critton Pappas. As you will see the site is in English language, in order to be more friendly to our English speaking friends, who follow our research or find the subject interesting. Also we will include prototype profiles and art inside our website which we don’t have problem for everyone to use publicly, as long as he gives the appropriate credit to the source, either our webpage, either the source which is written in the captions. Many talented artists and collectors helped us and it would be unfair not to be mentioned by anyone who would like to use their work. We hope that you will enjoy our webpage as we do.

Greetings from the ‘GREEKS IN FOREIGN COCKPITS’ team!

Note: Logo designed by Bertrand Brown, artwork of Richard Demetriadi Hurricane in flight by Antonis Karydis.

News - 01/14/2018

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