tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8425842655785946132024-02-22T11:07:59.442-05:00WW2: A Tribute to the RCAF-The Royal Canadian Air Force 1939-1945An homage to all our brave ww2 Canadian war heroes past and present..."Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others" Winston Churchill.
***All the articles on this web page and pictures are a copyright of Lucky Luke***Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-17942816888627744012013-10-06T23:00:00.000-04:002013-10-06T23:00:02.196-04:00Ever wondered what was in a Red cross POW parcel in WW2?<br />
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The International Red cross aimed at distributing each POW with one Red Cross parcel each week. It might be Canadian, British, American, New Zealand or the equivalent in Argentine bulk. A few came from Brazil. In the early days some supplies came from Turkey. They consisted of stew, meat roll, Spam, vegetables, tea, coffee, cocoa, sugar, margarine, butter, biscuits, prunes, raisins, chocolate bars and soap; salt and Pepper, sweets, rolled oats, cheese, sometimes cigarettes. No one parcel could possibly contain all the items noted above. They varied between countries. For instance, Spam was in the Canadian parcel and not in the British. Vegetables were in the British and not in any others. New Zealand's had a very large tin of magnificent cheese, while the Canadian parcel had only small one. Canadian milk chocolate was at a premium as was New Zealand butter. The Scottish Red Cross parcels were the Only ones to contain rolled oats (and very good it was as an escaping ration, too)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-78711413697284063332013-10-05T13:41:00.002-04:002013-10-06T13:58:06.355-04:00Picture taken in Toronto, July 1941<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The four-engine Consolidated Liberator of the RCAF is a bomber to be manufactured on license in the Fort Worth plant of Canadian Car & Foundry Company. This type is being delivered to England from the San Diego plant and some are being used to fly ferry pilots back across the Atlantic. It is powered by four twin-row 1,200 h.p. Pratt & Whitney engines. Top speed is over 300 m.p.h and range is more than 3,000 miles<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-33542828292915745712013-02-04T20:39:00.001-05:002013-02-04T20:39:47.043-05:00Spitfire base home to 24 RAF squadrons during WWII goes on the market for £1.5million after phone magnate decides to sell up<h2>
Spitfire base home to 24 RAF squadrons during WWII goes on the market for £1.5million after phone magnate decides to sell up</h2>
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<li><span style="font-size: 1.4em;">Perranporth is thought to be one of the best preserved wartime airfields </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 1.4em;">Site features control tower, underground bunker, fighter shelters and depot</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 1.4em;">It was put on the market by John George, who owned Jag Communications - once Britain's third largest independent mobile phones retailer</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 1.4em;">He bought the airfield to ease the commute from tax haven Guernsey</span></li>
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<br /><br /><span style="font-size: 1.2em;">One of the best preserved Second World War airfields in the country has been put up for sale.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Perranporth, home of 24 RAF squadrons between 1941 and 1944, has been put on the market by former mobile phone magnate John George, with an asking price of £1.5million.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The 330-acre site in West Cornwall still features an original control tower, underground bunker, fighter shelters, pill boxes and the armaments depot which Mr George converted into the HQ of Jag Communications - once Britain's third largest independent mobile phones retailer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Formed in 1989 in Cornwall, JAG Communications encompassed over 160 outlets in Cornwall, the South of England and Wales. At its height, over 600 people were employed across the UK.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">As a result of the credit crunch, Jag was taken over by Go Mobile and Mr George quit the phones business. He has since set up an air taxi service in the Channel Islands.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">An experienced pilot, Mr George bought the airfield four years ago to ease the commute from Guernsey where he is a tax exile.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">He said: 'I bought Perranporth airfield because it was convenient'.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'I could land my plane and walk 100 yards from the end of the runway to be at my desk.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'When our shops went in 2010 we had to run down the head office and clearly I no longer needed an airfield.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'But I still love it. I've never thought of it as somewhere you own - more a place you look after until you pass it on.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'It just has an incredible atmosphere. You look out on a summer evening and think of all those crews who served here and you can't help but be affected by that.'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Perranporth was opened in April 1941 with a single runway and a large tent to serve as a barracks for the airmen. Officers were billeted in a local hotel.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The RAF planned at first to operate a single squadron of Spitfires to protect shipping and coastal towns from Luftwaffe raids.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">But as the war moved on its role changed, and by 1942 two squadrons were based there, carrying out raids on northern France and escorting bombers in attacks on French ports.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The last Spitfires left in 1944 to be replaced by squadrons of Avengers and Swordfish tasked with hunting U and E Boats in the Atlantic.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Perranporth was never targeted by the Germans and according to English Heritage its 'defence landscape survives virtually as it was during World War II'.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">The airfield is still fully operational and, despite competition from nearby Newquay Airport, has remained popular with both businessmen and holidaymakers visiting Cornwall.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">Mr George, 51, says his estate agent, Savills, has already received more than 100 inquiries from potential buyers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">He said: 'It really is a fine example of our military heritage</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'Whereas many RAF bases further east were bombed by the Germans, this one escaped damage.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;">'I want to see it thrive again and there's no doubt it can.'</span><br />
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<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-4016962896299902262011-11-23T22:02:00.003-05:002011-11-24T12:35:01.163-05:00The fourth tunnel called George<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUZVmFCZ4_7MmUoq1A5LBOHnVRmKADY6PDb48oeWMjBOe9R-5AULQvRFoTKGFzVT5IPtEdlgUb5Vo-op8hWiOxoe7XWie5PFiMg8LZw-I3hTT50lGjseoXNR2DQUgTUBcTcDCQkNPTV5HJ/s1600/article-2063652-0EDE689B00000578-378_634x418.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUZVmFCZ4_7MmUoq1A5LBOHnVRmKADY6PDb48oeWMjBOe9R-5AULQvRFoTKGFzVT5IPtEdlgUb5Vo-op8hWiOxoe7XWie5PFiMg8LZw-I3hTT50lGjseoXNR2DQUgTUBcTcDCQkNPTV5HJ/s400/article-2063652-0EDE689B00000578-378_634x418.jpg" width="400px" /></a></div>Frank Stone, seated, with Dr Tony Pollard on the site of George<br />
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This is an amazing story that i came across on the internet while surfing that i wanted to share with you. The true story of the great escape remains one of the great stories of the the Second World War. The men who tried to escape from Stalag Luft III at the price of their lives or that wanted to escape for that matter from any other World War two POW German prison camps were truly heroes.<br />
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It has lain hidden for nearly 70 years and looks, to the untrained eye, like a building site. But this insignificant tunnel opening in the soft sand of western Poland represents one of the greatest examples of British wartime heroism. And the sensational story became the Hollywood classic, The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwLxr75SqvjsxzzKpcMcvjwYimQscFvxIm-ED8FV4Dh2bLzPn1rJIf0RmqOJjRSwCPx-4wIivPOuRL_kBAHMTZ5Oz9-FYQniw68KFeDsThxmqzyCcYDKcWHGTYVggcBBd-bPbFsIQV2tT8/s1600/article-2063652-0EDCDA9400000578-353_634x383.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwLxr75SqvjsxzzKpcMcvjwYimQscFvxIm-ED8FV4Dh2bLzPn1rJIf0RmqOJjRSwCPx-4wIivPOuRL_kBAHMTZ5Oz9-FYQniw68KFeDsThxmqzyCcYDKcWHGTYVggcBBd-bPbFsIQV2tT8/s400/article-2063652-0EDCDA9400000578-353_634x383.jpg" width="400px" /></a></div>Poignant memories: Frank Stone, left, and Gordie King with recovered artefacts including the pistol, below<br />
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We are standing in the notorious PoW camp Stalag Luft III, built at the height of the Third Reich, 100 miles east of Berlin. Ten thousand prisoners were kept under German guns here on a 60-acre site ringed with a double barbed-wire fence and watchtowers. <br />
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They slept in barrack huts raised off the ground so guards could spot potential tunnellers, but the Germans did not count on the audacity of British Spitfire pilot Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, played by Sir Richard Attenborough in the 1963 film. He was interned at the camp in March 1943. With him were about 2,000 other RAF officers, many of whom were seasoned escapers from other camps, with skills in tunnelling, forgery and manufacturing. <br />
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From them Bushell hand-picked a team for his ambitious plan: to dig their way out of captivity. <br />
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Three tunnels nicknamed Tom, Dick and Harry were constructed 30ft underground using homemade tools. While Tom was discovered and destroyed by the Germans, Dick was used for storage. <br />
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The third tunnel, Harry, became the stuff of folklore on the night of March 24, 1944, when Allied prisoners gathered in hut 104 before crawling along the 100ft tunnel to a brief taste of freedom. Only three escaped; 73 were rounded up by the Germans and 50 were summarily executed.<br />
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Few could have blamed their devastated comrades for sitting out the remainder of the war. Yet far from being dispirited, a few men began work on a fourth tunnel nicknamed ‘George’, which was kept so secret that only a handful of prisoners knew about it. <br />
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<div class="moduleHalf" id="ext-gen1135" style="font-weight: bold;">Now, for the first time in 66 years, the archaeologists have pinpointed the entrance shaft to Harry after compiling a map of the camp using aerial photography. </div><br />
‘You have to admire these men,’ said chief archaeologist Dr Tony Pollard. ‘The Germans believed that the deaths of those 50 men would have acted as a deterrent for future escapees. But these men were even more determined.’<br />
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With us at the site are two of them: Gordie King, 91, an RAF pilot who operated the pump providing the tunnel with fresh air on the night of the Great Escape, and Frank Stone, 89, a gunner who shared a room with the ‘tunnel king’ Wally Floody, an ex-miner in charge of the digging. They stand, heads bowed, reminiscing about their former colleagues. It is the first time Gordie, who was shot down on his first mission to Bremen in 1942, has returned to the camp since he and the remaining prisoners of war were marched out on January 27, 1945, as Russian forces approached.<br />
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‘It has been very emotional,’ he said. ‘It brings back such bittersweet memories. I am amazed by everything they have found.’<br />
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A widower with six children, he has vivid memories of working on tunnel Harry, performing guard duty and acting as a ‘penguin’ to disperse the sand excavated from the tunnels, whose entrances were hidden by the huts’ stoves.<br />
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They were called penguins because they waddled when they walked. <br />
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‘We would put bags around our neck and down our trousers, fill them with excavated sand, then pull a string to release it on to the field where we played soccer, all in a very nonchalant way,’ Gordie said. <br />
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‘One of my jobs was to look out of the window at the main gate 24 hours a day and write down how many guards went in and out,’ he recalled. ‘Another was warning watch. If the Germans came into the compound, we would pull the laundry line down and everyone would stop what they were doing and resume normal duties. The guards were not exactly brilliant. They were taken from what we called 4F – not fit for frontline fighting.<br />
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I’m thrilled by it all,’ added Frank, who was shot down on his second mission: a bombing raid on Ludwigshafen oil refinery. ‘It’s like a war memorial for me. I don’t want people ever to forget the 50 men who died. The escape was thrilling and exciting but those men paid the price for it.’<br />
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Inevitably security tightened after the Great Escape and an inventory was taken by the Germans to gauge the extent of the operation. The roll- call of hidden items is astounding: 4,000 bedboards, 90 double bunk beds, 635 mattresses, 62 tables, 34 chairs, 76 benches, 3,424 towels, 2,000 knives and forks, 1,400 cans of Klim powdered milk, 300 metres of electric wire and 180 metres of rope.<br />
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To prevent further escape attempts, the Germans filled in Harry with sand. So effective was the cover-up that when the remaining prisoners wanted to build a memorial for the 50 men who died, the exact site of the tunnel could not be agreed on. <br />
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Now, for the first time in 66 years, the archaeologists have pinpointed the entrance shaft to Harry after compiling a map of the camp using aerial photography.<br />
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What was most surprising for the team was the structure within the shaft. The bedboards were interlocked to line the tunnel but the sand was so soft that plaster and sandbags were used to prevent it engulfing the tunnel. Amazingly, the ventilation shaft, which was made out of discarded powdered milk tins, was still intact.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigog3N4JkE_eKLJapInVi2tNTO0MVXGLatDQxgjzFladSBopxmksLEUpxORYTQUjID3LXwc7G-iAaQg8TA0KkJQtpfgs50ZiEVacNKkKxziKfZceBeogvPATNYKjfH8W5equ4K4I4vq4EF/s1600/article-2063652-0416473C000005DC-651_634x349.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigog3N4JkE_eKLJapInVi2tNTO0MVXGLatDQxgjzFladSBopxmksLEUpxORYTQUjID3LXwc7G-iAaQg8TA0KkJQtpfgs50ZiEVacNKkKxziKfZceBeogvPATNYKjfH8W5equ4K4I4vq4EF/s400/article-2063652-0416473C000005DC-651_634x349.jpg" width="400px" /></a><br />
<br />
Dr Pollard, 46, who co-founded Glasgow University’s Centre for Battlefield Archaeology, said: ‘I was surprised at just how emotional I became when we found Harry. We were the first people to see the tunnel in decades. But it came to a point when we realised we couldn’t progress with the excavation. As soon as you drive a shaft into the sand, it is so soft it starts to collapse. It shows just how skilled those prisoners were.’<br />
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After abandoning Harry, the team set their sights on finding the secret fourth tunnel rumoured to have been dug underneath the floorboards in the camp theatre.<br />
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Using ground-scanning radar equipment, they found – beneath what would have been seat 13 – the trap door to a space that gave real insight into how the earlier tunnels would have been built.<br />
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To the left, between the floor joists, was a storage area for equipment – Klim tins, tools, a trolley and the ventilation pump – and abandoned sand. A few feet away was the entrance to the tunnel shaft, and at its bottom a separate chamber, which archaeologists believe was the radio room.<br />
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<div class="moduleHalf" id="ext-gen1153" style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 1.4em;">After abandoning Harry, the team set their sights on finding the secret fourth tunnel rumoured to have been dug underneath the floorboards in the camp theatre.</span><span style="font-size: 1.4em;"> </span></span></div><br />
Down a single step lay the tunnel itself, intricately shored with bed boards, wired for light and equipped with the trademark trolley system used to shift both sand and men quickly and silently through the tunnels. It looked like a miniature railway with trolleys running on tracks linked by rope and pulled along by men at either end. <br />
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‘George turned out to be an absolute gem,’ explained Dr Pollard. ‘We found the shaft and excavated the tunnel which ran the entire length of the theatre. It was incredibly well preserved, with timber-lined walls, electrical wiring and homemade junction boxes, and was tall enough to walk through at a stoop. The craftsmanship is phenomenal. You can even see the groove on the top of the manhole cover, where it would swivel and slot into the floorboard above. <br />
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‘It was built at a time of heightened security at the camp. It is a fighting tunnel, not an escape tunnel. It was heading for the German compound from where the prisoners hoped to steal weapons and fight their way out. <br />
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The men knew the end of the war was nigh and they were playing a dangerous game. To see what most of the prisoners never saw was a real thrill. The Germans obviously discovered Harry but they never had a clue about George.’<br />
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The massive collection of artefacts found inside the tunnel included trenching tools; a fat-burning lamp crafted from a Klim tin; solder made from the silver foil of cigarette packets for the wiring system; a belt buckle and briefcase handle from the escapers’ fake uniforms as well as a German gun near hut 104. They also uncovered the axle and wheels from one of the tunnel trolleys, identical to the one used in Harry, and the remains of an air pump; a kind of hand-operated bellows which drew fresh air from the surface down a duct to the tunnel.<br />
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But the piece de resistance was a clandestine PoW radio crafted from a biscuit box and cannibalised from two radios smuggled into the camp.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5HuGLNIVdQS2dE5f7jrcL_sk6oml4GImomohXUshIRk05FHYerN8_OwszQ40JOrsgk8Hu1Dt0DF9NTrbp0vJzhINCHyXKcuYpn_4RRJ6c0Y5BvH9YQ4FRz7yNF_6zRmfna0yFXUkGvr1D/s1600/article-2063652-0EDCD9DC00000578-691_634x417.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5HuGLNIVdQS2dE5f7jrcL_sk6oml4GImomohXUshIRk05FHYerN8_OwszQ40JOrsgk8Hu1Dt0DF9NTrbp0vJzhINCHyXKcuYpn_4RRJ6c0Y5BvH9YQ4FRz7yNF_6zRmfna0yFXUkGvr1D/s400/article-2063652-0EDCD9DC00000578-691_634x417.jpg" width="400px" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFt-vZ1adEJZxDb4jM69goxX3ownMtnxwSsQvqOZQnVY8wS-280TkfnkeL1tcy7kh16o0oRicq1Rh6zTimfAlVJICMn1Izz-FQkBsrQOoqpyAWiPpCQY2AkLv4Xo4KLbm1eVGS_JUEbnyO/s1600/article-2063652-0EDCE0D300000578-401_634x944.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFt-vZ1adEJZxDb4jM69goxX3ownMtnxwSsQvqOZQnVY8wS-280TkfnkeL1tcy7kh16o0oRicq1Rh6zTimfAlVJICMn1Izz-FQkBsrQOoqpyAWiPpCQY2AkLv4Xo4KLbm1eVGS_JUEbnyO/s400/article-2063652-0EDCE0D300000578-401_634x944.jpg" width="267px" /></a></div>Tunnel vision: A tunnel reconstruction showing the trolley system, tried out by Frank, 89<br />
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Frank was instrumental in making the coil for the radio, which he moulded from an old 78 record. ‘I helped with the work on the construction of the radio, doing the soldering and things like that,’ he recalled, ‘cutting out bits of tins and whatever we needed for the equipment.’<br />
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Gordie added: ‘I remember one day walking around the camp with a friend when we saw this huge coil of wire. We grabbed it, covered it up with our coats and took it back to the hut. The Germans could not understand where the wire went. Until then we had had to rely on old tins of margarine with a wick in them, made from pyjama cord, to light the tunnel, but they were smoky, used up oxygen and were continually getting knocked out.’<br />
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On the night of the Great Escape, 200 prisoners, allocated consecutive numbers, gathered in hut 104 to make their escape, each a few minutes apart. The leaders were dressed in German uniforms or specially tailored civvies and kitted out with maps, compasses and forged documents.<br />
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Gordie, who was slot 140, remembers sharing final words with many of the escapers, wishing them luck and complimenting them on ‘their impressive disguises’.<br />
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‘It was quite exciting,’ he said. ‘Only the key German-speaking officers, who had a good chance of bluffing their way through, were given documents and civilian uniforms. The rest of us were so-called hard-a**ers, who were expected to get out and run.’<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidymfHLU7bTlIUUMwXwC2ntvVlK6QzocHLBCZzcOV90tSsjlAsbEfn_AbCBmB8NNsYMLviv_WHykCmKXOkRrSxwQL1jPgy_5c1AcDS1CHopbS4bgFyT_u45VTsiml-YhOohHcCfk3W8rhm/s1600/article-2063652-0275B28E00000578-905_634x548.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="345px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidymfHLU7bTlIUUMwXwC2ntvVlK6QzocHLBCZzcOV90tSsjlAsbEfn_AbCBmB8NNsYMLviv_WHykCmKXOkRrSxwQL1jPgy_5c1AcDS1CHopbS4bgFyT_u45VTsiml-YhOohHcCfk3W8rhm/s400/article-2063652-0275B28E00000578-905_634x548.jpg" width="400px" /></a><br />
War classic: Steve McQueen on the set of the classic movie, The Great Escape<br />
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According to Roger Bushell’s plan, thousands of German soldiers and police would be deployed to hunt the escapers, preventing them from fighting the Allies. But after 76 men had escaped, the remainder were caught leaving the tunnel by German guards. Seventy-three of the men who got away were rounded up over the next few weeks and 23 were returned to the camp. The other 50 were shot in the back of the head by the guards at the side of the road. Only three escapees, Norwegians Per Bergsland and Jens Muller, and Dutch fighter pilot Bram van der Stok, succeeded in reaching safety. Bergsland and Muller got to neutral Sweden and Van der Stok made it to Gibraltar via Holland and France. <br />
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‘Afterwards the morale in the camp was very depressed,’ said Frank, tears in his eyes. ‘It was eerie. We had a period of mourning and held a memorial service. People just wandered around the camp quietly.’<br />
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‘A mass of doom enveloped the whole camp as so many of us had friends who were shot,’ added Gordie. ‘My close friend Jimmy Wernham, who came from the same town as me, was one of those who didn’t come back. <br />
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‘Before he went out, he took his ring off and gave it to his roommate Hap Geddes, who wasn’t going out, and said, “If anything happens to me, I want you to take this ring and give it to my fiancee.” After the war, Hap took the ring back to Dorothy and struck up a relationship with her. He ended up marrying her. He is still alive and living in Canada.’<br />
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Frank added: ‘I hope that what has been revealed will remind everybody what we went through and how we met the challenges. It was a privilege to be involved.’Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-76489796471141339962011-11-20T19:39:00.006-05:002011-11-23T22:51:27.952-05:00The train jumpers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYQ4J0EdvEksbjQZrjsVjl8NRGwCuQc0GIqmYU0ea2-XW_v7-KjB7jqWUKqYk93GY2RwDZ4A6Ycd4Q92EqgqoSrhO4cNRCZTPo9Kaw3yFLT3NHGFmXDtu4YT1IzuzC8Gzu_0KlZIq3kAqz/s1600/num%25C3%25A9risation0001.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYQ4J0EdvEksbjQZrjsVjl8NRGwCuQc0GIqmYU0ea2-XW_v7-KjB7jqWUKqYk93GY2RwDZ4A6Ycd4Q92EqgqoSrhO4cNRCZTPo9Kaw3yFLT3NHGFmXDtu4YT1IzuzC8Gzu_0KlZIq3kAqz/s400/num%25C3%25A9risation0001.bmp" width="400" /></a></div><br />
This is an exciting sketch of the means of escape quite frequently practiced by Allied prisoners of War while being transferred between prisonner of war camps. The following picture from a train is both graphic and realistic. The jump involves spirit, perfect timing and steady nerves. The German guards must be caught off balance. They may be at the other end of the corridor or perhaps just looking the other way. There may be planned diversion - the guards attention has been diverted either by a German speaker or a commotion in some other part of the carriage. At the given moment the prisoner makes his jump. A comrade chucks his equipement out after him. It will contain some spare clothing, a bit of food, perhaps a map, most likely a home made compass.<br />
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What the Allied prisonners of war had to endure while escaping the German Army must have been quite frightening. An allied prisonner escaping knew that if caught by the German army, he would be handed over to the Gestapo for questionning. This soldier, airman or sailor knew that his life would be in the hands of the Gestapo interrogator. He was either subject to torture or hours on end of questionning or both without very little food or water. Very often, if the prisonner survived the intterogation, he would be sent to Colditz castle. No allied prisonner of war wanted to be sent to Colditz, the old castle on a mountain top near Leipzig, Germany, it was cold, damp and practically with no means of escape. <br />
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The only thing an Allied prisonner of war wanted to do is escape to the nearest country either to Spain or Switzerland where the Nazi regime was not in place or very neutral and to be able to contact the resistance and be helped back home to England to fight again against the Nazi regime and bring it to it's knees so the Allies could all end the war and return to a normal life once again but escaping from Colditz was probably as hard to escape as to trying to stay alive during the war on a major battlefield. Life at Colditz was miserable for any Allied prisonner of war.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-44949436568410661292011-11-11T08:35:00.005-05:002011-11-11T09:28:53.629-05:00In Flanders Fields / Poème au champ d'honneur<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgppoW6_g2Von-jaYbYhK7zDB8Zf3V6aZfmm8OI5viRUE4pLUSxWn9vstJYgom7lYRxQig5_mzmHARrw_DqMz3pU2j3Vsi11GrpBgwKT6u4CkN_MH1oaJGqZa6-XXiQk9u-5AP0OzqmPJSo/s1600/19760596-002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgppoW6_g2Von-jaYbYhK7zDB8Zf3V6aZfmm8OI5viRUE4pLUSxWn9vstJYgom7lYRxQig5_mzmHARrw_DqMz3pU2j3Vsi11GrpBgwKT6u4CkN_MH1oaJGqZa6-XXiQk9u-5AP0OzqmPJSo/s400/19760596-002.jpg" width="310" /></a></div><br />
In Flanders Fields<br />
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In Flanders fields the poppies blow<br />
Between the crosses, row on row,<br />
That mark our place; and in the sky<br />
The larks, still bravely singing, fly<br />
Scarce heard amid the guns below.<br />
We are the Dead.<br />
Short days ago<br />
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,<br />
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie<br />
In Flanders Fields.<br />
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Take up our quarrel with the foe:<br />
To you from failing hands we throw<br />
The torch; be yours to hold it high.<br />
If ye break faith with us who die<br />
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow<br />
In Flanders Fields.<br />
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ <br />
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<strong>Poème au champ d'honneur<br />
</strong>Au champ d'honneur, les coquelicots<br />
Sont parsemés de lot en lot<br />
Auprès des croix; et dans l'espace<br />
Les alouettes devenues lasses<br />
Mêlent leurs chants au sifflement<br />
Des obusiers.<br />
<br />
Nous sommes morts,<br />
Nous qui songions la veille encor'<br />
À nos parents, à nos amis,<br />
C'est nous qui reposons ici,<br />
Au champ d'honneur.<br />
<br />
À vous jeunes désabusés,<br />
À vous de porter l'oriflamme<br />
Et de garder au fond de l'âme<br />
Le goût de vivre en liberté.<br />
Acceptez le défi, sinon<br />
Les coquelicots se faneront<br />
Au champ d'honneur.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-15214517714480252672010-11-15T22:01:00.004-05:002010-11-15T22:14:08.259-05:00Larry Carter, RCAF Pilot, KIA<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAWRZRAxWXCL1B4IteJ39hYa5EtaDLqb4KAR8Z2TR51X2aGJ8vOxH2Tz8-WTMSilYo4_0dlebQ6dZACdwPNAHj2qMCOpszH8XtbH4QvsboPgGDKkgbhMf_rkQddeaZzZ536euKX6pY7F2O/s1600/Larry+Carter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAWRZRAxWXCL1B4IteJ39hYa5EtaDLqb4KAR8Z2TR51X2aGJ8vOxH2Tz8-WTMSilYo4_0dlebQ6dZACdwPNAHj2qMCOpszH8XtbH4QvsboPgGDKkgbhMf_rkQddeaZzZ536euKX6pY7F2O/s400/Larry+Carter.jpg" width="285" /></a></div><br />
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This amazing story was sent to me by someone that wished to remain anonymous. The link to this story was sent through my tribute to the RCAF email address. I thought that this story of courage, should be posted on my blog. This young man's name is Larry Carter as seen on the Flickr link which can be viewed simply by double clicking on the title, Larry Carter, RCAF Pilot, KIA, above. I would have liked to respond to the person who has sent me this link, to know, if i can make a copy of the Flickr page and post it my my blog? Who ever is the rightful owner of the picture and story, if you have any objections or comments, please let me know! In the mean time, i though that it would be beautiful to post this story of courage and sacrifice by a another truly brave Canadian by the way who trained at the RCAF base in Lachine in which, i have made a previous article on my blog. Thank you Larry for your courage.<br />
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Larry was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on January 23, 1924. His father was Roy Cuthbert Carter, and his mother was Josephine Stovel. He was one of the best educated of the crew, having achieved his senior matriculation (grade 12). He enjoyed hockey, football and track. Larry enlisted at Windsor, Ontario, on May 20, 1942. His first station was at #5 Manning Depot in Lachine, Quebec, where he learned military discipline, aviation basics, regulations, history, and navigation. Between courses he engaged in endless drills and weapon-handling exercises.<br />
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At #3 Initial Training School, Victoriaville, Quebec, it was found that Larry had the aptitude to be a bomber pilot. He was tested on a LINK flight simulator, which was a grueling test of one’s capabilities.<br />
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While attending #11 Elementary Flying Training School at Cap de la Madelaine, Quebec, Larry flew De Havilland Moth and Fairey Fleet training aircraft. <br />
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At #5 Special Service Flying School in Brantford, Ontario, Larry trained in Avro Ansons (known as the ‘greenhouse’ because of its wrap-around cockpit).<br />
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Larry was awarded his pilot’s badge on January 10, 1943. On October 22, 1943, he embarked from Halifax, and disembarked in Britain on October 30, 1943. <br />
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Upon arriving in Britain, he was first stationed at No. 3 Personnel Reception Centre in Bournemouth, Dorset, while waiting for openings to become available at advanced training units. <br />
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I’m a little bit sketchy concerning his precise training at 26 Elementary Flying Training School at Theale in Berkshire, RAF Gaydon in Warwickshire, 14 (P) AFU at Ossington in Nottinghamshire and Dallachy, Moray, Scotland.<br />
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At 83OTU Peplow, he trained on Wellington bombers, and it was here he was killed on a night training mission, July 22/23, 1944.<br />
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The commanding officer at Victoriaville found him to be “… a bright-eyed youngster with excellent Service Spirit. [He is ] very anxious to make good as any part of aircrew. Working very hard. [He] is keen, well-disciplined and should do well as captain of an aircraft”<br />
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Larry’s body was recovered from the sea east of Afonwen Junction, Caernarvonshire, on August 4, 1944, and he was buried at Blacon cemetery in Chester, on August 4, 1944<br />
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-85379160719169970412010-09-05T09:24:00.008-04:002010-09-05T09:44:18.306-04:00The many behind the few: TV's David Jason takes to the skies in a Second World War Spitfire to pay tribute to the Battle of Britain's heroes...<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">During the Battle of Britain, those fighter pilots lucky enough to have dodged the Luftwaffe’s deadly bullets always performed a ritual on their way home.</div>They would wait until they were flying just above the White Cliffs of Dover – the very symbol of everything they were fighting for – and flip their Spitfire or Hurricane in an exuberant barrel-roll of honour.<br />
It was a kind of ecstatic, airborne dance of victory. Recently, while filming my forthcoming ITV documentary on the Battle of Britain, I got to experience just a little of what they must have felt.<br />
Not only did I get to fly a Spitfire – with the help of a trusting trainer, Carolyn Grace, in the front – but I also got to experience the stomach-tumbling joy of the ritual myself.<br />
That day I had already soared high above the English Channel in a plane steeped in military history.<br />
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My Spitfire had flown 300 combat hours during the Second World War and had shot down the first enemy plane during D-Day. It had been mind-blowing to imagine the steel required by pilots to keep their nerve, their course steady and their aim true while bullets flew past them in all directions. But the best was yet to come. As we flew back, Carolyn said: ‘Just imagine, you’re returning home after surviving your latest battle with the Luftwaffe. Now look over there.’ And as I did, I saw the White Cliffs looming majestically up from the sea.<br />
‘Shall we do the barrel-roll?’ she asked. The answer had to be ‘yes’. Carolyn took the controls and we flipped in a glorious double somersault, careening above the cliffs with the magnificence of an eagle.<br />
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There are not too many things in life that have reduced me to tears but this was one of them. I felt humbled and so proud of those men who fought for us in our darkest hour. It’s an experience that will never leave me.<br />
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For me, the making of a documentary to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain was an intensely personal journey. I was born in February 1940 so I was just six months old as the battle raged overhead.<br />
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Our soaring and twirling Spitfire was painting the sky with a hula hoop of happiness...<br />
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I grew up in London, a city devastated by the bombing. I am, you might say, a Blitz Baby.<br />
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I was too small to remember much about it but all of us alive at that time were shaped by the events of the war. My parents, Arthur and Olwen, were honest, working-class people who raised my brother Arthur, sister June and me with the values of that era – patriotism, stoicism, honesty, concern for your neighbours and judging a man by what he did rather than what he had.<br />
My mum worked as a char when I was growing up and my dad was a fishmonger, but during the war years he had another role, too. He was in the Reserves, a kind of Home Guard.<br />
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The stories my father used to tell about his service in that organisation had echoes of Dad’s Army about it. We lived in Finchley, North London, and so he and his compatriots in the local division would plonk themselves on top of the nearby Southgate Gasometer with an ack-ack gun and fire at German bombers as they flew overhead.<br />
The problem was that they never actually had any real bullets because they were all being used in the war effort elsewhere. My dad would come home and say: ‘We could have hit them if we had ammunition!’ It wasn’t funny at the time, although he laughed about it years later when he retold the stories.<br />
Thinking back, he was lucky to survive. Can you imagine if a bomb had hit the gasometer? He would still be flying now. When you look at the large casualty figures – four million British homes destroyed and more than 60,000 British civilians killed in bombing raids during the Second World War, two-thirds of those during the Blitz – we were lucky to survive at all. At home we had an air-raid shelter and we were religious about observing the lights-out rule.<br />
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One little chink of light could guide a German bomber in, and that would be it. Even now, the rule is so conditioned in my brain that I’ll never leave a light on in the house unnecessarily and I can get quite grumpy when other people do. Yet still, even with these precautions, everyone in London was vulnerable. One night, a German plane scattered bombs all around us: one landed just up the road on the Gaumont cinema, another in Percy Road, the street next to us, and a third in our road, Lodge Lane.<br />
If the bomb had dropped just 150 yards to the right, I wouldn’t be here today. Years after the war had ended, the scarred landscape of London remained the backdrop of my childhood.<br />
Our gang played on the bombsite that had been left in Lodge Lane, while a rival group played on theirs in Percy Road. When it got close to November 5, we would creep over to the rival bombsite to sabotage the bonfire they had been building. We would try to set fire to theirs, they would try to set fire to ours.<br />
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As young lads, around the age of ten, it never occurred to us that these ‘playgrounds’ were created by a bomb and that people must have died there. But now aged 70, I find myself reflecting on the human cost in both civilian and military terms.<br />
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We need to remember, for example, that during the war more than 55,000 men in Bomber Command never made it back – 5,000 of those were from Elvington, near York, one of several airfields I visited while making my documentary. Indeed, the life expectancy of a fighter pilot at the height of the battle could be counted in days. And I’ve been thinking not just about the pilots – perhaps the bravest men in the world – but of all the men and women on the ground who helped us defeat the forces of Nazi Germany.<br />
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These include the crews who looked after the planes and kept them ready constantly for service. I met Joe Roddis, who had been an 18-year-old flight mechanic in 1940 at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, now home to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.<br />
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‘Without us, it was no good,’ he said simply. ‘And without them, the pilots, it was even less good.’<br />
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Then there was the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, affectionately known as the WAAFs. By 1943, the WAAF’s numbers exceeded 180,000, with more than 2,000 women enlisting every week.<br />
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During those dreadful months of the Battle of Britain, from July to October 1940, it was WAAFs such as the redoubtable Hazel Gregory, then aged 19, who worked as ‘plotters’ in radar stations up and down the country. It was their job to map the progress of Luftwaffe planes as they flew towards Britain.<br />
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During our interview, I looked into Hazel’s eyes as we sat together 60ft below ground in a bunker in Uxbridge that had been the Fighter Command centre for London and the South East.<br />
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‘Did you ever worry that the Germans would succeed?’ I asked her. ‘No,’ she said. ‘There was tremendous spirit and nobody thought for a single moment that we wouldn’t win.’ What better example of the Blitz spirit could you ever encounter?<br />
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And let’s not forget the Royal Observer Corps, a band of unarmed civilians stationed at hundreds of observation posts all over the country. While filming, I went to the wartime location of one such post, codenamed Sugar Three. There I met Dennis Bates and John Elgar Winney, two of the 30,000-strong army of volunteers who had spied on the skies through binoculars. ‘What we could do that the radar couldn’t was to tell what type of aircraft were coming, how many there were and what direction they were flying in,’ Dennis told me. They would call this intelligence through on a crackling GPO line to their own HQ, which then alerted Fighter Command, which would scramble Spitfires and Hurricanes.<br />
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‘The Observer Corps were vital in the Battle of Britain,’ John added. ‘Without us it could not have been won.’ The most important lesson, then, to emerge from the making of the documentary was that we owe a huge debt of gratitude to so many people. As Terry Kane, another of the veteran fighter pilots I was privileged enough to meet, explained: ‘It wasn’t just the pilots who won the Battle of Britain. In many senses, it was the whole country.’ <br />
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If Britain had not come together at that time, as it did, to defeat theNazis, none of us would have lived the kind of life that we have been able to live, or had the kind of freedoms I know that I have certainly enjoyed.<br />
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So the documentary became not just about those brave fighter pilots immortalised in Winston Churchill’s post-Battle of Britain victory speech in which he said: ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.’<br />
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It was also a tribute to the ‘many’ behind the ‘few’: the unsung heroes of the Battle of Britain. Most importantly, I wanted to reveal the human face behind the history lesson, although, of course, the history itself is important.<br />
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War had been declared in 1939 and by the end of June 1940 the German jackboot went right through most of Europe, including France and Poland, and it was also well on its way to Russia. Britain was next on Hitler’s hit-list and by August 1940, German invasion barges were assembling on the French coast.<br />
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However, they could not set sail until the Luftwaffe had wiped out the RAF, both in the air and on the ground. We didn't feel brave, we just got on with it<br />
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It was essential that the RAF prevailed because it was the only thing standing between freedom and the Nazis, and if it had capitulated we would have been annihilated.<br />
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Yet we were horrendously outnumbered – 4,000 German bombers and fighters massed against just 600 RAF fighters.<br />
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‘But the question of being outnumbered didn’t come into it because you were always outnumbered,’ said Paul Farnes, who was a 21-year-old Hurricane pilot in 501 Squadron at the time. ‘But we had one big advantage: we were fighting over our own country and so we knew all too well what we were fighting for.’<br />
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Unwisely, Hitler had not reckoned on the indomitability of the British spirit and the men and women of the RAF. His generals had told him it would be easy, but even after attempting to destroy our airfields before turning his attention to cities such as London, Aberdeen, Bristol, Coventry and Hull, still we would not yield.<br />
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Hitler was left scratching his head over his force’s inability to defeat us. In the end, I suppose he said: ‘OK, we’ll come back to that later’ which was a big mistake because he never got to do that. The Battle of Britain was not just a defining moment in our nation’s history, it was also the absolute turning point in a war that ultimately saw the Nazis defeated.<br />
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But I also wanted to take a closer look at the men and the machines – the pilots and the planes – that gave the Luftwaffe such a run for their money in 1940. I’ve always had such tremendous respect for the men who fought in the Battle of Britain and I am a patron of the RAF Benevolent Fund.<br />
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I also have a pilot’s licence myself, although in my case, until I flew the Spitfire, I had only ever flown helicopters. I got my licence in 2005 after my wife Gill bought me a flying lesson as a birthday present.<br />
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I found myself so completely hooked on flying that I was determined to get the necessary qualifications. A couple of years ago, I bought my own helicopter, a Robinson R44. I use it occasion-ally to fly myself to sets where I am filming or to business meetings.<br />
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From Buckinghamshire, where I live, I’ll fly for an hour to Norwich, perhaps, or to the south coast. But I never fly more than that. It’s more than enough in terms of the mental workload because it takes a lot of concentration. So I’m lost in admiration at the way our pilots were able to fly up to six sorties a day. And they did it without any of the mod-cons that pilots have today. They would have been alone and freezing cold, heading towards an enemy that had only one objective in mind. It was a shoot-or-be-shot situation. It would have taken nerves of steel. During my visit to RAF Coningsby, I was shown the oldest airworthy Spit-fire in the world. It is the only one still flying today that fought in the Battle of Britain. A team of proud fitters showed me the workings of this magnificent plane, including its eight guns.<br />
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Each was loaded with 350 bullets, which seems impressive but this gave the pilots only 12 to 14 seconds of fire-power, after which they had to come back to base to reload before going out again.<br />
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‘Ninety-seven per cent of the bullets missed. We were very bad shots,’ Tom Riley, another of the veteran fighter pilots, recalled with a smile. ‘But the only thing to do was to get as close as you could to the bloke in front. If you could almost touch him you could probably hit him.’<br />
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Like so many of the pilots, Tom had been heartbreak-ingly young at the time that he risked all for his country. He was just 19 when he flew his first Battle of Britain mission. The average age of fighter pilots was 22.<br />
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Amazingly, the pilot in command of one of the squadrons that bombed Dresden later in the war was only 24.It’s difficult to imagine young men in their early 20s these days being able to stand so much responsibility.<br />
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But, perhaps, if the enemy was at our door, as it was then, they would find the courage.Back in 1939 these young men had joined the RAF as volunteers and learned to fly in Tiger Moths, but with the outbreak of war they were called upon to defend our skies in Spitfires and Hurricanes against the Messerschmitts and Dorniers.<br />
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It was not what they had signed up for and so, in that sense, their lives were not given for this country but taken by it, because no fool ever actively wants to go to war.And yet they discovered such tremendous heroism and tenacity within themselves, although they would never dream of boasting about their own achievements.<br />
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‘I don’t think anybody felt particularly brave,’ former Hurricane pilot Paul Farnes said. ‘It was what we had been trained for. It was our job and we just got on and did it.’During my interviews, I wanted to find out what – aside from luck – separated those who survived from those who died.<br />
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According to Bill Green, a fighter pilot with 501 Squadron who flew 29 missions himself before being gunned down and baling out, it was the exhausted and the inexperienced pilots who were first to be shot down.<br />
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‘Most of the casualties were inexperienced pilots joining the squadron one day and being shot down the next,’ he told me. ‘The ones who stayed alive usually had a great deal of experience.’<br />
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Paul Farnes added: ‘The really good pilots all had a sixth sense. They didn’t need to look round to see where the danger was – they felt it instinctively and dodged the bullets.<br />
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‘Those who had intuition survived and those who didn’t got shot down, I’m afraid. It was brutal.’<br />
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At RAF Hawkinge, now the Kent Battle of Britain Museum, I saw just how brutal things were for myself. The museum still holds the remains of 650 crashed aircraft – a propeller from a German Dornier 17 is riddled with bullets, showing just how many shots it must have taken to bring down such an aircraft. But while our planes did fall, the British spirit never faltered, and in its own way, life went on. People still fell in love, babies were still born, and the young still tried to enjoy themselves.<br />
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For example, after working at Fighter Command at Uxbridge, Hazel Gregory would travel into London to go dancing. Was she worried about the bombers, I wondered. ‘No,’ she replied. ‘We were young and we wanted to have fun.’So in the midst of it all she wanted what probably every ordinary young woman wanted at the time: to meet a good-looking pilot or soldier and have an innocent dance.<br />
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They all wanted to forget about the worries of the war for an evening and just have a good time. Again, I felt totally moved by what she told me.There is an emotional thread that runs through the documentary – the same emotional thread that still binds us and tugs at us 70 years after the events of that fateful period.<br />
We are still fascinated by that time – by the Second World War in general and the Battle of Britain in particular – because it was our finest hour. And it was the spirit of the men and women just like Hazel and all the fighter pilots and those who ensured that they could keep on flying that made it so.<br />
Flying high above the White Cliffs of Dover at the end of the documentary, the soaring, twirling Spitfire painting the sky with a hula hoop of happiness seemed to embody the very spirit of those brave men and women and of the Battle of Britain itself. <br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">After the barrel-roll of victory, I retook the controls and we headed homewards.‘You certainly know how to affect a man’s heart!’ I told Carolyn.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">And, oh, how she did.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">David Jason: Battle Of Britain will be shown on ITV1 on September 12 at 7pm. Albert’s Memorial, a drama about Second World War veterans in which David Jason stars, will be shown on the same evening at 9pm.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEOtMXu_zymNC1DdKroHIkLzxFzrxywo95P_SFvcWxBeWV8QdsgvCosSChBdKwJHmw22DqsZ9SzAjO9WKrDoyhyphenhyphen-JDIc73SRI6STkKibjmjjIA9m1avySmoMHmZ0SvoeFGUWXXsPTHmPve/s1600/BOB2.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEOtMXu_zymNC1DdKroHIkLzxFzrxywo95P_SFvcWxBeWV8QdsgvCosSChBdKwJHmw22DqsZ9SzAjO9WKrDoyhyphenhyphen-JDIc73SRI6STkKibjmjjIA9m1avySmoMHmZ0SvoeFGUWXXsPTHmPve/s320/BOB2.bmp" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-10886427391032840142010-07-12T08:01:00.000-04:002010-07-12T08:01:40.293-04:00Veterans gather on clifftop to celebrate 70th anniversary of Battle of Britain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR2pxFjqakh6pNViaIobXUSW5oZCQtoEy-PBSVL1awM8JBUMoL2qlS2B8dk_V0sxOw1RZtUDwnwHPUPipbeoKJnG16MFRMJKKcwg3sD0FqzI2h5tf2lgOy2idicCiFkrKf1OKbi_2dBg_F/s1600/article-1293850-0A670C6D000005DC-977_634x286.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR2pxFjqakh6pNViaIobXUSW5oZCQtoEy-PBSVL1awM8JBUMoL2qlS2B8dk_V0sxOw1RZtUDwnwHPUPipbeoKJnG16MFRMJKKcwg3sD0FqzI2h5tf2lgOy2idicCiFkrKf1OKbi_2dBg_F/s320/article-1293850-0A670C6D000005DC-977_634x286.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_lSi8zl_mLCGwcBwklDkLZzEMfE0anVwLFjZNHzMjrTVfKJBB90spqX6nbmltEKWLUsO1OsWwYFH_zvEDOOJboJB6ZkKsg-9G1LFIpP3vuUfHfF3Tt36-wFl_Yw6TkbKATUV3Y1Ydncwj/s1600/untitled.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_lSi8zl_mLCGwcBwklDkLZzEMfE0anVwLFjZNHzMjrTVfKJBB90spqX6nbmltEKWLUsO1OsWwYFH_zvEDOOJboJB6ZkKsg-9G1LFIpP3vuUfHfF3Tt36-wFl_Yw6TkbKATUV3Y1Ydncwj/s320/untitled.bmp" /></a></div>Veterans who took part in the Battle of Britain gathered on a clifftop in blazing sunshine today at an event to mark 70 years since the start of the historic conflict. Around 5,000 people attended the open air service at the Battle of Britain memorial at Capel-le-Ferne near Dover, Kent. As well as the ceremony, which included the Act of Remembrance and wreath-laying, there were flypasts by a Spitfire and Lancaster bomber and a parade involving veterans and current air cadets.<br />
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A Hurricane was unable to fly due to technical problems. The event was attended by Prince Michael of Kent, who took the salute, along with the RAF's most senior figure, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton. 'There's been a complete mixture of people here, young and old, lots of families, aircraft enthusiasts,' spokesman Malcolm Triggs said of the annual event was the biggest memorial day yet.<br />
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'It's particularly important for youngsters to understand the history and to see the veterans here and be able to get an idea of the bravery they showed. 'This anniversary is a very significant event,' he added. He said 19 veterans were in attendance, with some of them taking part in the parade. During the summer of 1940, nearly 3,000 British and Allied airmen took on the Luftwaffe and ended up preventing a German invasion of England.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Then prime minister Winston Churchill famously said of their actions: 'Never was so much owed by so many to so few.' Officially the conflict took part between July 10, 1940 and 31 October that year, when the Luftwaffe called off bombing raids due to mounting losses and bad weather. A total of 544 British and Allied airmen lost their lives during the period. It is thought that only about 100 of the veterans who took part in the battle survive. "LEST WE NEVER FORGET"Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-18714697010474893862010-06-20T08:12:00.014-04:002010-06-20T19:43:46.292-04:00A call to reason for the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXeyjPYaYdB1VvE_6btS-dLsR10Av5ra5lUSY4tXRfq2_K0IAtqdgyHhcs3xagbHz4GV1O8-v5wFmTNut6ArBPtiOJzISname3Spx-xvMZfEcZ0nF4NCOW7V9IzARPcpRZ3SCJKa6KLO85/s1600/alg_oiled_pelican.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXeyjPYaYdB1VvE_6btS-dLsR10Av5ra5lUSY4tXRfq2_K0IAtqdgyHhcs3xagbHz4GV1O8-v5wFmTNut6ArBPtiOJzISname3Spx-xvMZfEcZ0nF4NCOW7V9IzARPcpRZ3SCJKa6KLO85/s320/alg_oiled_pelican.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqpi4vU8yVD8Df01h2FOvZO2tOOqa_mIuylNfCmaBFXKOu3dLEVNiGpyqDPyuxQPvdl-fWynK0AnIeErdnI00DtY1lFKDbZG27JhoXE3Ln7xpEsEepY8eiAXgutgSWzeoisjMFZeAhkI_q/s1600/the%2520gulf%25201-np.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqpi4vU8yVD8Df01h2FOvZO2tOOqa_mIuylNfCmaBFXKOu3dLEVNiGpyqDPyuxQPvdl-fWynK0AnIeErdnI00DtY1lFKDbZG27JhoXE3Ln7xpEsEepY8eiAXgutgSWzeoisjMFZeAhkI_q/s320/the%2520gulf%25201-np.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9X-tkHrMjn6xH_TRIKae0Jdnwvxt6rJguxpC-d3u-h1QLXsd2EKZ4BFZDa52TrRLMOQiVu1o2vocFl8aZ8RzvRsQbMndJu5GYSTNpVgdgDICghNX9TFV8Bn4VzHo0i4haJk0nKAbXftpo/s1600/f30ff876-fb33-4873-83ff-68357e002f7d-big.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9X-tkHrMjn6xH_TRIKae0Jdnwvxt6rJguxpC-d3u-h1QLXsd2EKZ4BFZDa52TrRLMOQiVu1o2vocFl8aZ8RzvRsQbMndJu5GYSTNpVgdgDICghNX9TFV8Bn4VzHo0i4haJk0nKAbXftpo/s320/f30ff876-fb33-4873-83ff-68357e002f7d-big.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5vQ0cFJrAyMG9mlvqIan06Iehyia7ad_HBGFL1XFSrDAen0WY5jaZaoqKLoj2dk76NoxfcsS5v5hH4QVeRFqtKxHthTdVo-h8_aL-hP72ujquHcrnMyT4bvIOLeOqju45qGAkE-oReWRF/s1600/untitled.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5vQ0cFJrAyMG9mlvqIan06Iehyia7ad_HBGFL1XFSrDAen0WY5jaZaoqKLoj2dk76NoxfcsS5v5hH4QVeRFqtKxHthTdVo-h8_aL-hP72ujquHcrnMyT4bvIOLeOqju45qGAkE-oReWRF/s320/untitled.bmp" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIcBkaAyubuzBujwvOx1uwVt7aqCAq9xmX1vVxv6vQKgLDTtj1aRtD8YQSa7Li48SQ9SoCuz_pPfI9wqWRYN4tA-ZUnfpoR_NKxe23ISFUQB97HCsiMA56mLl_dg-ySHpovi_sLl0m0Co9/s1600/earth_in_oil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIcBkaAyubuzBujwvOx1uwVt7aqCAq9xmX1vVxv6vQKgLDTtj1aRtD8YQSa7Li48SQ9SoCuz_pPfI9wqWRYN4tA-ZUnfpoR_NKxe23ISFUQB97HCsiMA56mLl_dg-ySHpovi_sLl0m0Co9/s320/earth_in_oil.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I wanted to post on my blog a call to reason! Something to the South of us in The United States is troubling me very much! It is the Oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Our Father's and Grandfather's have won many wars againts tyrants such as Hitler, Mussolini and people who wanted to rule the world without a democracy!! I think that this oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is like a war and we are not winning it right now! This spill is gushing millions of gallons of oil, methane and a lot of garbage that is killing wildlife and marshes and destroying the lives of thousands of fishermen, people related to the tourist industry in the United States and many more other working class people. This is all very sad!</div><br />
BP and the American Government must do everything in their power to stop this oil spill before it gains the Gulf Stream and heads out to the Atlantic Ocean. This oil spill has already done enough damage and is now affecting the livelihood of people in Louisisana, Alabama, Florida and will eventually stream North with the Oceans current! I don't even want to think if there is a major hurricane in the Gulf although scientists and the people of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predict that this hurricane season could be one of the worst on records due to the Gulf water and the Atlantic ocean being warmer than normal due to the oil absorbing the heat of the sun rays in the ocean.<br />
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I always like to talk of our veterans and all of their great accomplisments and history but this is oil spill is too important not to mention to the world through my blog and the way i feel about this disaster! This oil spill will go down in history as being humanities worst man made disaster!<br />
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Please, help in any way you can!! Please donate to an accredited Wildlife funds, I have posted on my blog a logo of the National Wildlife Federation on the top left side, all you need to do is click on the logo to be re-directed to the National Wildlife federation to help maintain the eco system of the Gulf of Mexico and the wildlife. There are other sites where you can donate to help the people of The Gulf, write to your member of Parliament if you are in Canada or the United Kingdom, write to your senetor if you live in America and tell them that this spill must be stopped urgently because it is killing the Wildlife in the Gulf and destroying the Eco system of the Gulf of Mexico and destroying the people's lives. <br />
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You can contribute to Gulf Aid Acadiana. Gulf Aid Acadiana was founded by three friends with the help and support of many other friends. Singer-songwriter Zachary Richard is recognized for his committment to environmental and cultural causes. Author of 18 albums in both French and English, as well as several collections of poetry, he is best known for his efforts to promote the French language and Cajun culture of Louisiana. Their link is<br />
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<a href="http://gulfaidacadiana.org/">http://gulfaidacadiana.org/</a><br />
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I wish i could help in the Gulf as a volunteer but being here in Canada is impossible for me! At least, if i can do anything through my blog, it will already be a step for me in the right direction. Our veterans have helped win World Wars and bring peace againts tyranny and madmen but this is another kind of war that we all must participate in so we can win it! For the people of the Gulf, for the wildlife and this beautiful planet EARTH that we all live on!<br />
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God bless you all and let's win this war in the Gulf like our veterans did! It is urgent and the Gulf of Mexico is being polluted by the minute and will take generations as of today to bring it back to it's original state so every hour and every minute counts! This is very urgent!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Thank you for your help and your call to reason in this sad situation in the Gulf of Mexico. Let's win this war once and for all and let's do it fast!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-6750956729932868822010-04-13T21:31:00.014-04:002010-04-13T23:03:51.081-04:00A forgotten Spitfire hero<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2THxB1WkTi3tlJRFdwXDZaL6nwQeIxg3GbwUJjv8lDFRPKF9kHv_fHtYEeViemlFHApf-8eNl69-ABv8N2aTucUzrvB8sqpPgX2miq5HD73Pge5covLGFdnANOcoben1yEAS5t8iRcnn6/s1600/ww2.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2THxB1WkTi3tlJRFdwXDZaL6nwQeIxg3GbwUJjv8lDFRPKF9kHv_fHtYEeViemlFHApf-8eNl69-ABv8N2aTucUzrvB8sqpPgX2miq5HD73Pge5covLGFdnANOcoben1yEAS5t8iRcnn6/s320/ww2.bmp" wt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijGeLboGSuUrwKe8y3kOeSee2URRA7uuCz7iTL_EbQNA4O5A__PzjZyPrIB37RN62czKQObYLoTuBkrK5KGrArO5Ob3HSd6QhI7MxDW3ZIFSM2z1ms1q7z7i1ZuYtuMj7tZw8QraNpo3sV/s1600/e554_20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijGeLboGSuUrwKe8y3kOeSee2URRA7uuCz7iTL_EbQNA4O5A__PzjZyPrIB37RN62czKQObYLoTuBkrK5KGrArO5Ob3HSd6QhI7MxDW3ZIFSM2z1ms1q7z7i1ZuYtuMj7tZw8QraNpo3sV/s400/e554_20.jpg" width="400" wt="true" /></a><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAzKYx6PCfq_Tj4cP_GT-sFHefaJS1ibLa7gBh0yTj8iGLutxx0DEXaYm3R89eTkGFQh6x7524w_fNc4z2XdOHPBhDLBQJzgrNZ9m2WA_S452xdr1X3Iz0kkhfo9QNkOHraOc7eYtLc0mV/s1600/v.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAzKYx6PCfq_Tj4cP_GT-sFHefaJS1ibLa7gBh0yTj8iGLutxx0DEXaYm3R89eTkGFQh6x7524w_fNc4z2XdOHPBhDLBQJzgrNZ9m2WA_S452xdr1X3Iz0kkhfo9QNkOHraOc7eYtLc0mV/s320/v.bmp" width="176" wt="true" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnlb1u1Z54mESmyBuMB4ztOwRfizXKnM8-I6iFBiwzu4GSZ92JGAtAvWgDf_icqtef4ZiFBiktNrzysN1aojuTeWspuet28-q4rmBPP4H0V8tXZLMg1eHLAxuOfBj2wHA4PbRJk1XiCEwo/s1600/mariage.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnlb1u1Z54mESmyBuMB4ztOwRfizXKnM8-I6iFBiwzu4GSZ92JGAtAvWgDf_icqtef4ZiFBiktNrzysN1aojuTeWspuet28-q4rmBPP4H0V8tXZLMg1eHLAxuOfBj2wHA4PbRJk1XiCEwo/s320/mariage.bmp" wt="true" /></a></div>As a Spitfire pilot in the Second World War, John Mejor risked his life for his country, England. He went on to devote his working life to conservation, helping to preserve the nation’s heritage and landscape.<br />
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But in his hour of need, when he might have expected something in return, the state he gave so much to has forgotten him. The 88-year-old grandfather, who requires round-the-clock nursing at a home because of dementia and diabetes, has had the funding for his care withdrawn despite the advice of his GP.<br />
His family now fear they will have to sell the house where his 94-year-old wife Cecile lives to cover the care home costs. On Thursday his daughter Sally Mejor, 54, said: ‘My father made great sacrifices for his country, he is a war hero and deserves better than this. I feel totally let down and hurt that he has been treated in this way.<br />
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Sally Mejor with father John Mejor, 88, is being forced to sell his house after the NHS withdrew full funding for his care.<br />
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‘It is a complete nightmare, a disgrace and an insult. He was, and still is, a very dignified man.’<br />
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Mr Mejor was moved from his house in Exmouth, Devon, to a care home 18 months ago because his family could no longer look after him following a series of mini-strokes. <br />
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At first his NHS Trust paid the £800-aweek costs at the nearby Linksway Care Home under its ‘continuing health care’ scheme. Mr Mejor was eligible for the scheme, which is not means tested, because of the assessment of his GP.<br />
But now his health needs have been reviewed by a different doctor acting for the trust. Officials say he is no longer considered a ‘severe’ case and will only receive £106 per week towards his care.<br />
Miss Mejor, however, says her father’s condition has not improved and his GP does not agree with the findings. <br />
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Miss Mejor, who lives at the family home in Exmouth as her mother’s full-time carer, said: ‘I cared for him myself for the first five years of his illness and if I could manage to continue I would. At no point was it said there would be any timeframe or, that should his condition improve, even slightly, it would be pulled from us.<br />
‘If there was plenty of money to cover it, I would be willing and happy to pay. But because there isn’t, I have to stand up for him.’ <br />
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Mr Mejor was born in Belgium but moved to Britain as a young boy and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery in the war. During a mission over Malta in 1942, in which he shot down German bombers, he was forced to bale out over the sea after his plane was hit – but returned to battle the very next day.<br />
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His last operational flight was on D-Day, and after the war he rose to the rank of wing commander, in charge of a squadron of Vampire fighters. He retired in 1964 and set up the Devon Conservation Forum and the Devon Historic Buildings Trust.<br />
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Mr Mejor flew a Spitfire like this one above in the Second World War during the battle for Malta<br />
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Miss Mejor said: ‘What worries me is the money we are going to have to find for his care is going to have an effect on my mother’s life. <br />
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‘I’m fearful for her future, too, because we’re going to have to sell this house and she very much wanted to spend the rest of her life here.’<br />
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The family could apply for the NHS to pay for the residential care, but this is means tested and it is highly likely they would be unsuccessful. A health care source said that because Mr Mejor’s health was thought to have improved, extra funding would be an issue of social care – such as help with washing and dressing – rather than health care. This would make it a matter for the local authority, not the NHS.<br />
On Thursday NHS Devon said the cost of Mr Mejor’s care would still be covered while an appeal was heard. This could take several months.<br />
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Parveen Brown, who is responsible for continuing health care funding at NHS Devon, said: ‘There is no question of funding being suddenly cut off, or of houses having to be sold abruptly.<br />
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‘We deal with these issues as sensitively as we can and we will offer our support throughout.’<br />
<br />
Means test rules in England state that anybody who has been assessed as ineligible for nursing care must pay for residential care if they have assets worth more than £23,000. Last month it was revealed that at least 3,000 elderly people a year are forced to sell their homes to pay for residential care. There are fears that cash-strapped health trusts will use public spending cuts as an excuse to reduce funding further in England.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-68510717515047759582010-04-11T10:33:00.001-04:002010-04-11T10:36:54.807-04:00South Normay-April 12, 1940 by Fl/Lt. M.W Donaldson, Royal Air Force<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCtJOrxgH1S_wkAX9z-pu1nM-LPLPduiJA5bB5wXVbP2ZIfL6RzX79RAyI-lduVk4OhT0clLRgQX679mMvF7dCTrIXBT23tB8osuPbXl914doA7rfmsw9beQuVGbug3e4KZvVy6AWMxoZy/s1600/hallidayspot2nd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCtJOrxgH1S_wkAX9z-pu1nM-LPLPduiJA5bB5wXVbP2ZIfL6RzX79RAyI-lduVk4OhT0clLRgQX679mMvF7dCTrIXBT23tB8osuPbXl914doA7rfmsw9beQuVGbug3e4KZvVy6AWMxoZy/s320/hallidayspot2nd.jpg" wt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgynUVVbXAaoj5WNmOTv4Gs4U8UmDF_xoweWjOLo1hPkpumoyPNQ_ijhRyUgg18N9nXrv_woFI1NMdSIHf3aCrhgqYRMdI0j_Lvosr7wIuvaqwNOeclTj2O3zmLcvhEcMplCeBPo8nGwNpP/s1600/light.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgynUVVbXAaoj5WNmOTv4Gs4U8UmDF_xoweWjOLo1hPkpumoyPNQ_ijhRyUgg18N9nXrv_woFI1NMdSIHf3aCrhgqYRMdI0j_Lvosr7wIuvaqwNOeclTj2O3zmLcvhEcMplCeBPo8nGwNpP/s320/light.bmp" wt="true" /></a></div><br />
</div>This is the account of a bomber pilot whose bombers formation attacked and sank the German cruiser "Karlsruhe" Flight Lieutenant Donaldson who is a Canadian flying with The Royal Air Force, hails from Lethbridge, Alberta, held a short term pre-war comission in the R.A.F.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>This is a day i shall not forget in a hurry as it landed in Gafangenenschaft where i have resided. I was in a night bomber squadron, but owing to the invasion of Norway and our almost complete lack of long range day bombers we were called up to operate in daylight. <br />
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A German heavy cruiser (later identified as the Karlsruhe) had been damaged in the early morning hours by our Navy, but owing to heavy seas and bad visibility had made good escape. We were ordered to locate and destroy her. After a sticky trip across the North Sea the 12 of us arrived over the south coast of Norway and opening up into a wide view of sanctions commenced a sweep. I was a little worried about our formation as operating over ennemy territory with heavy and consequently slow aircraft, we ran every chance of meeting fighters. However we carried on and after two hours sweeping we sighted our quarry lying in Kristiansand harbour. "What very shortly proved to be a very costly mistake was made here as our leader ordered us into sections astern, aircraft astern which presented a long line of single bombers to the ennemy, any one of which could be engaged without assistance from another, and it also cut down our firepower to a bare minimum.<br />
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Opening the bomb doors we fused our bombs and commenced our run up. The picture is and will be clear in my mind; a cloudless sky, height 12,000 feet, airspeed 180 miles per hour, the cruiser appearing as a small gray silver of steel dashing headlong for the open sea and a pumping up of A.A. for all she was worth. Leading the last section of three, i was just coming onto the target when low and behold enemy fighters, six Messerschmiths 109's. Needless to say they attacked my section and in less time than it takes to put in writing my No.3 airman was shot down in flames and all hands were sadly lost. My No.2 and i managed to weather the storm, ran up, bomded, and as i did a turn to the west saw a direct hit scored just forward of my funnel. But i had very little time to observe as i was unable to catch up to the rest of my formation owing to the increased speed and the heavy and accurate attacks of the ennemy.<br />
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Being completely unable to hold them off, having neither the speed nor the firepower i came down to sea level, that at least protected our belly. The two of us had only just arrived there and got properly formed up with No.2 and simply exploded in mid-air in a mass of flames and in the twinkling of an eye had dissappeared forever under the cold gray surface of the sea. I was just about to throw in the towel then and there as with all my section except myself shot down, one of my gunners killed, the rest of us all hit and bullets and cannon shells simply raining in from all directions, we were a gone goose. But one dosen't surrender in the air and fight on we did.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">After about three-quarters of an hour of concentrated hell my starboard engine took fire and i was forced to turn north and try to make the Norwegian coast. On the run in, the Jerries figuring we were cold meat threw caution to the winds and attacked relentleely right up to 20 yards. It was a bad mistake on their part as we still had a certain sting in the for of two Vickers K's. By simply heroic work my remaining rear gunner bounced three of them in quick succession with the result the remainder held off to a more respectable distance. Just as we were approching the shore, a well placed burst brought us crashing down in flames in the sea. By the grace of God and a lot of luck, we in the aircraft who were alive as we were shot down all emerged alive and kicking from what had a few seconds before been an aircraft. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Well there it is Jerry, you will no doubt think it is just one big moan--probably it is, but one does hate like hell to be as throughly thrashed as we were and have practically no means of fighting back but let me tell you the war is not over for me. I will continue fighting to my last breath! </div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-78234396995312446502010-03-28T21:05:00.004-04:002010-03-28T21:36:16.086-04:00The WW2 RAF poster boy now aged 91<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi27paTDgCNecL5NILh3Hwh35T77hQMGYbC9uAj3QtJwkN2c3X4Qq4ZtFXqdsyScedBrbI3cvWW4QJ1t8dw7iEk7Go-uW8gP3qSappEs2JfexvPez_1uLw8gtPFVTSfiDMNvL8m99RHxd9W/s1600/untitled.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi27paTDgCNecL5NILh3Hwh35T77hQMGYbC9uAj3QtJwkN2c3X4Qq4ZtFXqdsyScedBrbI3cvWW4QJ1t8dw7iEk7Go-uW8gP3qSappEs2JfexvPez_1uLw8gtPFVTSfiDMNvL8m99RHxd9W/s200/untitled.bmp" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS5Lrqdw0VOjOf0nQMtwu_UWo4vCof1r7N13dRP9UU_9a_OWF2aUwT0sOyLQdl6CtbC4PRQFmwp__JUOlfeJYS-05mVo0LYDi69eBmNsYLWc9KR3XRDqyS0HRRKTRhtb-p3ujxOcDS_2TX/s1600/untitled+1.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS5Lrqdw0VOjOf0nQMtwu_UWo4vCof1r7N13dRP9UU_9a_OWF2aUwT0sOyLQdl6CtbC4PRQFmwp__JUOlfeJYS-05mVo0LYDi69eBmNsYLWc9KR3XRDqyS0HRRKTRhtb-p3ujxOcDS_2TX/s320/untitled+1.bmp" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsEXKdBL_85y5a0dslgJ4EsgPaX2IoU3BXFrtVDf67VKtpfy-JZhuPFbdqIujyGjnK5git-Qs4H4AmbEYwwcMwiEU0285b2XSWaw3cbmSO2O8C4cjSkWbdRo4ioui91MXlr58IUxRiqIia/s1600/ianblair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsEXKdBL_85y5a0dslgJ4EsgPaX2IoU3BXFrtVDf67VKtpfy-JZhuPFbdqIujyGjnK5git-Qs4H4AmbEYwwcMwiEU0285b2XSWaw3cbmSO2O8C4cjSkWbdRo4ioui91MXlr58IUxRiqIia/s400/ianblair.jpg" width="294" /></a></div><br />
The dashing young airman who became the poster boy of the RAF during World War II has been revealed – 65 year after the conflict ended.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Squadron Leader Ian Blair, now 91, was 22 years old when the famous snap was taken in 1940 after his daring flying in north Africa earned him a medal.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">But he didn’t realise his fame until two years later when, on a break in Bournemouth, he saw his face on a propaganda notice warning 'Careless Talk May Cost His Life'.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Flying ace: Squadron Leader Ian Blair with the classic World War II poster he unwittingly posed for at age 22</div><br />
The poster, aimed at raising morale on the Home Front and spreading vital educational messages, was one of the most enduring images of the war.<br />
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Last week, a recently unearthed stash of mint condition pictures sold at auction for more than £25,000 after attracting bids from around the world.<br />
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Mr Blair, from Brentwood, Essex, who was born the year the RAF was formed, yesterday told of the moment in 1942 when he first saw the poster.<br />
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He said: ‘I wasn't even aware that it had been produced. The photo had been taken two years earlier, in North Africa, when I was a 22-year-old corporal.<br />
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‘I didn't think anything more of it, and then all of a sudden, there I was, hanging on the wall of a post office.’ <br />
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In the famous image, Mr Blair is smiling in his airman's kit as if he hadn't a care in the world.<br />
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But just the day before, the former air ace of 113 Squadron had saved himself and a comrade with an act of bravery that won him the coveted Distinguished Flying Medal.<br />
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Dashing: Mr Blair was pictured in north Africa in 1940 after earning the Distinguished Flying Medal for bravery<br />
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He said: ‘I look cheerful in the photo. I always look cheerful. But it doesn't tell you the true story - the full picture.<br />
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‘The day before, we had been sent out to bomb an enemy airfield at Derna, about 400 miles west of Alexandria.<br />
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‘We were in a Blenheim bomber, and I was the observer. That's the guy in the front who does the navigation and drops the bombs.<br />
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‘But as soon as I had released the bombs, a fighter-plane attacked us.’ Glasgow-born Sqn Ldr Blair still has the blood-stained flight log he made that day. The pencil entries end suddenly.<br />
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He said: ‘There was an almighty bang. When I looked round, the pilot - a chap called Reynolds - was slumped forward on the controls.<br />
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Hero: Mr Blair with his medals on his dress uniform<br />
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‘I think it was the very last round that killed him. It was really unfortunate. His luck had run out.<br />
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‘Then the aircraft went into a steep dive.’ <br />
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Despite having never flown an aircraft in his life before that moment, the young airman - paid one shilling and sixpence per day extra to fill in as part-time air crew - took charge.<br />
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He said: ‘From that moment the only thing going through my mind was survival. Everything happened so quickly, and we had to get the heck out of there.<br />
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‘I managed to pull the pilot's body off his seat and get the aircraft under control. But we still had to get home and land the thing.<br />
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‘My gunner, Hank, sent a message back to base saying: “We're in dire trouble here, the observer is flying the aircraft.” <br />
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‘Lo and behold, when we got back to base there was whole gallery of people, cars, ambulances and fire tenders all lined up waiting for the ultimate - but it didn't happen.<br />
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‘I had spent a long time watching pilots, and made a textbook landing. We came down in a shower of dust.<br />
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‘Perhaps I was a bit over-confident. The air officer commanding the base apparently said: “If that guy can fly an aircraft without a pilot's course, let's send him on a pilot's course.”’ <br />
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He was presented with his DFM by George VI.<br />
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Mr Blair, who joined the RAF as a boy entrant apprentice aged 16 in 1934, went on to fly Spitfires against the Luftwaffe, and was shot down twice before the war ended.<br />
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He said: ‘They say that if you walk away from a landing, it's a good landing.<br />
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‘I spent 11 months in hospital after one crash but the strangest effect was psychological.<br />
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‘Each aircraft has its own smell. After the incident in the Blenheim, I couldn't bear the smell of Blenheims. It was the same after I was shot down in a Spitfire.<br />
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‘The quack prescribed a daily glass of milk with three drops of iodine. My friends were quite envious because nobody else got milk.’ <br />
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Iconic: The well-known propoganda poster was among a selection recently sold for £25,000 at auction<br />
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After the war he served in Singapore and Malta and retired from the RAF in 1977, having served for 44 years.<br />
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He was an honoured guest at the RAF's 90th birthday celebrations two years ago, where he was introduced to the Queen.<br />
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Today, he says his thoughts are with British servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan.<br />
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He said: ‘I know how difficult it is on the ground with Improvised Explosive Devices. The sense of the unknown must have a terrible effect on their morale. <br />
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‘You can't compare the two eras though. Back in my day we never had enough equipment. The finances were always a problem. There was never enough money for anything.<br />
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‘The trouble with the politicians was that they wanted the Forces to do too much with not enough people.<br />
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‘What really impresses me nowadays is the computerisation. The mind boggles. <br />
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‘When I was a navigator, we had to work out our courses laboriously. Now you just press a button.’ <br />
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In his tenth decade, Mr Blair - who had four children with his late wife, Vera, and has ten grandchildren and two great grandchildren - shows no sign of slowing down. <br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">He regularly tours the country giving PowerPoint presentations to schools and veteran's associations on his wartime experiences. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">He said: ‘I can't leap into a Spitfire with careless abandon as I used to in my younger days. But I do enjoy sitting in flight simulators.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">‘I have always been interested in flying. My first flight was when I was ten. I paid three shillings to go up with my hero, pilot Sir Alan Cobham.</div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">‘And at Sir Alan Cobham's flying circus I met WE Johns, who wrote the Biggles books.</div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">‘Were the books true to life? Not really. Well, perhaps to some degree.’</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-85730764939022239482010-02-14T15:10:00.000-05:002010-02-14T15:10:47.441-05:00Looking for Spitfire/Typhoon veteran pilot Eric FTS Cooke RCAF<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZyzef-t5BsUujI2KXCQzBnxNxYaJSC41khwESUfZuq52hRBwYjVPm117ZzyuDNZSlRzidQQwynwWzy6bB5_ko1EFWDjy7vYzp5GRp6HEHmm7Z9y7yL9Z_L_dz7-NIqJc_EyOZF24mR1d6/s1600-h/news_08072008_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZyzef-t5BsUujI2KXCQzBnxNxYaJSC41khwESUfZuq52hRBwYjVPm117ZzyuDNZSlRzidQQwynwWzy6bB5_ko1EFWDjy7vYzp5GRp6HEHmm7Z9y7yL9Z_L_dz7-NIqJc_EyOZF24mR1d6/s320/news_08072008_3.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq9wa0L82GljHVpd5v6RvYEQMhMTsU31_aFLpCrB7EFbS9J8yxceLo4EgrPdORMPoxn4RjsYy-dN7DdHFSs8so1A9aojpb-MuHAhWq_bOc2wOx-S1SZOmjdcM9K_RQwd8VsiG9keApiBud/s1600-h/news_08072008_6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq9wa0L82GljHVpd5v6RvYEQMhMTsU31_aFLpCrB7EFbS9J8yxceLo4EgrPdORMPoxn4RjsYy-dN7DdHFSs8so1A9aojpb-MuHAhWq_bOc2wOx-S1SZOmjdcM9K_RQwd8VsiG9keApiBud/s320/news_08072008_6.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Looking for Spitfire/Typhoon veteran pilot Eric FTS Cooke RCAF of King City, Ontario, Canada<br />
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Greetings to all in cyberworld. <br />
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A gentleman wrote to me from England who was in Royal Air Force in World War 2 and is looking for a good friend of his who was in The Royal Canadian Air Force. This veteran has a letter dating back to 1987 ..he was 60 years old that year. Eric Cooke is from KING CITY, Ontario...Eric Cooke served in the RCAF During the war. They were very good friends and they joined the service together...I was RAF. We met up in London during the war, 1944, 1945. Eric Cooke flew spitfires and Typhoons in Europe.....we met again in cambridge England, both were married by this time......I did speak with him by phone once...but no contact since...his wife BERNICE....children I know not.... Eric Cooke worked for the local government E.M.O. for 12 years.....I am 83 years of age and would like to hear again of my very good friend Eric Cooke.<br />
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If anyone in cyberworld has ever heard of Mr. Eric Cooke or knows where we can find him, be friends or family, can you please let us know. This gentleman looking for his good friend is Mr. Ray wade who was in the Royal Air Force Navigation school during the war.<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Any news what so ever would be truly appreciated for this World War 2 British RAF veteran. If ever, i can help two veterans meet again after all these years will be an honour and a very gratifying experience for me because our veterans need all the recognition they deserve.</div><br />
Thank you to you Mr.Wade and to Mr.Cooke.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-60997723001228301782010-01-24T16:38:00.007-05:002010-01-24T17:46:04.602-05:00A Great World War 2 movie,The Battle of Britain 1969<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGH9MNlJHCH04EJDfi4KNs7iGv5pacGcJ5YIleIKYc5Bfq-_YcZC8adVBppwKMLwqxpRRqTXRu6SVeoTx_loxCLwlI0e0zWWl7immjJ5nt0nmoiiLNcKgvoCLXINe2QDsAjWoYMiA4gdBi/s1600-h/battle1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" mt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGH9MNlJHCH04EJDfi4KNs7iGv5pacGcJ5YIleIKYc5Bfq-_YcZC8adVBppwKMLwqxpRRqTXRu6SVeoTx_loxCLwlI0e0zWWl7immjJ5nt0nmoiiLNcKgvoCLXINe2QDsAjWoYMiA4gdBi/s320/battle1.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8lIE5CNWRX4yjbI-TYnP0NGECo_uUu7OfI6wKEtrgKaJwzjATjzo4mHfKagCBpz1TndVKG6H3mP-vCC7ZXwnZGJr2x_ZpqiSW3flEhTmtBosOEm7gQuhL5usrdeQRqSfzkOqDSFKsAt-E/s1600-h/battle_of_britain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" mt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8lIE5CNWRX4yjbI-TYnP0NGECo_uUu7OfI6wKEtrgKaJwzjATjzo4mHfKagCBpz1TndVKG6H3mP-vCC7ZXwnZGJr2x_ZpqiSW3flEhTmtBosOEm7gQuhL5usrdeQRqSfzkOqDSFKsAt-E/s320/battle_of_britain.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQYVVurUyDMUbhYS9VX4QBzprIJeY8itnUblmIk0r53qQt2XgWQsiqygKKfF1PFzONldf2oFvUC7KvCoX6_Ltr1bACvpiDF_PtlzVEUVL_HboVkFkjLz2e1lNrRsaEsoOzMy2IRJLstYfc/s1600-h/untitled.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" mt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQYVVurUyDMUbhYS9VX4QBzprIJeY8itnUblmIk0r53qQt2XgWQsiqygKKfF1PFzONldf2oFvUC7KvCoX6_Ltr1bACvpiDF_PtlzVEUVL_HboVkFkjLz2e1lNrRsaEsoOzMy2IRJLstYfc/s320/untitled.bmp" /></a><br />
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A Great World War 2 movie, The Battle of Britain 1969<br />
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Hello to all!<br />
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I dont know, if you are like myself but i do like to watch once in a while World War 2 movies, especially the ones that are more historically accurate. The 1969 movie, The Battle of Britain, i think is one of those great World War 2 classics! The reason that i wanted to write about this movie classic, that i am posting today on my blog is to try to help people understand and know what World War 2 history was like! I want to continue to help the world as best as i can about World War 2 history and also of it's consequences, this is the reason, i have created my blog about the Royal Canadian Air Force, The Royal Air Force and all of the other Air Forces of World War 2 and of our soldiers and seamen. I would like people to know what their fathers and Grandfathers accomplished during the war and of all their courage in the air, at sea and on the ground, so we do not forget their sacrifice!<br />
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There are other great World War 2 movies, i could write about such as Dark Blue World and Nine O'Clock high. but today, i will talk about this great classic, The Battle of Britain! With a string of career actors such as Christopher Plummer (Canadian fighter pilot), many Canadian fighter pilots flew for the RAF during the Battle of Britain. Michael Caine (as squadron leader Canfield) , Trevor Howard (Air Marshall Keith Park), Laurence Oliver whom by the way gives an extraordianary role as (Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding) and Robert Shaw ( as an unnamed Squadron Leader, referred to as "Skipper") The actors who play German pilots and personel also play a very good role! We must not forget the very good Polish and Checkoslovakia pilots who flew for the RAF during the Battle of Britain.You will get to see the determination of the German Luftwaffe for the control of the skies over The English Channel and Britain. The movie is directed by Guy Hamilton. This movie is a great Historical reenactment of the air war in the early days of World War Two for control of the skies over Britain in the summer and fall of 1940 as the Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force determine whether or not an invasion of Britain can take place. <br />
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It is in the month of August 1940, Adolf Hitler is planning to bomb England into submission to his dreams of a 'Fortress Europe'. Standing between Britain's freedom and Hitler's terrifying plans is the R.A.F - dedicated RAF and Commonwealth including Canadian pilots who took to the skies again & again in the face of overwhelming odds. The German Luftwaffe's planes outnumber the R.A.F's by more than 2 to 1 - 650 planes of the R.A.F. vs. 2,500 of the Luftwaffe! These odds. however, do not deplete the determination of the R.A.F. to stop Hitler, and as the Luftwaffe launches wave after wave of Heinkel 111 bombers against British cities, the R.A.F. responds, under the leadership of Air Vice Marshal Park and Squadron Leaders Canfield and Harvey who lead the newest pilots of the R.A.F. into confrontation after confrontation with the Luftwaffe's experienced veterans, with the aim of driving Hitler's forces away from Dover's white cliffs for good...and back to occupied France.<br />
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This movie is very accurate and if you want to have a good history lesson with great actors, this movie will remind you of all of the great sacrifice our veterans have done for us so we can be free today! This movie is highly accurate and one of the reason being is that while filming the movie, many veterans such as Douglas Bader (RAF), Adolf Gallant(Luftwaffe) and other veterans of the Commonwealth and Luftwaffe were consultants for the movie. This was done so because it was important that the movie be done of the greatest accuracy! I have included three of the DVD covers so if ever you want to buy or rent the movie, you will recognise the DVD or Blue Ray cover. I hope you will enjoy this movie as much as i did and let's all take a moment to thank a veteran when we see one! We owe our veterans all of our freedom for if ever Britain fell to Germany, the war most likely would have been lost by the Allies for we would have lost the only soil that we had as a footstep to Europe! Don't forget D-Day was launched from Britain on it's southern coast to invade France and to help free Europe.<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Let's not forget to thank all of our veterans past and present when we meet one!<br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-70426816188078952612010-01-17T00:15:00.002-05:002010-01-17T00:15:07.456-05:00Canada and the world we love!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2vTh7g6OUwDe8s7eSL87f-tPPthHQwrOcGcvqMrxzLNdCIsBuV0cTigKUXr4lPB1bJp-mAMXM3kVCJlGB0VUJ_ynUVMkBeUb-r7nB3j0AP_-A_T49G8OVOejNoxWfr4kjbP8t4YdGXCi-/s1600-h/2-1-2_a141703.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2vTh7g6OUwDe8s7eSL87f-tPPthHQwrOcGcvqMrxzLNdCIsBuV0cTigKUXr4lPB1bJp-mAMXM3kVCJlGB0VUJ_ynUVMkBeUb-r7nB3j0AP_-A_T49G8OVOejNoxWfr4kjbP8t4YdGXCi-/s320/2-1-2_a141703.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitlJ2LGGZUZo6Aq_5iZ0q8CVsVNkPWj0A8xQjdbcOraHa_Ecn5wrDvzad-AAyrnoFd34akUpvlps7Qifph0-dJi5I5VPsH8RxJt_nrOY01cszH5kFXC84HBSnjHdu0TompTFuMGvNDc9uO/s1600-h/Cplc_Beauvais_Capt_Lescelleur.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitlJ2LGGZUZo6Aq_5iZ0q8CVsVNkPWj0A8xQjdbcOraHa_Ecn5wrDvzad-AAyrnoFd34akUpvlps7Qifph0-dJi5I5VPsH8RxJt_nrOY01cszH5kFXC84HBSnjHdu0TompTFuMGvNDc9uO/s320/Cplc_Beauvais_Capt_Lescelleur.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP3lR2lHCYfhkryTgW1UVzuvmCHhHNLP1N0TiLyKMeQdfUm2V0uS1GxnsgSoHiTnldAEGCCTAYGgE72emf7ZWy6F-qMN1puoMG5-KIbRP-6AC_a8ZKDIIB7gka9A6mjjByPkwO0ijcdGfH/s1600-h/n011604A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP3lR2lHCYfhkryTgW1UVzuvmCHhHNLP1N0TiLyKMeQdfUm2V0uS1GxnsgSoHiTnldAEGCCTAYGgE72emf7ZWy6F-qMN1puoMG5-KIbRP-6AC_a8ZKDIIB7gka9A6mjjByPkwO0ijcdGfH/s320/n011604A.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb1dJGgmW2Wk5jbc-T1yH5GmFFx03Zy7tHaKzzJvGCmE7KpMGmYXuybwwqdJ5oWUa6cqDp_owqZ-PgPLbI6ge5N-5v6t-VzgWqFaygsgPkm-pa_U95HLuxCL6lg3BZLwtfbkK1NnwZFXHa/s1600-h/hires_080831-F-8535W-601a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb1dJGgmW2Wk5jbc-T1yH5GmFFx03Zy7tHaKzzJvGCmE7KpMGmYXuybwwqdJ5oWUa6cqDp_owqZ-PgPLbI6ge5N-5v6t-VzgWqFaygsgPkm-pa_U95HLuxCL6lg3BZLwtfbkK1NnwZFXHa/s320/hires_080831-F-8535W-601a.jpg" /></a><br />
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Canada and the world we love!<br />
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Hello to eveyone in cyberworld. Welcome to the year 2010. I wish you health, peace, hope and happiness. If you are living in the western world, chances are that you are doing fairly well? I sure hope so! Like i said in my previous blog, 2009 has been a tough year and many people have lost their jobs and because of this, hardship follows for a while? Here in Canada, times can be tough sometimes for us but we can always have help from many private or governmental organisations. We, Canadians are known to be tough and how to get out of hardships, this is what makes us strong and united!<br />
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In the wake of the massive earthquake in Haiti, my heart goes out to the people of this little island in the Caribbean ocean. I do not want to mention all of what they are going through. All you need to do is open your television and we are bombarded with all the information that we need to know! There is so much suffering and death that the images we see on CNN and all the other news medias are reminiscent of a horrible war scene. In Haiti, this is not war, it is famine on an unimaginable scale, misery and grief. We should be all so greatful not to be living under those horrific circumstances. So sad!<br />
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Today, while watching the news, i have heard that our first Canadian military personal have arrived in Port au Prince to bring relief to these wonderful Haitian people. Canada doesen't like to abandon people in need and this is reminiscent of our history! In any time of need, our people are there! Soldiers, policemen, firemen, engineers, doctors and so on! We are not there to conquor but to help. We are there to help and once it is time to leave, if the goverment in place asks us to stay, we will stay to continue helping the people in need of that country! We help our fellow human beings! I hope that what ever can be done by yourselves, finacially or in any other way, please do so, we can all help, even by givin the Haitian people a little prayer from the heart, because somehow we can be of help to this people in need!<br />
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During two World Wars, the Korean war, the United Nations peace missions, Canadians have givin their lives and their youths because we have stood on guard for thee and we still do so today in Afghanistan and other places in the world! This is why, i am proud of my country! Canada is not perfect but we are all human beings and as long as our Canadian hearts stand on guard for thee, this will always make me proud to be a Canadian and am i proud of our past and present accomplishmets to our country and the world!<br />
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Please, help the people in need of Haiti. What ever little deed is done, their prayers will be answered!<br />
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Here a few reliable links, where donations can be made to help the people of Haiti<br />
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<a href="http://www.worldvision.ca/Pages/Home.aspx">http://www.worldvision.ca/Pages/Home.aspx</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.oxfam.ca/">http://www.oxfam.ca/</a><br />
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Thank you!<br />
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbxf9mOivgCcS_3YxeBTWQ9E019TalJU6dIU7xnio-Lrhu8unocXMV0VxDLLpGXw_RYdETkGHQZXWBufCY406Mk63_fI9U74s-PW4aXMeW36vsuGFj-FLJ7X3oJPWyhCr_iHvSigTI10QN/s1600-h/apCBCONLINE2_AFGHAN.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbxf9mOivgCcS_3YxeBTWQ9E019TalJU6dIU7xnio-Lrhu8unocXMV0VxDLLpGXw_RYdETkGHQZXWBufCY406Mk63_fI9U74s-PW4aXMeW36vsuGFj-FLJ7X3oJPWyhCr_iHvSigTI10QN/s320/apCBCONLINE2_AFGHAN.jpg" /></a><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-90261673911949974882009-12-18T17:36:00.004-05:002009-12-18T22:38:08.165-05:00Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2010<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0mAdOJTd10jw2VbwfFGqWLCNtbkSZc0PW-YzBH5m3oqgKsyOJfrdbEoULmv4-FFAJPy71i3sQgxnSbnVlVChg9LwkAPd3t91pg3-dmgCmC3e_7qOKgwSxYOtPsiyA3Ch0pXYJoE2LdYl5/s1600-h/kings_star.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0mAdOJTd10jw2VbwfFGqWLCNtbkSZc0PW-YzBH5m3oqgKsyOJfrdbEoULmv4-FFAJPy71i3sQgxnSbnVlVChg9LwkAPd3t91pg3-dmgCmC3e_7qOKgwSxYOtPsiyA3Ch0pXYJoE2LdYl5/s320/kings_star.gif" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5RdybMyxcCNDbsJWT4Xs7mot_-xJT5_RXO1EM7hH-yQ_q_M99MrZWLdBHj6_cQ5NmEKlDUwYiEIm2oM_psGfFkPs057sgHf9yaju6q7CjqrNkIVx825O08bgGOCSvWLLcIRd0OjpGUrSQ/s1600-h/ww2-veterans_1295480c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5RdybMyxcCNDbsJWT4Xs7mot_-xJT5_RXO1EM7hH-yQ_q_M99MrZWLdBHj6_cQ5NmEKlDUwYiEIm2oM_psGfFkPs057sgHf9yaju6q7CjqrNkIVx825O08bgGOCSvWLLcIRd0OjpGUrSQ/s320/ww2-veterans_1295480c.jpg" /></a><br />
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Greetings to all!<br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">It has been a pleasure for me this year to bring to the world, stories of the RCAF and our veterans and of World War 2 events. Although, i have not done as much as i would have liked in 2009 on my blog, i will do my best in the year 2010 to bring you more interesting stories of our fascinating history! 2009 has been a year mixed with emotions all over the globe. Unfortunatelly, there are still wars, we would think by now that humanity would have learned that wars don't bring nothing good to mankind. The climate is of major concern as we are seeing more and more frequent freak storms and different weather patterns all over the globe. How can i not mention the H1N1 virus and the economy that seems to be under the bad spell of the H1N1 virus and cant seem to find a cure for it's well being! It's been a crazy year but things will work out just fine! As long as there is life, there is hope!<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">When i think of the sacrifice our veterans, past and present have givin us, we must not forget that somewhere, we also must make a sacrifice and do an effort to make this a better world! No matter, how big or small our contribution is! We can make a difference! PEACE AND HOPE, HOPE TO ALL ON EARTH!<br />
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</div>Lets keep the faith in 2010 and lets all turn things around for the better!<br />
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My thoughts go out to eveyone in the Cyberworld that read my blog and that have sent me nice words through the year, It was really nice hearing from you and please keep those nice emails coming my way, everyone, including our veternas past and present every human being, all over the globe! <br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Merry Christmas and a Happy New year 2010<br />
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PEACE<br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-57869473473842411552009-12-13T11:13:00.009-05:002009-12-13T12:37:21.320-05:00Behind Enemy Lines in North Africa<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlW7zsmRh4zIs40Px7-MFxjM_fRKyOgfDsHjwA9QqkxV16BciDBjfjaV-9tVBmbLQiANhodjmYNGhUetsvkfkf-Hmw2hL4erLs1rTkeO4ug2-RcTJMD3s5BXFpL0AGmyXWt27y-HFsDlxS/s1600-h/6a00d8341c2f0553ef00e54fa8ab3d8833-800wi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlW7zsmRh4zIs40Px7-MFxjM_fRKyOgfDsHjwA9QqkxV16BciDBjfjaV-9tVBmbLQiANhodjmYNGhUetsvkfkf-Hmw2hL4erLs1rTkeO4ug2-RcTJMD3s5BXFpL0AGmyXWt27y-HFsDlxS/s320/6a00d8341c2f0553ef00e54fa8ab3d8833-800wi.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kjNomC75GZXLs2su_tsBzML4pqEHeJi2N6vOZ55x1Nu6acwxFNvKaXK2sbHJd7R7Pdq08KhOuyf-uF2SbT2gigfQ1x5B0UFK4jAZsDv1Ekr6o9CB1_T-baoNoQqY8TNzdypqO_9q7J1s/s1600-h/2320133670102347975S500x500Q85.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kjNomC75GZXLs2su_tsBzML4pqEHeJi2N6vOZ55x1Nu6acwxFNvKaXK2sbHJd7R7Pdq08KhOuyf-uF2SbT2gigfQ1x5B0UFK4jAZsDv1Ekr6o9CB1_T-baoNoQqY8TNzdypqO_9q7J1s/s320/2320133670102347975S500x500Q85.jpg" /></a><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">This is the true story of Lieutenant, Dick Jones, General list.<br />
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Webmaster comment: Although this story is not of the RCAF, i do have an interest also for the WW2 North African desert campaign. <br />
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In November 1941 I accidenttally parachuted into Tunisia on my way to Tripoli. The Vichy bagged me almost immediately and i was internet at Layhouat (Algeria). From there i escaped in 1942 and was again recaptured. This time i was charged for espionage and sentenced to twenty years hard labour. Despite the efforts of the American counsul, the authorities interned me in a civil prison.<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">In November, 1942 (by then the Americans had landed in North Africa, i escaped from prison during a revolt. <br />
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In quick time we managed to assmble part of our old organisation, obtain some money, a wireless and other necessary tools of our trade. My orders from Malta were to stay in Tunis and gain information.<br />
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After three months, i was ordered to cross through the lines and proceed to Algers. My compagnion on the journey was to be a French doctor who had been in Goal for Gaulisme (The Vichy didn't like the Gauliste)<br />
<br />
We left Tunis at 11:30 a.m. on the 23rd February, 1943. Our conveyance was a Jewish supply lorry ferrying material to the front. A short distance from Djonzzar (Pont du Fahs) we hopped off the lorry and made into the woods. We changed into Arab dress.<br />
<br />
By now it was 2:30 in the afternoon. A five hours walk took us the the front line. It was now dark. We oriented ourselves by the gun fire.<br />
<br />
Everything was going well when we were captured by Arabs. Undoubtedly they intented to rob us. As we had several million francs in our possesion it would have not been a bad haul. Happily, i speak Arabic fluently. After a two hours delay we managed to convince them as we were just simple travellers and should be allowed to proceed on our journey. The snag was that while we were past the Arabs, we had lost our two valuable hours of darkness before the moon came up. This meant that we had to pass through German lines in moonlight.<br />
<br />
We went on. At Shraa, a German patrol of three soldiers discovered us. We were in "No Man's Land". We tried to withdraw. They fired half a dozen shots in our direction. I asked my friend- "Coggia! Are yout hit?"<br />
<br />
"No," he answered.<br />
<br />
We pretended we were dead. When the Germans were about three yards from us we instinctively fired from our "Parabellums" (small Italian revolvers we had brought from Tunis). Then all hell broke loose. This small German patrol was supported by a fighting patrol of about 50 men. My compagnion was killed. The three Germans were killed. I was wounded in the leg. I was taken prisonner by the Afrika Korps.<br />
<br />
At their headquarters, a German officer demanded my identity. "Dick Jones" He wouldn't believe it. At the time the Gestapo had a price on my head. The officer insisted that he knew Dick Jones quite well and that i was not him. Prospects did not look too bright, captured as i was in Arab dress with a wireless.<br />
<br />
On arrival at Berlin i was handed over to the Gestapo. Then began a tour of German Gestapo prisons for the next thirteen months.<br />
<br />
Repeatdedly the Germans promised to grant me P.O.W, recognition as a British officer. Eventually, i got fed up and started my hunger strike againts the schocking treatement i found myself put to.<br />
<br />
September 20th, 1944 was a great day. I walked through the gates of Oflag IVC. At long last i was with civilized people Allied soldiers, airmen and sailors as a prisoner of war.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-62286987959715534712009-12-06T22:19:00.007-05:002009-12-06T22:36:42.157-05:00Mackenzie King's speech somewhere in Britain August, 1941<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">This is a speech Makenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada declared somewhere in England on August,20th, 1941. This article is taken from The Telegraph, Journal of Saint John, New Brunswick dated Thursday August 21, 1941<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Canada is with you The Empire "Heart and soul for winning the war" Prime Minister Makenzie King declared tonight. Asked for a statement before boarding a train for London the prime minister, who arrived here by plane from Canada today, told reporters: "Please tell Great Britain that Canada is with the Empire heart and soul for winning the war and will not spare any effort that is necessary to ensure victory."<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Mr. King also thanked the British people for their hospitality to Canadian servicemen and women. "This friendship will strengthen the strong ties existing between Britain and Canada and help us, in the future to develop the cultural, material and economic exchanges necessary to the welfare of both countries" he said.<br />
</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-72552068730840833352009-08-30T08:11:00.000-04:002009-08-30T08:11:37.380-04:00They shall not grow old - Beautiful High Flight Poem by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWiwsyxL9YbY6hjQB_2M-qtfAatiAWsHSkwVkbd29ekFKQ_P7LxBteCCZKK-AYuU6tOmnGtQ7WS5CV40nzYU-cSkEOZB0t2DGaXeCMFqZQW-J9bPIGO7aIjdwx9UKkAp_vmBpD5Ptgi3-N/s1600-h/spits_and_canes_388-mar08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" lk="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWiwsyxL9YbY6hjQB_2M-qtfAatiAWsHSkwVkbd29ekFKQ_P7LxBteCCZKK-AYuU6tOmnGtQ7WS5CV40nzYU-cSkEOZB0t2DGaXeCMFqZQW-J9bPIGO7aIjdwx9UKkAp_vmBpD5Ptgi3-N/s400/spits_and_canes_388-mar08.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6OLJzP_Ddd1RWmUhIR3pohSMarKsz12KsPrMOtrd855l9fFIJvXL0J4HiRxUZl9sZD4mBAvC-QTqvP2XiRDn_l_8kKhNeAaMN3YPat0kK0zqv5ypyRGcNopgUXvW14dfIyce-T0O2qrmq/s1600-h/_39896301_spitfire_238_pa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" lk="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6OLJzP_Ddd1RWmUhIR3pohSMarKsz12KsPrMOtrd855l9fFIJvXL0J4HiRxUZl9sZD4mBAvC-QTqvP2XiRDn_l_8kKhNeAaMN3YPat0kK0zqv5ypyRGcNopgUXvW14dfIyce-T0O2qrmq/s400/_39896301_spitfire_238_pa.jpg" /></a><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9o8FSuzeW6inlRrVxEAlwBcT0fY2VqiczDyGDJNVY4385srFOrTF3P-MwtVvf67IOPeB9dVLf38wGkeNbEqdjRuqeJhNNFbCQD5-nFJvCsqLTClrzdoxTmqKfhBjZsKZo-XzrBXTlqao_/s1600-h/450px-Clouds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" lk="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9o8FSuzeW6inlRrVxEAlwBcT0fY2VqiczDyGDJNVY4385srFOrTF3P-MwtVvf67IOPeB9dVLf38wGkeNbEqdjRuqeJhNNFbCQD5-nFJvCsqLTClrzdoxTmqKfhBjZsKZo-XzrBXTlqao_/s320/450px-Clouds.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"> </div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;"> PER ARDUA AD ASTRA</div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Oh! I have slipped the surely bonds of earth </div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings:</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Of sun-split clouds-and done a hundred things</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div>You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung</div>High in the sunlit silence. How'ring there<br />
<br />
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung<br />
My eager craft through footless halls of air.<br />
Up, up the long delirious burning blue<br />
I've topped the wind - swept heights with easy grace<br />
Where never lark, nor eagle flew,<br />
And while with silent lifting mind i've trod<br />
<br />
The high untrespassed sanctity of space<br />
Put out my hand and touched the face of God,<br />
<br />
Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee<br />
Royal Canadian Air Force<br />
<br />
This is such a beautiful poem writen by an American airman who flew for the RCAF and was killed in the Second World War. I loved it so much that i wanted to share this beautiful poem with the world!<br />
May we never forget their courage and what all of our veterans past and present have done and are doing for us now!<br />
<br />
Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee P/O(P) J5823 From Washington, D.C U.S.A. was killed Dec.. 11/41 age 19 #412 Falcon Squadron (Promtusad Vindictum) P/O Magee was killed when his Spitfire aircraft # AD291collided with an Oxford aircraft and crashed at Ruskington Hall, Ruskington, Lincolnshire. P/O Magee was born in Shanghai, China and was educated in Rugby, England and Avon, Connecticut, U.S.A. he is the author of the poem High Flight the original manuscript of which resides in the Unitted States in<br />
the Library of Congress, Pilot officer Magee is buried in the Scopwick Church burial ground, Scopwick, Lincolshire, England.<br />
<br />
Taken from the book - They shall never grow old! May we not forget them!<br />
<br />
THANK YOU!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-83392081832603289942009-08-11T23:59:00.000-04:002009-08-11T22:31:47.527-04:00RAF Group Captain Douglas R.S. Bader, DSO & BAR - DFC & BAR<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhBjm15Nt0NVNttSdS-f4eLFnalg9Yj0c884DD-RRMpYVQw9jFCmFCTvmLtufd3Ru7qNRi59Nr4eM-pjd2LCThgIhzW6Qmj1TWBeSfTi1aqADsiKLu7pUTG7zNN67i_mpxoInRR79tc8LX/s1600-h/011.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368721557694915538" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhBjm15Nt0NVNttSdS-f4eLFnalg9Yj0c884DD-RRMpYVQw9jFCmFCTvmLtufd3Ru7qNRi59Nr4eM-pjd2LCThgIhzW6Qmj1TWBeSfTi1aqADsiKLu7pUTG7zNN67i_mpxoInRR79tc8LX/s400/011.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><div>Reproduced from THE LONDON NEWS 1942<br /><br />Britains legendary "Ace of Aces" who commanded the Canadian Squadron in the RAF during the Battle of Britain. Back in December 1931 an air crash cost him both his legs. The "experts" said he could never hope to walk on artificial limbs without crutches. Six months after the accident he walked out of hospital on "tin legs" -- without sticks.<br /><br />His career with the RAF was finished. Again the "experts" were wrong. They had said he would never fly again.<br /><br />On the outbreak of the war he stormed the Air Mnistry until they took him back. He inspired, bold and dashing leadership of his squadron during the battle of Britain will never dim his memory.<br /><br />Then came an air collision with a German fighter during a sweep over the Continent. That was October 1941.<br /><br />After escaping from German prison camps three times he was sent to Coldits.<br /><br />Such is his personality that it is impossible to think of him as a "cripple". He isn't. Tennis is one of the games. "stool ball" and hockey found him in the goal. As a concession he was permitted "parole walks". No matter how inclement or cold the weather he would walk up to 10 kilometers. When food got short he always smuggled in several pounds of wheat traded from the farmers in special sacks about his legs. This would be distributed among the camp.<br /><br />"Wings" Bader typifies a trait common to all British - no matter the odds, they stay in there punching.<br /><br />This is a beautiful article that was published in the London news in 1942. For some reason, i love couragous Men and Women like Douglas Bader and all veterans of past and present. They signify courage and i truly admire them. Douglas Bader died in 1982 but his memory lives on the hearts and minds of all those who truly understand the courage and sacrife of our veterans.<br /><br />Thank you Douglas!</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-58821487682822903892009-06-07T09:37:00.070-04:002009-06-23T18:50:47.065-04:00Vintage Wings of Canada Open House Air Show 2009<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCHaW-3ZCoP5tRI9sSdYSKoy6-12-FGBmcN0FgM4QmfkRHYIDgCXnA42RwXUIQU0LJrXYp4ecezFH92Lsda-MkAVuTaFfSk-ZnVF3Ml2Qy9LUlmEeYHOQnqt7sJicZXJHABBPPRFbnNhKE/s1600-h/172.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344630704473233762" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCHaW-3ZCoP5tRI9sSdYSKoy6-12-FGBmcN0FgM4QmfkRHYIDgCXnA42RwXUIQU0LJrXYp4ecezFH92Lsda-MkAVuTaFfSk-ZnVF3Ml2Qy9LUlmEeYHOQnqt7sJicZXJHABBPPRFbnNhKE/s400/172.JPG" border="0" /></a> <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344637583351433906" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxplkyYR40ITg3rLVwmmW7oZXUkN7ddaNS9_Ju694bYSj9Honi7UQeVrZ6sEOCkTwZ8E6TJpgkS1Y_IMzTZ_DbT_UB0tXJAThVarBJta8ZdTqKEq2hAMFebT2R7rt0V7IZdWicZaSI1JRb/s320/221.JPG" border="0" /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344626739483835746" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjKfNiPkGhiP_ClP1M5VEKEBB0J8k1kTi202R5_DhJn2-OjcNXyXXT25yDnFCVu0T-WaWSQRCmdbrVTy-oxRBxDwPLEfJdug3J9nqw21wxZYS1Z2u2us2vjNBtjwTOmtQ8Mdt47ew-YbqB/s320/175.JPG" border="0" /> <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344636659415240770" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRAZPCTF3bMUgkCVAitsFEXGsyId8xEnSgWwTEIkvOOBHglo2Ne9mfzRoZGfJIiKlbCVxM6jEIuInyaIeUTpq1u56mUo2NurSOF-kr5w6itbKvDVzsdNdr81HTSpG6dLBLXfZmLXC3X6yM/s320/168.JPG" border="0" /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344629326089129890" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtVcoBligp5SfuOSu00qCo-F0tfBwd7ZxLTCMhIl5wcT8nFX47DpjIFktGVeYoVIH-kd_wx0Uk0QjWiA7f2xG0vI9q-1DAZm-3uogXfe3DmOysjKMAqhHBTLBMunNi-tDKZ4Perq6mdn0H/s320/193.JPG" border="0" /> <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344627733171155122" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp7B8mvLD9J_tdKUE-wyBv5ZeZsq6oS0CajtnbDMp97ZKZoQpdC9kThoMAjghfQfqwniYF6yZyUi4V0PVAOVxrHrlfCwF-8jxv4Jogy2AhmKe8AqJm5OpPVOBCTj6Zevf0-4rAWa3o8zYR/s320/191.JPG" border="0" /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344619705160359010" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1yOVytW__5ANjUqubGsw8PWlCXvW3-fciaf0Nwq22tD05d2GyIepWBlDynaNRZlLRaIeLhYmxALIAt5mqq87Gq1bOXSs8dB3Z7rGdbqZdpZpZFQSXLbHBH2HttreXtTMNWO9bJR9amWXM/s320/183.JPG" border="0" /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344619440138929746" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivL4uN30OmcLuNXNxDIDaEOi9gguPDDv3jcveAjpd0QrZ-y8n-hDTk4D_GkXrXLTnLW0qaJsua768eZjn0vdI8Im4GNzoA2FQ1XxdtvzuFzfLmu92JMMjyDxSwzXkd5XfFQ2TPmpDXEKnz/s320/177.JPG" border="0" /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344625688745809154" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrkBEevtKVdRmdZbz7ik0obxwwdOS-L84aOUlR7IvBLGe7h83z-zo7oxhOEg9QLjxMtR0TmohgAvhJk4tpmKiI_uPMSW_Fyh-sqJsIdNK5kHPgbIcY7zAYokFvg_hdNq-N1lc8Dbn2lAWb/s320/181.JPG" border="0" /> <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344627413223549330" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7rRoQVIc2cMafmZMryh1TGc3ZXSWQ818-qbP5IP1mNrte6iMvgJ5R-Kl2AA6T76akOGDAHC0mPSrSYa8pWvV5bdMb0EafKqHTE1_IEXIlmmZBo5ddsEZwHZQ86bn3ZKIF1ZDr6UUHMxht/s320/228.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344794070182954674" style="DISPLAY: block; 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MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBq875EKxAZiXoBDItuDzoSLnn2xesla2hOluJA3B7AXzfuyYTYc7iMOB6YWXF7LC1w8xh70RM1EQHS9S5QZfr-Hm0tQPdKRxmQRWJAtVupQmfUbRB8o2pCij-D8Vg3is7L3L4r9nz0TK3/s320/252.JPG" border="0" /></a> </div><div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344627097270377234" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXOv9MMJnapR6yR1T2dkqY0A1lryfSFVHNfR2AUjF93uxgmq-pkVei0ibL37Z6574qDRZII6_uGsz2Zn0YBSHaCgb5K8SRecToTm0rgCJRhvEhmiBmQjs2i_LV5cW3omGQHNb-gzzo5p-B/s320/213.JPG" border="0" /> <div><div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7f3Zf_dpxbC68K6NQXK8GRL_yZ-kDakuQx2ZiJ3vWQTgASFW3ow8tja6P9RzQxAJ2d401tpB2kiyqQvIq2wrwHCK9lTDTH8jN-2mtgZ8BE7-1feAKOTwVMUXAmVbFPIDySDKdaUiHS-QT/s1600-h/268.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344625455187110466" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7f3Zf_dpxbC68K6NQXK8GRL_yZ-kDakuQx2ZiJ3vWQTgASFW3ow8tja6P9RzQxAJ2d401tpB2kiyqQvIq2wrwHCK9lTDTH8jN-2mtgZ8BE7-1feAKOTwVMUXAmVbFPIDySDKdaUiHS-QT/s320/268.JPG" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7iK212LvLvkad49_rD0tIod5SO7QbXSBTp6G51hufG1UPA3tDauRlkjFlE2Qm5mJkYReld4eIyX7qwM6Fk0RbHaHGLl15AZPnAlDDvT4PaPaiA6rRRCcXITr4CwrZQY11DqwtTZs0SLyx/s1600-h/143.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344625277328237266" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7iK212LvLvkad49_rD0tIod5SO7QbXSBTp6G51hufG1UPA3tDauRlkjFlE2Qm5mJkYReld4eIyX7qwM6Fk0RbHaHGLl15AZPnAlDDvT4PaPaiA6rRRCcXITr4CwrZQY11DqwtTZs0SLyx/s320/143.JPG" border="0" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCqbYhzQVhjm-_RZK_PIdS1cEw70wBfW3bVOWXRCOE7FIOozDkRDUS5VYqWkPUR-uwB59xF4W8IQolvnOGOeBb4Oa3G30IqPrV52FVw5t1cTb90zi2bdpP8Zb25IAcjS-lg2YMF-iSbVr3/s1600-h/130.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344624883305829186" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCqbYhzQVhjm-_RZK_PIdS1cEw70wBfW3bVOWXRCOE7FIOozDkRDUS5VYqWkPUR-uwB59xF4W8IQolvnOGOeBb4Oa3G30IqPrV52FVw5t1cTb90zi2bdpP8Zb25IAcjS-lg2YMF-iSbVr3/s320/130.JPG" border="0" /></a> <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344625036050927858" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsOfM48vNXzFbximM7v56g_sgXRwLnvApsq-RAGRL1hFrduCCu0SW5Sbv_mLPe1FcHFAhPevb1zv8f33iRBxhoHtfCFNoL-Wnsn2mpm40sxkb-7-33xFAOKKfGb2AkxdnOyb8U-mSiPG3X/s320/283.JPG" border="0" /> <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344636224477889522" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA5GuZnB9nx_Kt54FboxmnlODGvuDVqdQNCaZk9FPL3-HKvZblKWTNqur1YuWRJyXpcF5mKV6Ui23H_DwvuYOtJWLxmeqJGKcudHSoEuMmRRs8_R6S6bgKiiAhF4vM_QBIgTpvt8eEsX7p/s320/164.JPG" border="0" /> <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344636422513453138" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEind4LRig154zwL6llC6iURBGkSpAlzL8cYAFZc-u4YRo9fc-xEMuuZg834phB2xIiPLdwN5aBNDmMLbXs1RYwbePx1N_29Lze2qihtJ86Gw4vpLQHyBmKBssdWDU3TT7C0sMjF5JCA1yYy/s320/165.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344635702863050898" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgImZpsDtbtz5iro1TonoNCTTS1qKhfaRxWCMFW3XxGzszvWDS7IkQSGQefP5dz6cgVsfSfxdXTPvjoU1dpMdUC_SZ5h2ztd-Z-OadD5TOXqAFJahs-PYdTJHCbsKmraybzPm1pQXMduAN8/s320/253.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344626883667634082" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVAfe7rDFdPG-MR5E_Wx8AbeVpuWkMIZo0gKfAhz1iSSh53Wj3odroxovyZKcJUOoiFz1wHVEz8ofea-5PWTT_zojP9LXpj70yirjMlCQIJDPTWbW9XjzazhntJzwVju8FYeM0Q2I1o0mC/s320/215.JPG" border="0" /> <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344626990796609314" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOUAvR8A8FE9Rez8HLMBVFnjCw6fNOhYyaOwhCXynAvhHlJ_sjfSIyCbhmvyO5nc0sn2SDsSeqN_8zT1rGH9y8ZrBXRGSeWjKui4v2FJo3GM9a4W4Gyg5539-2LCAJvULGWXg2TWsAQjyJ/s320/216.JPG" border="0" /> <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344629637723503442" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2wQyZzAwTm5FfegYm-Lqg3ryePKQ0HN15325Z8q06i3p4zz_d8zb7WuweakRw_d7B58awCh5Fc4HvEtyWpps9MPKGk-JGAhT8jTRKjjL2We6xtr0K9_BYVL67YFsfrUJ4aqnrZrR6vMKt/s320/154.JPG" border="0" /></div></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344633676449826066" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUR2Iuz7ZM_55kiLvw0t8SiVe7AFclvFDT05Q7PFMyBht8Xd7cSsKs9LnKQ3DDaabMaXLmv6cyz-o5ZuCixL8YMWkyaPSQY50kXhTWknTiCLztWeqdBfKQiVKjN8Vl7-vFeZpi_QoBcm7Q/s400/049.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div>Vintage Wings of Canada Air Show 2009, June 6, 2009 </div><div><br /><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><br /><div>Greetings to all aviation lovers!<br /></div><br /><br /><div>I wanted to share with you some beautiful pictures that i have taken of the Vintange wings of Canada Open House Air Show, 2009 in Gatineau, Québec. The Air Show was absolutely beautiful, well organised and very enjoyable. It was absolutely pure fun to see these all these beautiful birds fly! I wanted to thank all of the people at Vintage Wings of Canada that were so very friendly and cortious! You have a very beautiful hanger with very beautiful airplanes. It was very enjoyable to meet World War two veterans and all the friendly people that share the same passion as i do, World War 2 airplanes and the vintage ones from the golden age of aviation! I really enjoyed seeing The Curtis P40 Warhawk, the P51 Mustang and all of the beautiful World War 2 airplanes. They are all so very beautiful! </div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><br /><br /><div>Vintage Wings of Canada celebrates Canada's aviation heritage and inspire Canadians with the most powerful stories of the heroes, aircraft and events that make up this legacy. To do this, they acquire the finest airworthy examples of important aircraft in Canadian aviation history. </div><br /><div></div><div></div></div><div>I would like to share with you The Vintage Wings of Canada web site that celebrate the Centenial of Canadian aviation. </div><div><br /><br /><a href="http://www.vintagewings.ca/page?s=63&lang=en-CA">http://www.vintagewings.ca/page?s=63&lang=en-CA</a></div><div></div><div><br /></div><div></div><div>Again, Thank you to all at Vintage Wings of Canada for this Wonderful experience at the Vintage Wings open house Air Show! </div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div></div><div><div><br /></div><div>We will be looking foward to the next Open House on September 19, 2009</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-64924968382930988812009-06-01T22:41:00.004-04:002009-05-31T23:26:22.437-04:00The Amazing George Beurling<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrrlWCB0IB9IKlDAW03FO0EIkDIpKjLvlaMDv0a_IIKHeHecglVQVY_UE0bXEV8uMpl9ErQ1sril3PW0RsaglwJ2vJbhd_lW_5sWk7Y-JZOUqSmcxU0lg4tUnrDsIb7iF5vqsaB0hKaHiP/s1600-h/01%2520beurlingFPO.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342176168719052738" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 75px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 75px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrrlWCB0IB9IKlDAW03FO0EIkDIpKjLvlaMDv0a_IIKHeHecglVQVY_UE0bXEV8uMpl9ErQ1sril3PW0RsaglwJ2vJbhd_lW_5sWk7Y-JZOUqSmcxU0lg4tUnrDsIb7iF5vqsaB0hKaHiP/s400/01%2520beurlingFPO.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />The Amazing George Frederick Beurling. The Falcon of Malta.<br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342180577512533010" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 247px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZHhPzyFAHTRKcK5bZD6eMh2mjyw9mQFCm-Oa93WspIBUnEmlahADzpZaz56N07FYOJqewbJ2QGdDyWx1atSMQOg6pIhkhi02pXdLr5DV7IH848pWDcOq2yB_tfl8oBpmnhkSnLnaut5h-/s320/George_Beurling_shaking_hands_w_WLMK_1942.jpg" border="0" /> <p></p><p></p><br /><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWuNB56z0pY_tCbTwVjQwXIPZD1J5Ku6RBVdusXe90lmK2_dBY6GHLr93XfnIx0kLzQf1Pui517tYNc-FQS7T1ruhOvu16Q8WyyBd1AI7QJZLl8yMLjY8M-UjrbZmghjiFaIo0RXg-bMqH/s1600-h/beurl2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342177882494831218" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 256px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWuNB56z0pY_tCbTwVjQwXIPZD1J5Ku6RBVdusXe90lmK2_dBY6GHLr93XfnIx0kLzQf1Pui517tYNc-FQS7T1ruhOvu16Q8WyyBd1AI7QJZLl8yMLjY8M-UjrbZmghjiFaIo0RXg-bMqH/s320/beurl2.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /></p><br /><br /><br /><p></p><br /><br /><br /><p></p><br /><br /><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342179830857217426" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 94px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFiaZQwwkomgrL3MUCV2ed3t4NQlBSYnPRHFkUb_8lRBJC-D1XueLicra8DlWn2n8cUtN-eBwHYj1Dkl8Ykx1k4S0duXFatmeMOPF61hW1Sft-Ke2tF_MVR622OP6NiC2D6ro1WvhH-YKx/s320/BeurlingSpitVc.jpg" border="0" /></p><p><br /><br />What more can be said about George Beurling that has not been said or written? He was liked, he was disliked by some of his superiors and fellow pilots. I would like to give my own opinion to all, that's if you don't mind? Not the opinion of historians and scholars but my own opinion on George "Buzz" Beurling! He was a heck of a pilot and when i come to think of it, i am so glad he was on our side! (The Allies, that is!) The aircraft he mostly flew in World War 2 was the Spitfire MK. VC. He had a grace to manoeuvre an airplane quite like no other fighter pilot but George unfortunatelly died at the young age of 27 years old. During World War 2 George was shot down four times and was injured but made it through his injuries. This is quite amazing that he lived through the four crashes! The way he handled an airplane was quite dangerous and couragous at the same time. George had a very good eyesight and his manoeuvres were quite, if not incredible and judged by many to be lunatic and crazy! I think he simply did his manoeuvres out of shear courage and many airmen were envious of his amazing stunts and couragagous manoeuvres. He did this for the war effort, so the allies could win the war. I believe he risked his life doing all those crazy stunts for our freedom! Mind you that when falling out of the sky on a roll and gaining control of your aircraft at the very last moment requires quite a bit of skill and courage but these stunts did out manoeuvre the ennemy on many occasions. His stunts and manoeuvres, he did them at his own risk because he was couragous and knew that it could make him crash and be killed! Everyone knows George Beurling was born in Verdun, Québec, Canada. Everyone knows that George Beurling did not always follow orders and was somewhat of a rebel in the Air Force. Everyone knows he would leave his squadron on combat missions to knock the heck out of the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica (Italian Air Force) with 32 kills over Malta and George came to be known as screwball Beurling for all his amazing war stunts over Malta and the Mediterranean. </p><p>Earned World War 2 awards to George Beurling, The distinguished service order, The Distinguished flying cross, The Distinguished flying medal and bar. Quite an accomplishment for a World War 2 Canadian RCAF pilot! </p><p>George was given an honorable discharge from the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1944.<br /><br />Many in the RCAF and RAF did not like George Beurling because he did not always follow the orders of his officers. I agree that we must, in life follow the orders of our superiors. This goes for the average Joe like myself. But after all the amazing feats and courage he achieved over Malta in 1942, i still believe George Beurling is a true Canadian war hero. George Beurling is buried in Haifa, Israel because he wanted to fly for the Israeli Air Force after World War 2 but he never made it alive to Israel. When i think that no one claimed his body at the time of his death kind of makes me sad! His body was not claimed for three months after the time of his death in Italy in 1948 when his Norseman aircraft crashed on take off killing himself and WW2 United States RAF volunteer veteran Leonard Cohen. George Beurling was buried in Italy until 1950 and then his remains were transfered to Israel in 1950.<br /><br /><br />George wanted to fly for the Israeli Air Force because when i think of it, he couldn't live without the rush of combat. I have heard that there is some kind of adrenaline rush that goes through your body while you are in combat that is so hard to replace once the battle is over and can become addictive? This is probably what happened to George Beurling, he wanted to fly for Israel to protect the Israeli territory and to get that rush of adrenaline he would not get in civilian life? This is my assumption? I have heard that no one claimed his body when he died in May, 1948, not his family? Although, i am very sceptic about this information that no one in his family claimed his body when he died? Not the Canadian Gouverment either? How can this be when you are a National war hero here in Canada? George flew for the RCAF and RAF. If i were living in 1948 and would have known that George Beurling were dead, i would have been the first Canadian to want to have this war hero buried in our Canadian soil. What ever the case may be, this is only known to history?<br /><br />I am very happy to let you know there is the George Beurling Academy in Verdun, Québec and the Beurling park and also Beurling boulevard, in Verdun, Québec . I don't know if there is any other monument or street named after him in Verdun? What ever the case maybe, i live in the Montréal area and will some time this summer get pictures and information from Verdun, Québec to post on my blog. Pictures of where George lived, his neighbouhood, his city and the park named after him. Please stay tuned because, hopefully i will have some interresting pictures and stories to share about our great Canadian War hero, George ''Buzz'' Beurling sometime this summer.<br /><br />Click on the link below to see the George Beurling avenue and parc in Verdun, Québec on Google earth.<br /><br /><a href="http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ei=cyUjSvzvFdqJtgfsiKD9DQ&resnum=0&q=beurling%20boulevard%2C%20verdun&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl">http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ei=cyUjSvzvFdqJtgfsiKD9DQ&resnum=0&q=beurling%20boulevard%2C%20verdun&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl</a><br /><br /><br />If there are any pictures or stories or opinions you would like to share about this amazing World War 2 Canadian war hero, please let me know and i will gladly post it on my blog!<br /><br />Thank you George for your courage and efforts you have given us! Rest in Peace George.<br /><br />More tributes to RCAF and RAF pilots will be done in the future. Stay posted for more great historical stories of our heroes to follow!</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-73407348537215023282009-05-09T23:59:00.000-04:002009-05-09T22:01:42.528-04:00In Their Memory-RCAF Supermarine Stranraer #935<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLiIH-HA2Sd5ZX8bfabYwxgKa6aWawtxZRkyOWU8QAlx3l5M7UN8kwQbDll574DkoI-meVuKTDiqt-tRDwYhO-mn7o6eFQVebGv0NZ884M3ifg0XDhgfx-M93h1N6-n7LkzUEdpvvP4Y_L/s1600-h/stran-2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333955023366687074" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLiIH-HA2Sd5ZX8bfabYwxgKa6aWawtxZRkyOWU8QAlx3l5M7UN8kwQbDll574DkoI-meVuKTDiqt-tRDwYhO-mn7o6eFQVebGv0NZ884M3ifg0XDhgfx-M93h1N6-n7LkzUEdpvvP4Y_L/s400/stran-2.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333955161893818962" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 339px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7d7J8Ja8JXsoYqUXw9vdMQ4jbjMwDiLGeX0xU4Js7fpZk157-x5IvhgCDpsNHbzn2EFIqiW0jSGNr5gSrwfZDuLdTymqbvvEe3zeIWU2FTHbFtP6cTg1seC1leOjWWSqF5Qj6CFsbrES9/s400/26_a_skidegate_harbor_to_juneau,_alaska.gif" border="0" /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333955379811075170" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 120px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 120px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd2yNMBCd9j1WULta3_nuTqA1IlZLaccpI-iEP-O-neJSuDy4k-LKcuhMlGoRKrVrBGZKcbUV81IPHH_YaIS9zuFSKdWN_vRPJ04FSGfa1eQFnIYiSPomuFPXCkJMfNPPzwX_wYrQoCjMb/s320/type_a1_th.gif" border="0" /> <div><br /><br /><br />In Their Memory - RCAF Supermarine Stranraer #935<br /><br />Greetings to all<br /><br />As you might know, this is an opened WW2 RCAF, RAF blog. This means that anyone wanting to post a story of a loved one or of someone missing in action during the Second World War is more than welcomed to let me know and i will gladly post it on my blog.<br /><br />Here is the story of a Supermarine Stranraer that crashed in British Columbia 1943 and we are looking for anyone who can help us find relatives or acquaitances of the airmen that crashed on RCAF Supermarine Stranraer serial number 935 on Febuary 14, 1943. </div><div><br />Please do not hesitate to write if you have any informations what so ever on this historical event!<br />Thank you very much,<br /><br />Lucky Luke<br /><br />Told by Shirley Gilmour Santini. My father, Joseph Orr Gilmour was born in Glasgow, Scotland on Oct 6, 1904. He emigrated to Toronto Canada with his parents when he was in his twenties. I believe he was a metal worker by trade and employed by a bus company as a mechanic. When Canada became involved in the second World War in 1939, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force on Oct 17, 1939 in Vancouver, BC. He married my mother Mary Veronica Mulvihill in 1931, in Vancouver and my sister Patricia was born in Sept 1932, I, Shirley Gilmour Santini arrived in August of 1936.<br /><br />When my Dad was stationed with the RCAF in Trenton, Ontario in 1939, we travelled by train to join him and live in that area, until 1941 when he was once again Stationed at Jericho Beach, Vancouver, BC. in/on or about 1943? From there his next and final station was Alliford Bay, BC. on the Queen Charlotte Islands. He was attached to #6 Bomber Reconnaissance Squadron flying "coastal watch" missions.<br /><br />**Only recently we discovered the following info. Mother passed away in 1991 and was not in possession of any of Dads military records***"On February 14, 1943 the RCAF Canadian Vickers Stranraer serial number 935 crashed in Skidgate Channel between Maude and Leading Islands at position 53.12N and 132.92W.<br /><br />""The crew had been on a training flight when they attempted a landing. Due to gusty conditions, the Stranraer bounced a number of times with each bounce getting more severe. The aircraft nosed under and the 4 depth charges on board exploded, killing all 5 crew members and one RCAF passenger, (total 6 men).<br /><br />In the winter months the waters in that area can be extremely choppy with huge swells and the conditions are often worsened by dense fog. It has been difficult to obtain information regarding the "flying accident" and the records I requested and received had been on microfishe and had not copied well, making it very difficult to read. Many of the pages had many details blacked out line by line.<br /><br />In the past 5 years I have met with and become a member of AWON - American War Orphans Network and have heard their stories of their loved ones lost in WW II. Through these wonderful people, most of whom are WWII kids, many have found the gravesites of their parent and visited National Cemetaries in many countries. I am not aware of any Canadian counterpart to AWON but the assistance offered to the American members is so helpful. Many of them never knew their fathers. I am fortunate in being able to remember my father, as he was 39 at the time of his death. My sister was 10 years old and I was 6. My memories of him are very vivid--always in uniform and so often we were saying good bye, when he was leaving again. In those days we made many trips to the train stations as all of my Uncles were in the service and being sent overseas.<br /><br />On February 14, 1943 the Crew Members who gave the Ultimate Sacrafice along with my father were:<br /><br />Pilot J13672 Pilot Officer Donald Stuart MacLennan of Montreal, QuebecSecond Pilot J13697<br /><br />Pilot Officer Lorne Gregory Thompson from Chance Harbour, St. John County, New Brunswick<br /><br />Wireless Air Gunner (W A G) J13153 Pilot Officer Frederick William McConkey from Calgary, Alberta<br /><br />Airframe Mechanic - R50522 Sergeant Joseph Orr Gilmour from Vancouver, British Columbia (MY FATHER).Aero Engine Mechanic - R94622<br /><br />Corporal John Paul Sperling from Chamberlain Saskatchewan.<br /><br />Passenger was C3378 Flight Lieutenant Charles William Thomas Field (RCAF Accounting Officer). He was originally from Chicago, Illinois. USA.<br /><br />I am looking for any type of information anyone has, reference this accident, or can help me get in touch with any of the families of these men.<br /><br />Looking for anyone who knew of my father during that time?<br /><br />The bodies of these men were never recovered to our knowledge due to the "conditions" in that area. The Official paper work read "killed" as a result of a "flying accident--body not recovered presumed dead". This info was given to my mother in a letter dated May 21, 1943 from the Wing Commander H.J. Winny Dads, first station I believe was Trenton Ontario 10-21-1939 until 1940.<br /><br />We lived at 65 Queen Street, Trenton Ont.Rank of CPL was made on 12-12-1941 RCAF Station, Vancouver BC Jericho Beach -<br /><br />VancouverRank of SGT. was made on 4-4-1942.<br /><br />Assigned to Alliford Bay Station on 10-21-1942. Squadron 6<br /><br />Thank you so much.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-842584265578594613.post-50593125482747808032009-05-05T23:54:00.016-04:002009-05-05T23:38:08.173-04:00Looking for information RCAF Manning depot Lachine, Québec, Canada<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_qEk0Z5vLDdu2mK3uLqfZD3Gh03UazykbZA6k47bqMVsQJr5DGGQK4rvoTc63nDktyJ7oNvhvktz8zYSaeZ7u8Ztgb7hYh8A5B0BzMxHw39CnqRELPM6vQPqjHZPCYyOBQSLmPKiqV31P/s1600-h/425web.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332538670534992162" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 225px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_qEk0Z5vLDdu2mK3uLqfZD3Gh03UazykbZA6k47bqMVsQJr5DGGQK4rvoTc63nDktyJ7oNvhvktz8zYSaeZ7u8Ztgb7hYh8A5B0BzMxHw39CnqRELPM6vQPqjHZPCYyOBQSLmPKiqV31P/s320/425web.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidzlg5ma2fJUYY5juwM6IHEaafcuRVRTTAI_9s3lJe98qd8uRaG3VsBJyk-v3-NClm21m8OHZ3ZhTWiin6nhQsR-ovOuAQE9ubyKWK3PbxfeT19X58r8frBf7gXuRuUvmu19Y50w6K3a4s/s1600-h/Roundel_1.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332534811470576066" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 72px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 73px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidzlg5ma2fJUYY5juwM6IHEaafcuRVRTTAI_9s3lJe98qd8uRaG3VsBJyk-v3-NClm21m8OHZ3ZhTWiin6nhQsR-ovOuAQE9ubyKWK3PbxfeT19X58r8frBf7gXuRuUvmu19Y50w6K3a4s/s400/Roundel_1.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5WDGdH8k3nChQDdjVle_8y1kcr1Gti1sgj4ZLfG4zFHVKHJh1arrmXcnprfQsX4L4aKFBFJ3TSNJ359iwvA0voeYfLB7_V_GD17Ke9JYECs7NkuTG3ARYpbu3Wo4eVua2P-f3yRDrYJk7/s1600-h/Roundel_1.gif"></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>Greetings to all!<br /><br /></div><div>I am looking for information about the Royal Canadian Air Force Manning depot in Lachine, Québec, Canada. </div><br /><div>Would anyone have any information on the RCAF manning depot in Lachine? This depot was used as a training station for WW2 RCAF, RAF, RAAF aviators in Lachine, Québec, Canada. The base was in service for training wireless air gunners, (WAG'S) radio operators and navigators from 1942 to 1959. It would be very interresting, if you could possibly share any stories that you might have, pictures or any other experiences what so ever from that era about the manning depot in Lachine! I do wish to keep the history of the RCAF manning depot alive and you folks could possibly help me! There is nothing left of the base today, but maybe, with your help i can keep history alive for future generations to come through your pictures, relics and stories! </div><br /><div>You can email me at: <a href="mailto:oxygen2060@yahaoo.ca">oxygen2060@yahaoo.ca</a> with any information what so ever that you might have, it would be greatly appreciated. </div><br /><div>The depot was unfortunatelly demolished in the 1960's and early 1970's. Lachine is my hometown where i grew up. I still can remember some of the hangers from the depot as a young boy. Many of the men that were trained at the manning depot have died in Europe in the Second World war or are still missing in action to this day and this is the least i can do for their memory! Many people in Lachine, the Province of Québec and Canada don't even know there was an RCAF base in Lachine, training aviators to fight for our freedom in these perilous times of fear for our freedom during the Second World War!</div><br /><div>If you can possibly help me on this matter i would be very greatful! </div><br /><div>Thank you very much for your help! </div><br /><div>Lucky Luke</div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8