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Snapper

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  1. I went up to the north east and photographed the Vickers Mk 11 and the Valkyr for a feature for Classic Military Vehicle on 2005. It never appeared and Pat Ware never told me why but I don't think. I had a good day with the owner and even went for a ride in the Valkyr which was superb fun. The Mk11 was huge - had no engine and looked to do be all there otherwise.
  2. I like too many. I was in the Museum of Modern Art in New York recently and they have some stunning stuff including the classic Van Gogh of Starry Starry Night fame and a whole room full of Monet's waterlilles. William Holman Hunt's Strayed Sheep of 1852 - painted at Fairlight is in the Tate Gallery - a gem. I've got a print of it and a fridge magnet. In Canada a few years ago I nearly bought a railway scene from a shop in Banff that was stunning - but my Mrs decided we didn't have room for it. I can't remember the artist.. will check. How daft. I've always loved the Cuneo and David Shepherd stuff of trains and I've got a Spitfire being watched over by the ghost of an SE5 in the house which was a wedding present from my late father which means the world to me. I used to collect those little Michael Turner copy card prints when I was young and silly - there was one of a Handley Page Heyford I will always love and wish I had the real thing of. The master remains Frank Wootton. I have an old book of his work I bought at Hendon in about 1978 and I cherish it. He is the main man of aviation art for me. I'm actually a cartoons man by practice. I've got a few. A JAK from the Evening Standard, some of his proofs. (his dog bit me once...long story), A Garth proof from the 1970s from when I worked at the Mirror, other bits of graphics, lots of books, but no Giles original..too good to be true - my dad spent a lot of time at the Express but never wangled that one. I love that sort of art. I had more, but chucked stuff out when I got married. Some of the worst decisions were stuff from my time at the Melody Maker - hey ho... Lynyrd Skynyrd artwork from a US trade mag was a poor one for starters... MB
  3. Beautiful. Don't apologise for having such a lovely motor!
  4. That will be the new Brad Pitt movie.
  5. This is one of the best non MV threads I've seen on here in yonks. Thanks chaps. MB
  6. Then I wonder who this bloke was then? I wish I'd snapped him now.
  7. As he plays the tank commander in this film - I don't think driving is essential at this juncture and I hope he gets a haircut and reprises his accent from Inglorious Bar Stewards - at least so we can get him pulling pints in our club house. When I was at W&PR I happened to be present when a gentleman who is apparently one of the producers made an appearance and he was very entertaining for several reasons way beyond the advertising pages of the Daily Bile or even Cage & Aviary Birds. He wore a very fetching fashionista designed cammo outfit. We got the impression he thought everyone at the racecourse was available for hire, but this is being unkind, because I can't see how a couple of Tonibell icecream vans will be a match for the Bovington Tiger, which he claimed is in the movie. What worries me is where this leaves room for the legendary figures of Jack Beckett and characters of the tank dust such as our chum Johnnie Oddball, but who am I to guess with most of my brain residing in a Southend On Sea fish stall? All will become known. I hope it's good and hope all the people who know what they are doing are listened to. After all, there was once this Horse and it went to war... see other another two threads. Blub/Snigger (delete to suit). Thirteen Shermans? Is that the same as Twelve Monkeys? Jack you could be in it and deliver your Sherman on the Mount again. Proper drama. I'll buy that for a dollar!
  8. My father didn't get his until 1976!
  9. I think you'll find it interests more than just a few people. Where (approx) was the pillbox - If I may ask??
  10. I've got a recent book that lists a number of the glider landings in England. I'll have a look. MB
  11. Well - having seen the WORST WAR MOVIE thread is still running I find chums crying over WARHORSE in here, too. LOL. What a winner. That Spielberg - he's clever. He appeals to us all one way or another. Anyway - No doubt for me they fall into brackets - FULL METAL JACKET - Not least because it is a classic and I get to hear Nick's stories about extras falling down holes.... and Hue was in Beckton - right on the A13 which you can get your kicks on if you listen to Billy Bragg. THEY WERE EXPENDABLE. ..from the novel - a classic, too. Great sequences and not overwhelmed by John Wayne. Dunkirk. A masterpiece - filmed around Rye and Camber. My in-laws knew people who were in it as extras or had their property in it back in 1953 when it was made. BATTLE OF BRITAIN -for all the reasons previously given. I saw it at the Dominion,Tottenham Court Road in 1969 and still have the souvenir programme. THE LONGEST DAY - saw the re-run at the same cinema - and still have the souvenir programme. THE DAMBUSTERS - never tire of it. It and DUNKIRK are my top British war films..but I also love The Cruel Sea and masses of others. Can't wait for the Peter Jackson remake, script by Stephen Fry. The bombers are all built. Cast aren't settled.... and that dog. APPOINTMENT IN LONDON - The other British bomber movie. Classic. KELLY'S HEROES. Why not? I have to keep the legend of Malcolm Dunlop alive. BLACKHAWK DOWN - I have one of the AK47s from it. I like too many, Went the Day Well, Angels One Five, Glory, Others mentioned on this thread. Too many.... If I had to pick a totally off the wall war scene though - I'd go back to Peter Jackson, and that would be the king's speech and the charge of the riders of Rohan in the 3rd lord of the rings thing- just that few minutes - just like the book I read aged 15. You can have the rest - not bothered. AND the opening sequence of GLADIATOR. I wanted more of the legions.
  12. Brilliant thread. The only things I regret selling are two cameras - which, if you know me, will make sense. My first proper photographers camera - a Yashica Lynx rangefinder - it had a broken shutter leaf on the fixed lens. But it was very special to me. First SLR - Fujica ST705W (Pentax copy) never replaced. I will one day. I have all but one of my other cameras since boyhood - all the smashed kit from tank photography down the years. Nothing gets thrown away. Daft. MB
  13. You can look on the Great War Forum but I can tell you the things I know. When my Uncle Leslie was killed with two others on 23.08.1915 the three of them were buried in a single grave. They were killed by shellfire. As I know from my experience of battlefield travels over many years the bodies were intact enough for them to be identified but not enough was left to constitute individual burials at the time. However, in 1921 when the cemetery where they are buried was formally layed out by the IWGC - they were separated and my uncle was even buried further away from his mates by several feet. It's easier with individuals who can be identified. As far as I understand it the graves registration people clearing up in the post war period would not make individual graves for an arm and a leg or a hand. They were often made into group graves - hence how you occasionally find graves with eight, nine, ten in. If you go to places like CONNAUGHT at Thiepval Wood, you will see them. But these can also be where groups of individuals were badly smashed up by shellfire and constituted more than just a limb - but also where the burial parties took time over their dead - and in front of the Thiepval redoubt and the Schwaben redoubt was not such a place for many, weeks if not months in 1916 - but getting to these casualties was impossible. The fact is, there is no real hard and fast rule. Burial teams worked in their own ways but to general guidelines and mores of the time. I would imagine some graves of named people and odd un-named graves have the odd extra limb added here and there. We know from the work done by teams of dedicated people, how many graves are incorrect, not just spellings - but the wrong people - but also how many people are not registered AT ALL. It was all about clearing up. This was grim work done in hard times. Clearing these battlefields - moving small cemeteries into the bigger concenctration types - what horrible work. But it was done - the battlefields were cleared by the Fijian, Egyptian, South African and Chinese Labour Corps and so on, and led by amazing people. If you go to the cemetery at Sangatte you find THEIR graves. Where they died maybe from influenza or accidents - or where the Chinese sometimes killed each other in fights over gambling... colourful - but real. A lot of the detail is lost... and there are places where a lot of men are said to still rest - undiscovered and never will be... the appetite isn't there. Farming comes first in France, especially. MB
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