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Big ray


Big ray

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Thank you Degsy for your very kind words. I have been over to Nottingham today, I took another one of our army buddies with me. We picked up Jacks wife and she directed us to the hospital. We allowed her to go in first and asked specifically that she should not tell him that we had arrived. We spoke with the duty nurse who O.K.d our little surprise, she felt that it would do more good than any possible harm. I should have taken my camera, the look on his face was all the reward that I could have wanted.

He is making very good progress but does have a few associated medical problems that his tests have thrown up. I think that his biggest problem is one of depression, he is very depressed at the prospect of missing the reunion....... I told him to stop worrying, and then proceeded to tell him how bad that my medical condition was............ that seemed to cheer him up no end. I then rang most of our buddies and got him to talk with them. He certainly looked much improved by the time that we had to leave, I gave him one hell of a big hug, that induced a little dampness around the eyes, but hey, we are men, we dont show our emotions......... do we.?

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Glad to hear you managed to visit your friend,it must have given him a big lift. Friends are very important as I know only too well, Saturday afternoon we were busy with hay and haylage making trying to finish before promised rain arrives in the early hours of today.

My son, Richard was just getting a baler ready to start work when his hand was crushed, I was unaware of the injury initially but a friend who had come to help gave immediate first aid and Richard's mother rushed him the 20 miles to A&E. His wife was in the village show with their 2 young daughters just about to find out the results of the 6 year old's entries when she got the news. (still don't know the results). Farming neighbours wives immediately looked after the children, the 6 year old is staying with neighbours 'til things are sorted.

Word quickly got around and we were overwhelmed with helpers even though it was show day and a lot of other farmers and contractors were also busy with hay making. So much help meant that I had a lot less to do than if the accident hadn't happened and everything was finished by midnight although Richard and I had planned and expected to work right through the night. It restores one's faith in human nature when something like this occurs, you also find out who your real friends are.

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Thanks Tony, his hand was badly cut and crushed, one finger had all the skin and flesh torn off exposing the tendons and bone but fortunately nothing is broken. The main worry at the moment is the possibility of infection as his hand was very greasy and dirty when it happened, there is also the possibility of nerve damage and he may never recover the full use even after prolonged physiotherapy but that will be a long way in the future assuming that it heals. One of the main problems is going to be keeping him away from work, as soon as he got back from A&E last night he ousted me from a tractor and baler and baled about 10 acres with his right hand immobilised and strapped under his chin, he wouldn't go to the house until he was satisfied everything was finished and all the helpers were ok and had been fed etc. He has at least seen sense today and rested allowing me to just get on with the work without any interference but I don't see that lasting for long.

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Thanks Tony, will pass it on.

 

Much as I appreciate the comments, this thread belongs to Ray and I have no wish to hijack it. The reason I mentioned it was because of what the bond of friendship and loyalty can mean to people suffering problems. Thank you again and apologies to Ray.

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No apologies needed, I was away all day yesterday, I am very sorry to hear of your sons injury. I sincerely hope that he suffers no long term effects, this just illustrates the ease with which these injuries can occur. I know that my family and friends get sick of me telling them to be careful. Please convey my wishes for a complete and speedy recovery.

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Thanks Ray, I will pass on your good wishes. He is seeing the consultant again today so we will hopefully know more later. We are constantly telling each other to be careful but injuries still occur, agriculture is by far the most dangerous occupation in GB.

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I operated tractors and associated machinery for many years in my business, I was constantly having to tell operators about the things that they were doing wrong. They allowed people to sit on the front of trailers (I presume so that they could converse with the driver more easily) I would tell them that if they fell off then the trailer would run over them, so sit on the back, if they should fall off they would only be left behind. Countless problems with attachments, but one that I could not make them understand was when towing a bogged truck. They would stick the hook of the chain into the top of the 3 point linkage, they seemed to think that the chain would be more effective pulling the tractor down. What I had great difficulty in making them understand was that should the tractor obtain good purchase on the tyres, then there was the distinct possibility that the wheels would stop turning, and the tractor would turn turtle.... this was the days before the legal requirement for roll bars. I suppose that its all about understanding the implications of what you are doing......Please do keep us informed of your sons continued progress, we all wish him well and a speedy return to normality.

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One of the lectures at Ag College had been a Health and Saftey inspector. He had a gruesome set of photos including flipped up tractors, and a set involving what was left of a 6 foot welded circular saw blade. I've come close a few times to having tractors flip over. Who says Farming is an idilic life?

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I operated tractors and associated machinery for many years in my business, I was constantly having to tell operators about the things that they were doing wrong. They allowed people to sit on the front of trailers (I presume so that they could converse with the driver more easily) I would tell them that if they fell off then the trailer would run over them, so sit on the back, if they should fall off they would only be left behind. Countless problems with attachments, but one that I could not make them understand was when towing a bogged truck. They would stick the hook of the chain into the top of the 3 point linkage, they seemed to think that the chain would be more effective pulling the tractor down. What I had great difficulty in making them understand was that should the tractor obtain good purchase on the tyres, then there was the distinct possibility that the wheels would stop turning, and the tractor would turn turtle.... this was the days before the legal requirement for roll bars. I suppose that its all about understanding the implications of what you are doing......Please do keep us informed of your sons continued progress, we all wish him well and a speedy return to normality.

 

Sorry to be slow in replying Ray, a bit busy at the moment. The two instances you mention I've actually seen happen, the guy riding the trailer had a badly broken ankle and the tractor driver was very lucky as he was thrown clear, the tractor wasn't so good.:D

It was a bit of a freak accident in Richards case, he was servicing the baler so of course it wasn't running, he reached over putting his right hand on the pitman shaft, the ram must have been just on the point of balance and the shaft moved trapping his hand in the crank. With hindsight he should have got his mate to move the flywheel back to release his hand but , of course, his reaction was to wrench his hand free which made the injury much worse. He's lucky that he still has movement in the fingers, there doesn't appear to be any nerve damage and so far no infection has developed . He is back and forth to the hospital all the time to have dressings changed and for a doctor to examine the wounds and he will see the consultant who operated on him early next week. Thanks again for your good wishes.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Rich saw the consultant yesterday and he found it hard to believe how well the injury is healing, he said that he had expected to have to amputate anything from one finger to the whole hand so it's a good job he was prepared to take a chance and just stitch everything up. Rich isn't out of the woods yet, infection could still set in but he is still taking antibiotics and the likelihood lessens each day.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The tank washdown area was naturally adjacent to the tank workshops, we would regularly washdown tanks (Centurians) either before entry into workshops or on return from exercise. This was a favourite time for a group of us to gather behind the tank and have a chat and a smoke. On one occasion one of our friends who drove one of the staff cars spotted us behind the tank. The washdown was a relatively new concrete struture with the wash ramp running down perhaps 60 or so feet down into the large water sump, which was almost like a small swimming pool, but I think only about 3 or 4 feet deep. He decided that he could come hurtling in reverse down the ramp, after gaining speed and knocking the car into neutral, slap on his brakes and frighten the living daylights out of us. In the execution of this manouvre he had twisted his body in order to look through the rear window. He obviously became slightly disorientated where the pedals were concerned, and he had his foot resting on the clutch pedal instead of the brake. The result was no noise, but a good old splash that frightened us considerably more than he had intended. I dont know what he told the authorities what had happened, but he suffered no punishment, however it was a long time before we let him forget about it.

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  • 4 weeks later...

As a schoolboy during WW2 I lived approximately 20 miles or so from the RAF No 21 MU Bomb Dump, we did not know what actually went on there at the time, secrecy was paramount I suppose. 194 Italian POWs worked at the dump along with RAF types. Apparently safety was rather lax, and almost no officers were in attendence. Eye witnesses reckon that one of the RAF people was seen to be removing detonators from bombs with a brass hammer instead of the wooden mallet that he should have used, but its still only conjecture, even after all of these years no one knows for sure what created the explosion. The explosion occured at 11 minutes past 11.0am, 4000 tonnes of ordnance exploded, killing at least 75 people. The dead included Italian POWs RAF bods, and 31 people died in the adjacent Fordes Lime and Gipsum works, they died when the factory was engulfed in mud and water after the nearby reservoir burst its banks. The resulting explosion was the largest non atomic event ever to have happened. The munitions were stored in the old gypsum mine that ran underneath Upper Castle Hayes Farm, the farm and all its occupants, animals including 200 cattle just vanished.

Two more farms and nearby cottages were extensively damaged. The resulting crater is 400ft deep and 0.75mile wide. I am a member of The Burtonwood Association, and on reading one of my publications of The Burtonwood Times I came accross an article that had been submitted by an ex-G.I. who at one point during his service had been stationed at Fauld, by then the American army had taken over the dump for storage of their ordnance. He had written to say that although he had been stationed there, and knew that something terrible had taken place, the security was so tight that he had no information. This was some 60 years after he had left the place, I e-mailed him all of the information, and he e-mailed me back to thank me for providing him with this information that cleared up something that had bugged him for all those years............. The wonders of modern technology. The site can still be visited, but it still belongs to the MoD and its fenced office, the signs inform you that there are still many unexploded bombs on the site.

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My Uncle Jimmy ( he shot the two Italians) was in the Royal Engineers during the Anzio landings, he was actually moved about into several units during his wartime service, no one could control him, they just kept moving him on!! After the landings they were involved in Bailey bridge construction on a regular basis, so many rivers. On one occasion they were constructing a bridge and they were taking a break, he was talking with one of his co-workers on the bridge. At one point in the conversation he had said something to the other guy but received no response, when he turned to look at the guy, he had been shot by a sniper..... One day whilst marching through the hilly countryside they came across a couple of U.S. MPs who were looking after a young G.I., the G.I. was shaking uncontrolably. He asked the M.P.s what was wrong with him, they said that he was a sniper who had been station (concealed) on the hillside. The Germans had known that he had been there, and they had plastered the hillside with mortor shells, many apparently landed very close to him but none had found their target, but the G.I. must have felt that the next shell would have his name on it..... and not surprisingly his nerve had snapped.

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  • 3 weeks later...

My wife Margaret had listened to me saying what a nice country Germany was, and how much that I had enjoyed my army service there in the 1950s, so I promised that I would take her there one day for a holiday. We managed to make that trip around 1988, thirty years after I had been discharged. We travelled with a couple of our friends and spent a week sailing up and down the Rhine river We can be seen sitting on the top observation deck, left to right, my wife Margaret,our friends wife, myself (I think thats the only time that I have bothered to wear sunglasses.) and my friend.

We had a great time and can recommend that particular holiday.Ray & Marg 005.jpg

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Tonight, Monday 22/10/12 there`s a proramme on channel 9, all about british troops in Germany (BAOR) after the second world war, which I assume will cover the 1950s, the period that I spent there. It should give some indication of what military life was like at that time. Tony Francis wreck 1957.jpg

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