Snapper

My mate John enrolled me for a birthday present this year. I've only managed to get to a few meetings at the superb Southend branch which meets at the RNA club near Roots Hall football ground. The guest speakers all give excellent talks and the devotion to the subject is remarkable. There is one elderly chap at our branch who is slowly building a database of the Royal Naval Division and what he doesn't know about them doesn't matter. As with all organisations you see the odd soul you don't want to be cornered by - but it appears to me that the WFA is a warm place to be.

Great stuff Joris. It must have added a sense of purpose to your trip to the area. The cemetery looks as good as I remember it. These little ones are always the best.

I hope you're writing a book Gus. Ignore the helmet fixations of some of these weirdos.

Good points. I don't buy MMI on a regular basis - I check it out in Smiths and stick it back if nothing grabs my attention. I get CMV on the grounds of being a guilty party. I don't have binders. My mags are just stacked in piles - it is hard to believe sometimes that I am a professional librarian. Smiths in Southend used to stock ATB but gave up for some sad reason which made room for more celebrity mags. Jack will have to go in the Big Brother house to make it big, then we can ride on his coat tails to film premieres and opening branches of Aldi in Basildon or Basingstoke to make it easier to get mags without taking subscriptions. Glory - butstrictly :offtopic: ...........sorry.

Correct - I blurred the details..... quality items..

This is all brilliant. The IGN maps are excellent equivalents to OS and as Tony says can be bought over the web. They are 9 euros fifty or so on the web - but after I bought four for the Somme area (they can be infuriating in the way they split where you want to go) I found they were cheaper in the Thiepval visitor centre - but I couldn't care less. Tony and Rick will know that the WFA have a trench map library which can provide copies. My mates John used them to go to the exact spot within a yard or so, where Ian's Great Grandfather Isaac Phillips of the North Staffs was killed at Arras. His name is on the memorial to the missing at Faubourg D'Arras - a stunning place. I've passed word of this quest around a few chums and it may be you will get more help. Sounds like you've started something here..... Tony B makes fine points about WW1. We tend to ignore it - all those little men in black and white walking round like Charlie Chaplin. They seem light years off. When my son James stood on a live French hand grenade at Maltz Horn farm a couple of Sundays back, it tells us that this is not the case. The farmer had helpfully chucked it on the grass verge where we were having an after dinner stroll. 25,000 men are thought to lay, lost, in the fields around Guillemont all killed in the autumn of 1916 for the gain of one obliterated village. Doing our bit for one man makes everything so perfect when you take this into consideration. James is fine, in case you were wondering..............

I forgot to say that the very fact that you chose to save this memorial puts you at the very highest in my estimation. All credit to you.

I am sorry I have come to this wonderful string so late. Ironically, I was in France last week. In any case - I attach some snaps of Red Cross Corner cemetery, which is near Arras. I went there this time last year to visit the grave of Edward Venus who died in December 1917, and had worked in the press room of The Times, hence my interest. I visit a lot of cemeteries and usually photograph graves on a random basis - and I'm sorry that none of the names mentioned are included even though the cemetery is a small one. I do think you should approach your local branch of the Western Front Association for assistance. It is highly likely that there will be someone in the branch who knows a great deal about the Norfolks and the organisation as a whole may well be able to assist and advise a placement. For example you may be able to negotiate with the land owner to have the memorial placed on the cemetery boundary as opposed to within it - which is impossible. I am no expert. WFA branch chairman for Norwich and Waveney is Major Richard Wilson MBE, Hockham Lodge, Shropham, Attleborough, Norfolk NR17 1ED. Alternatively, I can speak to Peter Last the chairman of the Southend branch, who is a brilliant bloke.

Andy, Do us a review we can stick on the Home Pages section. PM me if your up for it. MB

I keep promising myself I'll get a full set of both W&T and ATB one of these days. Both are superb. Luckily for me my brother in law Roger, who regularly views the forum as a Guest, but doesn't want to clean the clubhouse, has a full set of W&T and acts as my librarian when I need to pretend I know what I am talking about. ATB is marvellous. I sometimes find it a bit heavy - but the sheer quality of the research and writing is exceptional.

Welcome aboard Eugene. Hope you've been careful with that axe. Never mind the big motors - I want to see the scooter. Diversity is the spice of life. The breakaway HMCF forum will only lead you to trouble. Oh, and... Get your story sorted, John. Pure gold by the sound of it. Mark B

The old movie from the sixties with David Hemmings as Lord Lucan, who delivered the order to charge, hasn't surfaced on the telly for a while. There is also the "classic" film with Errol Flynn and David Niven which works with the daft premise that an evil Indian sultan of some sort who kills innocent Brits during some tiff or another, is with the Russian guns, thus filling the Light Brigade with revenge for their folk. Utter nonsense, well described in Niven's autobiography Bring On The Empty Horses. All the cavalrymen were Texan cowboys...One scene in the later film shows the huge equestrian statue of Wellington being trundled through London to be mounted on Wellington Arch. It now resides in Aldershot.

The modern day village of Azincourt houses a museum/visitors centre and the battlefield site itself has a memorial and a decent plan of the field.

I've just spent a week on the Somme and seen the archaeology and reconstruction work going on in Thiepval Wood. Absolutely fantastic. Ideally, I would be Tour Guide Barbi on the Somme.

Even I can do impact engineering.

All this reminds me of a, ahem, gentlemans book of a certain sort my mate Steve was given when we were about twelve or thirteen by the greengrocer he worked for (it was better than free spuds). Some of the snaps showed a young lady riding a bicycle with a specifically shaped saddle that would certainly make my eyes water if I tried it. Aah innocent yoof. All those scandinavian imports in pre VCR days. I had a Raleigh Chopper. It cost £28 new - which was a lot of money, but I got a divi payout when I was fourteen. My next bike, another Raleigh, was haunted. I once ended up on the roof of a Mini when the brakes temporarily failed outside the Red Lion pub in Stoke Newington. On another occasion the chain came off as I took a sharp corner to impress a gorgeous bird. Every single bit of bike broke off and bounced yards up the road. Disaster. I hate bikes.

VW Iltis. Great fun. A bit noisey (mine is a deisel) but grand to use. Steering is a bit heavy for the size of the vehicle - I have no experience of Land Rovers - the seats are very comfortable. Finding reverse can be interesting and sometimes not trying to find it can be amusing. The hood offers poor vision at times - especially turning right out of a road in some circumstances. The heater/blower is good but makes a bit of a racket. The whole contraption can be a bit rattly. It's an MV.

If you read the rules very carefully (section 107 paragraph 98 clauses 2025/99/B1 to 2045/65/D36a subsection K line 25) you will see that breakaway factions within HMVF are punishable by removal of clubhouse biscuit tin access for anything up to seventeen years, depending on the findings of a tribunal. The tribunal sub committee will discuss HMCF at the next meeting of said committee and a date will be set for the hearing. You will not be permitted to attend this hearing. You will not be permitted to eat any HMVF owned custard creams during this period. You are not permitted to attempt any contact with the dancing girls or their representatives. Your clubhouse parking space allowance is under review. Your marigold gloves have been confiscated. Resistance is useless. Go to your room. All complaints in writing will be summarily ignored.

Great stuff, Rick. Looking forward to seeing them Thanks for your hard work.... Mark

The collection is private - but we do have participants on this site who are involved with it. The FAMO is wonderful - but maybe we'll see the Panther on the move one of these years at an event. What a thought.

I wish I was there, Eric - but I have the compensation of being at Vimy Ridge at the weekend. But hopefully your post will attract someone! Nice to see the Canadian wing growing in so many positive ways with members arriving on both sides of the country. Hopefully we'll see more input from your part of the world - and perhaps you could post some pics up of the event afterwards for us to enjoy. many thanks Mark B

I can see another mythical HMVF trip coming on. I haven't been to Jersey since 1970. We flew by BEA from London Airport on a Vickers Viscount and come back on another BEA type - can't remember. Glorious times for an eleven year old kid escaping London for a while. MB

You make it sound like Rafferty's motor car....but an EB would be handy for clearing up after the Christmas Waltz.

Hi Keith and Tracey. Welcome to the madhouse. MB

Looking forward to it....