Snapper

You still want to try reversing my Verso into a space at the Southend Tescos. That's a blimmin' nightmare.... Congrats Mike...

As I recall the original template for Memphis Belle was a Bomber Command film, but they couldn't get the planes or any official help. It was easier to get half a dozen B17s and obviously the yankee interest was higher. It is is still, more or less, a British film. I would dearly love to see a proper Band of Brothers quality production of WW1 - the Somme, especially. But it's about money. Spielberg wouldn't make it and there was not enough world wide involvement in the first day other than the poor hapless Newfoundlanders and the Bermudans subsumed into the Grimsby Chums. The new Dambusters will be interesting. Then we have the Michael Mann/Tom Cruise vehicle. I would like to see this new film about the Algerian troops fighting for France in WW2 and I have yet to see A Very Long Engagement. The French get on with it. This leaves us the classics and the odd choker from Pinewood etc. My favourites are An Appointment In London; The Man Who Never Was; Dunkirk; In Which We Serve; The Dambusters and I suppose there are many more. What's that black and white film about our chaps in an Italian POW camp?? I think a films/TV/theatre section on this site could give us a few laughs and memories. keep it going, lads.

You need to write some features for us.

Good call. Thanks for the correction. Agreed. My son is reading it at the moment and he finds some of it a bit dull. But he just wants to read action. I read the Johnson Behary autobiography after this and it helped flesh some parts out (once we had got past the long drawn out stuff from Grenada and moving to England). cheers MB

You must mean this new proposed Tom Cruise movie about Billy Fiske. Not seen anything new, but haven't really been looking. Will check out IMDB. Billy Fiske "only" had two probables to his credit before he was killed. All credit to him nonetheless.

Looks like it will be worth a look for curiosity value if nothing else. As for accents - if you think of all the non septic tanks who appeared in BoB and Blackhawk Down maybe revenge was due. Wait to see what happens with the remake of the Dambusters, hopefully the only yanks will be in the roles of real yanks and no jiggerypokery will have taken place to get bums on seats.

Interesting points. This is a good debate.

Not my cup of tea, but if they can give one to flipping Bono, they should give one to a successful author. They gave an MBE to a very well known press photogapher where I work for his "services to newspapers", when I asked why a picture librarian who had been working for the same paper longer than him didn't merit, I was told "what has he done?" I am only in favour of gallantry medals and none of that other gubbins.

Having an ATC cadet in the house helps. He's got a ton of the stuff, some bought, some supplied. Stryker's mother washes it. I don't wear any other than for odd wind ups. Too old, a bit portly and not mine to wear.

I thought the Mahindra was the curry house who do the catering at our easter dinner dance?????

Welcome aboard Mark.

How many Pigs do the mob have now? Welcome aboard Garvin. The clubhouse can be a bit crowded on some evenings, but the beer is always cold and the local pizza place always deliver. It's your turn to pay.

On the spelling and grammar thing my main point is to separate the front end of this site from the forum. The home pages need to be uniform in presentation to develop a style the reader becomes comfortable with and wants to use. To my mind this shows that commitment to it is high if these standards are adhered to and will gain it respect. By implication I appear to be criticising Windscreen. Not so. Editorial deadlines and the sheer workload involved are immense. I am sure this is not underestimated. I am guessing that as with many club magazines that the editors do not overtly edit the text provided by contributors for a range of reasons tied with good old fashioned British reserve, the voluntary nature of it and an attempt to retain individual character. I edited a motor club magazine many years ago and it was great fun, but the club chairman made it abundently clear that spellings and some appalling grammar were to remain intact in all the features so as not to offend the contributors. It was embarassing. I've only got two 'O' Levels, not unlike Rodney Trotter, but I have been fortunate to have made good use of what I have learned since I left school in 1975 including some of the great practical journalism courses run under the auspices of....Farmer's Weekly at IPC. I just like consistency and have ambitions to see this site grow into something very special. At the end of the day the content comes from everyone who signs up. The floor is open. No spellcheck systems were harmed during the writing of this post. Yeah, right!

Gentlemen: Is this forum the best place for your exchanges? Obviously there are aspects to it that are particular to the relationship between your respective organisations and third party readers of this forum are not ideally placed to offer valid opinion or counsel. The forum is essentially neutral ground and fully inclusive but always within the rules of membership agreed to by everyone during registration. Please keep this in mind at all times. It IS interesting for us neutrals to understand how situations arise and right of reply to any comment is always to be encouraged. No forum can be entirely devoid of politics as we have all seen recently; but we do need to maintain a level of decorum.

All good wishes Mon General!

I see no problems with your posts, John, because the issue is obviously important to you. I have to agree about things to do with presentation and grammar. I have discussed this with Jack before (Though I must say this is not to do with the forum area of this site). I do not believe that Windscreen benefits from the services of a professional sub-editor. Having said that, there must be a level of quality control in terms of proper spelling. These are issues which do apply to credibility. I don't know enough about websites to offer a professional opinion on design or preparation - but I do know what is and is not dull. I have worked in the printed media business for thirty-two years (with a brief gap to recoil from KF shirts), albeit as a backroom boy in many respects and never as a fully professional journalist. I don't truly believe that being a "professional" in real terms is as important as trying to be professional in how things are done. It is my belief that this site will progressively set the kind of example you are looking for in so many areas. Stick around and keep up your input.

Today Dorset, tomorrow the world!!

You make a really interesting point. I am not a gun collector, Mrs B is not a fan of firearms and begs to differ on my view of them; but the idea that all this history goes into a mincer for a good purpose on one level, there is an argument that these governments could make some good ready cash from recycling weapons to western collectors. Perhaps a lot of them do already, as you have illustrated. Fancy setting up an imports busines, Jack?

I am twenty years older than mine...

Mine is the reverse. She tolerates the Iltis and likes to go for jaunts. But she loves cammo stuff and is peed off that, as a small eleven year old, not a lot fits her. She isn't interested in made up stuff - she only wants genuine military clobber. She has one of the old grey Bundeswehr tunics which she loves wearing. It is a real small one and there is a Flektarn shirt she will soon grow in to. She wants a Belgian camo jacket - nice and garish - but Belgians don't appear to come in that small a size. Must be the wifebeater.

your year seems to have a lot more weekends in it than mine.

I think you're slipping into geographics as opposed to demographics. When I first saw Milwife I misread it and had a well known acronym in my head for a few minutes. We don't necessarily want to get our wires crossed with that sort of website Jack my lad, but it's an image to retain for days when your car breaks down on the petrol station forecourt, as a consequence you give your last fiver to your kids for bus fare and then you lose your company security pass when you get to work. Not a classic.

I saw a crop of pictures from the Philippines last Friday. The government were holding a big ceremony to start off a huge bout of smallarms destruction. They do these things regularly when they have captured enough stuff off the various malcontents around the contry. For Vietnam era fans there were several hundred early model M16s going into the mincer along with some curious home made things built from bits of AK and IKEA. But worst of all was a vast number of Garand rifles. It's a shame someone doesn't let these governments know what a good deal they would have going if they only sold the things for deactivation. There must be thousands of Garands and other gems knocking around in countries supplied weapons by the US in the immediate post war.

You're right about To The Last Man. A classic. They Called It Passchendaele is a great book, too. I am reading a biography of Siegfried Sassoon at the moment, mainly for the WW1 period and the after effects as opposed to his whole life as a poet and sexually repressed chappy with predilictions I know Michael Gambon described on The Best of Top Gear this evening as "making your eyes water". Old Sig was nonethless a very brave soldier devoted to his comrades and his war poetry and writings are stunning. On Passing The New Menin Gate is my favourite. More on this when the book is done.

Things will iron themselves out. The new site will be superb with many more features and content. It can only get better and better. There is a lot to look forward to. Fantastic job Joris, Jack and the rest of the team....