Snapper

Thanks for the support friends. I'm not sure if it is the correct word, but I love WW2 history. Obviously I am interested in the hardware, but I find I am increasingly interested in the people over and above everything else. In the case of the Great War this is even more the case, because, for me it is a complete mixture of all the human experience and emotions in one and being an old romantic I get lost in it. The big problem is the bits of newsreel we have from that time are in mono (no coloured in gimmics) and without sound. All the men walk like an army of Buster Keatons waiting for a barn wall to fall on them. But they are much more real than that...soap box removed. Down to business. The First Day of The Somme by Martin Middlebrook is a Penguin paperback (hard copies can be got too). ISBN 0 14 01 7134 7 You can find this book on the web from Tom Morgan books. Tom is a Western Front Assoc affiliate and if you check is Hellfire Corner and bookshopsite out you will probably be able to order a copy signed by Martin Middlebrook for no extra cost I thoroughly recommend McCrae's Battalion by Jack Alexander. This is a fantastic book. I have previously described it as a Band of Brothers for WW1. This is very much the case. It is a stunner. The 16th Bn Royal Scots were the 2nd Edinburgh Bn and made up of sportsmen to start with. All of Hearts Fc and some from Hibs and then men from all over Scotland (and England). Their journey to La Boiselle and beyond is a heartbreaker. ISBN 1 84018 932 0. It comes from Mainstream Publishing, who trade over the net from Edinburgh. Lyn MacDonald's Somme is a classic. She has a bit of an agenda, but the details of the whole Somme campaign are told in gripping style and the mass of personal accounts make all her books a "must". The thing that stunned me in her account of the first day was how the reader doesn't innitially appreciate that 19,500 men have died over a few pages. Awful. My copy is an ancient MacMillan paperback. I think her books are Penguins now. She does not appear to write anymore, but I think she is still alive. Cheers, MB

don't forget the Tunnocks tea cakes.

I'd stick to your usual Asian Babes if I were you.

Absolutely right.

This book will recount how battalions that took two years to build and train vanished in sometimes less than fifteen minutes on a mad day in July 1916. These men were our grandfathers or their contemporaries. This book will break your heart. Perhaps you don't want that. To my mind the Great War is ignored all too much in favour of the A list events of WW2 we all rightly subscribe to. Do yourselves a favour and ease off Easy company for a while and immerse yourselves in earlier Bands of Brothers. They must never be forgotten.

Sounds like a good read.

I think it is important to have a "time out" here. There are many people who strongly value what the MVT has achieved and what it means to them. I think it is very important to keep this in mind. But, criticism and passionate informed debate is essential to keep any organisation fresh and in progression. It cannot stand still. I am going to put my hand up - I don't vote and I have never been to an AGM in my short three years of membership. So I am not taking any high lofty stance. If people really have axes to grind about anything they must vote to get the change they want or vote with their feet. I would prefer to see a strong forward thinking MVT supported by us all. But I think that change is not easy for some people, in whatever field it may be, and the likes of this forum however positive a thing it is, and obviously I think it is; are a form of progress not everyone likes. They need to be persuaded that some change is good. Politics can strangle the most honourable of intentions. So I will put my money where my mouth is and vote and support the democracy in the MVT and support it wholeheartedly. After all, I do pay for it like we all do. What I don't want to see is any conflict spilling onto HMVF that puts us or the MVT in bad light. I do support everyone having their say. It is brilliant and should continue. This is where a forum wins hands down. It is immediate and dynamic in ways printed media and monthly meetings cannot be. That was a party political broadcast by the Snapper party...and now on the Light Programme we have Reginald Dixon and his amazing organ....

Verbose, moi? Cut to the quick I am old chap. I suppose I deserve it for being such a prize sh*te.

You've finally stopped reading Hello, then.

Great snap. What a shame. Looks like a massive job would be required to keep it going.

I haven't got one - thank heavens, the one I had was a mixture of Hyacinth Bucket and the Wicked witch of the North... but the kids have remembered they do! And she's a class act (even if she won't let me have a Bren gun).

Lee - you the most sane working environment I have seen in a good while.

If you can have a peak at this saturday's Times magazine (17.02.2007) - interesting little photo-feature about the snapper who took the pix of our marines surrendering to the Argies at Government Hse and pix around Stanley.

carry on at your convenience!!!

Get the Airfix DUKW kit and see what the instructions say. But don't get the glue on your mum's best table cloth.

I work with a few helmets

Cool. Definitely up for a blue and green if poss. Thanks for yet more support!! MB

doh!

Thanks a billion. I need to get my head round the proper names for the colours other than black and nato green. many thanks MB

This is a great thread. What paper do you work for Bodge my dear learned colleague?

Here's a daft question. Where do you get them from???

Brothers in arms, I am girding my loins in anticipation of restoring my old Iltis which has been soldiering on without much work done (but a lot of love) since i got it in 2003. Can you chaps advise me what the codes and/or British standard numbers are for the Nato pattern camo colours - black, basic green, pooey looking brown and the other light green are please. As you can see, I am making light of this>>>>>>> The plan is simple: get off the old underseal and reapply. Fix rust hole in bonnet. Remove non-standard electrical bits. Do some work to tatty bits and bobs. Fix one seatbelt. Rebond all the hood straps which have separated. Try to get kink out of tilt frame. Tidy up odds and sods. Repaint the thing and fix panzer unit markings. Simple. Most of you lot would do that lot in a weekend...... MB

Yes, you do. Not many about.

potty

He is a quality item - a real character. haven't heard any cds though. Reminded me a lot of the amazing blues guitarist UP Wilson who used to play one handed (fag and whisky in the other).