Snapper

Are you all coming to my mate John's house in Rochford, then?

Happy birthday Jack, 21 again eh???? How sad. With all these beers you owe us, you will need a big generator truck to keep them all cool at the venue we find ourselves at (sorry Clive, get out the earplugs). Party on, dude.

nobody has mentioned the incessant farting.

Did anyone see Max Hastings in the Mail (Daily Bile) lamenting this great event? Very interesting to see someone take up the major point that the US engineered the circumstances of Britain's war debt to make sure we were finished as a world power and to effectively cripple our evil empire by ruining our post war economy. With friends like these...someone said. I personally don't believe in the so called Special Relationship. I don't expect anything in the way of friendship or loyalty from the US, why does the myth persist? Having an alliance or understanding is quite another thing. It is expedient. I DO believe TOTALLY that we owe a debt to the USA for it's sacrifice in WW1 and WW2 - there can be no question of this and I would argue with anyone who says we don't. But this country's stupid political class has to accept that the US has only one interest: itself. Time we started doing the same here. Remember, too what the US owes to us. We were prepared to take on evil totalitarian regimes at huge cost however tough a path this was. Britain ruined itself for the benefit of the world - twice. What other country has done that?

I am fortunate to work in a picture archive and you would be surprised at how many versions of this picture exist. Because of the location of Fleet Street, all the papers had snappers on the rooftops of their buildings photographing the nightsky. But it was the Daily Mail who got the iconic masterpiece we all know today. The Times building, Printing House Square, was bombed but the picture archive survived until some idiot decided to delete tens of thousands of glass plates in the 1960s. Many newspaper companies had their own units of Home Guard. The Times men had pikes. I kid you not. The Kemsley Group - the Daily Graphic and Daily Sketch were better equipped, and even had their own home made armoured vehicles by 1941 which I think were converted delivery vans. Completely useless, of course. But they were amazing people....God Bless them all.

I don't have any difficulties with the death penalty for a monster like Saddam and to be honest I'd like to see the stupid soft British Parliament give up their bleeding hearts and restore it for crimes nearer to home. But we've signed away so much we'd need to have a dictatorship like his to get the power back. Catch 22. I am not sure hanging Saddam nowwas a good idea. I would have liked to have seen him transferred to the Hague and given a proper international war crimes trial like Milosevic without the obvious rigging taking place in Baghdad. Whatever we think of the Iranian and Kuwaiti regimes, he waged evil wars against those countries, in addition to his own people, and should have been brought to book by the world, not just his domestic politico-religious enemies.But the Americans wanted him dead at any price. Justice means all things to all men, but if I were a Kurd I would be very unhappy that Saddam never faced trial for his crimes against them. So in the end he faced a form of justice and it made some of the people happy. He is already a martyr. His death won't end the violence in Iraq and a lot of innocent people have yet to die. I would have been happier if the west had just been honest and invaded on the basis of regime change than a spurious weapons issue and killed the old bastard and his henchmen without any shillyshallying. But we didn't get that. In the US they are close to having three thousand military deaths for George Bush's vanity and in Britain we have seen more of our good men die this week for the benefit of the Blairite tendency while Iraq the principal victim of all this mess remains a hell on earth. So what has anyone gained by hanging Saddam today? Discuss.

What is it about St Mere Eglise? I was last there in 2005. my mob had rented a house in Remilly sur Lozon near St Lo and we had a great October half term week trundling around, drinking cider and eating Confit de Canard. My son James, who shall remain nameless, drove us nuts wanting to spend his hard cadged euros in the Static Line shop. We went into SME three flipping times and the shop was always shut. Finally, on our last day just before closing time we finally got him in there..and what did he buy??? a mag clip for a Garand. I have never managed to get into the museum or have a serious walk beyond the square. But when I am next in Normandy, I will get there. As for the nameless one - James - yes you....James, he still has the Garand clip - so it wasn't an entire waste of time; but it wasn't funny at the time. Now he's in to bass guitars and wants to fly attack helicopters....I sometimes wish I was 14 again - in fact I sometimes wish I was 41 again.....tough luck.

I've been trying for some time. But there is always something more important to do. I never make New year Resolutions....But I have made a promise to myself to get to more events and use my heap more next year. Quite why young Jack made me a moderator remains a mystery. You best ask him why... The last time I was on the Isle of Wight was August 1978. I was not long out of the army and skint. It was the last time I went anywhere with my parents (I think they paid!). I have never been so bored in my life - but I did have one good day enjoying a trip round Portsmouth harbour filming ships home from the Cod War - or waiting to be scrapped - with my Yashica Lynx. We had a Navy then.....

I've never been to a Tankfest. In fact I haven't been to Bovington since 1993. Shame on me.

Welcome Jim, What rallies did you do? I was out there trying to get started as a rallying snapper between 1980 and 1986 - gave up and went green (machine, that is). You never know, I may have you on film. I haven't even begun to start sorting my negs and transparencies from that time. Not enough time.... cheers BTW I can remember seeing the other Jim Clark in London in about 1966 when he and Graham Hill raced through the City at the start of the Lord Mayor's Show. The other Jim Clark - God rest his soul - has a brilliant little museum in his honour in his home town of Duns in the Scottish Borders. Well worth a look. It's called the Jim Clark Room and has all his trophies and stuff.

socks, underwear, a pocket DAB radio for commuting, Close Encounters on DVD, 4 CDs - Amy Winehouse, the Beatles, 10cc, Jools Holland and the Ramsey Lewis Trio. Books: the new edition of Before Endeavours Fade, Ruckmarsch Then and Now, a biography of Noel Chavasse VC and Bar, the Middlebrooks Somme Battlefields guide (signed edition from the impressive Tom Morgan books) and a Mametz Wood walking guide. I don't know how I did so well. I also got a small wooden duck.

snapping toilets is obviously a group hobby - my mate John took snaps of the gents in the bunker at Utah beach. Lovely tiles....

I love all these stories. All this preservation history should be recorded.

Good call. I got mine when it was a "very reasonable £29.99" quite some time ago. My son still watches it all the time - so I reckon we got our money's worth.

Best ever ear for my photography Finding HMVF Going to Verdun - even though the weather was crud Filming the Beltring Red Ball express and Convoy of Steel from the back of Andy Mitchell's Landy with my son James Watching my kids grow up lots more besides

What a brilliant re-enactment this would make with the vehicles and workshops - but it must be a nightmare to recreate. If I get the six numbers up this would be my idea of heaven - a repair shop or even a bath or kitchen unit - something REAL. Have you seen a chap named Ivan who has a Citroen lorry kitted out as a German army police post with dozens of rubber stamps and forms and even an Enigma machine. Top quality. I remember some people had a REME workshop at Beltring a few years back with jeeps under canvas. This is the area where the hobby should expand in addition to all the sexy kit and guns. By chance I met up with a chap who does AFPU Airborne re-enactments last night and he was telling me about his new Flying Flea bike - there seem to be a growing number of combat snappers about with beautiful cameras etc. All good stuff. The Red Ball 514th guys with all the jerry cans and stuff are a prime example of how interesting the hobby can be without the need for loads of guns...more please.

I got sent by CMV to do a feature on some guys who were making repro canvas in Essex. For whatever reason it did not run, but they had ex WD sewing machines for the specific purpose of doing authentic British pattern button holes etc. Very interesting. ..they were really skilled. MB

Hot (ish) on the heels of Riichard Holmes' Dusty Warriors comes the autobiography of Johnson Beharry VC.. This book is a fine example of the ghostwriter's art, whereby the professional allows the subject to get his point over. Much of this book covers Johnson's early life in Grenada where poverty and close family ties went hand in hand. It makes for interesting reading and sets the scene for the cllimactic chapters in Iraq where he achieved immortality. In effect thiis book is not unlike the Pegasus Diaries and even the recent Mussolini saga books I reviewed, where so much leads up to the crucial events the reader is most interested in. I enjoyed Beharry's descriptions of his comrades and army experiences and there is no doubt in my mind that he fully deserved his VC. I am quite sure that having a black immigrant hero from the Iraq mess was a gift from heaven for the army, and the Blair administration even moreso - but Johnson Beharry VC is a 100% hero. Cherish him.

thanks mate, Merry Christmas

This is a great idea. A fitting link to the service of our parents, grand parents and friends. It may be that we need to do a few people as a case study to see the best methods.

Horse Guards by Major General Barney White-Spunner is a huge coffee table type book. That is to say, stick a leg on each corner and it would BE a coffee table. Joking apart this is a stunning volume, weighing in at £30 and about 3 kilos, written by a serving major general; full of sumptuous illustrations and detail of the raising and histories of the three regiments (ignoring mergers) that form the Household Cavalry today. Inevitably, the majority of this book is taken up with events prior to the age of photography. But the clever use of pictures brings so much of that age to life combined with easy going text. If you know anything about Waterloo, you will perhaps know of the massive Corporal John Shaw, a Nottinghamshire prize fighter who was a hero of the Life Guards. He was also something of a life model for lady artists and is shown as such in addition to a drawing of him splitting French heads during the charge of the cavalry brigades where he was killed having dispatched a dozen or more Frenchmen. Just one of many amazing characters brought to life. Pub crawlers will learn why so many pubs are called the Marquis of Granby in England (pre renaming by Irish bar chains and anything involving the name frog or bucket... etc it seems). The Marquis used to give money to retired OR's of his regiment to start up pubs and inns. The author is tipped to be a future star on the military history book scene. He certainly has the sort of writing style to keep the likes of me engaged. Watch out for more.

You'll get yourself in the sunday papers if you carry on with remarks like that.

I doubt I'll get any of these: Volvo Suggan Dodge Weapons Carrier SMLE No 3 - 1916 vintage Adrian pattern helmet from WW1- French horizon blue Brodie pattern British helmet from WW1 US M1 Para helmet with all the correct liners etc British forage cap (37 pattern uniform) for Royal Berks Regt badge Bren Gun G3 (not an airsoft) all the stuff I need to complete my Iltis (there isn't enough space here) a complete set of After The Battle and Wheels and Tracks not much there then....

too many recollections of KF for my delicate soul.

Good reference pix, Sir Paul - when we do the photoshoot you can do the lot if you want. I was not a Para (I can hear my mrs laughing), but didn't some of them blacken the cap badge to make it less of an aiming point???? I'm sure this is mentioned in AFN Clarke's book Contact, which was later a BBC one off drama. Interesting to know who remembers either and what they think of them....