Snapper

Someone will know the path of enlightenment you will need to take. Meantime, in my capacity as Moderator and general trouble maker I invite you and all recent newbies to an induction day in the club house on Sept 31st. This will help you understand the medical requirements for membership, your rights under the Mental Health Act 1951, the initiation ceremony and how to get the stains out, Custard Creams ownership rules (Ammendment 4a), parking, Tony Banner, haircuts, the Dutch, gum tree maintenance and the rules of skittles. Please make sure you apply in writing for a place to Jack Beckett before close of play on Friday. We never discuss football. MB

See, I told you someone would know more than me. (obviously) :-D

Good to have you with us, Steven. Welcome to the Friendly Forum. MB

Hi Matt Welcome to the Bunfight. Looks like there was a previous page to your service record if I am not mistaken (probably am) because this shows from when the Ferret passed into storage before being assigned to the Yeomanry. So you will not see any reference to the Blues and Royals on this page. It appears to have passed from the Yeomanry to a life of modification and repair before transfer to 11 Field Squadron which some greater brain will confirm is either signals, engineers or something similar. After that it looks like it became a display vehicle before disposal. This is me pretending to know what I am talking about. Fortunately there are people with brains on this forum to correct my mistakes. MB

Don't hold your breath. I won't get political - it isn't a party political issue. But it isn't a vote winner. What we should have is a memorial comparable to the Battle of Britain freizes on the Thames Embankment. But I'd put it in Lincoln. Then I'd do one for Coastal Command - maybe in Falmouth or somewhere relevant to them in the West Country. Where do I stop? MB

My biggest problem is time off. I have two colleagues off in Sarf Arfika doing the World Cup of Soccerball thing. I only hope I can convince my Publisher to get me out of the day job by then. MB

I was with a Canadian owner last Thursday who has a fleet of them - all different models, Mack, Reo, Kaiser, etc. I was flabbergasted by the variety. The bridging unit models were the most impressive. Solid big eff off trucks. They sound wonderful and look like monsters. I know what I'd have. If I could drive one of the things. I go by MUTT - he had ten of them as well. MB

Ramble on. Thats what we do. Good man. MB

Hope to be there! Got that weekend off from my miserable job. Have to see whether SWMBO has ideas of her own. M

Harris was unequivocal. He only cared about his crews - The Old Lags - and this was no empty publicity gesture. He was unashamedly hateful of the Germans. He had fought them twice. Dresden - the old chestnut of the anti-Harris lobby - is a sacred cow of the left and a hotchpotch of revisionists. The raid was organised on the basis it would disrupt German communications as the Soviets advanced. Hindsight tells us it was no major success. The casualties will never truly be known - so it's as easy to claim a low figure or a high one. So best not believe any of them. I totally agree that the targeting of cities was probably a strategic error by 1944 but Churchill and his chief scientist Lord Cherwell were happy with events until it finally looked like they might be discredited so they dropped Harris and his command like a hot brick. Hence the age it took to get him and them honoured with memorials. Harris deserves his memorial and Park should be added to make a trio - not as a replacement. Park was terribly wronged by the establishment, RAF and the Air Ministry - just as Dowding was. His lasting memorial should be treated as a separate requirement. For all his mistakes, Harris was totally committed to beating the Germans. He believed he knew the best way. He could be uncharitable - he said the army would not understand tanks until they'd taught them to sh*t and eat hay - and he loathed the Nazis - They have sewn the wind - they shall reap the Whirlwind (he made various versions of this quote). Brave people like Pastor Bell stood up to his policy with his well known rebuttle to Harris's Ethics of bombing lecture - calling it the Bombing of ethics. Fair enough - he lived in a democracy. I don't believe Harris can be blamed for fuelling Soviet victory. This fault lies firmly with the Americans. Roosevelt and Marshall saw the chance to end British power and happily jumped into bed with Stalin to create the new post-war order. Britain was spent anyway. They let Stalin have Berlin and much, much more and quickly regretted it. After all, Eisenhower called the city "real estate". He didn't believe it for a minute. As for the Dam Busters - the start of this thread. Harris didn't approve. But he liked results. Wallis said his bomb would work, it did. But the price of so many good crews was high - but out of 55,000 - a drop in the ocean. May God bless them all. They live on.

Not me Baffled.

More like Best Stool Award - and I don't mean the one you sit on. Unless we are talking barber's chairs:rofl:

LETS KEEP THIS FRIENDLY PLEASE...IT IS A DELICATE SUBJECT AND GOD BLESS THE LAD. BUT LET'S STICK TO AN AUTOPSY OF W & P 2009 ONLY PLEASE... MB Moderating with a smile.

no pictures! well, actually; there are. :cool2:

Listen CW, I spend my day sitting on office furniture bought fron the East Berlin Ministry of Fun jackboot sale.Talk about the Rockford Files. I humbly apologise for not realising your bike was made out of old Wartburg scraps...either that or my tent. Thankfully I can know apply sex and travel as my shift is over. Hoch der Kaiser! M

Definitely a URAL - not a ZiL - I thought a 375, but I am no expert on URAL model differences.

A bloke in Suffolk who bought his ticket at the Biggin Hill Air Show.

It was definitely a 40mm Bofors. I think it was the one next to the Red Ball bunch. MB

Yes. They enforced an over sixteen ruling on show days. Obviously there would have been the odd transgression. M

NO PICTURES! THERE WILL BE! Up to my buttocks in post WP clear up for my clients and trying to edit a mag you might have heard about (The Beret Wearer Argus). Also sorting for a holiday. So fizzy as buck at the moment - but this doesn't mean I will ignore my chums. In all seriousness, if anyone DOESN'T want me to post snaps of Top Cat riding his mobilette avec silenced Sterling and strings of onions then please let me know by post to: Fat Chance, Twatt, Orkney Islands in case you're wondering..there is a place called that on the Orkneys.

We don't allow sirens in the club house either - unless they do burlesque. Welcome to the Friendly Forum, Keep your unit off the disabled bay (we save it for biscuit deliveries). MB

[quote name= :-( A very valid comment was the lack of running water in the toilets in Americas field though. health & Safety = Health & Hygine!!! . Totally agree. I was told by a perplexed official that the owners of the Hop Farm have assumed control of this aspect from the event organisers. I was told that someone speaking for the owners was annoyed people in Americas Field were using sinks to wash in when they were not for that purpose (my definition because I cannot quote verbatim). Avoiding an opportunity for some facetiousness - the meaning being, these sinks were for handwashing post loo visit and not for general hygiene. My personal feeling is that trying to invoke such a ruling, if true, is impossible and puts the event in poor light. The organisers and site owners can never mitigate for the often appalling personal behaviour of some individuals; but they must consider the well behaved majority and I think they do reasonably well. I think the washing facilities remain open to serious question. But will it stop me going? No. MB

I've got treasured photos of the occasion. But they are subject to use in a degree of leverage with my publisher which I plan to retain. MB

To be fair, they are not re-enactors. There are serving firefighters involved and the H & S aspect is, sorry for the pun; a hot issue. They don't have any choice. They had to deal with several incidents this year including people using open fires as bbqs in the stalls and even a kid setting fire to hay bails with matches. Despite the weather being biblical on occasions (too blimmin' many for me) I was with Fred Cornwell the pryo king and he was deeply concerned about fires in the arena on the Sunday. It illustrates the dangers. If they used a degree of overkill then I'd say they felt there was a reason. Sirens did get to be a pain at times - just like that bloody helicopter. A rule went out to stop other non emergency vehicle owners using sirens and flashing lights to avoid confusion. So in my opinion the fire team, the medics, wasp zappers and all the others did a bloody good job. The idea to have a bit of a small burn up of the pick up truck suffered from that degree of the unplanned which is why the show has a volunteer fire team. I know what I'd prefer having on site and it was there for us. MB

i missed your arena action, but got a few close ups of the troops at the end on Sunday. I was trying to make Paddock Wood look like Georgia I suppose...or Shoeburyness. Anyway - it was the BTR80 I missed most - but not covered in the vendor's logos. Would like to see that covered in Interior Ministry troops re-enactments. Some time soon....methinks. I will post some Beltring pix when I get a life. Have masses of TP2 and other work to do among other things. Least said, soonest fouled up. MB