 |
Recent Books by Forum Members |
 |
|
|
|
|||||||
 |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
|
#16
02-06-16, 06:59 AM
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
|
|
#17
02-06-16, 07:29 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quite Frankly, given that someone like John Priestley actually went as far as stating that the wartime generation who served Great Britain, were, in his opinion, the very best of all the generations he had seen, in that they had never been as good before, or indeed, sadly since, I do find some comments in this thread very unpalatable.
We owe a great deal to men like this, I don't know who the sergeant in the photograph is, but, I do know he is worth far more than a mere enemy airman, who at the time in question, I would have regarded as a wretched vulture, at least this particular one would not go on to kill and maim anyone else in Great Britain. Moreover, any particular quality, or indeed, lack of quality, of an enemy officers tunic certainly won't do him much good in a camp, in particular, in Canada, he would be much better served with something more practical, given his new found state of being. Quote:
Last edited by Frank Kelley; 02-06-16 at 03:47 PM.
|
|
#18
02-06-16, 10:16 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
The Intelligence Corps has always attracted a wide variety of "characters" particularly during WW2 and post war National Service. They included academics, language experts, SOE operatives and code breakers at Bletchley Park.
Here are a few names in no particular order: Malcolm Muggeridge, Enoch Powell, John Le Carre, Leonard Rossiter, Hardy Amies, Lord Rothschild and Peter Clayton (a founder member of the SAS). Tim
__________________
"Manui dat cognitio vires - Knowledge gives strength to the arm" "Better to know it but not need it than to need it and not know it!" "Have more than thou showest, speak less than thou knowest."
|
|
#20
03-06-16, 07:01 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
He was certainly in "A bridge to far"
|
|
#21
03-06-16, 07:49 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Yes he was wasn't he! Was watching one my favourite films The Longest Day, on Monday and of course Richard Todd was a veteran. Was he Ox & Bucks as well as Parachute Regiment? I could just google it couldn't I?
|
|
#22
03-06-16, 10:38 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Sir Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde, known as Dirk Bogarde (28 March 1921 – 8 May 1999)
Bogarde served in the Second World War, being commissioned into the Queen's Royal Regiment in 1943. He reached the rank of captain and served in both the European and Pacific theatres, principally as an intelligence officer. Taylor Downing's book "Spies in the Sky" tells of his work with a specialist unit interpreting aerial photo-reconnaissance information, before moving to Normandy with Canadian forces. Bogarde claimed to have been one of the first Allied officers in April 1945 to reach the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, an experience that had the most profound effect on him and about which he found it difficult to speak for many years afterward. The horror and revulsion at the cruelty and inhumanity that he claimed to have witnessed still left him with a deep-seated hostility towards Germany; in the late-1980s he wrote that he would disembark from a lift rather than ride with a German of his generation. Nevertheless, three of his more memorable film roles were as Germans, one of them as a former SS officer in The Night Porter (1974). Bogarde was most vocal, towards the end of his life, on voluntary euthanasia, of which he became a staunch proponent after witnessing the protracted death of his lifelong partner and manager Anthony Forwood (the former husband of actress Glynis Johns) in 1988. He gave an interview to John Hofsess, London executive director of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society: My views were formulated as a 24-year-old officer in Normandy ... On one occasion the jeep ahead hit a mine ... Next thing I knew, there was this chap in the long grass beside me. A bloody bundle, shrapnel-ripped, legless, one arm only. The one arm reached out to me, white eyeballs wide, unseeing, in the bloody mask that had been a face. A gurgling voice said, "Help. Kill me." With shaking hands I reached for my small pouch to load my revolver ... I had to look for my bullets—by which time somebody else had already taken care of him. I heard the shot. I still remember that gurgling sound. A voice pleading for death .... During the war I saw more wounded men being "taken care of" than I saw being rescued. Because sometimes you were too far from a dressing station, sometimes you couldn't get them out. And they were pumping blood or whatever; they were in such a wreck, the only thing to do was to shoot them. And they were, so don't think they weren't. That hardens you: You get used to the fact that it can happen. And that it is the only sensible thing to do. courtesy of:wikipedia
__________________
"There truly exists but one perfect order: that of cemeteries. The dead never complain and they enjoy their equality in silence." - “There are things we know that we know,” “There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don't know.” Donald Rumsfeld, before the Iraqi Invasion,2003. Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese.
|
|
#23
03-06-16, 12:04 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
#24
03-06-16, 12:59 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
We are going very of topic, but, as it is, I am sure, certainly all in the best possible taste, I suppose, he was a Lieutenant in 7th Battalion Parachute Regiment, I discussed his roll on D Day and in particular, his duties as the Assistant Adjutant, followed by his time in Palestine, with him, as well as a small boy could, back in 1977, before google was conceived.
It was a great shame he did not simply "play" himself in your favourite film. A hero, as well as a complete and quite magnificent gentleman. RIP and God Bless you Sir. Quote:
|
|
#25
03-06-16, 01:28 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Thank you Frank your a star, and I wholeheartedly agree. Although I am unashamedly impartial when it comes to Para's of course, I have nothing but admiration and respect for anyone who has served in any capacity, in any conflict.
|
|
#26
03-06-16, 02:28 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
So here are some deep philosophical questions:
!.If the "sergeant" were a re-enactor would we be commenting on his belly? 2. If the "sergeant" were a re-enactor who had previous military service would we be commenting on his belly? 3. If the sergeant really is a sergeant and the photo is kosher, do we have a sense of humour failure if some of us comment on his belly? 4. Is it ever OK to laugh at somebody's belly?
|
|
#27
03-06-16, 02:37 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
As for 4 - I get it ripped out of me non stop for the largish size of mine (belly)!
I am not bothered, honest. regards
__________________
Simon Butterworth Manchester Regiment Collector Rank, Prize & Trade Badges British & Commonwealth Artillery Badges
|
|
#28
03-06-16, 03:05 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
PL
|
|
#29
03-06-16, 03:12 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
|
|
#30
03-06-16, 03:14 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
Like Simon, I have suffered the odd comment about my ongoing battle with anorexia. Remember , inside every fat person is a skinny person trying to get out (usually because the fat person has eaten them). As I was often reminded when I first joined the army "if you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have joined !" I have met very few (if any) soldiers (or former soldiers) who can't cope with a joke at their own expense, this guy so obviously doesn't conform to the stereotype of a "lean, green fighting machine" that I would find it almost impossible to believe that even 70 years ago no-one noticed his sylph-like figure and made a joke of it. Doesn't stop me respecting what he did though......just saying...... PL
|
|
|
|
 |
Linear Mode
