Merry Christmas + New year wishes

Hi,

My wife gave me an aircrew Seiko (actually, I asked if I could buy it for Christmas), and an ex-RAF engineer friend sent me a little diecast Harrier…….

cheers,

-John

So what aviation stuff did we all get for Christmas? I got the Past Times model Spitfire, the new Spitfire book by Ivan Rendall and the ’09 Legends calendar. Oh and a Transair jacket all flight instructors seem to wear.

Merry christmas and a happy new year to all people here 🙂

Will it be at lege……. :D:D

Thanks Kev, very moveing mate!

LEST WE FORGET

-John

Merry Christmas everyone.

Regards,

kev35

Tom walked across the room and stooped to pick up the brown paper package, which had sat beneath the Christmas tree for the last seven days. He thought he knew what was in it, or rather, he hoped he did. He sat back in his favourite chair, faded and well worn, rather like himself. Carefully, he opened the parcel… He was right, it was the book. He went into the kitchen and made himself a cup of tea, with just a tot of rum in to keep out the cold. It was funny really, he’d never tasted alcohol until the army, now it was a comforting habit he’d spent the best part of sixty years trying to break. Still, it was Christmas after all! He took his tea back into the living room, and, sitting down, began to read….

A crisp white blanket of snow totally transformed the cratered landscape of No Man’s Land.
“Stand to!”
The cry reverberated down the trench. The weary, half-frozen men (boys?) of A company, frost misting their breath, greatcoats and trousers stiff with mud and ice, struggled to their places on the firestep. Rifles cocked, one round up the spout, they waited and watched as the first faint chinks of light heralded the dawn of another day. Was Fritz coming? There was no artillery, but you never could be sure. It was eerily quiet this morning, save for the tinkling and scraping of metal where the corpse of a lad from the Rifle Brigade hung on the wire, arms outstretched, a grotesque parody of Christ, our saviour, but unfortunately not his!
A whooshing noise and a pop caused everyone to look up at the flare swinging lazily earthwards casting a strange, otherworldly light of flickering shadows across the landscape. A voice pierced the stillness and gloom.
“Hey Tommee! Merry Christmas!”
The German voice was clear and the accent light. Some of the lads laughed and returned the greeting.
“Had any nice presents Fritz?”
“Not since you stopped shooting at me!”
More laughter, easy banter between the lads, a few popping their heads over the parapet to see what was going on. There was definitely something strange in the air, something momentous.
The morning wore on and it remained very quiet. No artillery, no shooting and the banter went on. Yes, it was Christmas Day, the first Christmas day of the war, but no one had dreamed it could be as quiet as this. By now troops of both sides were openly sitting on top of the parapets shouting to each other across barely one hundred yards of No Man’s Land, a divide that previously seemed ocean wide. The sound of a mouth organ drifted across the lines, the tune familiar to all, the words not so…
“Stille nacht, heilige nacht..”
Slowly, more voices joined in until there were over a thousand of them, some German, some British, yet all of them in perfect unison. Tom sang as well, tears freely rolling down his cheeks with the emotion of having survived two weeks in the line, his first but far from last. Two weeks and already he was a veteran! As silent night drew to a close, four grey clad figures climbed out into No Man’s Land. Instantly, numerous rifles were trained on them, the ominous clack of rifle bolts slamming into breeches the prelude to an equally ominous silence….
The Germans carried a small white flag and a stretcher. Stumbling across the uneven ground, they eventually reached the lad hung on the wire. Gently, almost tenderly, they disentangled him from his Calvary and laid him on the stretcher. They carried him halfway across No Man’s Land before setting him gently down. Disregarding the warnings of their officers to stay in the trenches, a few of the lads climbed out into No Man’s Land, Tom among them. Waving small strips of white cloth they walked out to meet the waiting Germans and collect the body of their comrade.

Nervous greetings were exchanged, as were handshakes and smiles. The language used was a strangely common mixture of English and schoolboy French. One of the Germans, Klaus, reached inside his greatcoat. Tom, heart in his mouth, knew he was reaching for a pistol. Agonisingly slowly the hand came back clutching a creased and faded photograph of a girl, smiling happily and holding a puppy. Tom took it and in that instant realised that there really was no difference between them at all! They were just ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary and tragic adventure. With that realisation all the tension evaporated. Whatever happened in the future, it seemed that today of all days, peace would reign.
Tom stood and looked around him. Everywhere, small groups of men, some grey, some khaki, were meeting in No Man’s Land. An impromptu football match was taking place, as were several snowball fights. The sounds of laughter and singing had replaced the all too familiar sounds of exploding shells, the clatter of machine guns and the pitiful moans of the wounded and dying. As the afternoon wore on and darkness descended, people gradually drifted back to their own lines. Even on Christmas day, No Man’s Land was no place to be after dark.

Tom closed the book as his mind returned to this Christmas, 1974. Looking up at the clock he realised his family would be collecting him soon. He hoped it would be Clare, his granddaughter. After all, it was her idea to write the book. It was Clare’s love, time and patience which made it all possible. It had taken them two years to write the story of his four years of war. From a naïve and shy nineteen year old Private to his demobilisation, five years, three stripes and a Military Medal later. An old man at twenty-four with only one lung and a shattered left leg.
That Christmas was one of the happiest Tom could ever remember. It was quite a shock to see copies of his book in the shops. The local press ran articles on him and he even appeared on T.V. The following November came the proudest day of Tom’s life when Clare accompanied him in the Remembrance parade at the Cenotaph. Surrounded by men who had endured the same experiences as him, Tom felt truly at peace.

The family met again on Christmas Eve, Clare walking proudly behind Tom’s coffin, his medals pinned to her chest. As the coffin was slowly lowered into the ground, Clare smiled. No-one could ever forget Tom or the millions like him of all nations who fought the war to end all wars.
_________________
From ‘The Observers Book Of Dogs’……
“The Walsall Terrier” a slightly heavy breed with grey hair. Famous for its ability to go for the throat.

Merry Christmas to all and a Healthy, Prosperous New Year.

The Spanish celebrate Navidad with amigos y familia on the 24th, so we arrived home rather late or, erm, early.

What’s left of today is just for the two of us to have a traditional Christmas day with duck and home made Grimble pud.

Felicidades!

Happy Christmas everyone!
Jim

merry christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR to all on the forum thanks for some interesting reading over the past 12 months looking forward to 2009

Merry Christmas + New year wishes

And if it’s not the sign of a sad old git for logging on here on Christmas Day morning, Best wishes to all fellow forum members from a part of Scotland that’s actually mild and sunny with no snow at all.:confused:
Happy Christmas and a Good New Year in prospect to you all : I’m looking forward to another year of interesting comment, enlightenment and aviation -related banter. Thanks for your inputs, past and future. Brian S. 🙂

best wishes to all, and more importantly a safe christmas and new year 🙂

Ben Gittus-Nash
West Warwickshire

Merry Christmas and a Happy new year to all.

Merry Christmas50%OFFDOTCOM

Well, with a bit of luck, Father Christmas is on his way delivering presents for one and all.

I dearly hope everyone who calls this forum home, as well as the staff at Key Publishing, has a wonderful, peaceful day. Don’t eat too much. Chill out and enjoy Dr Who (BBC1 6pm).

Best Wishes

Phillip Rhodes
Hull – England

P.S. Thinking of creating an online petition urging David Tennant not to leave the Tardis…

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL ON THIS GREAT FORUM!

Family cabin in Valdres

cheers,

-John
(I never thought I’d think that +1C was o/k!)

Merry christmas to all. Still hoping santa brings me a spade grip, but I think he’d have to sell rudolph for venison to raise the cash.

Merry Christmas From All at NEAM, hope to see a lot of you visit us in the new year

Scott

Best wishes for the season to one & all- here’s to a better new year

Regd’s Rad.:)

A merry and marvellous Christmas to you all.

No time to write on the card, but enjoy…

Counting down now….. Hope everyone can travel safely to where they need to get to.. You lot in the UK will be celebrating before us over here so Merr Crimbo!