Roy Payne, who flew Typhoons during the war, when asked by his son how low they flew over the Channel replied:

“enough to get the wheels up”.

Wrenchbinder, you’re out of order. Don’t play with this kind of emotion unless you know what it means. I gave a brother and a sister a place to mourn their siblings this year. They don’t have a grave because the guys ended up in the Channel. On Remembrance Sunday this year there were poppies left there. Dead and gone they may be, 60 years is a long time, but there a still people who miss them and who grieve for them. I suggest that you leave your current train of thought before posting a response.

I don’t really have an opinion as such. I just see someone selling some wartime stuff that has no meaning to him – probably to someone who it will also have no meaning to. Perhaps it came from the 1980’s ‘dig’ even. Compare it with me having, in a drawer next to me, the logbook of a pilot and the diary of another who were killed on the same day. That could also be construed in a similar vein (though for various reasons this isn’t the case). There is also the trade in medals and so on – you get a higher price if they were casualties. And death plaques from WW1 sell too. They are tangible links to the past, and have a documentable history, therefore they have a provenance that makes their value higher.

I don’t feel that those items being on sale is offensive, personally. HOWEVER, 11 guys died on that flight, and if it were something personal of theirs (cap badge? lighter? Dog tag?) that would be a whole other kettle of fish. I would find it VERY distasteful.

Just thoughts. Interesting debate coming on I think.

(Must remember to go up to Hardwick and have a look at some point. Mind you, there are some oddball characters out that way…..!)

They were. I think there were more than a normal amount of people onboard. However, I seem to think that they were recovered and it isn’t a ‘war grave’.

Hang on, this is the B17 up on an island somewhere around Scotland.

Can’t see what the fuss is about, I wouldn’t call it sick personally. But there you go.

Photoshop 7? That’s a bit old isn’t it?

The Pioneer 106 is a great DVD Writer, and I gather they have brought out a newer faster one. If you save images as jpeg onto a CDR you should be able to play them on your DVD player too.

Makes sure you keep AT LEAST 2 copies of all important stuff.

Can I have a job in the Air Force? Building memorials to Belgian pilots killed in WW2?

Blimey. Not a bad way to go when you’re 83. That’s style. Good meal, nice car, out like James Dean!

Goodbye Helmut. Your work was classic.