Pete TrumanMy Scooby Doo is not happy at being called a crappy little Jack Russell just because he chases cats out of the garden, he’d probably chase anything out of here, he’s only being territorial. The only time he came unstuck was with a hedgehog, won’t go near those prickly things anymore, the spaniel came across a grass snake by the pond last year, didn’t like that, wouldn’t go near it.
We have a local woman who takes both her labrador and cat for a walk at the same time. Thats different, when our two come across that combination, I think it’s a case of, well, if the cat has a dog for a pal, it’s ok by us, they just have a sniff and leave it at that.
Unless I’m on a road, I never put them on a lead, though we are lucky to have nice walks at the bottom of the garden. I’ve never had a problem with fights with other dogs, things got nasty only once, they love kids, and they are fairly obediant unless they are getting near home and sense it’s tea time.
I would never take them anywhere near livestock without being on a lead though, not that we have any round here, but they are used to being around horses anyway.
Interestingly enough, when Scooby was a puppy, he used to go over to the in-laws, they had 2 cats, one he hated and one who was his best mate, they used to curl up and go to sleep together, why one but not the other, I don’t know, thats the mystery of cats.
Pete TrumanI’m wasn’t taking the pee…..I was serious about wanting to see a US Airborne uniform for almost bog all….as I know many who would love to do that as I know it would cost in excess of 250 notes or double that for a in-field uniform.
And I was giving advice too in my first post. You can’t do WW2 uniform either cheaply or accurately via costume hire…that’s a fact.
SUre you can buy cheap tat or hire cheap tat….but it won’t be a WW2 uniform.And youre the one getting shirty pal……..:mad:
I apologise Firebird, my cracked ribs were giving me some real grief yesterday, I was not feeling too great with the nasty painkillers and I shouldn’t have come on here, on the other hand, it gives you something to do, I tried to do some drawing on the board previously and I suspect it wasn’t a good idea, sorry.
With regard to the Airborne uniform in particular, I see your point, but it looked the business, you wouldn’t have known the difference.
The jacket was in fact Dutch, but based on an American pattern, the trousers were an old pair from Next, believe it or not, but we studied photographs and with the addition of a few badges, and my original steel helmet, you couldn’t have told the difference.
So many people turned up for the party in so many cobbled together outfits, but they looked fantastic, I doubt whether many of the outfits were truly genuine, but they looked right, and people had gone to a lot of effort to do so. We even had some pals turn up in an old Citroen with the Cross of Lorraine applied to the side and they were wearing stripey tee shirts and bunches of onions, not exactly accurate for the time but a good laugh all the same, isn’t that what it’s all about, a bit of fun.
Pete TrumanSorry, I can’t come up with a joke about Heather Mills.:D
C’mon, she’d stand on one leg to help out.
At first I was tempted to scoff at this somewhat past it rock star promoting this campaign, well, I never liked the Bee Gees for a start.
However, he obviously has a sincere passion in this cause, well after all, he is president of the association, he also presents his case very well, probably better than most.
Unfortunately, had I not seen it on here and followed up the various links, I wouldn’t know about it, it needs more promotion on TV, is it just a London thing.
I would be interested to know whether the Gibb family have links with Bomber Command, I wouldn’t be surprised, most families have, but was their’s very personal I wonder.
Whatever happened to Gary Numan, our very own Rock Star airshow pilot, is he not prepared to use his aviation links to back Robin up, he should do.
With a bit of luck Amy Winehouse will discover that her grandfather got shot down in flames over Berlin and mumble about him at her concerts.
Pete TrumanThat, I’d like to see……..:rolleyes:
Don’t take the p##s, I was only offering advice, I wish I hadn’t bothered, been there yourself, know all.
Pete TrumanNo problem with the Italian Air Force displaying fascist markings. Aircraft at Vigna di Valle museum are full of them, some carrying the original fascist decals for the small fuselage and rudder markings. This is because the present Italian Air Force (Aeronautica Militare Italiana – AMI) is considered as being a direct discendent of the wartime Regia Aeronautica.
There’s no reluctance to even display the markings of the Aviazione Nazionale Italiana, that fought from the Nazi-occupied northern Italy post 8 September 1943. In fact the G.55 (rebuilt from a G-59) bears the markings of this air force.
The markings shown on this Macchi C.205 (replica or not!) are those of the period of the Regia Aeronautica Co-Belligerante, September 1943 up to the institution of the present AMI on 1 March 1947.
Thanks for your very interesting reply, I’m glad to see that the Italians aren’t afraid to historically show their past, not that I thought for one moment that they would. However much the PC brigade think how murky it may have been in recent history, you could go on forever, to coin a phrase from a famous film, ‘What did the Romans ever do for us?’
I hate to see those German based WW2 aircraft with the silly little German flags under their tailplanes, I’m aware that there is a fear of a latent Nazi skinhead right wing ‘uprising’ but is it so threatening in the scheme of things today.
I see you are from Malta, after the traumas you suffered during WW2, are you personally offended by the sight of Nazi and Fascist insignia on restored aircraft, fair enough if you are, I can understand that, especially if you have had past personal tragedies in your family.
OOps, have gone off a Farnbrough thread, my apologies, got carried away with that one.
Pete TrumanWe’re thinking of going to Sywell in December in period garb for the C word we musn’t mention in July 😉
Is there anywhere in the Midlands (Warwicks) preferred that does fairly decent period costume hire for gents and ladies?
What would look best do you reckon? Also was there such thing as a RAF mess uniform during WW2?
Further will Tomcat being going in his Dad’s Army outfit? 😀
Not so many miles away, you could try Anchor Stores in Nottingham and Ripley, probably the best one as it’s just off the A38, wouldn’t take you long to get up there.
They have so much stuff for sale, I’m sure you would be able to find something even if it had to be slightly adapted, which is all part of the fun.
I expect that things have become rarer and prices have gone up, but I recall that for my VE day party, I was able to purchase a complete Khaki uniform for a tenner, period steel helmet for next to nothing, then they have webbing, all sorts of things that you can mess about with. We adapted various bits of clothing available to create a US Airborne uniform complete with insignia for almost bog all, I think that the most expensive item was the ORIGINAL US flag shoulder flash, and I can’t think that it cost more than a fiver.
Don’t take this as proven though, I last went there in March as I was after an army cape, but that didn’t cost me much for an unused example, though what the situation was for older gear, I wouldn’t like to say, my son called in from Nottingham Uni the other day and had taken his mates for a Jolly round there, he said it was still a most fascinating place.
If you went to Legends, there used to be some very interesting stalls selling remarkable gear for very little, I’m sure that they’ve sussed that one out by now. Pity you didn’t live next door,I could fix you up, Tommy, US, Wermacht, Russian, even Hungarian, etc, perhaps I’ll go myself, a period Hungarian Officers uniform must be a rare thing in this country.
Pete TrumanPity it wasn’t at Le………., replica or not, it looks very nice.
The Germans aren’t allowed to display swastikas on their flying aircraft, do the Italians have a similar ban on their own wartime fascist markings, not that I would have any objections to them.
Pete TrumanLooking at those interesting photographs, considering the amount of damage that Hamburg suffered during the war, I’m surprised that one of what must have been one of the prime targets appears to have survived unscathed.
Presumably it must have been heavily camouflaged in some way and not been detected for what it was, though I find that hard to believe.
I’m surprised that apart from the 3 similar flak towers built in Berlin, that more were’nt built elsewhere in the country, perhaps they were planned but resources were diverted elsewhere, ie the Atlantic Wall and the follies of La Coupole and the V3 launch site in Northern France.
If you ever go on a booze jolly to Calais, take a short trip along the motorway to St Omer and visit La Coupole, it shows you what the Organisation Todt were capable of, slave labour to the extreme unfortunately, how many died to build this thing doesn’t bare thinking about, and all for nothing, and given the circumstances of the war at the time, it was obvious that the Allies would be able to destroy the thing, so what was the point in sacrificing so many lives for a theory, it doesn’t bare thinking about.
Pete TrumanCan we have a translation please, my once reasonable understanding of the German language has dissapeared along with the brain cells that learnt it.
Judging by the sash windows, I suspect it may be flats, or possibly offices, it looks to be in use to me, or perhaps the pykies that seem to lurk below it use the place to grow ‘Lucky white heather’.
Are there any other similar flak towers in existance any where else in Germany, was the loveable Albert Speer responsible for designing these things.
Sorry, he was the man that got away, there’s even a pan global architects company operating under the Speer name, they should be ashamed of themselves.
Pete Trumanand off thread a bit, I can recommend the movie “Downfall” – utterly gob smacking portrayal of life in the bunker, these guys are all insane talking about moving the “tenth panzer brigade” which is two kids on bikes with a panzerfaust, they are all insane but normal. Second, the Anthony Beevor book “Berlin”…… fantastic read, there was a TV documentary that shows now on history channel. again, knocks you down with the facts. In Berlin now, when building they find about 3 bodies a week (In the old east when new buildings were thrown up on old bomb sites etc)
Downfall is a stunning film, it seems to be repeated quite often as well, for those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s the viewpoint of the last days in Hitlers bunker, as described by Hitlers secretary, who befriended Eva Braun, and does actually produce some narrative and make an appearance in the film shortly before she died.
She managed to escape dressed as a Wermacht soldier in order to avoid being raped by the Russians and cycled back to the Anglo American lines.
The physical appearance of the actors to the real characters is quite uncanny, apart from Goebbels who as we know was a short ar@d little git, but in this film looks a giant, the scene however, where the evil Frau Goebbels kills her children is quite upsetting for those of us with siblings.
Unfortunately once again Albert Speer is portrayed as a ‘nice’ man, he gets away with it every time.
But thats beside the point, I have a large book called ‘One Last Look’ by Philip Kaplan published in 1983, subtitled, ‘A sentimental journey to the 8th air force bases of WW2 in England’.
An American publication, it’s a lovely book published in 1983 with some fabulous 1940’s colour pictures, and great stories, ironic that 25 years on our friends have been able to bring a B-17 over here.
However, on page 132, theres a ‘contemporary’ picture of a flak tower in Hamburg, looks as if it’s been turned into flats, but very similar in design to those featured in the programme in Berlin.
It looks completely intact, but as the photo was obviously taken in the early 80’s, who knows if it’s still there, mind you, I doubt whether even Fred Dibnah could manage to bring that thing down.
Do any of our German friends know whether it still exists and has anyone had a look round it, if I scan it and publish, will I invoke copywrite problems.
Pete TrumanTempelhof is a very special place. I dont know what they will do with it when it closes in September.
Bruce
Well when they build the inevitable housing estate, they won’t have to worry too much about the footings with the amount of concrete thats underneath it.
Pete TrumanPete – Whilst I don’t argue that there is money around to be made from collections – I start to worry how long you can keep asking for everyone to dig deeper. Other aircraft attend airshows and I feel that with the likes of ‘Sally B’ wanting a new engine the sums that the Vulcan seems to consume would make the engine cost appear trivial.
Maybe after all these years of looking for commercial sponsorship they need to start exploring the wages bill and look at how they can restructure the organisation. I don’t foresee a long term future for the aircraft in the air – the scale of the fund raising effort required exceeds the amount of money in the hands of enthusiasts who are the main supprters of the aircraft.
Ok, I see and agree with your point, but just out of interest, was any special effort made at Legends to raise funds for Sally B’s new engine, I know they always have their stand and of course they have the advantage of having the aircraft on site which helps, and quite a few times I’ve been happy to fork out and look inside, I did the same with the Cat at last years Legends, in fact, from what I could see, the amount of people looking round the Cat at £10 a time must have almost paid for the display fuel bill, and quite right too, especially with the personal service, patience and friendly knowledgable advice given by the crew, one of the best tenners I’ve ever spent.
I know that Legends is a TFC WW2 orientated piston engined show, but given the amount of enthusiasts attending the display, most of whom are no doubt keen to see the Vulcan flying, was much effort made to make the public aware of the Vulcan and it’s problems, I don’t know as I couldn’t go, but surely it was a bit of a stage to make a big effort at fund raising, whether you think it’s a waste of time or not, having got this far, isn’t anything worth a try to keep the monster moth flying.
Pete TrumanJust a drinking problem?? She should be so lucky
Bloody hell man, what a combination, my missus thought the same, but it’s when you see the photographic comparisons that you really get the picture.
Billy Holiday, Janis Joplin, she’s on the same route to self destruction.
Pete TrumanJust a drinking problem?? She should be so lucky
Bloody hell man, what a combination, my missus thought the same, but it’s when you see the photographic comparisons that you really get the picture.
Billy Holiday, Janis Joplin, she’s on the same route to self destruction.
Pete TrumanI know that you’ll think that this is stupid, unealistic suggestion, and the admin organisation will be a nightmare, but why not charge an extra pound at each airshow that the Vulcan is due to appear at, the money going straight to the Vulcan fund. I know even a pound could be stretching it for some people, I know what it’s like to be skint, but others might be prepared to donate even more to cancel that out.
If there was such a large attendance as suggested at Waddington, then imagine how £90,000 would have helped. Even if it was a voluntary collecting tin at the gate, if it was staffed by people like the woman who sells Big Issue outside our local Sainsburies, she will be flying well into the next century.
I see that visitors to the Lowestoft airshow are expected to make a donation of £1, ok a lot of people won’t pay up, and I don’t know how they expect to collect the money, local authority people on a paid day off jolly I expect.
Give them an extra tin marked TVOC, a bit of chat and the results might be quite surprising.
If my bloody broken ribs feel up to it, I’ll be quite prepared to go up on a voluntary basis to Lowestoft for one of the days and walk round with a few tins and threaten and bully people into making a contribution, at least I’ll have the knowledge to state the case for it as well.
Ok, you will probably need an army of people to make any impact as I expect a lot of folk will attend this event, but it’s hardly a bad day out is it, wandering about and watching what appears to be a good airshow while doing some good, who knows what might come of it.
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