Pete TrumanInterestingly enough, I had great trouble trying to buy a copy of the paper here in Braintree, they seem to have sold out everywhere, I had to buy a copy in Sainsburies, the only place I could find any, then redeem the voucher in W H Smith, perhaps the great British public is more astute than we think.
Wow, ‘Reach for the Sky’ for only 45p, sad in a way, I wonder how much the Mail had to pay for the rights to do this. As far as I was concerned, I bought the paper, ripped out the relevant page and threw the rest in the bin, I would imagine that most of you will do the same, in which case the whole thing is defeating the object of getting hooked on the paper, but who knows.
One film that really interests me is ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’.
Many, many, years ago we used to go to our local fleapit, ‘The Moulin Rouge’, in Nottingham, that dealt in ‘X’ films only, they didn’t seem to care that we were only 13, and we got in to see anything, in our case, mainly horror films.
I recall going to see ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’, we thought it was an awsome film, OK an American film of German life at the front, but very well done for it’s time, and very well considered for it’s attitude towards the ‘enemy’.
The thing is, an alternative version was made involving experimental colour, hopefully this is the version that they are trading in the Mail, if it is, it’s not modern computer technology and well worth the 45p, well all these classic films are worth more than that, aren’t they.
Pete TrumanWas there also something not quite right with the runway at North Weald.
I recall going to a couple of Friday practice days around the same time, one which I think was the same year, involved a Dutch? F-16 nearly overshooting the runway, they had to deploy the emergency runway barrier, which he stopped just short of, much to our annoyance, terrible though it may sound, but we’d never seen one used before.
Another incident involved the Vulcan, it was the last time it displayed there.
I was right next to the runway threshold and the main wheels hit the rough ground short of the runway, seeing this huge beast hit the dirt right in front of me and bounce was something else, there were no fences in those days and I was standing on what was then an earth bank next to the runway. I was terrified at what would happen next but he made a remarkable recovery and deployed his chute and all went well.
I don’t recall seeing the Lanc problems at either NW or Mildenhall, I must have been wandering about or as matey says, ordering a Polish Sausage, sigh.
I do remember though, a very bouncy landing at DX a few years ago that caused a few intakes of breath in the crowd.
Pete TrumanGreat video, when he turned for take off, I loved the comment from the woman and her child who were standing next to you, ‘Oooh, what a windy place’, nice one.
Another observation, when he was on end of the runway waiting to take off, did you notice white van man attempting the world land speed record on the little road on the opposite side of the runway.
I haven’t seen a Spitfire fly for a few months, watching this little cameo made me think how lucky we are in this area to be able to witness this sort of event on a whim, for all you Spitfire whingers, and there are some on here, how can you not appreciate this, it’s charged me up for the forthcoming season, only a few weeks away folks.
Pete TrumanIn a similar vein, does anyone have air dropped propaganda leaflets from either side.
I’m cursing a bit because on my last trip to see my mother in Nottingham, I came across some that my father had collected and I was tempted to bring them back and post them on here, where he got them from, I don’t know, I suspect that when he returned to his job in the print trade after the war, it was material that he found lying about in the factory.
One of these is quite complex and involved the destruction of U-Boats.
It’s one of these sliding thingies showing happy, smiling German sailors, slide the card and they become grim corpses floating underwater.
I can’t imagine what the effect of being chucked out of an aircraft had on these things, perhaps they were never used, has anybody seen one of these.
I promise to bring them back on my next trip up north.
Pete TrumanI’ve been struggling through my late fathers diaries, some things make sad reading, but there you go, other things are absolutely fascinating, I wonder how many troops could be bothered to write in such detail, I’ve read the really amazing stuff from D-Day onward but never really studied this period, trouble is, I haven’t found the diary from 1943
He arrived at the coast from training in Lincoln on the 17th August 1940, being based at Theddlethorpe with a 4” naval gun for shore defence, he was in the Royal Artillery by the way, and they had a barrage balloon regiment attached to them.
Some of this stuff is hard to read, but the first report of a raid on Mablethorpe is Tuesday 20th of August 1940, he records raids during the night with delayed fuse bombs being dropped, he reports ‘explosions and thumps’ during the night.
23rd August, further reports of bombings, ‘Bomb activity during night, trying to find our gun positions’.
24th August : ‘Quiet night, heavy explosions heard out at sea today- sea very heavy during day, on guard tonight, lets hope Jerry planes leave us alone tonight’.
25th August:-‘Plenty of explosions during day, Mablethorpe evening’.
26th August:- ‘Firing practice at Chapel St Leonards, never heard such a repercusion, seafiring, lot of enemy activity around here, bombs dropped at 9:00 tonight’.
27th August:-‘ Lewis gun instruction etc, bombs dropping all night’.
28th August, Wednesday:-‘Bombs dropped too damn close’.
29th August:- ‘Bomb went off early, 4am, dropped 1/4 mile away, close shave’.
8th September:-‘All leave cancelled until further notice owing to imminent invasion, feeling down’.
27th October:-‘ Encounter tonight with 3 enemy planes-machine gunned-I believe brought down, exciting day’.
29th October:-‘Enemy plane over over sandhills, machine gunning, very low, bombs everywhere’.
1st November:-‘Enemy plane flew low over the town this morning, dropped bombs and machine gunned, little damage done’.
Lovely note here, ‘If I had not been so windy yesterday morning, I should have brought him down, you couldn’t have missed, better luck next time, but when you see a plane coming at you, well you can guess!
9th November:-‘Air raid warning, Jerries over bombing, dance at Naafi’.
16th November:-‘Enemy planes overhead, a few bursts of fire from him, they get cheekier than ever’.
12th January 1941:- 2 German destroyers sighted off coast.
10th February:-‘Intense activity tonight, 7 hour alert.’
The rest of 1941 seems to be sheer boredom on his part!!
16th November 1941, he was back in Nottingham on leave, no mention of being involved with a crashed Junkers 88 on his return to camp afterwards.
It would appear that on those dates that you mentioned he was away at Catterick on courses, I have nothing to report from Mablethorpe unfortunately.
I hope that gives you an insight as to what happened during that period, obviously more attacks than you thought.
Please find a picture of Gunner Truman prior to throwing himself behind the sandbags, I still have the cap and badge, by the way.
Pete TrumanThere must have been some unknowing lucky sod on top of the London Eye, I bet it was an impressive view from there.
Pete TrumanHello
A big thank you to all of you taking the time to answer this question.
It all started because a work friend stayed in Mablethorpe last weekend and was taking to 3 old gents.
I myself have not been but after reading the last post I going armed with a digger looking for a queen mary or a Austin k6 or k5 or any thing by scammell.:D 😀 😀 😀
Mr Pete Truman I would like to see the pictures some time when you can get round to it.Yours
11group
I’ve been trying to find out more about the sea wall breach in Mablethorpe, I’m sure it was towards Sutton on Sea. My father kept newspaper articles at the time about it, and I know we’ve heard it all before but I can recall pictures of a variety of vehicles, maybe even Scammells, being stuffed into the gap in desperation then covered in sand, they must still be there in whatever state of preservation. Lets not forget though about ‘Babs’ the car that crashed attempting the land speed record on Pendine Sands, buried in a sand dune pre-war, it was exhumed comparitively recently and don’t quote me, but was it not restored to running order.
I have a variety of pictures to scan and send, why I can’t put them straight on here is a mystery, I’ve scanned and published so many before on here.
I shall also now look up events in the old man’s diaries, it may have some dates in there.
You’re lucky, I’ve woken up with a stinking cold this morning, my missus ordered me back to bed, but I prefer to excuse myself from my chores by fiddling about on here, lets see what I can find out.
Pete TrumanSlightly off thread, but zoom in on Flashearth and you can quite clearly see a steam locomotive and rolling stock on the site.
A few years ago, the Finnish Government decided to get rid of it’s strategic reserve of steam locos, which were hidden in caves I believe.
Several of them ended up at the Acton site, unfortunately, whoever bought them didn’t appear to appreciate that they were 5’0” gauge rather than the British 4’81/2”, whether they understood the implications of this, I never found out.
Some of them ended up at Ongar in Essex, at the end of the closed tube railway, the idea being to relay the branch in 5’0”, a daunting task which has now been abandoned for obvious reasons.
When these locos first arrived, which must have been around the time of the demise of the Phantoms at Wattisham, we used to call in at Acton to see them, they were in pristine condition, but they must have deteriorated since then, presumably no one knows what to do with this out of gauge fleet, does anyone have any more knowledge on the story of this misadventure.
Pete TrumanI had to post a comment here as Pete’s post brought back many fond memories. My father and I used to do the same in the late 80’s to early 90’s on hot summer afternoons. He used to put me on his shoulders so I could see better.
I get the same memories every time I look at the ex 74 squadron Phantom at Duxford.
Ahhhh such a shame it’s all a thing of the past.
This will make you smile.
When the great day was about to dawn and the last Phantoms were due to make a final farewell 9 ship, I phoned up the base to get some timings and was transferred to the crew room. I found myself talking to the flying CO, just back from a mission, can’t recall who it was, unfortunatley.
Lovely bloke, he suggested that if I really needed to be on base, he would meet me on the gate and give me passes, but suggested it would be better to view the whole thing from the fence, how right he was, an awesome day, never to be forgotten.
Pete TrumanBaedekker raids on Mablethorpe, I think not, hardly the most historic town in Britain is it.
Our family from Nottingham has many links with Mablethorpe, it was always the pre-war and post war place to go for your hols, all my early holidays were spent there in the 50’s.
Thing is, my father was on coastal defence there during 41, 42, I’ve tried to scan and download a pic of him with his sandbagged Lewis gun on the beach, the last bastion of defence against the deadly Hun, but the computer says no….. He was nearly responsible for downing a Heinkel except that the Lewis jammed at the vital moment.
I’ll look at his diaries that I have for the period and get some actual dates of events and try and download some of the pics I have of the motley crew defending the town, if this site won’t accept them, which it hasn’t so far, I shall probably be able to e-mail them straight to you if you are interested.
Incidentally, my old man reckoned that the sand dunes south of the resort were reinforced with every war surpus army vehicle going after the floods of 1953, everytime we paid a visit, I was encouraged to go for a dig with my newly aquired bucket and spade, proper steel stuff in those days, never found owt though, but I bet its full of rare vehicles and aircraft, tee hee.
Pete TrumanWell done Moggy, duly signed, I notice that there are only 100 signatures so far though.
Just out of interest, how many of you had relatives in Bomber Command, as an old git its easy for me to remember mine.
My fathers late cousin Noel, flew Blenheims and survived the war, winning the DFC too, I’ll have to put it to my archivist cousins to research more about him.
My ex-wife’s uncle, Ralph Tailford, was a flight engineer on Halifaxes and electronic warfare B-17’s, smashing bloke, was heavily involved in the Halifax project at Elvington, and, as far as I know, still going strong, his logbook is a fascinating read, he deserves a medal, no doubt about it. Probably one of the few members of Bomber Command to be filmed in colour by Clarke Gable, and, following a mission, and running low on fuel, to be given the personal welcome he deserved by this great Hollywood star.
Pete TrumanJust an observation.
I used to park next to it and sit on the roof of the car when I went to watch the wind down and demise of the Phantom force in the early 90’s. I recall that this particular place was always a hive of activity in those days. If you see my videos of events from that period, there’s quite an amount of unusual interference on the pictures, which at the time I put down to the strength of the Wattisham radar, but who knows what this place had to do with it.
Pete TrumanPolitics aside, maybe pulling out of the Olympics will save us Brits from a humiliation. Nobody seems to be aware of the lessons learnt in the past, has our system of training athletes learnt anything.
There always used to be several bright sparks on the international stage, but can you think of any, they seem to be riddled with drug abuse, injuries and retirement. By this stage in the run up to the Olympics, we would always be looking forward to some heavy metal person producing the goods, but we seem to have sunk so low that as a former keen athletic type myself, I don’t see where this will be coming from.
Perhaps as the season progresses, I will be proved wrong, lets see what happens.
Pete TrumanPolitics aside, maybe pulling out of the Olympics will save us Brits from a humiliation. Nobody seems to be aware of the lessons learnt in the past, has our system of training athletes learnt anything.
There always used to be several bright sparks on the international stage, but can you think of any, they seem to be riddled with drug abuse, injuries and retirement. By this stage in the run up to the Olympics, we would always be looking forward to some heavy metal person producing the goods, but we seem to have sunk so low that as a former keen athletic type myself, I don’t see where this will be coming from.
Perhaps as the season progresses, I will be proved wrong, lets see what happens.
Pete TrumanI merely meant, Your Majesty, that, ah, you shine out like a shaft of gold when all around is dark
I got it pete:diablo:
Back to thread…. did someone say the Vulc will be at leg ends….?
That made me smile this morning.
Incidentally, as you are quoting Jesses Tips, if you ever join the M1 North, at the A14/M6 junction, look at that place on the left hand side of the northbound M1 sliproad, my missus is quite convinced that Jesses lurking in there somewhere, we laugh so much every time we pass it that we find it hard to get into the stream of traffic on the M1.
Sorry, I digress, this business of the clash and the problem as to what will be appearing where or otherwise, has really affected our Hungarian entourage, Solly is not well off and our pidgeon English exchanges have given him doubts as to whether to drastically save up to come over for a Legends event that may be affected by the concurrent Fairford issue, what do I say, I gather that he’s been studying our websites, but I don’t want to put himself out to come over to an event that may not be all there in the true spirit of Legends, with many items missing because of this stupid clash of major events.
Even the steam train events he wants to go to are looking dodgey, perhaps he’d be better off leaving it for a year, assuming the beardy wierdies haven’t got us first.
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