4 wheels = BORING

You never hear of anyone falling off a car !!!!

Two car drivers talking

Driver 1: What sort of car do you have.
Driver 2: Ferrari 355
Driver 1: Nice how fast will it go ?
Driver 2: 160+ Mph, did London to Bristol in 1hr 25 the other day.
Driver 1: Cool.

Two motorcyclist’s talking

Rider 1: What bike do you have
Rider 2: I did have a Suziyama BMX750 but hit some spilt oil on the road last week and came off, bloody car drivers !!! Broke my leg in 4 places and my right arm in 2.
Rider 1; Same thing happened to me on my Hondoid 850CPR, some bloody car driver turn right in front of me, took all the skin off my knees and hands, do you want to see the scars?????

So I suppose bike riders do have more to talk about and at least their scars are a conversation starter !!!! 🙂

I think there is a website about this, there was certainly a TV programme about it in the past 12 months.

Here you go, it was a channel 4 programme

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/heads/footnotes/greatescapes.html

German POWs’ great escape revisited

Robin Turner, The Western Mail

A bit more info

A NEW book by a Welsh author has detailed one of the most dramatic escape stories of World War II.

The “Great Escape” by 67 German POWs from Island Farm Camp in Bridgend was ended with a rugby tackle in Swansea.

A former Wales Youth trialist saw the last escapee walking along a road at Glais and tackled him to the ground.

The citizens’ arrest brought to an end the escape and the manhunt which followed for many days after the Germans tunnelled their way out of the Bridgend camp in March, 1945.

In the run-up to the 50th anniversary of the breakout, Aberystwyth-born journalist Herbert Williams, now living in Fairwater, Cardiff, has turned the dramatic events into a book.

Come out Wherever You Are (Gomer, £7.99) takes a close look at the prisoners who dug the 60ft escape tunnel and the hunt for them which galvanised the whole of Wales.

Even Girl Guides organised searches of woodland for the escaped POWs.

All the escapees were eventually recaptured with the most successful in terms of distance from the camp being two men who were caught near Southampton docks.

A group of other Germans were arrested near Birmingham Airport where they had planned to steal a plane to fly home.

The escape tunnel was cleverly engineered under the supervision of prisoners skilled in mining techniques.

It was shored up with props made from sawn-up tables stolen from the camp canteen.

A string of condensed milk tins served as an air line for the tunnellers with a primitive fan stuck into a bucket.

The escapees showed ingenuity when they left the perimeter of Island Farm.

Four men posed as Norwegian engineers to account for their accents and fashioned car keys out of nails.

They had planned to start a car they had seen regularly parked outside the prison camp but when they reached it the battery was flat.

Author Mr Williams, a former BBC producer and South Wales Echo feature writer, said, “Claiming to be Norwegians they cheekily asked some guards coming back to the camp after a night on the beer for some help.

“The guards helped them jump start the car and they roared off.

“These were the men that were captured near Birmingham Airport.

“Although their audacity helped them get out of Wales there was too much publicity generated by their escape and they were picked up as soon as they neared the airfield at Birmingham.”

The Germans in the camp were a mixture of those pleased to be out of the war and hardline SS stormtroopers.

On one occasion two naval officers who aired their doubts about Hitler were so badly beaten up by fellow POWs they had to be taken to Bridgend General Hospital for treatment.

When the escape took place, Britain’s national newspapers gave it front-page coverage for days.

The publicity meant everyone in Wales and in the border areas was on the lookout.

Mr Williams, 72, said, “There is evidence that Boy Scouts and even Girl Guides formed themselves into search groups.

“Anyone who looked in the least bit suspicious was stopped and questioned and because of their German accents it did not take long before all the POWs were recaptured.

“Probably the last escapee on the run was the man who laid low in Glais on the outskirts of Swansea.

“A man who had been involved in trials for the Welsh youth rugby team before the war showed a good turn of speed by running after the man after challenging him.

“He tackled him to the ground and the police arrived from Swansea.

“I remember the district reporter for the South Wales Echo in Bridgend telling me about the escape and I became so interested I decided to turn it into a book.”

Just remember that 99% of everything mentioned so far wouldn’t have a prayer against a sports bike over 600cc on the road 🙂

What hog wash.

I don’t think he bothered either, I think he was Irish so it may have been a bit complicated 🙂

I knew he couldn’t stay away for long, hows it going buddy, had enough of the colonies then ?????

That’s a fantasy car??? You need to feed your imagination a bit more, mate.

Nah, Camron Diaz in a leather thong, now that’s a fantasy.

Fish ?????

Still, old machinery has always fascinated me.

I recall Robbo saying something similar about Anna !!!! 😀