Kev – as ever, your timely and well chosen words leave little to be added. Well said sir.

I will stop off at Chailey (one the Sussex ALGs) on my way home tonight, and spend a few moments in quite reflection and gratitude for what the guys, and girls, based there (and at all the other bases) were probably doing to support operations over and around the beachheads and further inland 64 years ago today.

– As BSG-75 suggested, Is our generation (I’m 48) going to be the last who can say with real conviction and truth:

“At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them…..” after The Roll of Honour has been read at Rememberance Services etc ?

Not sure my kids will be feel able (or be allowed) to say the same with quite so much conviction as we do when they get to my age in thirty years or so.

Pete T – as you say, whether we like it or not, those guys gave their lives so that the youngsters of today are free and can ignore their sacrifice if they so choose, it does seem unfair, but I suspect many of the boys would still have gone and done it even if they knew this is how things would turn out?

I am sure that it is a minority (albeit a very vocal and highly visible minority) of todays “yoof” who are openly scornful and disrespectful of that sacrifice, I am sure a good many of today’s youngsters do understand what it was all about, but perhaps being a generation or two further removed from it than us, it’s not quite so “real” or tangible to them?

After all, can any of us on here honestly say we have the same depth of conviction about celebrating/commemorating Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar or Wellington’s victory etc as we do about marking 15th Sept/BofB day, or 6th June, VJ-, or VE Days etc etc? I doubt it :o.

Paul F

Must have been somewhat smaller than Sea Vixen wings I imagine, given the difference in size between a Vampire “pod” and a Sea Vixen fuselage!

Paul F

I believe the artefacts may well have gone on to the Manston, Hawkings and/or Brenzet museums?

I visited the collection at Chilham in the mid seventies – a small, but very well organised set up, lots of infomative “cased” displays, with a few sizable chunks of recovered wrecks, and loads of small BofB artefacts.

Paul F

I had the pleasure of hearing her speak a year or two back at Shoreham, a fascinating lady, with no end of stories to tell – most are captured in her excellent, and very readble, autobiography.

RIP Diana, it was a pleasure, and an honour, to spend the evening listening to you recounting your stories.

Paul F

Great Photos – thanks for sharing them Analayo

Very nice to see such a “different” subject posted on here.

Paul F

Shoreham’s future?

Local commercial radio this morning reported that the new owners are the group who own all the commercial property on the airfield, and that it was back to “business as usual” at Shoreham.

“Its a good thing that it’s all now owned by one company” was the general comment expressed.

Hmmm, maybe, maybe not – given the location of the land, I just hope it isn’t worth more to the new owner as a large commercial development site than as an airfield. Given their prior experience of the viability and potential profitability of commerical property in that area, I am sure they will want to maximise financial return on their new acquisition, by whatever means is most favourable.

Not sure how much income/profit light aviation (and related activities) at Shoreham brings in per square metre per annum, but I fear that potential income from light industrial/business units might be higher per square metre? There have been rumours of this sort of change of use happening for many years 🙁

Add in the potential “political spin” aspect of the promise of many more jobs for the local masses, rather than just offering relatively few “specialised” jobs catering to the “minority” of the population involved in the “elite-ist” world of (“non environmentally friendly”) private flying, plus the good communications link A27/A23 etc and I fear we may see a (rapid?) expansion of the industrial park taking precedence over expansion (or maintenance) of current flying activities.

Yes the airport does currently have scheduled services, but they are hardly going to set the world on fire with a few round trips to the Channel Islands a week – and other commercial ventures (flights to France via Lydd etc) have never really managed to survive. So few passengers are hardly likely to bring much income to the surrounding area as they travel.

I sincerely hope I’m wrong, but it worries me greatly that a “commerical property” based organisation has taken ownership of a well located “greenfield” site that might easily be argued for treatment as a “brownfield” site for planning purposes :(.

Paul F

It’s easy to decipher this really..

“Press 1 for general enquiries, press 2 for customer services, press 3 to hear your balance, press 4 to hear all the options again…….”

It’s the schematic for the automated answering system most call centres use these days – is it any wonder most of us give up before ever reaching a human being. Just imagine how frustrating it would be to get through to one of the those call systems 21 light years away……:D

Paul F