Steve,

I appreciate your comments, and respect your opinions. After all, we Steves must stick together.

Thanks again.

SRP

…well it looks like today it’s my turn to take on the mantle of miserable old scrot…This looks like complete clart to me.

And you say I’m edgy! All aviation films, by their very nature, have redeaming qualities. Even that total piece of **** film “Pearl Harbor” had some redeaming value, due to it’s aviation content.

You’re just a nasty, bitter little man, Jones. 😉

Thanks Dave for the compliment, although I believe many others on here said the same thing I did.

Time is the great healer when it comes to conflict. However, wounds between the Allies and the Axis heal at a different pace for all of us. There are many US WW2 vets who will have nothing to do with any Japanese or Germans. As time progresses they become more and more of a minority, but some of this hatred will run for generations.

It is difficult to be a war historian without showing favoritism for the “Home Team”. I’ve not been to Hiroshima, but if I have the opportunity I promise to try and be more compassionate than the group of Japanese students who I encountered on my last visit to Pearl Harbor. But to your point Dave, if I were in the Red Lion and the darts came out, well you can bet that I’d be lobbing a few thousand pounders myself. Does that make me insensitive? Well, I wouldn’t do it if we were sitting in the Red Lion with a group of Germans who were bombed out of Berlin or Dresden.

And finally, a little story. When Andy and Vanessa were here this Fall we visited over an antique map that is in my living room. I think I may have even called it a “war trophy” as I teased poor Jones about the Empire. Andy, to his credit, stood his ground with sayings such as “If you colonials hadn’t been so lazy we might have stayed in America and continued bringing civilization to you undeserving wretches”. Two hundred odd years ago it would have been muskets, but that evening we did our dueling with words, and pints. All in good fun, and not meant to hurt anyone.

Here are some photos of the map, just in case you British forgot what the Empire used to look like before we kicked you out. 😀

“Gas Tuna” -universal warbird pilot expression used to refer to a back seat passenger who is only along to pay the fuel bill. See also “Hotel Tuna” and “Dinner Tuna”.

“GIB” -Guy In Back. A passenger.

Oh, sorry…this isn’t a chat room. Back on topic.

I think it’s OK to pretend to blow up and shoot our former enemies just like Grand Dad did in the old days. Hollywood and all these re-enactors do it everyday. It’s not mean spirited or evil, it’s just a tie-in with the past. A way to re-live history.

Were’s me ****in cuppa…

OK, time to get back on topic. Some of you are offended that anyone would consider playing this board game today. Well, how is it any different than going to an airshow and seeing the P-51 shoot down the Japanese Zero. They always do, you know. The Mustang tail chasses the Zero around for a few passes and then the poor Zero pilot turns on his smoke system and dives away. This is the standard T-6/Zero vs. P-51 Mustang act that I’ve been seeing played out since my first airshows in the early ‘70s.

I don’t recall ever seeing the Zero shoot down the Mustang…

Well, my first choice is always a turbine, as the reliabily can’t be beat. The cost will continue to come down and more and more small turbines will end up in GA aeroplanes. As for diesel aviation engines I’ll probably just stick with the old tried and true avgas, air cooled, piston engines that we’ve been testing for the last 100 years.

Of course, never say never…