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Name: pluto
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Subject: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Dunkirk
Date: Sunday, June 18, 2017
Time: 4:35:00 PM
Remote Address: 212.139.245.63
Message ID: 309198
Parent ID: 309126
Thread ID: 309021
Finally getting round to a reply here Ijasa.....who was it said that life is what happens when you're busy making other plans?
Interesting reading everybody's comments, I think some of you guys will know a lot more than me about WWII and military hardware etc. Not that I know nothing, I think I've got every war movie that came out of Elstree Studios, my favourite's including 'Dunkirk' are the ones made in the 40's and 50's. Of course like all British schoolkids I was brought up on those movies, and comics like 'Commando' where the Germans said things like 'Gott in Himmel' and 'Ach so Englander'.....the Japanese of course said things like 'Aaaaaiiiieee' and 'Banzai', and were referred to as 'nips'. There was no doubting it was us who were honourable, and superior.
Like a few of you I was in to making model WWII airplanes, mainly British and German, but I'm sure I had a 'Mustang' (I'm reliably informed that once it got the Rolls Royce Merlin engine like the 'Spitfire', it became the most effective fighter), and a 'Zero', not to mention a 'Yak'(used at Stalingad). Once nephews started to appear I took it up again, making them for them. Last Christmas my sister included a 'Hurricane' Airfix model kit as part of my present, still haven't got round to making it. So reading the notes that came with these kits certainly piqued my interest in how, and where they were deployed in WWII.
Talking of the 'Hurricane', it was one of the stars of the 'Battle of Britain'. I'm not sure about coming close to 'World Domination', but had Hitlers chappies won the 'Battle of Britain', then I don't think there's much doubt that the U.K. would have been invaded. Without dominance of the skies there's no way an invasion force could be launched against Britain, the Royal Navy would have blown it out of the water.
Just on the 'Battle of Britain', maybe some of you guys have a view. Up until what is believed to have been an 'accidental' bomb dropped on London,there had been no deliberate attempt to bomb cities by either side. However, following the London bomb, Churchill responded with a big bombing raid on Berlin. Goering responded in kind and in doing so turned his attention away from the RAF airfields in S.E....big mistake....his second big one, the first being at Dunkirk when he persuaded Hitler to allow him to destroy the troops on the beach from the air, and the Wermacht were put on hold.....two big mistakes and we're only at 1940...what a dick................................so the question is:- was Churchill's response a cynical ploy to draw the Luftwaffe away from the airfields and onto London, knowing that in doing so the people of London are going to be killed in their tens of thousands...but that was a price that had to be paid to stop invasion?
A good discussion might be had over the ' Battle of Britain', and just how much the RAF were a a huge disadvantage because of overwhelming odds, as is the usual story? There are certain advantages that the RAF had that evened the odds somewhat.
Anyway the bombing of British cities and towns continued after the 'Battle of Britain' had been won. My old mum's on her last legs, and for a few months I've been asking her about her memories, just to get it down. She remembers well the 'blackout', going down the air raid shelter at night when the sirens sounded. The biggest bombing raid here was carried out on Clydebank to the West of the City over two nights, with hundreds of German bombers involved. When it was over there were only a handful of houses left totally intact, thousands had totally disappeared. The target had been the shipyards. My mums mother had friends in Kilbowie Rd in Clydebank, and my mother remembers her and her young brother being taken by my granny to Clydebank only to find that Kilbowie Rd. was no more.
I suppose that leads in a way to "open for business". I think the sort of thing I was talking about above, just became life as it was. On top of bombs dropping, you had rationing, queuing, telegrams telling you a husband or son was dead, or missing in action etc etc but things just went on, people went to work, to the cinema, to the dance halls, the pubs, broke into houses, robbed banks etc etc....it was 'open for business' life goes on as usual....it was just that the backdrop had changed.
Just on that....I was watching one of the late night current affairs programmes last week. There was a report about a Syrian t.v. 'soap' that is apparently the most watched in the Arabic World, and is filmed in Damascus. So there were interviews with the actors and director. They talked no just about the problems of filming with shells going off at the end of the street, but just the difficulties in getting to work, and daily life in general. It was striking, but they were saying that it just became the norm, and they were 'open for business' life goes on.
I don't know what all of that says about humans Ijuasa, but it reminds me of something George Bernard Shaw (I think) said to the effect 'Never fear going to Hell, you can get used to anything in a week',....something like that anyway.
Yes you should definitely get a copy of 'Stalingrad', got a feeling you'll enjoy it. Coming out of Stalingrad all roads were leading to Kursk, and that monumental tank battle. It was reading about Kursk that brought the modified T34 to my attention, it performed extremely well against the 'Panthers' and Tigers'. The T54 I don't know, but I know practically nothing about tanks anyway.
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