Mopar Muscle Association UK

Just like to say that Remembrance day is alive and well in Oz, 2 minutes silence, Rolf's 2 little boys etc. The Australians were a bit cannon fodder here and there, as well documented with Galipoli etc. Don't forget the diggers who cut all the wood for the Mossies as well!! Lot of Oz Vietnam stuff too. Finding it hard getting my favoured WW2 aviation books over here, none too big in the history sections in the few and far between bookshops over here!!! Got to get the low down on Darwin WW2 stuff. Just reread Richard Hilary's; Last Enemy. Powerful Book, read it!!
My Dad was an MP (Military Police) towards the end of WW2, wasn't allowed to Arnhem as at the time he was a draftsman (reserved occupation). Most of his pals died. He was a stenographer at the Nuremberg Trials. He didn't talk about the war much........

Darwin and Broome worth a visit for the WW2 history. Darwin air museum has B52. Also all the old airfields down The Track are still there, some even have lots of old bits of metal lying around. There was a complete Liberator tail section at one remote field I went to. They are all signposted as well off the Stuart Highway.

The sad fact is that there are millions of stories like this. Most were buried with the individuals and never told.
I am angry with myself that I was not mature enough to ask more questions at the time - my Dad never fully recovered from the hardships emotionally and was permanently 80% deaf after Cassino (as a 20 year old). His dress uniform as a 20 year old was way to tight for me at 13 (and I was stick thin) due to the years spent in Siberia. He died when he was 69 and I was 29 after a very full life.

It was all very shocking, and unless we retell the stories, it will inevitably happen again. It probably will happen again, only because we have a duty to our families friends and communities to defend them against enslavement and brutality of others.

Ian is spot on, there are millions of these stories, but these days I thin people are realising the importance of speaking to our elders and hearing what they have to say, even if some of it is third hand.
My grandad is 92 next week, and was in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps.
He signed up in 39 and demobbed in 45. He only started to talk about it when we got his medals for him for his 90th ( he never claimed them).

His Dad was killed in 1918 in France and his mother never spoke of it either. It is only my Mums interest in family history that started to unearth the photos and keepsakes that had been in Grandads draw for decades.

As a result I was able to visit my Great grandfathers grave in France a few years ago, first family member to have been there. Very moving to go and do this, just like Rolf Harris did on TV 2 nights ago.

I urge any one with family who died in the wars to make this trip, its easy to do and puts things into perspective.

My friend at work is Polish descent, and he did the same, going to Monte Cassino.

Mine grandparents were both involved but i was too young to ask.
when my dad was little he could remeber asking my gran to send that strange man away again, never really knew his dad till he was 4.
and both me parents seemed to live on bread and beef dripping, a consequence of the rationing.
dad used to play in bomb craters (not that newcastle had that many) and me mum had a Minniee mouse gas mask. possibly the reason for her phobia about enclosed spaces..you won't find my mum in a lift or on the underground

my gran till the day she died had two shelves in the wardrobe stacked up with tinned food and dried milk soap powder oil lamp candles everything on strict rotation...just in case.

It worries me when the same tactics used by Hitler are used by governments today

Hitler bombed his own political buildings and people and blamed it on terrorists international terrorists who were going to come and take away the average german's rights...we are under seige from these evil terrorists communists etc he chanted

so of course he gets voted in again and his population do as he asks.....

US (and us to some extent)

pan am 103 Oklahoma 9/11

terrorists did it

international terrorists

keep your population on red alert for the evil scourge coming to take their liberty Constitution and way of live away

and they'll be happy to either join you in your quest or let you do what you want

which as we have witnessed over the last 20 years, is often unprovoked aggression against other nations (but mainly those with oil) (weapons of mass destruction playstation electronics missile guidance and super cannons Mr Bush Mr Blair we believed you for a while..........


Dave

Ever watched Loose Change Dave? There's a few Documentries out there, very interesting. Gotta take them with a pinch of salt but even if 25% of what they say is true.........................

Trigger_Andy wrote: I love COD and MOH! COD 5 comes out mid month, time for me to get a new Graphics card and another 4gig of ram!

Ive already got it, .......and completed it lol.
It officialy comes out tomorrow but I somehow got it yesterday. Its amazing though.

here’s a couple of ‘souvenirs’ my Grandad brought back with him, they’re 37mm 37x94R cartridges, 1916, Parc d'Artillerie de Paris, for the Hotchkiss Gun

… the Hotchkiss Gun or Hotchkiss Revolving Cannon, was a revolving barrel machine gun invented in 1872 by Benjamin B. Hotchkiss (1826-1885), founder of Hotchkiss et Cie. It was a built-up, rifled, rapid-fire gun of oil-tempered steel, having a rectangular breechblock which moved in a mortise cut completely through the jacket. It was designed to be light enough to travel with cavalry, and had an effective range beyond that of rifled small-arms. The revolving Hotchkiss cannon had five 37mm barrels, and was capable of firing 43 rounds per minute with an accuracy range of 2,000 yards (a little over 1 mile). Each feed magazine held 10 rounds and weighed approximately 18 pounds. The cannon was accompanied by a horse-drawn ammunition limber, which held 110 rounds plus six loaded magazines, totaling 170 rounds …

Hellfire dick!

Strap those monkeys to ya front fenders, Simon. Thatll get you thru Manchester safely.

My dad eventually came to the UK in spring 1940, an eventful experience, via, Siberia, Latvia and Sweden. he quickly joined the new Polish squadron PRAF 302 City of Poznan, funny thats where my uncle died, anyway, thay flew Hurricaine MK1 planes, left over from the disaterous French campaign, resulting in Dunkirk. the planes were still painted with Free French sign writing!! as my dad says, they were Crap worn out aircraft, expected to do battle in the air with the luftwaffe. Later he moved to PRAF squadron 307 City of LWOW a night figther squadron flying Mosquito's ( the best aircaft in WW!!) he has 4 kills and 2 assists?probables to his credit. the Squadrons have a reuinion every year in May, last year only 11 members turned up!
He went back to poland in 1950 as part of a deal witth the UK Government of the time, he married my mother, a london girl. In 1959 he came back to the UK, with my Mum and me. he joined a pilot training schehe in Shoreham, Sussex. He is still alive to-day.

Lwowskich Puchaczy, dziekuje bardzo!

I'm with you Ian, thanks for that Tony!

Got me going again...

“… They went excited and angry,
They went for revenge and to kill,
They went insanely stubborn
As always to fight for the honour…

The red poppies of Monte Cassino
Instead of dew drunk Polish blood.
And on these poppies walked soldier and fall
Because the anger was stronger than death.

The years and the centuries will pass
A few sights from the old days will be left,
But all the poppies on Monte Cassion
Will blossom with red from Polish blood.”

Hey Ian, you sure you are not my long lst brother!