PIECE OF CAKE

[Tim]

This is the place for anything aeronautical? Even rants?

I make no apology for this - there are not many of us left & time's running out.

Yes - enjoy PIECE OF CAKE in all it's forms but, I've said this before & I'm saying it again, realise that the book & series denigrate the achievements of the RAF in France. This should not be the purpose of an historical novel.

It was only today - shows how ignorant I am - on receiving PAUL RITCHIE'S books FIGHTER PILOT (reprint) & FIGHTER PILOT'S SUMMER - that I realised that there had been reprints. Thought that I was one of the favoured few having the first edition.

Point is - in saying 'denigrate', I hadn't realised that that was Paul's word in his new book.

For those who might be interested in HISTORY as opposed to SIMSTUFF, I attach a couple of quotes.

Paul was a friend - left No1 Squadron a month before I joined - but we met over the years. Until just before his death. In his memory, & that of those who stood against all odds, losing some 400 fighter aircraft in a few months, I ask you to think on this.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/ ... /paul1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/ ... /paul2.jpg

= TIM

[JJB17463rdBombGroup]

Yes time is running out sadly.I sure miss my dad a lot and he was an ally with you fighting the NAZI empire.The RAF helped my father(at that time Copilot during transition to pilot) during his 3rd mission with a emergency landing after a bombing mission,at the RAF Pescara airfield in Italy during 1944 in B17 Berlin Sleeper III.The RAF ground crew repaired an engine and refueled the ship.For a while my fathers airbase was a SAAF airbase and previously a Luftwaffe Junkers JU88 airbase.All I can say is that I honor your brave sacrifices during that dangerous time and that we will never forgot you.
By the way do you RAF folks have a equivalent Internet discussion message board forum and website like Armyairforces.com?

[Tim]

Glad to meet you, son!

You mean like this - http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=46291 ??

[JJB17463rdBombGroup]

Sir it has been an honor to chat with you.It's nice meeting you too.
Thanks for the RAF message board link.I'll have to give my thanks to
them for the help that they gave my dad so long ago.
It's too bad the World Wide Web and computer technology
such as we have now didn't exist at an earlier date say
20 years earlier.I am so glad that you and a few others
are still with us.We are blessed with having a few World War 2 veterans at this forum.To this day I am still learning more about my father,about the different planes that he flew the names of those aircraft and what happened on those missions.On his 50 missions(including 35 sorties) he was never injured or shot down.He was a very lucky guy.
I am going to write a small journal about those discoveries.Fortunately my mother is still alive and she knows certain things about those events.
I am fortunate to have my fathers flight logs too.
I even know some things about those events 62 years ago that my father never knew the facts of.
Feel free at any time to discuss your war time experiences because many didn't survive those aerial battles and I'm sure many here at this forum would be interested in hearing such stories first hand.
God bless you for your honor,bravery and duty without which we might have either been killed,never been born or lived as slaves without freedom in a world wide tyranny.

A BIG wind and rain storm is about to hit my area so I
probably will not be posting for a while until it is
over with (I'll be O.K. I hope).May you and everyone here have a Merry Christmas.Cheers as you Brits say.

[Point-man]

I for one would be very interested in hearing your stories! My grandfather was on the U.S.S. Yorktown and we had his 80th birthday not that long ago and sadly to say he has taken a turn for the worse. We found out on that day that he was awarded many different medals and not one person knew about them. My uncle and father were setting him up a b-day present with a flag that was flown in the yorktown and a shadow box with his war-time memories when they found out. Not even my grandmother knew about them. I knew alot of the CAF guys before moving back here to Ft. Worth and during the airshows meeting ladies and Gentalmen that served back then. Some would talk to you about things and some would not. Sadly to say, that some of the stories will die with them. It's very sad to see the people of that era's time coming to an end. I don't think the world will ever see those kind of people again. As the saying goes "they don't makem like they use to" the same goes for people. They don't makem like they use too.

[Tim]

Being, until recently, a Picture Framer, I would have done the shadow box for him with great pleasure to thank y'all for your support in those days.

We were the lucky ones, in Fighter Command. At most, 15 minutes sweating blood, mostly within sight of home & then, hopefully, back to clean sheets & a good meal. Quite a bit better than hours as a sitting duck over Europe in a B17 or whatever, or a shell hole on a Japanese island?

[Hylander_1715]

I'm not so lucky, both my grampas are gone now along with my great uncles. I still have one gramma left who worked at US Steel as a "Rosie" during the war.

Lots of memories though, and my uncle has put a nice family pictorial history together over the years of that time. He keeps adding and updating things as he finds them.

[Tim]

Church family in our village - 5 daughters & 4 sons - no daughter married - all sons were killed in WWI.

[SeaVee]

Mr. Elkington,

May I add to the sentiments of many my heartfelt appreciation to you, JJB17463rdBombGroup's Dad and the many others who fought and sacrificed to save the world from a horrible existence under the dark cloud of Nazi tyranny.

It is a shame that so much of the truth is distorted in movies, tv series, etc. It is a bigger shame that so much of today's youth have little or no kbowledge of the great deeds and significance of what your generation did for us.

Take some solace in knowing that ALOT of us do recognize those deeds and will do our part to ensure you and your generation are not forgotten - ever.

I salute you Sir!

[Spitfire76]

I would just like to say thank you to you and all the others who fought (and died, in many cases) for freedom from what, in my opinion, could well have been a very long period of Nazi domination, maybe even reaching Roman Empire proportions.

[Tim]

There have been so many generous comments about the boys of an era that I feel I must reply. But it has to go beyond the BofB.

An impossible situation, really. As we know, Lady Luck has been on my side throughout my career - & since. As an individual, I did not suffer. Being shot down early meant that I was spared an almost certain demise in the September raids. On returning to the Squadron, my only engagements during the Battle were tailchases. Even after that, both over France & in Russia, I was never involved in heroic battles. And when my Squadron from Russia &, later, my Typhoon Squadron from Tangmere lost virtually all their original pilots, in the Desert & Normandy respectively, I was doing silly things like sailing in Catapult Armed Merchant Ships in defence of our convoys, or, later, 'defending Calcutta' or doing Tactical Trials in India.

Those who wet their pants two or three times a day in the height of the Battle, & survived, are probably the better for it. I am in no position to say this, but I reckon that for them it's been & gone. Those who did not make it? Then their increasingly distant relations are the ones to appreciate warm feelings?

But, in perspective, without taking away from those who did what I did not, there were so many others over the years who faced cold steel, & worse, face to face, for much more than a couple of months.


So? I'm a total disbeliever in war, unless in self-defence. But I believe that RECOGNITION & APPRECIATION are the words? So long as there is someone out there who recognises what has been given in the past - for whatever stupid reason - then there's hope. At least in 1940, WE HAD REASON!!

After 3 Scotches, this is bound to be lacking in detail or sentiment. Please take it in the way you believe I intended!!

[Point-man]

I thought that was pretty well spoken.