Folks,

Dux:
Well done. There seems to be a huge amount of information about WW2 available online if we just know how to drill down to it. Have you made any new acquisitions for your growing museum? Watever happened to your well connected chum who had all that valuable memorabilia?

C51:

As far as I know we do not celebrate Boxing Day in the states at all. The closest we come is the day after Christmas when everything you were given as a gift the day before is put back in the box it came out of to be returned for something actually useful.

JRT,

Just a few Great War medal items over the last few months but always on the lookout for items of historical military interest. My militaria friend has disappeared from the scene lately. Strange that it should coincide with his romantic involvement with a certain lady...

This wall plaque contains the bronze memorial plaques and Great War medals to two brothers who were killed within three months of each other on the Western Front in 1917. The medals are in their glazed compartments and have been there since 1920, in mint condition with the silver toned (patina) as you would expect. Two black edged telegrams to their parents would have marked them for life. I hope to do something about the scratch at left which was most likely done in the auction rooms but I got these from an Ebay seller.

Folks,

Dux:

I know you will give them the care and respect they are due.

There are small markers sold here that contain various colors of wood stain. They have been used for ages by the furniture trade and now anyone can get them. I have some for my own use. They are simple and easy to apply. It won't remove the scratch but they can make a small scratch like yours almost undetectable to those who do not know it is there. If the scratch is not too deep some people claim you can use a hot iron on a wet washcloth placed over the scratch to "pull it out". I cannot vouch for this.

The cool and dry of yesterday is gone today replaced with the customary humid and hot. Thunderstorms, possibly severe, are in the forecast for tonight and the weekend. Next week promises to be cooler but humid (mid 80s F.)with the threat of more severe storms.

With the presidential election campaigns heating up more and more with each new news cycle perhaps this is where all the hot air is coming from? I don't think either side has a clue what to do about the mess we're in. Nothing IMHO is going to improve the economy unless jobs are created for the lower and middle classes. People are really feeling the pinch and buying for need and not want. Gas prices are rising again. That affects the price of most goods because they are moved to market by truck.

Here in NC there is little drought and farmer's crops are doing well. However due to the terrible drought in the Midwest the prices of animal feed is skyrocketing. NC provides a very large percentage of all poultry brought to market for the nation. The price of poultry feed has doubled. We will all be paying more for chicken at the market soon. No, C51, and I resent your insinuation; my value to the squadron has not just shot up....I am not a 'chicken'.

Chaps,

JRT,

I was pleased to see that SimHQ have re-instated the views and replies column.

Why? Well, I suppose it obviously boils down to the pleasure of knowing that one's topics are being visited and the strength of interest shown in the number of comments. We have crept up to over the 6,000,000 views mark which is astonishing. That represents the equivalent of about one tenth of the UK population.

That must be the same tenth that thinks manual labour is a goalkeeper for Real Madrid.

Folks,

Dux:

Whooda thunk it 11 years ago.... there are that many folks living in the UK.

LOL. Good Ole Manual. At the age of 60 he still has what it takes. remember how he made that save with his metal walker in the finals?

They are filming the third "Iron Man" here in our film studios down at the port of Wilmington. Robert Downey, Jr. got himself hurt the other day and was out of commission for a few days. Coincidentally it also got some free publicity for the film. I and a few billion others like the franchise so without the extra publicity have a hunch it is pretty much a cinch to make a lot of money. Isn't it great how he seems to have turned his life around? He had a lot to live for.

Chaps,

JRT,

On the subject of filming casualties, I see that director Tony Scott called it a day by jumping off some bridge. He must have concluded that he had nothing to live for.

Just heard he had been diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer.

Folks,

Dux:

Tragic. He did a very good job with "Top Gun". I've long given up seeing a sequel to that film. Cruise is too long in the tooth and though he claimed he was interested in the project, they never could agree on a script.

Just the thought of cancer of the brain is horrifying. Near the end of her life my own wife's small cell lung cancer had metastasized to her brain. There were some problems with speech and some minor signs of personality change. I kept that information from her so she never knew. Such a terrible diagnosis is more than enough to make even the bravest despair. There are prohibitions against taking one's life or that of another in all cultures. Life is precious and most people defend it literally to their last breath. Sometimes, in certain cases might it be that suicide is reasonable if not also morally justified? I cannot say. I see no benefit in great suffering or an existence with no quality of life or hope.

Having written all that; suicide can, in some especially tragic cases, be a permanent solution to what turns out to be a temporary problem. My late wife and I were driving in a wooded area early one morning when she glanced to her right and saw a car parked a little way up a small path. She said there was a pipe stuck in one window. We stopped and investigated. A young man sat slumped in the front seat of a car with all its windows closed and the motor running. There was a hose attached to the exhaust running into a rear window.

Alas we came too late to save the boy. In the end it turned out he was the son of one of my wife's slight acquaintances. The boy's mother told my wife later that she was glad it was a friend who found him. In the end the reason he took his own life resolved itself in a positive manner and the great sadness of his premature death was made even more tragic.

JRT,

I had no idea you had witnessed such a tragic scene - and one that stays with you.

Folks,

Dux:
At our ages no doubt we have both witnessed many things we would choose to forget if we could. It is a haunting memory brought to life every time I pass that area or when I see a car parked a short way up a shady path.

The ground breaking comedienne Phylis Diller has passed away. Some would argue she paved the way for women to do stand up comedy even without having to make themselves look hideously funny as she did in her early days. I understand that the stars of the HBO blockbuster series "The Sopranos" are gathering for their long overdue film. It might be difficult however to make this film without a ton of flasdhbacks as so many of the cast were killed off during the run of the series.

It looks as if the MIA C51 may be returning safely to the forum. He has finally managed to get his BoB working again and he has flown some missions. He indicated he was a bit rusty but able to bag a couple and set his crate down successfully. Perhaps he will soon pancake or parachute in and regale us with his heroic exploits? Then we'll have Canadians from both East and West. The weather in Toronto this summer seems to have been more moderate than usual and rather dry compared to what PV1 writes of his locale. The impression I've gotten from e-mails is that they have finally had quite a bit of rain in the Toronto area this month and that the air is cool enough to wear a flannel shirt already. Not here my friends. Even with two days of overcast and rain it is quite warm.

I have flown a bit too. My last encounter was with several JU87s and their escorts. One 87 gave me a good ride up one moment and down the next across the English countryside. His gunner was out of action from my first pass but the pilot knew his stuff and made it back to the Channel before I ended the war for him. His bomber looked like burning pieces of rags when it fell, engine-less, upon the beach. There was one good chute.

In my excited mind I bowed to the smiling Monarch as he pinned the VC upon my already crowded tunic. Then suddenly tracers passing over my starboard wing brought me back to reality. A sound like my crate being hit by several handfulls of stones stopped my pounding heart for a long second. There would be no gongs for me ever again unless I somehow got this unsociable fellow off my six.

Right you are Dux. I must have done since I am typing this.

Greetings lads,

indeed, as JRT's intelligence reports have stated, I am back on strength and flew several sorties today. In the most memorable of these I enounteerd a large group of bombers escorted by Me110s. I damaged one 110 before I had to skidaddle due to 2 others on my tail, but managed to get back into the fray and set another one one fire. Everything seems to be working rather nicely.

JRT, that was a very disturbing find, and very sad. There is a terminally ill woman in BC who has recently won her appeal and has been given approval for assisted suicide, this would be a first for Canada. This seems to be in the same realm as Tony Scott's case.

Quite unrelated, I watched about half of a Canadian investigative documentary recently, claiming - with a great deal of evidence from RN documents - that the Dieppe raid was staged to try to pinch code books related to the 4 wheel enigma machine, or perhaps the machine itself. And it was planned largely by none other than Cmdr Ian Fleming. It was a great failure of course, and a particular slaughter for Canadian troops, some Regiments claiming 94% caualty rate.