Agree, as well with the rest of the post. A few seconds webbing yielded this
http://www.csn.ul.ie/~dan/war/crashes.htm
summary of all foreign landings & crashes in Ireland 39-45. Not a LW fighter among them.
All multi-engine - a few 111s and 88s, some transports and a couple of bv138 amphibians.
Mostly lost, some damaged and straggling.

RAF, several spits and hurris, though.

A very interesting find there PV1.

Imagine that Hampdens on occasion did wind up over Ireland, even after a trip to Berlin! Who would have thunk it, eh?

Some Whitleys and the odd Wellington as well. Well, this sinks my initial boisterous and ill-founded claim about the virtual impossibility of an encounter between a British bomber and a German twin-engined night-fighter over Ireland.

Never let the facts get in the way for a good post I say!

Folks,

I'm OK. Yup, I'm still struggling to make sense of a life without my wife and best friend for 40 years. It is a process and in time I'm promised the days if not the nights will be easier.

It was interesting for a time trying to follow Holland's book by flying instant, historic missions as the story of the BoB progressed. I got to August 15th. I cannot fly a campaign. That's not strictly true. I can fly one campaign mission, complete it and land but then I have to close BoB down and start again. If I try to continue with another mission BoB crashes. When I shut down and restart the campaign I get the same mission over again.

So I ignore the campaigns and fly instant missions only. I am told that I am lucky to be able to do that with my old Dell Dimension 4400. At the present time I really haven't much desire to continue that BoB book/BoB sim experiment though I may well do so sometime in the future.

Do you recall the humorous scene in the BoB movie when the brave Polish pilot bailed out and landed in a farmer's field? "Good af-ter-noon", he said, with a polite bow and a thick Polish accent to the irate farmer wielding a pitchfork. Considering that; I suppose it was with no little trepidation that those few unlucky English pilots bailed out over Ireland.

JRT,

I remember the rejoinder from the farmer:

"Good afternoon my arse - you Bosche b*stard!"

Life's road feels like walking on wet tar this week. Will email soon.

Gents,

JRT, Jens, et al...

I finally acquired the Battle of Britain item described and I'll put it up on the main SOW forum soon. I just need to put together more information and pics for the presentation.

OK...it's on the main forum for wider interest.

Folks,

It was with great regret that I noticed in the news this morning that the great Brit entertainer, fashion setter and acclaimed sex symbol, Dame Edna, is ending a career that spanned over 57 years. I believe that at least once in the past Edna was Olga's only real competition for Dux's heart. We all braced ourselves for a bloody fight. C51 sold 300 tickets. To our astonishment the always jealous Olga never even batted an eye.

It is believed that Olga somehow knew that sadly, at least for Edna and C51, the love affair was never to be. Having plied Edna with all the considerable perks at his disposal as a card carrying member of both the RAF and the British aristocracy; Edna's defenses were finally breeched and our boy happily reached 'second base' for the first time. It is said that at that moment his face took on a quizzical look then one of terrible shock with a tinge of revulsion. Whatever caused it, the shock must have been profound indeed for, according to Olga, he did not stop running until she finally tackled him on the path leading to the grass aerodrome that conveniently winds behind farmer Drubbin's barn.

It has been a subject verboten around here until now and to this day Dux has never, at least as far as I know, explained to anyone what caused such a terrible shock. As we all know Dame Edna became internationally famous after the war and none of us ever saw her again except on the stage or on TV. Olga seems to know what happened but she isn't talking either.

JRT,

I would rather not comment on all that if you don't mind. My feelings for Edna evaporated when I found out she was dating the Australian Cultural Attache, Sir Les Patterson. If ever there was a drunken bum, it was he.

Thanks for your last email old chap. I will respond before weekend. More gloomy news expected tonight.

As you know gentlemen, I never listen to, nor do I spread rumours..... but, I do believe that some of the explanation to the whole Dame Edna / Olga / and possibly Old Dux situation might possibly be found in the fact that Britney Spears and Madonna by far weren't the first girls to kiss in public.

Little known photographs are said to exist, depicting either the crash of a Caspian Sea Monster, the mating of two Loch Ness - type cratures, or Dame Edna and Olga in a very compromising tête-à-tête.

The source of the photographs are unknown. The identity of the photographer is unknown.

How is bird-watching near the Caspian Sea, Old Dux, - any good?

Folks,

Dux:

Attaché? It was rumored in certain circles at the time that it was something unexpected attache'ed to Dame Edna that ended the torrid romance. We will of course honor your wishes and not mention the delicate subject again.

I am truly sorry to hear that there may be more bad news later today. It seems that if there were no bad news we would have no news at all. Three other people that were diagnosed within 2-3 weeks of my wife have now also passed away.

MG:

Of course there were unsubstantiated rumors and one or two dim, poorly exposed photos circulated that were said to add credence to the whispers regarding Olga's possible bi-sexuality, however, so far as it is known to me, no one actually professing personal knowledge of, or in any way to be privy to such knowledge survived.

Russians are noted for their innocuous displays of affection between all ages and sexes anyway and, as you may know, that rather notorious photo of Olga kissing Svetlana Stalin was proven to be no more than a very good fake.

In my skeptical mind however it was a better fake than the famous photo of Oswald holding his rifle and a convenient newspaper covering the splice line at his neck. OK I could be wrong but I've done enough head switching in Photoshop not to be at least highly skeptical of that particular photo.

Superb Lanc pictures found in a link posted in the EAW forum: