A while back, I visited the Yorkshire Air Museum with my American friend John Backlund, (the guitar designer,) and saw an original WW2 Dakota. We went inside and witnessed the conditions that troops had to endure on their flight to be dropped by parachute over France. Incredibly spartan, no nods to comfort whatsoever. Imagining them all lining up to jump from the plane into enemy fire was chilling. It shows just how dire the situation was, with Facism overtaking Europe, that these guys were prepared to sacrifice their lives in the cause of freedom.
These days, the rise of populism is a serious worry and an ugly threat to everything that was won from the battle against Nazi Fascism. The Brexit stupidity, Trump's nationalism and the rise of other dictatorial regimes in the world mark a step backwards and risk losing everything that our ancestors sacrificed their lives for. No buts or maybe's...it's our duty to resist the rise of ignorance and hold out against those who would drag us back into dark times.
By the way...pleased my journal entry has sparked this conversation.
Well I have to say, thanks so much alec for posting this link..I was aware of Alfie Fripp, maybe from a TV interview, but hadn't seen this...What a wonderful gentleman and fascinating recollections..razor sharp...you could listen for hours.....I must explore further and find the second part of this interview etc.
It's sad to see men and women like Alfie, men and women of this calibre, almost all gone and soon to be confined to history. I think of my late Father, who was in active service in a Mosquito plane and my late Mother and family now past when I see anything like this, and, imo, sadly the world will never see people of their like again, not many anyway.....If you have time alec, check out the Mosquitto, it was a wonderful aircraft...
And, did you see the D-Day veterans, all in their mid to late 90s, do tribute parachute jumps yesterdaysalec?....there may be some footage on YT...simply extraordinary.
That must have been some site, seeing all those Dakotas taking off, heard my Dad talk about them many a time...I really would have liked to have witnessed some part of the actual events first hand, but have had to settle for TV/media coverage, which has been really very good.
I will have to visit the Salisbury aviation museum, which I think also houses an English Electric Lightning, another big favourite of both my Dad and me..We went to several air displays when I was a young lad back in the mid to late '60s and early '70s and remember being 'blown-away' by the Lightning = amazing aircraft (very loud too!..lol).
Btw Perfect Monster, all of the veterans who have attended and taken part in these 75th anniversary commemorations, are aged between 91 and 101 years old.
Thanks for the link to part 2 Alec...and exactly, we don't really know..all we can do is admire, listen, remember and respect these people, and we do owe them a huge debt of gratitude..wonderful people who really are 'a different generation'......We try, I try, and imagine what it must have been like, even small parts of it..the best we can do is paint a picture, but we'll never really know..but we can remember them and their sacrifices.
A while back, I visited the Yorkshire Air Museum with my American friend John Backlund, (the guitar designer,) and saw an original WW2 Dakota. We went inside and witnessed the conditions that troops had to endure on their flight to be dropped by parachute over France. Incredibly spartan, no nods to comfort whatsoever. Imagining them all lining up to jump from the plane into enemy fire was chilling. It shows just how dire the situation was, with Facism overtaking Europe, that these guys were prepared to sacrifice their lives in the cause of freedom.
These days, the rise of populism is a serious worry and an ugly threat to everything that was won from the battle against Nazi Fascism. The Brexit stupidity, Trump's nationalism and the rise of other dictatorial regimes in the world mark a step backwards and risk losing everything that our ancestors sacrificed their lives for. No buts or maybe's...it's our duty to resist the rise of ignorance and hold out against those who would drag us back into dark times.
By the way...pleased my journal entry has sparked this conversation.
Well I have to say, thanks so much alec for posting this link..I was aware of Alfie Fripp, maybe from a TV interview, but hadn't seen this...What a wonderful gentleman and fascinating recollections..razor sharp...you could listen for hours.....I must explore further and find the second part of this interview etc.
It's sad to see men and women like Alfie, men and women of this calibre, almost all gone and soon to be confined to history. I think of my late Father, who was in active service in a Mosquito plane and my late Mother and family now past when I see anything like this, and, imo, sadly the world will never see people of their like again, not many anyway.....If you have time alec, check out the Mosquitto, it was a wonderful aircraft...
And, did you see the D-Day veterans, all in their mid to late 90s, do tribute parachute jumps yesterdaysalec?....there may be some footage on YT...simply extraordinary.