WWII is getting later every week

[Streetwalker]

I think it a reasonable bet I would be, but i suspect i'd be speaking german

I definately would be, my Grandfather was fluent in it .  We often joked as kids when disscussions came up about what your relatives did in the war . We (me and the bros) would say our Grandfather was in the army but that we were never quite sure what side he was on .

[johnofgwent]

I guess it's time I had a re-think about "the War" and stop my dislike of its nationalistic fervour and organised hatred and violence clouding my views.

WWII wasn't only a period of immense cruelty, evil and madness, but also a time of great courage and innovation — and those stories deserve to be told. And, as an aside, it seems logical for me to believe that without hundreds of RAF aircrew and thousands of ground crew from the West Indies in Britain, I might well not be here myself...!

I think it a reasonable bet I would be, but i suspect i'd be speaking german

[patman post]

My point exactly.

126 full blooded Maoris, 98 First Canadians, 33 Australian Aborigines s and 25 ethnics from South Africa, i3 from Rhodesia, 1 from Jamacia, 1 from Barbadoes and 1 from Newfoundland

Fighter Command Aircrew.

Any figures for Bomber Command Aircrew and Ground Crew?

Two close relatives, great uncles, I guess, who were both in the RAF, died not too long ago, one at 89 in 2011 and the other at 81 in 2003...

[johnofgwent]

Obviously not, else I would not be asking.

I dare say that it is only a matter of time before we are told that the Battle of Britain was won by pilots from Stoke Newington Comprehensive.

Meanwhile, Week 249 WWII has yet to be uploaded. Indy Neidell is clearly dragging his feet

Well, at the moment there are records to countermand such bollox.

My concern is what happens when those records go away.

As a 17 year old i met a chap by the name of Arthur Barnes. A friend of my father's from his days at the Royal Signals. Dad was testing new radars and Arthur who flew in the Battle of Britain and survived was assigned to run test flights. From him i first heard of the buzz bombs and the chap whose name escapes me but whose life story read like something out of 'boy's own' who at considerable risk worked out how to fly the later model spitfires at high speed so close to the V1 it interfered with the airflow, overcame the gyroscope or whatever and sent the infernal craft to a fiery hell long before its intended target.

It quite seriously annoyed me to find a bunch of lefty shitheads trying to make out the honour for that was owed not to this very white chap but to some black guy straight off the cotton plantation.

It annoyed me even more when the fucking guardian reading T@@@ at wikipedia's error corrections team took it upon him to delete my comment in the edit channel and lock the article preventing the lie from being erased.

FORTUNATELY when i alerted the imperial war museum to this obscenity done in the name of black war exploits being more important than the truth, they pushed to have the truth restored.

Hard.

One day, there will be no such official record.

[patman post]

Obviously not, else I would not be asking.

I dare say that it is only a matter of time before we are told that the Battle of Britain was won by pilots from Stoke Newington Comprehensive.

Meanwhile, Week 249 WWII has yet to be uploaded. Indy Neidell is clearly dragging his feet

I guess it's time I had a re-think about "the War" and stop my dislike of its nationalistic fervour and organised hatred and violence clouding my views.

WWII wasn't only a period of immense cruelty, evil and madness, but also a time of great courage and innovation — and those stories deserve to be told. And, as an aside, it seems logical for me to believe that without hundreds of RAF aircrew and thousands of ground crew from the West Indies in Britain, I might well not be here myself...!

[papasmurf]

The World at War is IMHO the finest series the UK ever produced, will soon be over 50 years since it first aired.  Everyone should see it.  WW2 and arguably WW1 with its flawed ending, still shape many of the problems the world faces today.

IIRC the last episode is called 'Remember' which of course evokes that "Those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it." line.  There's certainly a lot to learn from how the frustrations of ordinary people can be manoeuvred into pursuing appalling genocides.

The original Oradour-sur-Glan village is still deserted, the French aren't going to forget any time soon, rightly.

Oradour-sur-Glane is not the only example of such atrocities by the Nazis in France, just the best known.

Tredudon in Brittany was a centre for resistance, and it ended up empty and derelict for many years after the war. (It has latterly because the Bretons avoid the place been rebuilt by Brits.) I stayed there some years ago for a holiday. The only place I have ever been with no lights showing anywhere over night.
A bar in a village not far away still has the British supplied to the resistance weaponry screwed to the ceiling after the party in the bar at the end of the war.
Twenty-two resistance fighters were shot, eleven killed in action, sixteen deported. Ten of them died in deportation. At the Liberation, Trédudon-le-Moine was awarded the title of First Resistant Village of France. A stele was erected at the exit of the hamlet and inaugurated in 1947 by Marcel Prenant, Chief of Staff of the FTPF.

[Unlucky4Sum]

Aren't people fed up with WWII yet?

There's no doubt many good stories to be told. But don't they by now appeal mainly (if not only) to a particular type of elderly English Tory to keep indulging and revelling in regular bursts of killing, maiming and blasting cities to bits?

I watched The World at War series about 23 years ago, but with the excuse it helped my modern history studies. The series was made before I was born, though I think it probably still ranks among the best overall historical accounts of the period...

The World at War is IMHO the finest series the UK ever produced, will soon be over 50 years since it first aired.  Everyone should see it.  WW2 and arguably WW1 with its flawed ending, still shape many of the problems the world faces today.

IIRC the last episode is called 'Remember' which of course evokes that "Those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it." line.  There's certainly a lot to learn from how the frustrations of ordinary people can be manoeuvred into pursuing appalling genocides.

The original Oradour-sur-Glan village is still deserted, the French aren't going to forget any time soon, rightly.

[Unlucky4Sum]

It is a series of videos on Youtube which cover WWII week by week, with the latest being w/e 27 May 1944. It started out with Hitler's invasion of Poland in September 1939 and the Germans carrying all before them. Then they hit that Moscow tram station and matters levelled out a bit, but there is still all to play for and I am desperate to find out who wins. The trouble is that the videos used to be uploaded midday on Saturday, but now I am lucky to see them by 6pm

Good show though

Here is last week's video...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4kdbkgfPs8

Interesting series thanks.  I was going to (wrongly) post that they were wrong to start with September 1939 but early on in episode 1 he says they did another series 'Between the Wars' that would cover all that.

[Borchester]

Not unless someone destroys the records:-

More at link:-
Diversity in the Air - Battle of Britain Day


During the Battle of Britain one fifth of Fighter Command's aircrew came from overseas and 16 nations were represented in its squadrons. A total of 126 New Zealanders, 98 Canadians, 33 Australians and 25 South Africans participated. They were joined by three Rhodesians, a Jamaican, a Barbadian and a Newfoundlander. The Commonwealth countries produced some of the best fighter pilots, including the Australian Flying Officer Paterson Hughes and Flight Lieutenant Adolph 'Sailor' Malan from South Africa.
After the fall of France, the RAF welcomed into its ranks exiles from German-occupied Europe. In all, 145 Poles, 88 Czechoslovaks, 29 Belgians, 13 Frenchmen and an Austrian flew in the Battle and many of these proved to be excellent pilots. Though only operational for six weeks, the Polish No. 303 Squadron claimed 126 victories to become the top scoring RAF unit. The most successful RAF pilot, with 17 kills, was Sergeant Josef Frantisek, a Czech national who also flew with '303'.
In addition to the different nationalities, there were also different religions in the RAF. Christian, Jewish, Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus all served as part of the RAF.

My point exactly.

126 full blooded Maoris, 98 First Canadians, 33 Australian Aborigines s and 25 ethnics from South Africa, i3 from Rhodesia, 1 from Jamacia, 1 from Barbadoes and 1 from Newfoundland

[papasmurf]

I dare say that it is only a matter of time before we are told that the Battle of Britain was won by pilots from Stoke Newington Comprehensive.

Not unless someone destroys the records:-

More at link:-
Diversity in the Air - Battle of Britain Day


During the Battle of Britain one fifth of Fighter Command's aircrew came from overseas and 16 nations were represented in its squadrons. A total of 126 New Zealanders, 98 Canadians, 33 Australians and 25 South Africans participated. They were joined by three Rhodesians, a Jamaican, a Barbadian and a Newfoundlander. The Commonwealth countries produced some of the best fighter pilots, including the Australian Flying Officer Paterson Hughes and Flight Lieutenant Adolph 'Sailor' Malan from South Africa.
After the fall of France, the RAF welcomed into its ranks exiles from German-occupied Europe. In all, 145 Poles, 88 Czechoslovaks, 29 Belgians, 13 Frenchmen and an Austrian flew in the Battle and many of these proved to be excellent pilots. Though only operational for six weeks, the Polish No. 303 Squadron claimed 126 victories to become the top scoring RAF unit. The most successful RAF pilot, with 17 kills, was Sergeant Josef Frantisek, a Czech national who also flew with '303'.
In addition to the different nationalities, there were also different religions in the RAF. Christian, Jewish, Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus all served as part of the RAF.

[Borchester]

Aren't people fed up with WWII yet?

There's no doubt many good stories to be told. But don't they by now appeal mainly (if not only) to a particular type of elderly English Tory to keep indulging and revelling in regular bursts of killing, maiming and blasting cities to bits?

I watched The World at War series about 23 years ago, but with the excuse it helped my modern history studies. The series was made before I was born, though I think it probably still ranks among the best overall historical accounts of the period...

Obviously not, else I would not be asking.

I dare say that it is only a matter of time before we are told that the Battle of Britain was won by pilots from Stoke Newington Comprehensive.

Meanwhile, Week 249 WWII has yet to be uploaded. Indy Neidell is clearly dragging his feet

[papasmurf]

Aren't people fed up with WWII yet?

There's no doubt many good stories to be told. But don't they by now appeal mainly (if not only) to a particular type of elderly English Tory to keep indulging and revelling in regular bursts of killing, maiming and blasting cities to bits?

I watched The World at War series about 23 years ago, but with the excuse it helped my modern history studies. The series was made before I was born, though I think it probably still ranks among the best overall historical accounts of the period...

The World At War is still repeated on a FreeView channel regularly. 

[patman post]

Aren't people fed up with WWII yet?

There's no doubt many good stories to be told. But don't they by now appeal mainly (if not only) to a particular type of elderly English Tory to keep indulging and revelling in regular bursts of killing, maiming and blasting cities to bits?

I watched The World at War series about 23 years ago, but with the excuse it helped my modern history studies. The series was made before I was born, though I think it probably still ranks among the best overall historical accounts of the period...

[Borchester]

It is a series of videos on Youtube which cover WWII week by week, with the latest being w/e 27 May 1944. It started out with Hitler's invasion of Poland in September 1939 and the Germans carrying all before them. Then they hit that Moscow tram station and matters levelled out a bit, but there is still all to play for and I am desperate to find out who wins. The trouble is that the videos used to be uploaded midday on Saturday, but now I am lucky to see them by 6pm

Good show though

Here is last week's video...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4kdbkgfPs8