Lest we forget - Memorials.

[Simba]

Memorials of great events in history are all the better when they have the common touch, that personal 'something' that makes you smile at the same time as you feel a lump in the throat on realising the sacrifices that made them happen. Here's a few I've photographed over the past few years.

First, the back of 'The Golden Lion', a comfortable pub in the village of Southwick in Hampshire, England, where this ol' cat has spent many a happy hour sipping the suds and shooting the breeze. Of what relevance is this? Well, do you see the small plaque on the wall?



Take a closer look . . .



The photos were taken in August 2005; the plaque was put up in 1994 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Operation 'Overlord'.

And here's where many Americans carried out the Generals' orders and gave up their lives for freedom on 6th June 1944. I took the photo on 18th August 2005. Children play there now, and all is peaceful on a sunny day - but the men who fought aren't forgotten.



Beside a path leading up the slope behind the beach stands a carefully-tended memorial:



Bless 'em all.  

More to follow, but let's see some of your memorial pictures first, I'm sure you've got some you'd like to share.

   

[ozrocker]

Thanks for posting that Simba. Someday, I will go back to Europe(was stationed/ lived in Germany 6 yrs), to visit Normandy, Caen, and of course the Ardennnes. Something I just did not do before because of being deployed all the time. Seems like every time we returned from "The Field", we would do inspections of equipment/vehicles/weapons, and go right back out.
Now I have time. Someday I will make it there! God Bless them All!!!!!
                                                                                       <S> Oz

[Babalonian]

If I ever visit England, I'll have to buy you a couple pints at that pub Simba.

[Simba]

Thanks, Baba, it'll be a pleasure - the beer's excellent, and still brewed there too.

 

[Simba]

Today's memorial: a change of mood, from the sublime to the slightly ridiculous, but it's a good'un.

Heading west on the A40 road about three miles before Llandovery in Wales, the road winds around the edge of a hill, with a steep downslope on the right. On the left, tucked away in a little lay-by, stands a very unusual memorial. Here it is:



Now take a look at what's carved on the front of it:







There you have it, the only memorial in the world to commemorate the consequences of the stupidity of a named drunken driver ever erected by a public body, I believe. I love the '121 feet' (you can imagine a late-Georgian beaver-hatted CSI doing the measuring) and the fact that the fate of the poor bloody passengers isn't mentioned anywhere (I presume they all died when the coach was 'dashed into several pieces'). Being a quarter-Taff myself, I can appreciate the Welsh-chapel mind-set that surely inspired the memorial's creation - and laugh my socks off at the same time.

More soon - cheers!

 

[ozrocker]

Wow,lol
   <S> Oz

[Wobbly]

I live on the edge of the New Forest and there were 12 airfields in the area which played a big part in the Normandy invasion.

http://www.winkton.net/fonfa%20pages/THE%20AIRFIELDS.htm

There is a memorial near the Holmsley South airfield  

[Simba]

Nice one, Wobbly, and thanks for the excellent link. 

I was down your way last Sunday, visiting an old friend who lives at Hale, near Downton. Maybe we could compare notes over a beer sometime later this summer? I was an ATC cadet when a sprog, and our outfit 1098 Squadron (Gosport) based several field exercises on Stoney Cross. My word, the midges ate us alive, but we enjoyed ourselves hugely all the same. The pongo ACF opposition forces didn't stand a chance . . .

 

[Wobbly]

Yes Simba that would be good, we could have a look round whats left of the airfields, most are gone but Ibsley Ibsley and Holmsley South still have something to see.

When I drive round the lanes I can't imagine what it would have been like with P47s, P38s, B26s, Typhoons, P51s etc taking off.

[ElGuapo1]

I witnessed the ultimate sacrifice on september 22,1995 as me and a co-worker prepared to go on shift at Elmendorf Air Force Base
http://www.aewa.org/Yukla27/memorial.html

Transcript of the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR)

 
RDO    Radio Transmission
TWR    Tower Controller
CAM    Cockpit Area Microphone
AC    Aircraft Commander
CP    Copilot
FE    Flight Engineer
St5    Instructor Flight Engineer
*    Unidentifiable word or words
#    Expletive
?    Unsure of origin
[]    Editorial insertion

 
0745:29    RDO-TWR    Yukla two seven heavy, the wind three one zero at one one, cleared for takeoff runway five. Traffic is a C-130 three miles north of Elmendorf northwestbound, climbing out of two thousand
     
     CAM    [light switches]
0745:39    AC?    In sight
0745:41    RDO-CP    And Yukla two seven heavy cleared for takeoff, traffic in sight.
0745:44    CP    Cleared for takeoff, crew
0745:45    FE    * check complete
0745:45    CAM    [Engines spool up]
0745:47    AC    Engineer, set takeoff power
0745:49    CAM    [Engines spool up]
0746:09    CP    Eighty knots, copilot's aircraft
0746:11    AC    Your airplane
0746:20    AC    V1
0746:28    AC    Rotate
0746:28    CP    All the birds.
0746:31    FE    Lotta birds here.
0746:33    AC    # we took one.
0746:36    CP    What do I got?
0746:37    FE?    We took two of 'em.
0746:37    AC    We got two motors.
0746:37    FE    Flight start.
0746:38    CP    Roger that.
0746:40    AC    Take me to override.
0746:41    CP    Go to override on, on the .........
0746:43    RDO-CP    Elmendorf Tower, Yukla two seven heavy has an emergency. Lost ah number two engine, we've taken some birds.
     
0746:44    St5    You're in override.
     St5    There's the rudder.
0746:46    FE    Got it.
0746:47    St5    You're in override.
0746:48    AC    Thank you.
0746:49    FE    Starting dump fuel.
0746:51    AC    Start dumping.
0746:52    RDO-TWR    Yukla two seven heavy, roger, say intentions.
0746:55    CAM    [Stick shaker activates, continues until impact]
0746:56    RDO-CP    Yukla zero two heavy's coming back around for an emergency return.
0746:58    CP    Lower the nose, lower the nose, lower the nose.
0747:00    RDO-TWR    Two seven heavy, roger.
0747:00    AC    Goin' down.
0747:02    CP?    Oh my God.
0747:02    AC    Oh #
0747:04    CP    OK, give it all you got, give it all you got.
0747:06    RDO-CP    Two seven heavy, emergency.
0747:09    RDO-TWR    Roll the crash, roll the crash.
0747:10    CAM    [PA Tone]
0747:11    CP    Crash (landing)
0747:11    AC    We're goin' in.
0747:11    AC    We're going down.


     

[Simba]

Thanks for showing us that transcript, ElGuapo. Sometimes, flying's one hell of a way to earn a living - for the men who die trying to keep it right way up, and the guys in the tower who can only watch while it all goes horribly wrong and grab a record for the Air Safety people to pore over later.

 

[Simba]

They who go down to the sea and do their business in great waters usually have a high regard for their 'favourite ship'. If a vessel has the luck to survive the slings 'n' arrows of hard service, she's sometimes preserved and becomes one of the world's larger memorials. Here's a picture of England's best-known example:



No prizes for guessing that this is H.M.S. Victory in her* berth in Portsmouth Dockyard. This ol' cat was born about three miles west across Pompey Harbour as the crow flys, in Gosport (where the great Robert Smith-Barry 'taught the world to fly', but that's another story) and he knows the great ship very well. On the upper deck is a small plaque:



Well-worn, isn't it? In fact, the plaque's like the ship herself: 'like the axe that beheaded Mary Queen of Scots, it's had three new handles and two new heads, but it's the same old axe.' Not much is left now of the original ship that carried Nelson into his last and greatest battle - but she's maintained  almost exactly as she appeared when she broke the line of the combined French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar. And every 21st October the most famous signal in Naval history is bent to her halliards: ENGLAND EXPECTS THAT EVERY MAN WILL DO HIS DUTY. Even if he was French, Irish, American, Portuguese, Scottish . . .

Splice the mainbrace!

 

* Even in these politically-correct days, ships are always female to those who know and love them.

[RufusLeaking]

* Even in these politically-correct days, ships are always female to those who know and love them.

So are airplanes.

If you treat them well, they'll take care of you.  If you treat them wrong, they'll kill you.

[Simba]

We're back in Normandy for today's memorials. Stephen Ambrose described the men of the USA who fought in Europe as 'Citizen Soldiers' - see his book of that title first published in 1997. Amongst them were the 'part-timers' of the National Guard. Here's a memorial to one of the bravest of them:



The Germans held a crossroads on the high ground not far inland from Omaha beach - he cleared 'em out of the position. What a man.

To the east, the Canadians had stormed ashore. Where they fought they way off the beach in a hail of German fire, they're remembered too:



I love the roundabout. The fact that children can now play safely where once was Hitler's Atlantic Wall is the best possible reward for the sacrifice of those brave Canucks.

 

 

[Simba]

Wot, none of you except Wobbly have got any memorial pics you want to share? Ah well, I've got plenty, so here we go again . . .

In this ol' cat's opinion, there are no memorials more beautiful or colourful than stained glass windows. Mind you, he might be biased, as he made a living designing and making such things for a wee while some years ago. Here are a few (not my work) for you to enjoy:

1.  Saint Nicholas Parish Church, Longparish, Hampshire - Lanoe George Hawker, VC, DSO, RFC.



Hawker was the first airman to be awarded the VC for air-fighting - and he was a member of No.6 Squadron RFC at the time, yo-ho. He fell victim to the Bloody Red Baron while commanding No.24 Squadron RFC, in one of the greatest one-on-one air combats ever fought; Richthofen's eleventh 'kill'. Hawker was born and raised in Longparish.

2.  Woolston Parish Church, near Southampton - RAF Association.



Woolston was the site of the original Supermarine works; the first and many subsequent Spitfires were built there. The RAF Association commissioned this window to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, and the aircraft sections were made by two great friends of mine, John and Jude Tarrant of Sunrise Stained Glass in Portsmouth. I advised them on the design sketches for the Spitfire and Hurricane, here's a detail shot:



3.  RAF Northwood, Middlesex - Coastal Command.



Northwood was Coastal Command HQ during WW2. The window was planned by Air Vice-Marshal C.E. Chilton and the design work was executed by a National Serviceman, Norman Attwood, when both were on the staff there - a nice example of all ranks pulling together.

4.  Little Easton Church, near Great Dunmow, Essex - 386th Bomb Group.



The 386th BG, aka The Crusaders, arrived at Little Easton in September 1943, and stayed for a year and a month. Operating B-26 Marauders, they attacked enemy airfields from medium altitude in the run-up to Overlord, took part in the battle of Falaise, and bombed V-1 and V-2 launch sites. They made a lot of friends in the surrounding area and there are two windows in the church - this one is called the Window of Friendship and Peace, and depicts exactly that. Long may it continue.

Here's to all good folks and true - cheers!