Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Simba on April 21, 2010, 04:33:00 AM
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As we approach the 70th anniversary of Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of Dunkirk that saved the British Army and some of the French, I ponder the actions and reactions of the people caught up in the 'Eruption Disruption' caused by the Iceland volcano ash. From amused resignation to anger and tears, the stories are beginning to come in - and I bet they'll make good reading when they're published.
Shades of Dunkirk, I remember the massive Isle of Wight rock festival of 1970, when the great Giles produced a cartoon of a couple of yachtsmen passing each other in opposite directions while crossing a crowded Solent. Both vessels were overloaded with hippies in various states of seasickness and dishabilee and the crusty old skipper of one called across to the other 'it's like Dunkirk all over again', to which the reply was 'more profitable, I'm charging 'em a fiver each'.
What goes around . . .
To all the Little Ships and those who put helping others before their own safety and welfare, salute.
:salute
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:salute. Thanks for the remembering Simba.
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:salute
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:salute
-Penguin
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A true tale of one of the Little Ships:
A crusty old skipper named Lemon Webb was steering his sailing barge Tollsbury down the East coast when he was approached by a Royal Navy launch and ordered to take his vessel into Ramsgate.
'What for?'
'We need her to take men off the beach at Dunkirk.'
'That's fine, I'll take her myself, me and the boy, I know Dunkirk well.'
'Fair enough, thank you.'
Lemon sailed across the Channel, saw the difficulty that the Navy was having transferring men from the beaches to larger ships offshore, and decided to beach the Tollsbury so she could be used as a 'halfway house' temporary loading jetty. During the period of the ebb tide, hundreds of men crossed over her and she suffered several near-misses from Stuka attacks before she floated off on the flood tide. Damaged and loaded down to her marks with exhausted soldiers, she made it to Ramsgate, where Lemon and the boy had some dinner before taking the barge to her home dock as originally planned. Having handed her over to the owners' agent, Lemon and the boy went their separate ways home.
It took the authorities quite a while to find Lemon. He'd retired, you see, that East coast trip being his last voyage, and he wasn't inclined to much conversation at the best of times. He didn't say much when he was presented with the George Cross either.
:aok
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:salute
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A man named Lightoller was the highest ranking survivor from the Titanic. His son was one of Britain's first casualties in WW2. He made some good runs to Dunquerque in his yacht, and had the soldiers laying flat on the deck so they would not upset the balance.
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Lightoller was a fine officer and a brave man.
:salute
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There are times in history when gods hand is apparent.. The storm that wrecked the Spanish Armada, and the mongol fleet headed for japan, and the magic 5 minutes at midway.. And crossing the delaware.. Gods hand was apparent on the North Sea those days as well, the water was glass smooth, when normally there are 6ft rollers on the beaches... Incredible!
Thats when you KNOW your cause is just!
RC
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:salute
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:salute
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There are times in history when gods hand is apparent.. The storm that wrecked the Spanish Armada, and the mongol fleet headed for japan, and the magic 5 minutes at midway.. And crossing the delaware.. Gods hand was apparent on the North Sea those days as well, the water was glass smooth, when normally there are 6ft rollers on the beaches... Incredible!
Thats when you KNOW your cause is just!
RC
Or that you are at the right place at the right time. D-Day was held back by foul weather, think of how important that was for the war. Also, the weather was going to happen anyway, so it was their choice to do whatever it was.
-Penguin
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:salute
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:salute
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Leave your God out of it, RC, please. This was meant as a remembrance of and a tribute to bravery, not a promotion of a religious agenda.
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Thanks Simba. :salute
-Penguin