Totally agree. They gave their lives to defend their country from a fate unthinkable.
Outstanding military figures
There are 47 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 7,784 times. The latest Post () was by Rice.
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Our grandfathers gave their lives, not just for country, but for other peoples’ countries, for the overriding love of freedom.
Today we have people who won’t even take the coronavirus vaccination to save the lives of their families, their country, themselves.
What is the opposite of moral and ethical evolution?
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What incredible fighting spirit!
QuoteDisplay MoreRemembering the Fallen: on this day in 1941, Flight Lieutenant Eric Stanley Lock D.S.O., D.F.C. & Bar, the Royal Air Force, was posted as missing and presumed killed near Calais.
Born into a farming family, he was educated at Prestfelde School in Shrewsbury. Unlike many pilots, he hadn’t dreamt of flying as a child – only when war was imminent did he decide to train as a fighter pilot. After being commissioned he was posted to 41 Squadron at R.A.F. Catterick in May, 1940.
In August, Flight Lieutenant Lock’s first victory was a Messerschmidt 110 downed into the sea, and in just over a week he brought down eight aircraft, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. The citation stated that “He has displayed great vigour and determination”. He continued to claim victories, and once followed an enemy plane across the Channel before bringing it down over Boulogne.
Three weeks after receiving his D.F.C., Flight Lieutenant Lock was awarded a Bar, the citation for which praised his great courage in the face of heavy odds, and his skill and coolness in combat. During that period he had been wounded for the second time, and forced to bail out three times. By October his total kills amounted to twenty.
On the 17th of November his squadron was attacked by a formation of 70 Messerschmitt 109s – he shot one down and set fire to another, but was then hit by bullets and cannonshells. Flight Lieutenant Lock was injured in his right arm and both legs, a bullet knocked his plane’s throttle wide open, and his Spitfire left the fight at more than 400 mph. Being so badly injured, he could not bail out, but managed to get from 20,000 feet down to 2,000, and force-landed near R.A.F. Martlesham Health in Suffolk. He was unable to leave the cockpit, where two soldiers found him two hours later. They used their coats and rifles to make a stretcher and carried him to safety.
Waking up in hospital he found he’d been awarded the Distinguished Service Order, the citation referring to his “magnificent fighting spirit and personal example”. He underwent fifteen operations to remove shrapnel and bullets from his body, and did not leave hospital until May, 1941. The following month he was promoted and in command of a flight of Spitfires with 611 Squadron. Within a few weeks he had taken his total kills to twenty-six.
On the day of his death, Flight Lieutenant Lock saw German soldiers on a road near Calais, and swooped down to attack. It is believed that he was hit by ground fire and crashed into the Channel. He and his plane were never found. He is remembered on the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey, and there is a stained-glass memorial to him in the Bayston Hill Memorial Hall.
Eric, from Bayston Hill in Shropshire, was 22 years old.
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What a courageous man! I’m glad his story is being kept alive.
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Nuisance, the only dog ever to be enlisted in the Royal Navy.
QuoteDisplay MoreNot a shaggy dog story it is a true dit....Just Nuisance, a Great Dane, is the only dog ever to have been officially enlisted in the Royal Navy. During World War Two between 1939 and 1944 he served with HMS Afrikander, a Royal Navy naval base in Simon’s Town, a pretty seaside town in South Africa.
In 1939, he was brought as a pup to Simon’s Town by his owner, Benjamin Chaney, who ran the United Service Institute which was a favourite hangout for sailors from the Royal Navy.
A very friendly dog, he soon became a familiar figure around the town, taken for walkies and treated to pies, biscuits and even beer by the sailors, to whom he became a kind of mascot. Naturally, the dog in turn became very fond of sailors – all sailors – and followed them everywhere, to the naval base, the dockyards and even on to the ships. Not a small dog – he was large even for a Great Dane – when he took to lounging about at the top of the gangplank, he blocked the way and that is how he got his name, ‘Nuisance’.
He often escorted drunken sailors safely back from the train or the pub to their bunks – even if they weren’t actually based in Simon’s Town!
However it was his habit of following sailors on to trains that really got him into trouble. When the sailors went on leave he liked to go with them on the train to Cape Town, some 22 miles away. Not having a ticket, the sailors used to try to conceal him from the Ticket Inspector but more often than not, he would be discovered and put off at the next station. Not a problem for Nuisance though – he would simply jump on the next train to complete his journey!
Exasperated railway officials sent demands to his owner, ordering him to keep the dog under control, pay his fares or have him put down. This incensed the naval community who had adopted this huge dog as one of their own.
Letters were written to the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, who came up with the perfect solution: Nuisance would be enlisted into the Royal Navy. An enlisted man was entitled to free rail travel and so on 25th August 1939, Just Nuisance was signed up. His surname was given as ‘Nuisance’, first name ‘Just’: his trade was ‘Bonecrusher’ and his religion ‘Scrounger’. This was later changed to ‘Canine Divinity League (Anti-Vivisection)’. Nuisance signed his papers with a paw mark. Ordinary Seaman Just Nuisance was later promoted to Able Seaman to entitle him to free rations.
Although an enlisted sailor, Nuisance never went to sea. His duties did however include fund raising and raising morale. A seaman was allocated to Nuisance to ensure he was regularly groomed and to prepare him for appearing at parades wearing his seaman’s hat. He also famously ‘got married’ as a money raising stunt for war funds!
However he was not exactly the model seaman, as his Conduct Sheet shows. He committed many minor misdemeanors, including riding the train without his pass, going AWOL, losing his collar, refusing to leave the pub at closing time and on one occasion, sleeping in an improper place, namely a Petty Officer’s bed. For this last misdeed he was denied bones for seven days. He was also prone to fighting, causing the deaths of two other Royal Navy canine mascots.
Unfortunately Just Nuisance had to be discharged from the Navy for health reasons on 1st January 1944. He had been involved in a car accident and developed a thrombosis which was slowly paralysing him. It was decided that the kindest thing to do would be to put him down and so on 1st April 1944 the Naval Surgeon put him to sleep. The following day he was placed in a canvas bag, covered with a white Royal Navy ensign and laid to rest with full military honours including the playing of the ‘Last Post’. A plain granite gravestone marks his grave at Klaver Camp on Red Hill behind the town.
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What a dog! Great story!
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Moved the thread from forum Art, Culture and History to forum Art, culture and history. -
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Fascinating article:
80 years ago, a war-damaged British ship came to Bremerton. Some of its sailors never left.The HMS Warspite, crippled by a 500-pound German bomb, was repaired in Bremerton in 1941 before the U.S. entered World War II.www.kitsapsun.com -
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Very heartwarming story, about the locals’ inviting the sailors home to supper and the movement to knit sweaters for their warmth.
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Here's another story from WWII. A love story.
Soviet Actress and U.S. Naval Officer - True Story of Love in the Cold WarAgainst the backdrop of war, heroic feats seem even more astounding and love stories take on a whole new poignancy. There is one love story that combineswww.warhistoryonline.com -
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How sad.
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John McAleese: The SAS soldier who was the man behind the maskJohn McAleese was the Scots soldier watched by millions on live television in the Iranian Embassy raid.www.bbc.com
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Perhaps this is completely unpolitically correct, but I would like to remember the wise attitude of the german general Von Choltitz, who dared to disobey the
explicit orders from Hitler to destroy Paris. He was conscious that if he did that, the story will remember him like Atila, a typical Barbarian.
Another controversial case is the Austrian marshal Radetzky von Radetz, who fought against the French who tried to wipe out the Austrian in Milan, but before this
he was an excellent governor of the city. The city was the capital of the former Kingdom of Lombardy-Venice from 1815 to 1859. No other reign, among the
various states at that time in Italy, was so well administered and prosperous in all Italy.
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I am completely unfamiliar with Radetsky von Radetz, and I very much appreciate this historical glance into who he was before the war.
The world owes a debt of gratitude to General Von Choltitz for very surely risking execution for insubordination when he refused to destroy Paris. Try to imagine that majestic city if it now consisted of post-1950’s buildings!
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The post 1950 buildings in England, especially near London, were very criticized by Prince Charles, of Wales. He was right, but among the intellectuals
Prince Charles was the black hat cowboy. I agree with Prince Charles.
As regards Paris, the harmony of the regular blocks and facades of the city, prescribed by the Baron Haussmann, and the several interactions between parks,
monuments and the River Seine, are a brilliant example of the good sides of our western civilizations. Surely Von Choltitz, despite his former allegiance with Hitler,
have carefully thought about his decision to keep Paris as it is,
Another outstanding military figure is General Mac Arthur, who was the Víctor over Japan in WWII. Then he became governor of Japan, under the Emperor Hirohito
that was allowed to exercise his title under the terms of the armistice of 1945.
But he acted with generous magnanimity, helping to restore Japan from the war destruction and developing its economy, at the point to compete
with the US car industry.
Normally the victorious chiefs take revenge on those who lose the war. This is a clear proof of the wise thinking of Winston Churchill:
In war, Resolution: in defeat, Dignity: in victory, Magnanimity
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Letters Of Last Resort Are Post Apocalyptic Orders For UK Vanguard Sub CrewsThe Prime Minister writes hand-penned orders to Royal Navy ballistic missile submarine captains explaining what to do following a sneak nuclear attack that…www.thedrive.com
Letters of last resort are a scary prospect and I expect most nations with nuclear capacity have something similar.
QuoteThe letters of last resort are four identically-worded handwritten letters from the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to the commanding officers of the four British ballistic missile submarines. They contain orders on what action to take in the event that an enemy nuclear strike has destroyed the British government, and has killed or otherwise incapacitated both the prime minister and their designated "second person", typically a high-ranking member of the Cabinet, such as the Deputy Prime Minister or the First Secretary of State, to whom the prime minister has designated the responsibility of choosing how to act, in the event that they die in office. In the event that the orders are carried out, the action taken could be the last official act of the Government of the United Kingdom.[2]
If the letters are not used during the term of the prime minister who wrote them, they are destroyed unopened after that person leaves office, so that their content remains unknown to anyone except the issuer.[3]
Letters of last resort - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org -
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Grim task: thinking the unthinkable.
<shudder>
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“Fought the Dutch?”
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It is beautiful. With the heavy wool, the piping, brass buttons, and orders of chivalry, it must weigh 4-5 kilograms. It is great that his coat has survived all this time.
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