Tag Archives: World War 2

My Sunday Photo: 20 May 2018

Beech 18 AircraftWhen I drove into the Leicestershire countryside yesterday, I knew nothing about this aircraft. I had stopped to eat, when I first heard, then saw it. I grabbed my camera, which fortunately had a long focal length zoom lens already fitted! Out of a few shots, I think this is the best, as the underside of the fuselage caught the sun in quite a spectacular manner.
It turns out that this machine is a Beech 18, registered in this country as G-BKGL. It was built some time during World War 2, and re-manufactured in 1951! It was participating in the Midlands Air Festival this weekend.

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Wednesday Words: 3 April 2013

For Wednesday Words this week, hosted again at Crazy with twins, I’m going to do what other contributors have done previously, that is, to pick the lyrics of a song…

We’ll Meet Again

Let’s say goodbye with a smile, dear
Just for a while, dear, we must part.
Don’t let this parting upset you
I’ll not forget you, sweetheart.

We’ll meet again,
Don’t know where, don’t know when,
But I know we’ll meet again, some sunny day.
Keep smiling through,
Just like you always do,
Till the blue skies drive those dark clouds far away.

And I will just say hello
To the folks that you know,
Tell them you won’t be long.
They’ll be happy to know that as I saw you go,
You were singing this song.

We’ll meet again [repeat]

Albert Rostron (Ross) Parker (1914 – 1974) and
Charles Hugh Owen Ferry aka Hughie Charles (1907 – 1995)

Now, just typed out like that, it doesn’t look all that much, does it? Almost a bit soppy, you might say. But in the context of inspiring troops and civilians alike during World War 2, when partings were very raw and very real and many of them, sadly, final, the words sung by Vera Lynn (now Dame Vera Lynn) come alive. Singers have maintained the tradition since. Just watch this video…

It is, I think, particularly touching, how the young singer and Dame Vera pay tribute to each other. Also, at about 3 minutes 53, note the face of The Queen. The number of occasions, recorded on video, where she has ever come near to losing her usual composure must be very few.

Crazy
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An Orange Spot

This post is in response to the prompt at ‘100 Word Challenge for grown-ups’ here. (You’ll also find a list of links to the other responses.) The brief, as you will see, was to include the concept of an ‘orange spot’ in a composition of 100 words. I couldn’t think of anything original, and then something reminded me of what it must have been like for people who witnessed the destruction of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, but were far enough away not to be immediately killed or injured. What follows is fictitious, but there are true accounts that are similar.

We had started work early that day, as we always did during the war. The news had reached us, of course, that Germany had surrendered. We’d been told it made no difference to us. Anyway, I just chanced to look up from my paperwork and out of the window. Looking across the city, I suddenly saw a bright flash, and then, after a second or two, an orange spot that grew larger. As a massive plume of smoke formed above it, the noise reached us. It was an awful, terrifying roar like some wild, angry monster as the city died…

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