ion berkley (your #7637),
The news of the Israeli film of Reg Levy and the Lod hijack is interesting indeed: one would hope that an English language version might appear in due course (or has one appeared already ?) I've got the Kindle version of his book: "Night Flak to High-Jack", a very good read, but of course those of us who'd followed this Thread at the time knew the whole story well. I hope that the book has been a commercial success.
Now wouldn't it be a good idea if some of our PMs had a background in the SAS ?
pulse1,
Your #7639: ".... He is very reluctant...". This is a very common experience: there has to be an underlying reason and it might be worth while to explore it. Perhaps your neighbour is not 'on line' (few of us nonagarians are), have you tried to tempt him by reading him some of our 'back numbers' ? (that's the way they got me in). And many more than I must have been struck by the coincidences with John Eacott's father's story. He couldn't possibly be a "Bob", by any chance ?
Your: "....a Durham miner....how ordinary people" (pace: Chugalug !) " .... trained and operated as aircrew....and then went on to totally different lives....". It was so in my case. My five years of war, I like to think, took the place of the University to which I could then never have aspired, and pointed me to the career in the RAF which followed after I'd ditched the Civil Service which had seemed so desirable a future in the hungry Thirties.
As you say, the clock is ticking.
FantomZorbin (your #7640),
This puzzles me. It was certainly a "florin" I got on attestation in December, 1940, a day's pay then (roughly the equivalent value of the traditional "King's Shilling"). When did you enlist ? I believe it went up to 3/- later in the war, so you were well and truly "done" all right ! (I smell a rat).
Chugalug,
As ever, we remain in friendly disagreement over our supposedly "special" qualities. Probably we all have reserves of courage and detemination in us which are not called upon in normal civilised lives and so remain dormant and unsuspected. But when and if the call comes (and we must pray that it does not), I hope that the people of this country would respond in the way in which they have always done in the past.
Perhaps I expressed myself badly: but my point to John Eacott was that my generation has already "spoken out" as far as it can; it is now dying out and we must pass on whatever we leave behind in memory or in writing to the next to "take up the baton".
My regards to you all,
Danny.
Last edited by Danny42C; 15th Nov 2015 at 05:22.
Reason: Typo.