Chugalug (your #8171),
...The RN are gentlemen trying to be sailors;
The RNR are sailors trying to be gentlemen;
The RNVR are neither trying to be both...
Reminds me of the similar:
...Football is a gentlemen's game played by hooligans;
Rugby is a hooligan's game played by gentlemen;
Hurling is a hooligan's game played by hooligans...
The FAA
...which was to be trained up on the Chance Vought Corsair, this time for a real war in the Far East...
was poised to take part in a seaborne invasion of Burma in '45, but the operation was forestalled by VJ day. An RN escort carrier, with deck loaded with replacement brand new crated "Corsairs" was passing down the Malabar coast just offshore of us at the time. These were "Lend-Lease" supplies; the US didn't want them back; we didn't want to pay for them; so they were simply bulldozed over the side into the Arabian Sea (and are there yet,
AFAIK - a better bet than mythical buried Spitfires in Burma !)
The Waste of War
Danny.