Aviation link - the Dam Busters.......
The Times:
“We live in undiplomatic times. Never mind frank telegrams that should have remained private, Germany could feel peeved by the not-so-subtle messages they got at Henley Royal Regatta on Sunday.
The final of the King’s Cup, an international competition for military crews that was last held in 1919, was contested by Germany and the United States, who had decided to call their boat Overlord in memory of the D-Day campaign.
If this went slightly against the contest’s peace and reconciliation message, so did the choice of music played by the brass band in the stewards’ enclosure during the race, which the US won by a whisker: the theme from The Dam Busters.”
Asturias56
12th Jul 2019, 09:48
I've been to Henley a couple of times - everyone stands drinking with their backs to the racing and never watches it.....................
I'd hardly say it was a bastion of Political Correctness Gone Mad :cool:
Tankertrashnav
12th Jul 2019, 23:33
Pity there wasn't an English boat competing, in which case the German crew could have sung the Matrosenlied!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nMr-rjRoZM
Blossy
13th Jul 2019, 13:16
White hands? Sounds awfully racist to some but not I. :eek:
Mogwi
13th Jul 2019, 15:14
White hands? Sounds awfully racist to some but not I. :eek:
Surely you are not implying that the National Socialist Party and their military representatives were racist?
mog
Fonsini
13th Jul 2019, 16:25
Hopefully no communiques from the British Ambassador in Germany during 1936 become public....
Tankertrashnav
13th Jul 2019, 16:56
Surely you are not implying that the National Socialist Party and their military representatives were racist?
mog
Some clarification required. The Matrosenlied (the sailor's song) was written in 1912, a few years before the NSDAP came along. It was at a time when Great Britain and Germany were competing to build up the world's most powerful fleet. Remember "We want eight and we won't wait" - eight Dreadnought battleships, that is? The song imagines a young German sailor preparing to go to sea against a British fleet and is saying goodbye to his sweetheart. "Gib mir dein weisse Hand" doesnt refer to the race of the girl but the fact that her hand is white and pure.
By the way don't the Germans (Nazis or otherwise) do military marches well!
Blossy
13th Jul 2019, 19:58
Yes they do TTN, but the music was composed 2 years after the lyrics which anticipated WW1.
Old-Duffer
17th Jul 2019, 11:52
Blimey and I thought this Thread was about an air race!!
O-D
Warmtoast
17th Jul 2019, 21:10
Tankertrashnav
By the way don't the Germans (Nazis or otherwise) do military marches well!
They do indeed. I watched an André Rieu concert on Sky Arts and one of the items they played was "The Aviators March". The tune was very familiar, but the name of the composer was not mentioned.
A bit of googling showed it was the 'Fliegermarsch' (Aviator's March), from the operetta 'Der fliegende Rittmeister' (1912) by Hermann Dostal. This march from 1912 pre-dates by twenty years the march of the same name by John Philip Sousa.
It can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZl0745-Gyw
...and if you're interested in the words.
Lyrics:
Kerzengrad steig ich zum Himmel, flieg’ ich zur Sonn’ direkt.
Unter mir auf das Gewimmel, da pfeif’ ich mit Respekt.
Wenn wir dann so oben schweben, mein Freund das ist ein Leben!
Da fühl ich mich als junger Gott, Kreuz Himmeldonnerwetter sapperlot!
In der Luft gibt’s keine Räuber, kein Bezirksgericht,
und auch keine alten Weiber sieht man oben nicht.
Da oben gibt’s kein Hundefutter und keine Schwiegermutter.
In der Luft gibts keine Steuer, keine Kaution,
auch der Zins ist nicht so teuer, oben im Ballon.
Und kommt der Schneider mit der Rechnung,
Fliegt man bitte ganz gemütlich ihm davon.
Freunderl, drum sei nicht dumm, drum drum drum, sei nicht dumm:
Komm und sei mein Passagier, fliege, fliege, flieg mit mir!
Droben, wo die Sterne stehn, wollen wir spazierengeh’n.
Schmeiß hin all Dein Gut und Geld, einen Fußtritt dieser Welt!
In der Luft, in der Luft fliegt der Paprika,
auf zum Himmel, Himmel, Himmel, Hipp Hurra!
A not particularly good translation by Google:
Candles degree I rise to heaven, fly I to Sun 'directly.
Below me to the crowd, because I give a damn 'with respect.
If we then float as above, my friend is a life!
Because I feel as a young god, cross sky thunder bang!
In the air there's no robbers, no district court,
and no old women can not be seen above.
Up there's no dog food and no law.
In the air there's no tax, no deposit,
and the interest rate is not that expensive, top of the balloon.
And the cutter comes with the bill,
If you fly quite comfortably it please him.
Freunderl, do not be stupid drum, drum drum drum, do not be silly:
Come and be my passenger, fly, fly, fly with me!
Above, where the stars are, we want spazierengeh'n.
Throw out all your stuff and cash, a kick in the world!
In the air, in the air flying the peppers,
at the sky, sky, sky, Hipp Hurra!
Tankertrashnav
17th Jul 2019, 23:12
Certainly beats those magnificent men in their flying machines going up tiddley up and down tiddley down!
A not particularly good translation by Google:
That's putting it mildly!