Trafalgar - Oh the Irony!
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
This has been true in many place especially Roma and Athenii when UK based crews calling Rome and Athens often had not luck.
Once we were called blind and responded in best of British and absolutely no joy. I said can I have a go?
" 'ool tool, dis is 'awk 'awk, loud and clear."
Thereafter we had no problems.
My French is poor but I learnt much from 'ello 'ello.
Once we were called blind and responded in best of British and absolutely no joy. I said can I have a go?
" 'ool tool, dis is 'awk 'awk, loud and clear."
Thereafter we had no problems.
My French is poor but I learnt much from 'ello 'ello.
Apart from our both nations, can you single out another really fighting country in that beautiful europe of ours ?
Did a sortie aboard a Kriegsmarine Atlantique may years ago - all the herren spoke English throughout the trip, and I don't think it was for my benefit (and I could get by in Deutsch anyway).
German Atantiques...
...I too had the pleasure of several sorties (with the same crew the way the flypro ran) during the dreaded Tacevals. At the second briefing I suggested to the captain that rather than torturing the nav by making him brief in English they should do as they normally did. No, I don't speak german either; but I had the briefing signals and ASW-ese is easy to understand.
As it was the last trip of the exercise we were to be the "disaster plan trigger" on arrival back at Nordholz. The scenario in the brown envelope required them to go speechless on crossing into german airspace. After a short period my "minder" came aft wearing an O2 mask and carrying the little walkabout O2 bottle.
"Put your mask on, quickly"
"I haven't got one because nobody gave me one. And anyway the fuselage fire is just part of the scenario"
"No! Now we have a real fire in the co-pilots instrument panel!"
OOOooer missus!
But they pressed on with the speechless bit of the plan!
Now when we did speak to ATC, when all on the base knew that this was the "exercise" fire
it took some time to hoist aboard the "real" situation. It all was eventually sorted out and we were carted off the med cen where the doc said, when he saw my UK flying suit, "Sorry I don't listen to chests in English."
"I can say "neunundneuzig" honest"
"Not really good enough"
Amusing in retrospect. But when I tumbled down the ladder through the fuselage onto the ground I was confronted with what looked like the final sequence of "Close encounters.."
Different coloured flashing lights, sirens, spotlights and and someone with a loud hailer shouting at me in German.
Very energising it was, so I fled into rthe dark beyond the lights got to a safe distance and had a cigarette. Then got on the bus. Phew!
The Ancient Mariner
As it was the last trip of the exercise we were to be the "disaster plan trigger" on arrival back at Nordholz. The scenario in the brown envelope required them to go speechless on crossing into german airspace. After a short period my "minder" came aft wearing an O2 mask and carrying the little walkabout O2 bottle.
"Put your mask on, quickly"
"I haven't got one because nobody gave me one. And anyway the fuselage fire is just part of the scenario"
"No! Now we have a real fire in the co-pilots instrument panel!"
OOOooer missus!
But they pressed on with the speechless bit of the plan!
Now when we did speak to ATC, when all on the base knew that this was the "exercise" fire
it took some time to hoist aboard the "real" situation. It all was eventually sorted out and we were carted off the med cen where the doc said, when he saw my UK flying suit, "Sorry I don't listen to chests in English."
"I can say "neunundneuzig" honest"
"Not really good enough"
Amusing in retrospect. But when I tumbled down the ladder through the fuselage onto the ground I was confronted with what looked like the final sequence of "Close encounters.."
Different coloured flashing lights, sirens, spotlights and and someone with a loud hailer shouting at me in German.
Very energising it was, so I fled into rthe dark beyond the lights got to a safe distance and had a cigarette. Then got on the bus. Phew!
The Ancient Mariner
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Priceless...... I did a check on one of the RAF's finest many moons ago and found the locally purchased smoke goggles were actually protective goggles, you know the ones with the air holes all around the sides of them to stop them steaming up LOL 
Was lost on stores that the idea was not to let the air in..
Was lost on stores that the idea was not to let the air in..
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You're supposed to use bodge tape to cover the holes, silly. Everyone knows that.
As for the French, our Airbus rep greeted us all this morning in his best 'Allo, 'Allo English. I responded in my native north-eastern dialect. "Ahm Champion thanks, how's tha'sen?" He looked puzzled for a moment and then asked me what version of English is this? When I told him he said "Ah, so that is why zis Cheryl was sent home from America, no?"
As for the French, our Airbus rep greeted us all this morning in his best 'Allo, 'Allo English. I responded in my native north-eastern dialect. "Ahm Champion thanks, how's tha'sen?" He looked puzzled for a moment and then asked me what version of English is this? When I told him he said "Ah, so that is why zis Cheryl was sent home from America, no?"
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I seem to remember Germany were pretty handy in the fairly recent past.
By fighting I mean bombing from above*, using ground troops, allocating significant assets, killing bad guys, and unfortunately losing the lives of some good soldiers.
Answers expected.
(*) like bombing Lybia in 1987
In 1999, the Luftwaffe's Tornado ECRs acquitted themselves in the SEAD role over Kosovo, flying 2108 hours and 446 sorties. 236 HARM missiles were fired on enemy targets. All the Tornados returned safely to Germany when the conflict ended.
Germany's Armed Forces are also involved in the Afghanistani theatre of operations.
Just because a nation has leaders with more respect for national policies than the sycophantic Bush bottom-licking poodle Bliar, it doesn't mean that their Armed Forces are incapable of giving a good account of themselves.
Germany's Armed Forces are also involved in the Afghanistani theatre of operations.
Just because a nation has leaders with more respect for national policies than the sycophantic Bush bottom-licking poodle Bliar, it doesn't mean that their Armed Forces are incapable of giving a good account of themselves.
By fighting I mean bombing from above*, using ground troops, allocating significant assets, killing bad guys, and unfortunately losing the lives of some good soldiers.
Answers expected.
Answers expected.
I think your point is that many countries don't do their fair share and I accept that but to say that no-one else in Europe is a "fighting country" probably does a lot of people a disservice.
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Who would have thought that more than 200 years after the American War of Independence, we would be asking the Americans to train our Army Apache pilots.
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Just because a nation has leaders with more respect for national policies than the sycophantic Bush bottom-licking poodle Bliar, it doesn't mean that their Armed Forces are incapable of giving a good account of themselves.
I think your point is that many countries don't do their fair share and I accept that but to say that no-one else in Europe is a "fighting country" probably does a lot of people a disservice.
What I mean is that two european countries only, for the past 30 years, have been in all the theaters I wrote, with no opposition from their own civilian public.
And to come back to the subject, only one nation in Europe still has a real aircraft carrier - that must be known.
