Marginally better than "planes"!

On Day One in a Blue suit (blue overalls to be exact on Day One :ok:) one was told of two things never to say:

"RAFF" (other than when preceded by RIFF) was one and "plane" (other than a woodworking tool) was the other.

The word 'plane' when applied to an aircraft brings out the pedant in me. The BBC when covering the repatriations from Tunisia kept referring to an 'RAF plane' which just made me want to throw something at the screen instead of actually watching the coverage.

"It's an "aeroplane", Mr Bader"

"You shave wood with a 'plane'"

I'm always suspicious of these

"75% of Americans can't find America on map.." type of headlines

Offer the youth of today £ 5 for each correct answer and you'd get a very different response - they (and I ) just don't see why they should always give a correct answer to some journo when you can wind them up with a little imagination....................

Advertisers run adds about the bouncing bomb, the Battle of Britain letc all the time and they know people will make the connection.............

I wouldn't be so sure. A colleague had one of her A level History students ask
"Is the Pope always a Catholic?" only a few months ago.

Fair question; going back a few hundred years there was a good deal of flexibility regarding the religious (and moral) views of papal appointees!

Not aware youngens
 

A long time ago I was flying the low route from Farnborough to RAE Bedford with a younen beside me, he was holding between courses and going to be a fighter pilot one day. As we passed Twinwoods I pointed it out and said that's where Glen Miller went from. Glen who?. Yhey don't teach em anything anymore

"Sic transit gloria mundi" :(

Who's she ? - never 'eard of 'er !

Not sure everyone knew what was going on at the time.


Forget the book, but seem to remember a BOB fighter pilot swirling around in a fight at the frigid flight levels on a sunny day, after getting hit along with the frozen blood, smoke, etc., he either bailed out or landed his crippled plane on a golf club fairway where he was then lambasted by the club manager for interrupting play at a very exclusive club.


Or something along those lines.


There was a website that displays the day to day operations during the BOB in Calendar format. Anyone have a link?

= "Gloria was ill in a Ford van yesterday...." :ok:

Golf Course Landing
 

Whatsalizad That was PO P J Simpson 111 Squadron (Croydon) who forced landed on the RAC Golf Course Woodcote after intercepting the Dorniers attacking Kenley on Aug 18th 1940.
He was taken to the bar and apparently someone in there muttered about his dress code although I suspect that story has 'grown' over the years.
This would have made a great film shot as the raid came in at 100 ft ,and the Hurricanes from Croydon waded into them at low level. The great loss was Stanley D P Connors who was lost leading 111 Squadron on that day and was probably a victim of the intense ground fire during the raid. He was already an 'Ace' from the French campaign and was up to 11 confirmed EA at the time. It would be fitting if he had some sort of memorial on one of the 'new' Kenley developments.

See posts 41 to 44, you may have upset some posters. Aeroplane or aircraft might be better.

WhatsaLizad asks:

RAF - Campaign diariesBattle of Britain

Magna Carta, did she die in vain?

:D:D:D

Worthy of Anthony Aloysius St John Hancock - or possibly David Brent for the youth.

[was it either of them?]

Edited to add:

It was indeed Hancock (Google is your friend!) In full:

For a few years I used to assist the chap who was responsible for the BoB door to door collection in our village.

You discover a lot about people when you have the temerity to knock on their door and shake a collection tin at them - from in the case of the allegedly richest couple in the village ( he had done well in the 'City' and she ,so rumour had it, had inherited over £10 million when her HK based father had died ), 'What's the Battle of Britain?' - as they were then about 50 years old in 2000 I wanted to scream at their ignorance,- to the poorest old age pensioner widows who insisted they gave everything they had left in their purses and it was often more than the working well-off donated!

One year the chap I helped was collecting on the day of Princess Diana's funeral and a lady acquaintance of mine ( who had been born during WW2 ) said to me, 'That idiot Peter knocked on my door while I was watching the funeral, so I sent him packing with a flea in his ear".

I replied, 'That idiot Peter had flown both Spitfires and Hurricanes in the war and you madam are not fit to lick his boots!'

Brian 48nav,

Well said ! But in mitigation, I would say that she was just one more victim of the catastrophic failure of our educational policies over the previous forty years.

Google has thrown up this extract from the "Grauniad" (unfortunately undated):

"This relentless regime, testing children more than anywhere else in the western world, is associated with a high fall-out rate. At 16, 24% of English schoolchildren leave education. This is the highest proportion of any country in the European Union. Almost one in 10 children do not go on to any further training either. The government is rightly proud of the fact that the proportion of young people who are not in education, employment or training has fallen to 9.4%. But the glitter fades when compared with an overall EU average of 6.4%".

(Note the: "is associated with !" - the old 'Post Hoc' fallacy again: (Event B occurred after [or "at the same time as" - the case here] Event A). Therefore B is caused by A.

My old local greengrocer (just retd.), having somehow found out that I'd flown Spitfires in the war, used proudly to announce the fact to all and sundry every time I went into his shop. Gratifying, but rather embarrassing !

Having said that, I've always been unhappy with the tin-rattling for the RAF Benevolent Fund, and sorry for the ATC cadets who had to do it at BoB Home days and the like. I felt it was demeaning (was I right ?)

Danny42C.

Tin Rattling for B o B
 

Danny 42C
As a Cadet that spent many hours 'tin rattling' (in my case at the Whyteleafe Station level crossing) (where the cars could not escape) I have to say it was a privilege to help the cause, and in my case even better as our Squadron; 450 ATC had our HQ on the old flight apron at RAF Kenley just up the hill.
It was quite easy to be inspired at Kenley due to its part in the front line of the battle, and I still can absorb its presence on my return visits.
Make no mistake whatever line you take this was a pivotal time for the free world and Kenley** 'with ALL the people involved' had an important part in our history.If in this PC mad world this has been played down it is not to anyones credit.I trust you are enjoying the 75th anniversary year and the very best to you. Even in the early 60's this part of our history did not seem to feature much in the education system, so I suspect it is no better now.
** including the other Airfields.

POBJOY,

Don't get me wrong. I applaud your cheerful willingness to volunteer for tin-rattling duty ! But you shouldn't have to do it.

My point is that our Govenments of every hue, although fulsome in their praise for the Armed Forces and the work they are doing, are strangely reluctant to put their hands in the taxpayer's pocket when it comes to helping ex-members of those same Forces when they are in need. There is no such hesitation, for example, when it is a matter of allocating funds to those Policies which (they calculate) will win them votes at the next Election.

After-care of the Forces is left to Service and private Charities (which respond magnificently). But this is an evasion of Government responsibility, which has a particular duty to look after those public servants who have put their lives on the line, and in some cases lost them, in their Service.

This of course holds true for every Service Charity from the Poppy Appeal onward through the RAF Benevolent Fund and to all the others. Certainly they do noble work ! But it is work which the Government could (and should) be doing. The Charities have simply "let them off the hook", IMHO.

Danny.