Tuesday 19 October 2010

"Hearts of Oak are our ships, jolly tars are our men....we always are ready" (just give us a few years)

 








 





"The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign hands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall."-  
(Marcus Tullius Cicero, circa 55BC)









5 comments:

Old BE said...

Don't worry, our friends the French will help us out if it all goes wrong! We can offer them some petrol in return...

Hogdayafternoon said...

True, Blue. After all, we bought their Exocet anti-ship missiles - but then so did Argentina....

TonyF said...

God old string bag...

Anonymous said...

I was once in favour of letting the French invade. There's a lot I will put up with for some decent food.

Hogdayafternoon said...

TonyF: I'm sure that's what the crews thought as they flew through the AAA of Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Bismark at 80mph.... at 50 feet....

"Lieutenant Commander Eugene Esmonde — a veteran of the chase of the battleship Bismarck — was lost along with his entire detachment of torpedo bombers, and was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously. Five crew survived, out of 18. Ramsay later wrote: "In my opinion the gallant sortie of these six Swordfish aircraft constitutes one of the finest exhibitions of self-sacrifice and devotion to duty the war had ever witnessed", while Ciliax said: "The mothball attack of a handful of ancient planes, piloted by men whose bravery surpasses any other action by either side that day".

Memories of men such as these are, in my humble opinion, dishonoured by the antics of politicians and civil servants of the MOD who have given us this carrier debacle. I would ask my MP to press for a public enquiry if I thought it would do any good, but these acts of gross incompetence, like the victims of them, just end up buried.

ACO: Well, like the French, this country is not averse to selling brimstone to the devil.