A historic meeting in London

Owen

If you persist in bringing levity to this very serious thread I will have to ban you from viewing

Ron


ps

 

Owen

Be afraid.......... very afraid...........



Ron

 

Excellent pics once again. Cheers for that.

The only thing I can think of when I look at them is at how proud you must all feel when you walk about, taking in the views knowing that you helped secure todays freedom. All the kids must see you as three ordinary gents not knowing that you're part of the reason they are here today.

Hats off to you chaps. Full on.

Marcus

 

Wonderful...kept Tom nattering on the phone for ages.It is still great to talk to and share old times with other Vets.
Cheers Tom my old sausage.
Brian

 

Tom, Ron and Brian,

Between the three of you, you should be able to write several books and I bet all would be best sellers!

Best Regards to you 'Three Muskiteers'.
Tom

 

Owen -
Just because we are on a diet - doesn't mean we can't look at the menu now and again.....

Marcus - Pride of accomplishment in what we did in the past - in my view as a visitor nowadays - is tinged with a sadness of what Britain has become to-day - I am referring to the current hoo haa with a high born squaddie when joshing around with his fellow squaddies - is castigated by the main man of the country for making a jocular remark about a foreign born mate.....in the 8th army we fought and died alongside these same people - and called them all sorts of things - without this idiotic PC getting in the way.

A young white person in the UK appears to be at a disadvantiage to others from - face it - foreign lands demanding all services for free without contributing to the well being of others.......I am sure that neither Ron - Gerry - Sapper - Niccar -and many others spent our youth under appalling conditions .... for this !

But then - I am only a visitor these days and have no say in the correction of this state of affairs - but I must have been prescient in 1957 when I left - what really bugs me is that your Government is sending the cream of your youth to fight the Taliban and bring democracy to a people who very obviously don't want it - and at the same time is allowing the foreign Sharia Law to be set up surreptiously behind their backs at their homes - then complains as racist when someone speaks out

As someone once said " they don't like it up 'em "

Smudger - thgis is why I don't write books - someone would try and do a Jihad on me !

Cheers

 

Tom Canning for Prime MInister!
I want the country back that I fought and paid the price for. Not the mongrel state we have now. There are not many vets that think differently
Sapper

 

Oh come on Tom. There are lots of places worse than Britain.

Oh yeh, that's where all the immigrants have come from.

There are lots of other things wrong with this country. But in these times of house reposession, rising fuel costs, soaring unemployment and when (obscenely) £12 million buys a 3rd rate fullback, you three have something priceless -- friendship.

Deepest repect for you all.

Dave

 

Well done, gents, for coming through. Great pics.

 

Thank you Ron for posting the story of our most pleasant get together in Cockfosters, and for all the warm responses it has engendered.

Since returning from the UK I have been just 'lurking" being busy transcribing the 21st Tank Brigade in Italy Narrative, as promised to Tom and which today has been e-mailed to him.

There are many posts for me now to catch up on!

With warmest regards to you and all members of this great Forum.

Gerry

 

Gerry - received 100% although I can't read it all until around Monday as I just had a cataract op on the left eye - but the part that I did read brought it all back as if it was just the other day so your research is excellent - it was quite a history ....
Cheers

 

Tom Canning for Prime MInister!
I want the country back that I fought and paid the price for. Not the mongrel state we have now. There are not many vets that think differently
Sapper

Hi guys, this is a bit of an older thread I found whilst I was having a look around, but I still wanted to comment.

Firstly it was lovely to see pictures of you three having a grand time together and secondly it saddens me to read Sapper's above comment, not because he made it, but because this is how our veterans feel. I am 27yrs old, and even I can see changes that have happened to this country that have occured since I was a child. A lot of my views and ways are considered out dated now, and people often comment that I should have been born a lot earlier than I was, but is it really so hard to say please and thank you, to respect the older generation and espically to remember those who fought for us and gave their youth and lives so we might be free? I will never forget the family members who gave their lives in the war and who came home, but it saddens me even more to think they thought for a country that now their surviving veterans don't recognise.

I have so much respect for you guys and thank you for sharing your photos.

Izzy

 

As the big man from Calfornia is fond of saying - "Aahm back !"- and still struggling through way too many e-mails - fantastically busy trip to the Uk where everyone I met was so very helpful - one great highlight was spending almost three hours with the delightful Sapper and his dear wife - I haven't laughed so much in a long time trying to outdo each other in our lies of how we won the war ! Unhappily his camera let him down as we prepared photos for the Forum...so an opportunity missed alongside the other as Gerry arrived in London as I left for other parts.

In the eighteen days over here I managed to visit London of course - Bournemouth - Swanage - Weymouth - Nottingham -Stockton on Tees to meet up with Frank Mee for the BBc series days -Wolverhampton - Kidsgrove - and back to London - missing a meeting with Susan Smedhurst at the Gatwaick airport on my departure as Gatwick resembles a Zoo these days - I took off from gate 95 - which I do think is very close to the South Coast.....

One unforgettable event was to have breakfast in a friends magnificent garden - surrounded by a chorus of many songbirds rejoicing in the early sunlight - and spending time with a man with whom I joined the Army at Bury St Edmunds and went all through Horse Guards directed training at Barnard Castle - then North Africa -Italy and finally Austria where he left early to join the Staffs police and finally retire as Chief Detective Inspector- that sort of bonding in friendship has lasted 68 years - which doesn't usually last that long - so we are privileged - and as Sapper proclaimed as I climbed into the Taxi once more -I think I paid for that taxi for 80GBP's back to Bournemouth !............ "we are STILL here"

Cheers

 

Tom,

Glad you made it back and the Volcanic dust allowed you to travel without delays.

Regards
Tom

 

Smudger -
The Volcanic ash didn't disturb me - it was the Snow storm in Edmonton -I was at Vancouver airport close after 11.am. to catch the 4:45 flight to the Uk - suddenly the time of departure changed so I strolled up to the desk and was told that the Flight inwards from London had landed at Edmonton to disgorge passengers - in the middle of a gigantic snowstorm - which can happen in Alberta in May - any year no matter what Al Gore says -and the de-icing machine was in for annual service ! so it was three hours late in getting to Vancouver ......and still three hours late into Gatwick - with my daughter tapping her foot !
Cheers

 

Tom, glad to see you had a nice trip and that you got home safe and sound!

 

Dianne - Thanks for posting the photo of Frank Mee and myself on my recent trip to Stockton on Tees to meet Frank as he was one of the originals of the "gang of four" on the BBc war series along with Ron and Peter G.

We had a few laughs mainly at the many stupidities of Army life when he was a WO1 of the REME in both Cyprus and Egypt

as he was starting out with the DLI in '47 in the worst winter - and I was awaiting demob -we were both involved in digging out trains caught under about 60' of snow at Kirkby Stephens - but the "old soldiers" he was with had forgotten their shovels - but NOT their tea and rum issue !

Great meeting up after all these years !
Cheers

 

GH - Thanks for that welcome back - it was truly a great but fast trip....
might manage another to Italy with Paul in the fall....

Cheers