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What are you reading - Part II


jrlx

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1 hour ago, Markh-75 said:

Very good book; read it a few times and always enjoy it.

Yeh, Mark; yeh! The anecdote which relates the training flights at night over Scotland, wearing the night-vision goggles and the sheep... :rofl2: It cracks me up everytime. 

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I need to continue reading 'A Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer'; its a very good book but hard going. Not use its suitable bed time reading but i have some Pacific books to read and i have Stephen Ambrose's 'Eisenhower' to read again, i read it a while back but its a very good book.

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15 hours ago, Uncle Uncool said:

Yeh, Mark; yeh! The anecdote which relates the training flights at night over Scotland, wearing the night-vision goggles and the sheep... :rofl2: It cracks me up everytime. 

The part that got me was when they had to go to the scrap merchant to retrieve the bomb racks that had been disposed of  :doh:

 

Oh, and having to gouge out the silicone and hunt for spare parts to get the in-flight refuelling system working.

 

Only in Britain!

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3 hours ago, 593jones said:

Oh, and having to gouge out the silicone and hunt for spare parts to get the in-flight refuelling system working.

And a spare part which was key for the in-flight refuelling system to work was found by sheer chance being used as an ashtray by the crews in their ready room! :doh:

That book is just awesome.

Yeh, it is...

Cheers,

 

Unc2 

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23 minutes ago, Markh-75 said:

Maybe just as well it was used as an ashtray; or they may not have been able to get the part for it!

Yeh, Mark; yeh! That's the way I got it. This part was a valve which couldn't be found anywhere, until someone spotted it by chance.

The first of the Black Buck missions was such a great feat, bigger than the Linebacker missions or the B-29 bombing flights out of Tinian AB. 

Tried to buy the 40 Degrees South the Equator poster of the in-flight refuel in the thunderstorm over the South Atlantic which is on the book, but the price was so steep I real couldn't afford it.

 

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Yeh, me couldn't...

Cheers,

 

Unc2

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On 18/05/2020 at 16:23, Uncle Uncool said:

Yeh, Mark; yeh! That's the way I got it. This part was a valve which couldn't be found anywhere, until someone spotted it by chance.

The first of the Black Buck missions was such a great feat, bigger than the Linebacker missions or the B-29 bombing flights out of Tinian AB. 

Tried to buy the 40 Degrees South the Equator poster of the in-flight refuel in the thunderstorm over the South Atlantic which is on the book, but the price was so steep I real couldn't afford it.

 

 

 

Yeh, me couldn't...

Cheers,

 

Unc2

Saw a short documentary last week about the less well known story of the Argentinian Navys aircraft Carrier during the Falklands war! They were pretty lucky they didnt get sunk on that boat, but they steered to shallower water which meant that the submarines couldnt follow the ship! Very interesting story!

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8 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

I'm rereading my 1975 copy of 633 Squadron for the first time in about ten years!

BTW, The Generals Daughter was an excellent read. I must watch the film again!

I've read three of the books in the series, there are 4.

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3 hours ago, Markh-75 said:

Saw a short documentary last week about the less well known story of the Argentinian Navys aircraft Carrier during the Falklands war! They were pretty lucky they didnt get sunk on that boat, but they steered to shallower water which meant that the submarines couldnt follow the ship! Very interesting story!

Mark,

Just a couple interesting anecdotes concerning Aircraft Carrier ARA 25 de Mayo during the war. There's one about this single day very early in the war, when all of the A-4Qs aboard the air wing were armed with four 500-lb Snakeyes under the central pylon and the usual pair of Aero 1D 300-gal. gas jugs under the wings + full cannon ammo load to attack HMS Hermes which was within range. When the vessel was steered against the wind to lauch there was no wind at all... :analintruder:

I was barely a three-year-old toddler when the war broke out; it's a war I don't support at all because, clearly enough, the decision to go to war was made on reasons other but true sovereignty. That's an alibi I always refused to buy because, if anything - and just like today - the economic situation down here was so awful that the least my country needed in that moment was the annexation of yet another territory. There were issues a lot more urgent than lavishing funds in a war, that's for sure.

It was all just a silly move by the Military Junta - the very same as with Maggie Thatcher over there, if I may say - made in order to strive for popularity, as if something like that could have ever been possible. Let's say I'm still terribly embarrased to see TV footages of all that people rooting for Brig. Gen. Galtieri in Plaza de Mayo on April the 2nd, 1982 after Operación Rosario was carried out successfully, when these same jacknuts were exactly the ones who disowned our men when returning defeated. :rolleyes:  

That being said, I'm terribly proud of the countrymen who fought that war, and thankful enough that all my relatives participating in that conflict came out alive; father, uncle and cousin.

Each one of them related what the war was like in the field, the sea and the air. The way my cousin was treated like in the field by his own countrymen is something I will neither forgive nor forget. It did a thing on his psyche, poor Rodrigo.

Oh, only one more excellent anecdote; after the war, I won a meet & greet backstage pass with the Iron Maiden assembly. Speaking about the war with Bruce Dickinson he told me that after the combined attacks by the Air Force and the Armada cost you the sinking of RFA Sir Tristram and RFA Sir Galahad in June the 8th, the Task Force had been one week away from having to regroup back to Portsmouth, and said him that, had that happened, England was going to come back with nukes instead :blink2:

Then I asked him about what his thoughts were regarding the attack on HMS Invincible, on May the 30th, and he just dismissed it with a hug. Top-bloke he is.

Yeh, he is...

Cheers,

 

Unc2

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Yes i forgot to mention the severe lack of wind over the deck! (oops).

It was the single time that Vulcans fired a shot in anger. I wont go into politics (hate politics) over the war but lets say it was a notable time in the history of UK and Argentina! I get an idea how feelings are after it when i watched the guys from Top Gear running the gauntlet to get to Chile; i knew feelings still ran high over the 'debacle' of the Falklands and Top Gear were less than sensible even going into Argentina imho, though it made a very exiting show!

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5 hours ago, Markh-75 said:

lets say it was a notable time in the history of UK and Argentina! 

It was awful that our countries had stopped doing business owing to that conflict. An instant memoir  still comes to mind back in 1986, when my father would use to take me to the city domestic airport here in Capital Federal to watch the airliners take off and land on weekends.

I'd love the thundering roar BAC-111s made when taking off, and how few of them remained airworthy. My father suddenly pointed his finger to a spot where at least three BAC-111s rested, grounded for lack of spare parts. And when he explained to me what the reason for that was. :fraidnot: Not a good memory at all.

Nay, it's not...

Cheers,

 

Unc2 

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I finished The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy last week and am now about 3/4 of the way through his follow on book L.A Confidential. I have read these books a few years ago and am now rereading them. I enjoy Ellroy's books and have most of them in my library. He writes intricate plots with deeply flawed characters who meet violent or tragic ends. I have attended a few of his book signings and he is a real hoot and a blatant self promoter.    

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On the reccomendation of my wife.  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie society. An excellent and gentle book based on various peoples letters,  but it's quite different to the film. It deals with during and the aftermath of the German occupation of Guernsey in the British Channel Islands, the only part of Britain to be occupied in WW.2.

 

John

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