New ebook: The Dam Busters. 70th Anniversary. (May 2013).

[Ian Malcolm]

Alex

It would be more accurate to say 'British' rather than 'English'.

Regards

Ian

[Lou Barron]

Talking about the air raids on Britain I was home from sea when the blitz on Liverpool as i have said before we had sailed into the Mersey when on one night alone the Germans really gave it the works some of the docks on fire it was very bad .Even when i was home on other air raids i said to my Mam i would be safer at sea ,but it never got the people there were a few moans but the people carried on .It was proud to be British

[j.sabourn]

There are many on this site who lived through the air raids and such of the second world war. As said in a previous post the people who suffer most in any war are the civilians. I was brought up with my grandparents in Kingston on Thames so have many rememberences of the heavy casualitys in the London area. The devastation cause by the indiscriminate bombing by the german luftwaffe, and later on by the V1 and V2s. The germans were hated as a nation then, the same as the japanese, people have long memorys and should not forget the atrocitys that were executed in the name of war. This is the only way to stop a recurrence of same, but as we now have a generation of younger people intent seemily on self gratification it would be a pity if they were thrown into such without any warning, so the more they are reminded of the same recurring the better. Cheers John Sabourn

[Ivan Cloherty]

Alex

It would be more accurate to say 'British' rather than 'English'.

Regards

Ian

Would concur with that, as Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland received some treatment but not to the same extent as England. Hull had 87% of its housing stock damaged during the war, but these facts were never published during the war as Churchill in his memoirs said he didn't want panic setting in, as Hull was a major port and transit centre easily reachable from German and captured airfields in the Netherlands. Things were so bad that a false port was built inland of the real port and the land flooded to resemble the real docks. On indication of air raids all the lights were shut down in the real Hull docks and after the first wave of bombers had passed over, fires were lit in the false docks to attract the attention of subsequent waves of bombers. Hull was the most bombed city and dock system after London.

[happy daze john in oz]

I was born in East Dulwich hospital and that day they bombed the living daylights out of the local railway station, some welcome to the world. But WW 2 was I believe the first major war where civilians became victims as well as the armed forces. The number of British civilians killed may well have been as many or more than armed forces deaths. Many bodies were never recovered so the full total may never be known.

[cappy]

the germans bombed Jarrow on tyne early in the war the next night lord haw haw came on the radio geeeermany calling and said sorry to the people of Jarrow we were trying to hit the ships on the tyne and if we knew it was Jarrow we would have dropped food parcels now that's what I call hard times the world we live in now is a doddle cappy

[alf corbyn]

an interesting thread but i take exception to post no 1.
on nearly every thread there are comments about the jobless and the fact that there are non jobs, yet you are promoting yet another method of putting people out of work. (E-BOOKS). yes it may be ok to buy a cheap book, but think of all the printers and others in the print trade. yet another few thousand looking for a job. i will never buy an e- book. i like to be able to return to a book for reference/.

[Ivan Cloherty]

I agree with your comments Alf, an interesting thread for more than one reason and I do hope that E-books and their very cheap prices are not the demise of the traditional book, which is nice to hold and is easily referred back to. I purchased an E-Reader (now consigned to a bottom drawer) and it is not the same as a book, but then we are of a generation brought up without these easy (lazy ?)solutions to everything where-in everyone has thin fingertips through constant use on keyboards of one variety or another, but their bodies haven't kept to the same slimming programme as their finger tips. In the old days a walk to the library and once there up and down the aisles kept your total body in shape and we were not prone to suing our employers because we had wrist pains for Gawds sake!

Also checked up on Post #1 and the link which Mr Devaney provided and read the preamble relating to his academic and literary achievements. However I do ask myself after reading some of the comments posted on this thread and other threads on which he has contributed how accurate his research is and are we to believe in its entirety what we read. I do realise of course that there will always be missing links in any research and perhaps geussology may take place to fill in the blanks, I apologise in advance to Mr Devaney if I am mistaken.

Finally I cannot understand why most modern day researchers keep referring to poor German civilian casualties; as the saying goes "You reap what you sow" and the parents of the German Forces were very proud of what their wonderful sons were achieving in their blitzkrieg of smaller nations and cheering them on. Having been bombed out three times by these wonderful sons of the poor German civilians I cannot find any sympathy for them or the citizens of Dresden to whom our erstwhile Politicians keep apologising. Mind you I may have to thank the Germans for my wanderlust and inducting me into travel as I tried to avoid their bombs in three different cities and inbetween times having that bloody cardboard box around my neck and my name on a canvass patch as I traversed the country as an evacuee. I have yet hear any German public apologies for Plymouth, Coventry, Hull, etc. Also having gone to sea in the immediate post war years and met many seamen I never met one who had had a relative in the German Forces or had even heard of a Nazi, they all hated Hitler and what he stood for and had never been a member of the Hitler Youth or Brownshirts. Memories can be so selective.

[happy daze john in oz]

Alf mate I have to agree with you about books. Many book shops here in Oz have now gone most of the big names. many were so expensive that no one bought them. But now we have a number fo new very cheap book shops appearing all over, so maybe the E reader will not be so popular after all.

[Keith at Tregenna]

PREFER THE KINDLE: MY REFERENCE BOOKS NO LONGER REFERED TO:

THE WINE COLLECTION IS NO LONGER REQUIRED:

But will be disposed of Caerphilly.

K.