dieseltaylor Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 I thought that in response to those who are gloomy and downbeat we ought to have a continuing thread of anecdotes we find interesting. For instances I can think of a destroyer fighting a 75mm gun, something funny about De Gaulle, a German horse drawn artillery unit allowed to passthrough an Allied tank unit, anotherwords anyhting bizarre, or sad or funny. I would ask that we try to provide direct quotes with page numbers etc so pweople can seek ut the books. And there is a military connection Please also use the advanced reply with the subject in the header .... for future archive searches If anyone knows of this being done anywhere else please let me know!! Two samples where attribution not necessary/likely. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 Meant to be true the couple were visiting Britain and Madame De Gaulle , probably responding to query about his age, responded by saying: "He is very active, up with the cock in the morning" : ) How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?Charles De Gaulle, in "Les Mots du General", 1962 BTW I will try to amalgamate any further posting with De Gaulle here, ditto Montgomery!!!, etc 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 "In defence unbeatable, in victory unbearable" W.C. Churchill If we lose the war in the air we lose the war and we lose it quickly. Bernard Law Montgomery I had the greatest admiration for his precision of statement and lucidity as a lecturer and also for what I, as an airman, considered his ability and breadth of view as a soldier. But he appeared to me to be regarded with grave suspicion for holding what I understood were heretical, though they seemed to me very reasonable, views about the conduct of future war. As a stranger in a strange land I kept my own counsel, but I left the course with a very definite impression that in Monty we certainly had a soldier who knew his onions, no matter what the "high-ups" in the army might officially think of the smell. Arthur "Bomber" Harris in his memoirs, Bomber Offensive (1947) PS the longer quotes are actually the ones probably to go for as the short ones are easily found on the web 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 placeholder for a long piece of typing from "England's Last War Against France : Fighting Vichy France 1940-1942" by Colin Smith which btw is a truly excellent read 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 place holder error 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abneo3sierra Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Looking for one, can't locate...but was funny in an "interservice rivalry" sort of way...about a US Navy aircraft carrier, I believe Enterprise, demanding a "ship" to clear out of their way, which in fact turned out to be ..I want to think a port? Or an island Been awhile.. i will find it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pešadija Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 As much as cracked is stale and repetitive, their routinely roundup of incredible military feats by one person is pretty interesting. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmar Bijlsma Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Ah, the lighthouse one is definitely an urban myth. Was an advert based on it: 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmar Bijlsma Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 As much as cracked is stale and repetitive, their routinely roundup of incredible military feats by one person is pretty interesting. Cracked? Wazzat? I would Google it but I think I'll only get warez sites. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abneo3sierra Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Ah, the lighthouse one is definitely an urban myth. Was an advert based on it: Ahh...funny, but a different ship and ocean than I had heard it so, it must be a myth haha..sad..will have to dig up more dirt on them now...... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Here's one by A.J.P. Taylor I recently came across. Not strictly military, but since it touches on a subject that comes up regularly in these pages, I thought I should share it. Historians have been unable to make up their minds whether newspapers create public opinion or express it. Those who have experience in this curious trade may doubt whether they do either. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merkin Muffley Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Marvellous. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 ......................... Background An Australian-born Scot, Clark Kerr was born Archibald Kerr Clark, the son of John Kerr Clerk and Kate Louisa, daughter of Sir John Struan Robertson. In 1911 he assumed the surname of Kerr in addition to that of Clark.[1] Diplomatic career Clark Kerr entered the Foreign Service in 1906. He was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Central American Republics between 1925 and 1928, to Chile between 1928 and 1930, to Sweden between 1931 and 1934 and to Iraq between 1935 and 1938. He then served as Ambassador to China between 1938 and 1942 during the Japanese occupation. He was moved to Moscow in February 1942[1] where he forged a remarkable relationship with Stalin. His work there and at the Big Three Conferences put him at the very centre of international politics.[citation needed] After the war Clerk Kerr was appointed Ambassador to the United States, a post he held until 1948.[1] An acquaintance of Guy Burgess and Donald Duart Maclean's superior in Washington, he took their defection to the USSR badly, the shock hastening his early death in 1951.[citation needed] Clark Kerr was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1935 and a Knight Grand Cross in 1942 and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1944.[1] In 1946 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Inverchapel, of Loch Eck in the County of Argyll.[2] Personal life Lord Inverchapel's personal life has been described as colourful: a close confidant of the Kaiser's sister in the years before the Great War, he was also a disappointed suitor of the Queen Mother before his marriage, divorce, and re-marriage, to a Chilean lady 29 years his junior. Politically on the left, a noted wit and unconventional in manner, he was sometimes suspected of excessive understanding for the Soviet position. His biographer, Donald Gillies, considers rumoured pro-Soviet sympathies highly unlikely.[citation needed] Inverchapel is best remembered in the public imagination for a much reproduced note he is said to have written in 1943 to Lord Pembroke while Ambassador to Moscow.[3] "My Dear Reggie, In these dark days man tends to look for little shafts of light that spill from Heaven. My days are probably darker than yours, and I need, my God I do, all the light I can get. But I am a decent fellow, and I do not want to be mean and selfish about what little brightness is shed upon me from time to time. So I propose to share with you a tiny flash that has illuminated my sombre life and tell you that God has given me a new Turkish colleague whose card tells me that he is called Mustapha Kunt. We all feel like that, Reggie, now and then, especially when Spring is upon us, but few of us would care to put it on our cards. It takes a Turk to do that. Sir Archibald Clark KerrH.M. Ambassador" Lord Inverchapel married Maria Teresa, daughter of Don Javier Diaz Lira, of Santiago, Chile, in 1929. He died in July 1951, aged 69. The barony died with him as he had no children.[1] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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