The Few, What They Did Next

[DD_Arthur]

Pinched this link from over at the UBI forums. Fascinating BBC2 documentary from 1969 on Battle of Britain pilots. Well worth watching.

Also, at last the Beeb are putting some of their huge archive online.

My link

[gec]

bad link

[T_O_A_D]

I watched it, yesterday, just before I left for work.

Thanks for pointing it out, I had never seen it.

Even still they were joking about nicking the dead chaps stuff.

They told of one chap, that showed up with his car, and gaming equipment, ate lunch and was dead 15 minutes later.

And these fellers were upset only because they didn't have a court to play with his equipment.

That would be a most odd work environment to get yourself into that frame of mind.

[Blairgowrie]

bad link

Still works for me Gec.

[gec]

hmm ... not working here

[Painless]

~S~ Arthur M8,

What an excellent find ! Really enjoyed listening to those fine fellows chatting .

~S~ Painless

[DD_Brando]

Yeah, thanks Arthur, er, jolly good show, what?

In a way it had even more of an impact on me seeing them after the war, at a time when I was as old as they were when the BoB was going on, if that makes sense?

I agree Toad, that was a pretty strange work environment, but I don't see their actions re. dead mens' effects as particularly shocking: just a way of dealing with the sudden and constant disappearance of their comrades. Kind of an emotional transference; a way of avoiding or diluting the stark reality of 'here today, gone tomorrow'.

The strange truth was that these WW2 pilots went into action with only the very minimum of gunnery training. The average infantryman would know far more about how to shoot his enemy than those pilots. And sixteen seconds of gunfire...end of story. The poet who compared fighters to butterflies was spot on at that time.

Here today,

gone tomorrow.

Bless 'em all.

[T_O_A_D]

Well I'm not shocked at all about how it went down at the time.

I just figured they'd have or show a bit more reverence later in life, especially in front of a camera.

As I must of muttled it up a bit, the affect it had on them is still something to fathom.

You could tell they had more remorse that the event was over, than they had for the fallen.

Life has been such a bore since then. And a few were it was nothing nothing at all, lets just forget it.

On both accounts, I think its just a wall they built in their heads to hide behind, so they can deal with it publicly.

As I said odd environment, One hopefully history won't repeat again.

[BadAim]

Yeah, It's odd how men deal with the horror they have had to face. I've talked to a man who as a young company commander is Vietnam lost 54 men in a single mission (one in which they rescued one man). His Father (A career Army officer) asked him one day if he still saw their faces, he replied "every single one" " It'll be okay son" the father replied "you'll make friends with them again, they don't hold it against you, you were all just doing your jobs" The man, now in his sixties, can sleep well knowing this. Everyone has their own method for dealing with it.