Dubbo

Douglas Reeman Fiction once again. Now I was not all that interested in naval warfare but my boss loaned me a book called "The Last Raider" by this British chap, Douglas Reeman. It was a story about a WW1 German merchant raider and was a good tale, well-told. But I gave the book back to him and never gave it much more thought..... Then he was cleaning up his place some 2 years later and he threw some old books my way. One of them was a novel called "The Destroyers", again by Douglas Reeman. This was a novel about a captain of a WW1-era destroyer being used in WW2 on operations that would border on suicidal. Once again, a great yarn, well written. He had raised my interest in this navy thing. As it turns out the guy has written many, many novels ranging from WW1 through to Korea, mostly about the Royal Navy and the men and traditions that make up that institution. The guy is prolific. He has written over 60 novels (including a bunch under the pseudonym "Alexander Kent") and as a result, you can find a lot of the Reeman novels in 2nd-hand book stores for only a couple of dollars. I just finished one called "H.M.S. Saracen" and it was really, really good. It was about a WW1 monitor ship that supported ANZAC troops at Gallipoli when she was brand new and about a raw officer who got his 1st posting aboard the brand new ship. By WW2 he had made captain and was posted back to the old monitor. Reeman himself is an interesting bloke too. This is the blurb from his website. "Acclaimed as 'the foremost naval writer of this century', Douglas Reeman was born in Thames Ditton, Surrey, England in 1924. With the outbreak of World War Two, and despite belonging to an army family, he joined the Royal Navy without hesitation at the age of sixteen. He saw service in the North Sea and Arctic, and the Atlantic and Mediterranean campaigns, beginning as a midshipman in destroyers and transferring later to motor torpedo boats, where he was twice mentioned in dispatches. Following the war, he held a variety of jobs, including delivering yachts, selling marine engines, and walking the beat in London's East End as a uniformed policeman and in the plain-clothes Criminal Investigation Department. He returned to active service during the Korean War, and remained a naval reservist while working as a children's welfare officer for the London County Council, retaining that close contact with the navy which was to prove so invaluable. In 1957, having published two short stories, Douglas wrote the fictionalized version of "his war" on the backs of L.C.C. nit notices, more for his own satisfaction than out of any hope of publication. That novel, A Prayer for the Ship, was published in 1958, and was the beginning of a remarkable career............" More here http://www.bolithomaritimeproductions.com/Douglas%20Reeman%20Novels/default%20-%20DRNovels.html Highly recommended :thumbright:

Nasty stuff. Always worse when it's close to home.

Sweet Waldo. How big's your telly? (Personal question I know, but relevant)

I paid twice.

I remember that. There was an article about it in a magazine..............

Tiger moths and boobies. Always a good combination http://www.kontraband.com/show/show.asp ... nsfwfs=yes

Waldo, you are just a wealth of stuff. Really. I got to come over and look through your collection.

Your water man. It's fantastic. Your new card is great. Here's a shot from later in the evening. Enforcer had a particularly rough landing...

Australia loved Yahoo Serious for a while. That doesn't make him sexy.

JP you impatient, funny bastard. Question though......what do you find so sexy about David Hasselhoff? (You said it....actually Arsenal said "I mean, let's face it, David Hasselhoff is a sexy dude.") So let me direct this question to both of you. Is there something you guys want to share. A tent in the mountains perhaps :wink:

The best episode was the one where they met the Battlestar Pegasus and the commander played by Lloyd Bridges. It was a 2-parter Oh and that other one where Starbuck (I think) ended up marooned on an unihabited planet with a Cylon...for ever. (It was his farewell episode) I think then Starbuck got the Cylon pregnant and then......no wait, that was the movie Enemy Mine (which was actually pretty good)

You're right. The new series is ok then?

Nice Frior-one

Meh, I carpool with David Hasselhoff and 2 Germans. I ride in KITT every day. Seriously though, that is pretty cool. I've always thought that it was silly when people would get worked up about seeing a celebrity, until I saw one out in public, and for some unknown reason, it excited me (no not in that way). OffTopic: If you had to ride with K.I.T.T. everyday, I bet it would be pretty annoying. You'd be doing your regular driving thing, and the car would be bitching about "Why didn't you wash me this weekend", or "It's time for my oil change". You couldn't tell him to STFU, or threaten him with pulling out the drainplug or something because he could do something crazy like lock the doors and ram into a tree, sending you through the windshield. And I bet if your dating a girl, and take her out, K.I.T.T. would get jealous and depressed cause he's a robot, and everyone knows robots don't get no lovin'. So when you're leaning over the console to give your girl a kiss goodnight, K.I.T.T. will give you a gear shifter to the balls, and mumble some shit about "feeling his pain". Then he'll call your woman a bitch, and she'll dump you. Ok....so maybe I'm the only one who thinks of these things... Heh heh..... Actually I don't think you'd be getting any dates in a mid 80s black Trans Am anyway. Not ones that you'd want to talk about. (I had a black 85 Trans Am when I first moved to Canada so I know....I mean, I got dates, but then I'm extremely cool. :wink: ) Oh and I didn't get "worked up about a seeing a celebrity" and am offended by the insinuation. :wink:

....but I loved the Cylon Raider fighter ships and the Vipers. Sooo cool.

I think K.I.T.T. was gay(not that there's anything wrong with that). The voice was too...um...delicate. Actually the car that's here now is pretty cool. It has the light on the front and it makes that sound (kinda like a quiet Zylon sp?). Also the dash is rigged up with the lights and such and the Ju88 steering wheel.

So today, at my apartment building, they were filming a comedy starring Jamie Kennedy, called - "Kickin' It, Old School". In part of it the Kennedy character rings a doorbell (our place oddly enough) and as he gets the date with the girl, David Hasselhoff drives into our driveway in KITT, (the Knight Rider car) and gives him the keys to the car. (Don't ask me..I didn't write it) So as I type this, they are filming Hasselhoff just across from my patio. Below is a picture. (I sent my nephew....I didn't want to appear too much like a tourist, particularly on my own street). So that's the coolest thing that happened to me today. Just thought I'd share..........

Good on ya Quaz :thumbright:

Heh heh..I can almost hear the "Yeehaw!!"s and hear Jerry Reed singing. "East bound and down, loaded up and trucking............." :wink:

Actually Pooka I'd take you up on that offer except that last time someone sent me something from the US, they had to send it twice. It cost more than the DVDs that were sent. The book though sounds very interesting particularly since Zues-cat just made that little Aleutian Rufe campaign. There needs to be a good movie made about that part of the war I think.

Just glad you were not racing the drunk chick on your moped. I heard you southern types like a challenge. :wink:

As I posted in the Knights of the Sky thread, Derek Robinson also did a fantastic job on the WW1 series he did. With all of his trademarks. Even though I grew up on "Biggles", this series was a real eye-opener. What it pointed out to me was that flying in this war was totally different from WW2. Savage & brilliant. :thumbright:

If you missed "Biggles" may I suggest Derek Robinson's WW1 series "War Story" "Goshawk Squadron" & " Hornets Sting" to get you in the mood. I have yet to track down a copy of "Hornets Sting" but the others are fantastic and are responsible for re-firing my interest in WW1 aerial warfare. I wonder, given that WW1 pilots were not issued parachutes, if the game will still give you the option to bale rather than burn to death, or even shoot yourself.

Ok. Derek Robinson. Fiction yes, but damn good fiction. Piece of Cake Sep 1939. An RAF Hurricane Squadron (Hornet Squadron) with their new CO head over to France. This book is pretty much the benchmark for WW2 RAF fighter pilot fiction. Robinson has you laughing one minute and crying the next (If I were a crying man.....like Jensenpark is) A key factor for me with Robinson is that you never know who, if anybody, is going to cop it next. Nor how. The character list is quite long but by the end of the book it has been whittled down. More than once I was heard to exclaim aloud "You bastard!" whilst reading it. Sometimes this was directed at the author, sometimes it was directed at a character. It was made into a mini-series of the same name, and although they had to use Spitfires in the series instead of Hurricanes (due to availability of Hurricanes) the mini-series is a very good compliment to the book. The next book in the series was "Damn Good Show" and it follows one of the characters from the first book as he gets transferred to a bomber squadron of Wellingtons. Excellent as well. The 3rd and final book in the series is "Good Clean Fight" which once again returns us to Hornet Squadron as they are transferred to fight against Rommel in 1942. As they cover the war from the air, Robinson introduces us to the men of an SAS patrol and a Luftwaffe intelligence officer who square off against each other across the desert. Once again it has all the Robinson trademarks. Many thumbs up for all 3 books.

I recently finished "The Big Show" and loved it. Haven't heard of the other 2 which is why this thread was a damn good idea. Got to see if I can hunt them up. Nice cover pic on the Heilmann book.