a French Foreign Legion Forum

Welcome! Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Historical Moments On this day

Joseph Cosgrove

Moderator
Legionnaire
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
9,562
Reaction score
7,905
Location
Thailand
Home Country
New Zealand
POLIO

1614044293202.png
Children with polio in a US hospital, inside an iron lung. In about 0.5% of cases, patients suffered from paralysis, sometimes resulting in the inability to breathe. More often, limbs would be paralyzed.
[As of October 7, 2020, there were 441 cases worldwide, compared to 378 and 71 cases globally in all of 2019 and 2018 respectively.]


23 Feb
1954 1st mass inoculation against polio with the Jonas Salk vaccine takes place at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh.

In the United States, a major outbreak of polio occurred in 1952. During that year, the disease infected around 57,000 people, killed over 3,000 and left some 20,000 with mild or debilitating paralysis. It was the last great outbreak of this disease, once one of the most feared diseases in the world.

Polio would often strike without warning. In most cases, around 75%, there were no symptoms at all, but in 0.1-0.5% of infections the patient would suffer from mild or debilitating paralysis. This would often lead to deformities in the limbs for the rest of the patient's life. In some cases, the muscles of the neck and diaphragm would be paralyzed, meaning the patient would struggle to breath on their own. In the early days, this required the use of an 'iron lung', a large negative-pressure chamber that breathed for the patient as they lay inside.

Most would be in the lung for a few weeks or a month while they were treated. A few unlucky cases would require the lung for the rest of their lives; as of 2013, there were estimated to be six to eight iron lung users, some of whom can only leave for hours at a time before they struggle to breath.

A number of famous people had polio, including singer Neil Young, Nazi Joseph Goebbels and possibly US President Franklin D. Roosevelt (he used a wheelchair for the rest of his life, but it is believed the disease could have been Guillain–Barré syndrome).

On April 12, 1955, scientist Jonas Salk announced the first successful polio vaccine, which was rapidly adopted around the world. When the news was announced, Salk was greeted as a hero, and some members of Congress even called for the day to be a national holiday.

Today polio is extremely rare. In 2019 there were 175 cases of wild polio and 364 cases of vaccine-derived polio; only Afghanistan and Pakistan reported cases of the wild disease.

At the age of seven, Ian Dury contracted polio, most likely, he believed, from a swimming pool at Southend-on-Sea during the 1949 polio epidemic. ...

 

Attachments

  • vaccinations.png
    vaccinations.png
    281.8 KB · Views: 0
Joined
Jan 14, 2006
Messages
4,272
Reaction score
2,785
Location
U.K.
Home Country
United Kingdom
POLIO

View attachment 6772
Children with polio in a US hospital, inside an iron lung. In about 0.5% of cases, patients suffered from paralysis, sometimes resulting in the inability to breathe. More often, limbs would be paralyzed.
[As of October 7, 2020, there were 441 cases worldwide, compared to 378 and 71 cases globally in all of 2019 and 2018 respectively.]


23 Feb
1954 1st mass inoculation against polio with the Jonas Salk vaccine takes place at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh.

In the United States, a major outbreak of polio occurred in 1952. During that year, the disease infected around 57,000 people, killed over 3,000 and left some 20,000 with mild or debilitating paralysis. It was the last great outbreak of this disease, once one of the most feared diseases in the world.

Polio would often strike without warning. In most cases, around 75%, there were no symptoms at all, but in 0.1-0.5% of infections the patient would suffer from mild or debilitating paralysis. This would often lead to deformities in the limbs for the rest of the patient's life. In some cases, the muscles of the neck and diaphragm would be paralyzed, meaning the patient would struggle to breath on their own. In the early days, this required the use of an 'iron lung', a large negative-pressure chamber that breathed for the patient as they lay inside.

Most would be in the lung for a few weeks or a month while they were treated. A few unlucky cases would require the lung for the rest of their lives; as of 2013, there were estimated to be six to eight iron lung users, some of whom can only leave for hours at a time before they struggle to breath.

A number of famous people had polio, including singer Neil Young, Nazi Joseph Goebbels and possibly US President Franklin D. Roosevelt (he used a wheelchair for the rest of his life, but it is believed the disease could have been Guillain–Barré syndrome).

On April 12, 1955, scientist Jonas Salk announced the first successful polio vaccine, which was rapidly adopted around the world. When the news was announced, Salk was greeted as a hero, and some members of Congress even called for the day to be a national holiday.

Today polio is extremely rare. In 2019 there were 175 cases of wild polio and 364 cases of vaccine-derived polio; only Afghanistan and Pakistan reported cases of the wild disease.

At the age of seven, Ian Dury contracted polio, most likely, he believed, from a swimming pool at Southend-on-Sea during the 1949 polio epidemic. ...

Iron lungs horrible machines which served the purpose of the time. An NS Y.O. a vet in civilian life collapsed on the 30 miller and had to be placed in one. As a non medic I do not know the reason for this treatment. Later he told me it was an horrific experience.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

Moderator
Legionnaire
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
9,562
Reaction score
7,905
Location
Thailand
Home Country
New Zealand
The Japs are attacking Los Angles.

1942 The "Battle of Los Angeles" takes place, a series of anti-aircraft engagements over the city in response to a rumored but false Japanese attack. It would last until the morning of the following day.

On the night of February 24, 1942, only two months after the attack at Pearl Harbor, the skies of Los Angeles burst open with anti-aircraft fire and spotlights flooded the night sky looking for rumored Japanese planes. A total blackout was ordered in the city and air raid sirens were sounded off, warning people of danger.

After the 'raid' ended, the Navy Secretary told press that the incident was a false alarm triggered by "war nerves" and anxiety. In 1949 the Coast Artillery Association explained that the incident was caused by a stray weather balloon.

Despite the false alarm five people did die during the supposed battle, three in car accidents from the panic and two from heart attacks related to the stress of the incident.
 

USMCRET

Active Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
1,524
Reaction score
1,458
Location
Louisiana
Home Country
United States
Today in History, we began the 100-hour Ground War in Kuwait to expel the Iraqis. The Marine Corps was the cannon fodder, we went straight into the Iraqis dead center of Kuwait, breached the mine fields. The US Army began the push to the 73rd or 78th Parallels, ended up being the biggest route in Tank Warfare, we destroyed an Iraqi Republican Guard Tank Division in less than an hour.

Finally, Our Legionnaire Brothers slammed the back-door shut on the Western Flank, in Iraq and the rest is history.

I went through the mine fields, I went into the Bergan Oilfields which Saddam set on fire, it was as if the Apocalypse or Rapture was on. One hell of a show.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

Moderator
Legionnaire
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
9,562
Reaction score
7,905
Location
Thailand
Home Country
New Zealand
For all the future REPmen out there:

1912 U.S. Army Captain Albert Berry performs first (attached-type) parachute jump from an airplane
March 1, 1912, Jefferson Barracks, MO.—Captain Albert Berry makes the first successful parachute jump from a moving airplane, touching down at this U.S. Army base just outside St. Louis. The Benoist biplane, piloted by Berry’s friend Anthony Jannus, reached 1,500 feet and was cruising at 55 mph when Berry leaped. By his own account, Berry fell for about 500 feet before his parachute opened—more than twice the free-fall that had been experienced by similarly equipped balloonists. Berry, an experienced parachutist who made his first jump from a balloon at age 16, was unruffled:“ admit to feeling uneasy. But, really, the greatest danger was to the pilot of the plane. I am glad he came out of that successfully.”

While the sudden change in the aircraft’s weight was surely a problem for the pilot, an evaluation of Berry’s equipment casts doubt on his modesty. Too bulky to be strapped to Berry’s back, his parachute was carried in an iron cone fastened to the plane’s undercarriage. From the mouth of the cone hung two ropes connected with a trapeze bar, which itself had two leg loops at the end. Berry’s daunting task was to climb down the fuselage to the axle, steady himself with the trapeze bar, slide his legs through the loops, tie a belt around his waist and then cut himself away.While all that was going on, Jannus was charged with flying the biplane as level as possible as Berry attempted to secure himself—one sharp movement in any direction would have been enough render the attempt both failed and fatal.

Berry reached the ground without incident, and he repeated his feat again nine days later, this time before a public, rather than military, audience. With swirling snow reducing visibility, he leapt from an altitude of only 800 feet to ensure that the crowd could watch the jump. That accommodating decision nearly cost him his life—the parachute got below him, and he had mere seconds to fight off becoming entangled in the canopy. Though he did manage to right the chute with enough time to reach the ground uninjured, Captain Berry vowed never to jump from a plane again.

Though parachutes made a limited appearance during World War I, it wasn’t until the interwar period that the technology was refined to the point that aviators began to adopt them as standard safety equipment.

 
Joined
Jan 14, 2006
Messages
4,272
Reaction score
2,785
Location
U.K.
Home Country
United Kingdom
Monday 1 March 1971.

A bomb exploded in the Capital Building, Washington DC causing US$300,000 worth of damage. Fortunately nobody was hurt.

A Militant Group, the Weather Underground claimed to stage the attack in protest against the US- backed invasion of Laos.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

Moderator
Legionnaire
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
9,562
Reaction score
7,905
Location
Thailand
Home Country
New Zealand
It was on this day in
1972 Jean-Bédel Bokassa appoints himself President for life of Central African Republic.

1614648579805.png
Jean-Bédel Bokassa is crowned as 'Emperor of Central Africa' atop a golden throne in 1976

For ten years Jean-Bédel Bokassa had reigned with an iron fist in the Central African Republic, having ousted his distant cousin from office when he was the head of the armed forces.

Attempting to emulate his idol, Napoleon Bonaparte, Bokassa had himself declared the Emperor of the Central African Republic. His coronation was unbelievably decadent: he spent some $20 million US dollars - more than a third of the country's national income - on the occasion. No foreign leaders attended, and he was considered a laughing stock by much of the world.

The Central African Empire lasted only three years before Bokassa was himself overthrown in an operation by the French military. He was exiled to France and tried in absentia, though later returned and was tried again. He served six years of a life sentence before being released in 1993, dying three years later.

On a side note: Our section had to guard a runway to one of his palace's. The Chef de Section Adj Orlando, had arranged for us to go and visit the palace. Typical of the locals, the afternoon that we were to visit, the guardian had tripled the price. So we never did get to see how it had been looted :ROFLMAO:. It was supposed to have a hidden passage from the palace to the runway, but the surroundings were so overgrown, it wasn't even worth looking for.
Another interesting (?) thing was in the capital, Bangui, all the streets lights along the main boulevard were/are designed to fold back to make a runway.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

Moderator
Legionnaire
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
9,562
Reaction score
7,905
Location
Thailand
Home Country
New Zealand
1991, Serge Gainsbourg passed away.
Who ?

Twenty years ago today saw an event that brought the entire French population to a standstill. It was the day that Serge Gainsbourg – France’s answer to David Bowie, Mick Jagger and John Lennon rolled into one smoke cloud of controversy – died of a heart attack. So what better way to commemorate his life and legacy than a look at the 20 most scandalous things he achieved during his career?

1. Writing suggestive songs for Eurovision-winning 18-year-old girls​



1965 saw French sweetheart France Gall take to the Eurovision stage to perform a Gainsbourg-penned entry, Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son (later covered by Arcade Fire). A resounding win at the competition, combined with the success of their previous collaborations such as 1964’s Laisse Tomber Les Filles led Gall to trust Gainsbourg to a point that she would sing more or less whatever he presented her with. A trust that would be well and truly scuppered with the release of Les Sucettes (Lollipops) in 1966, the story of a girl who is “in paradise” every time “that little stick is on her tongue”. Upon discovering the dual meaning of the risqué lyrics, Gall refused to perform the song and never worked with, nor spoke to Gainsbourg again.

2. Dating the already married Brigitte Bardot​

In 1967 Gainsbourg became infatuated with the French siren who, while enduring a difficult time in her marriage, agreed to go on a date with him. So intimidated was he by her stunning looks that on the date, he lost all of the wit and charisma that he was renowned for. Thinking he had ruined his chances with the sultry blonde, he returned home to hear a ringing phone over which Bardot insisted that as an apology for his poor performance on the date, he write her the most beautiful love song ever heard. The next morning, there were two: Bonnie et Clyde and Je T’aime … Moi Non Plus.

3. Recording songs in steamy, sweaty vocal booths (also with Brigitte Bardot)​

Understandably, this upset Bardot’s husband. Upon hearing Je T’aime … Moi Non Plus, Bardot headed to a Parisian studio with her new beau to record it. Throughout the two-hour session, sound engineer William Flageollet claimed to have witnessed “heavy petting” in the vocal booth while the sighs and whispers were committed to tape. The song had been mixed and readied for radio when Bardot, remembering that she was married, revoked her consent for its release. News of the recording had reached her husband, German businessman Gunter Sachs, and after desperate pleas, Gainsbourg relented to Bardot’s wishes and the version was shelved. Bardot later went on to release the recording in 1986. And also to divorce her husband.

4. “Enticing” and entrapping a young English rose​

This was how the wooing of his next major love interest was widely reported, but it’s not necessarily the truth. Distraught after the collapse of his relationship with Bardot, Gainsbourg occupied himself with a role in the 1969 film Slogan. Playing opposite him was a charming, young English actor called Jane Birkin. Under the impression that her co-star hated her, Birkin arranged a dinner with him over which Gainsbourg, 18 years her senior, fell in love. Unfortunately, due to the amount of alcohol consumed throughout the date, the first night the pair spent together was in a hotel room ... with Gainsbourg passed out drunk on the bed. The pair would remain a couple until 1980, and inseparable friends until the end of Serge’s life.

5. Moaning and groaning on record​

After shelving the original Bardot recorded version, Marianne Faithfull and Valérie Lagrange (among others) were approached to make feminine “noises”, as it were, but both declined. A willing companion was, however, found in new love interest Jane Birkin. Rumours had circulated that the pair recorded some of the more intimate parts of the song by placing a microphone underneath their bed. In actual fact, the re-recording was undertaken in studios in Paris and London where the heavy breathing was claimed to have been meticulously stage-managed by Gainsbourg. Birkin has always denied the rumours of employing the under-bed recording technique ... for this song, anyway.

6. Getting rich by shocking the world​

Je T’aime … Moi Non Plus brought huge success, notoriety, substantial record sales and worldwide outrage when it was finally released in 1969. It was No 1 throughout Europe, and was the first UK No 1 to be sung in a language other than English. By far Gainsbourg’s most successful release, the song is recognised internationally as “that one with the organs and the girl having an orgasm?”. The single sold millions and set the tone for what was to come next from the scandalous pair.

7. Getting banned by radio​

Even though millions of copies of Je T’aime ... Moi Non Plus were sold around the world, the song was still considered too explicit for radio play. In the UK, it was the first No 1 to be banned by the BBC due to its explicit content. It was also banned in Spain, Sweden, Italy and even on French radio before 11pm. It has also been claimed that the Italian executive who permitted the release of the song was excommunicated by the Vatican, and in the US, limited sales and radio play led the single to peak at the oddly appropriate chart position of 69. However, Americans and Italians used thriftiness to get hold of the records, and in the end, all of this publicity didn’t do the sales much harm at all.

8. Writing a concept album about falling in love with a teenage girl, who subsequently dies in a plane crash​

This was always going to raise a few eyebrows, particularly when you get your young girlfriend to pose as the eponymous teenage seductress for the album cover. 1971’s Histoire de Melody Nelson was Gainsbourg’s first concept album, the story of a man who knocks a young redhead from her bicycle and falls in love with her. An ultimately tragic tale, the album is now recognised much more for its musical prowess than any underlying Lolita-inspired tones. With strings and arrangements orchestrated by the profoundly talented Jean-Claude Vannier, musicians from Beck through to Placebo and Portishead have cited this album as hugely influential on their work, demonstrating once again how Gainsbourg could overcome a scandal to emerge the immensely gifted hero.

9. Suffering his first heart attack at 45​

In 1973, at the relatively young age of 45, Gainsbourg’s years of smoking and drinking began to catch up with him and in May, he suffered his first heart attack. After collapsing in his museum-like home on Rue de Verneuil in Paris’s trendy St Germain, an ambulance arrived to take him to hospital. Before leaving the house however, Gainsbourg insisted he be covered with his highly fashionable, extremely valuable Hermès blanket as the hospital’s “own brand” ones were too ugly. Typical Gainsbourg, always one to go out in style.

10. Performing publicity stunts in hospital beds​

While recovering from his heart attack, Gainsbourg began to miss the spotlight so called a press conference from his hospital bed during which he claimed he would reduce the risk of suffering a second heart attack by “increasing his intake of alcohol and cigarettes”. Found hidden around his hospital room on his departure were pill bottles stuffed with cigarette butts, from the sneaky smokes he’d been illicitly enjoying while “recovering”.

 

Joseph Cosgrove

Moderator
Legionnaire
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
9,562
Reaction score
7,905
Location
Thailand
Home Country
New Zealand

11. Casting his girlfriend in the role of the boyish-looking lover of a homosexual man​

This is what Serge riled people with in 1976. The Gainsbourg-directed film, which shared the title of his hugely successful song Je T’aime ... Moi Non Plus was a complicated, explicit story following the difficult relationship of a gay man who falls in love with a boyish female (Birkin), and the sexual problems and emotional difficulties this inevitably leads to. The film was poorly received in France, and even more so in England where it was shown on only one screen – in an adult cinema in Soho.

12. Embracing Nazi rock​

Paris, 1975. Thirty years after the end of the second world war. This would be a good moment, Gainsbourg thought to himself, to release Rock Around the Bunker, an upbeat concept album about Nazi Germany. The songs were set to swinging two-step beats, a return to a rockier feel after a few albums exploring more orchestral sounds. Opening track Nazi Rock tells the story of SS soldiers dressed as drag queens, dancing during the Night of the Long Knives. This song, combined with other tracks from the album such as Eva and SS in Uruguay led Gainsbourg, provocative as ever, to find himself in trouble for his comical take on a controversial subject.

13. Releasing a reggae version of the French national anthem​

This has a tendency to incite hatred among your fellow countrymen. A stint in Jamaica was where Gainsbourg recorded his 1979 reggae-inspired effort, Aux Armes Et Caetera, of which the title track was a cover of the French national anthem, La Marseillaise. The album was a collaboration with reggae legends Sly & Robbie, who accompanied Gainsbourg on a subsequent tour that was plagued with bomb threats, cancellations and disgruntled protesting paratroopers. However, in true Gainsbourg style, the controversy was manipulated to work to his advantage, and the album eventually became one of his fastest sellers. Aux Armes Et Caetera sold more than 600,000 copies in France and is considered to be one of the earliest albums to have brought reggae to the mainstream.

14. Turning his house into a black, fabric-lined museum​

Gainsbourg claimed to need the calming influence of black at his St Germain home to counter the relentless activity in his brain. Each item of his extravagant collection of objects was specifically placed around his house and according to Birkin, Gainsbourg would know if anything had been touched or moved. Surrounded by beautiful things, but also compelled by an impulse that would probably be described today as OCD, Gainsbourg strived to keep his home exactly as he wanted it. Being unable to treat the house as a home was reportedly one of the contributing factors to Birkin leaving him in 1980.

15. Setting a 500 franc note alight on French TV​

For one thing, this was illegal. Yes. even if you are Serge Gainsbourg. 1984 would prove to be one of his more audacious years, seeing him cause all kinds of stirs. It was in this year that Gainsbourg burned a 500 franc note live on French TV in a protest against heavy taxation. Although an offence punishable by law, Gainsbourg would feel the heat from a different direction. As a reaction to the extravagant behaviour of her father, Charlotte’s classmates would retaliate by setting her homework on fire, punishing her for her father’s disregard for money.

16. Releasing a duet with his teenage daughter entitled Lemon Incest

This caused one of the biggest scandals of Gainsbourg’s career. Recorded with 12-year-old daughter Charlotte in 1984 (as previously mentioned, one of his more outlandish years), the song caused uproar in France, and even made headlines in the UK. The title, a play on similarities between the words “zest” and “incest” was considered shocking enough, but it was the video that would be the major source of complaint. Young Charlotte was filmed in a nightshirt and knickers lying on a bed with her topless father, singing about “the love that we will never make together”. The world was outraged, but the publicity led to increased album sales with Serge and Charlotte subsequently made a huge amount of money, proving Gainsbourg’s recipe for success, once again, to be a winning one.

17. Promoting sexually driven puns​

Looking again to 1984, as though inspired by George Orwell’s authority-battling ideas, Gainsbourg once again managed to outrage the nation. In this year Love On the Beat was released, the title of the album being a play on the word “bite”, a colloquial French term meaning “dick”. The album was surrounded by controversy for Gainsbourg’s application of sexually driven puns. Also featuring his most highly contested release, Lemon Incest, Love On the Beat would go on to become his most provocative album.

18. Explicitly stating his sexual desires to Whitney Houston on French TV​

After a performance on the French prime time show of Michel Drucker in 1986, Houston found herself seated next to France’s most notorious lothario for a post-performance chat. Little did she expect that the praise she would receive would turn into something sordid as Gainsbourg, in his best English clearly and confidently informed his host that he wanted “to fuck her”. Houston’s already highly blushed cheeks deepened a shade, and the scenario has never since been forgotten.

19.Taking his twisted ideas and ... making a movie out of them​

As if the hysteria surrounding Lemon Incest hadn’t provided quite enough drama for the Gainsbourgs, in 1986 Serge took it a step further when he wrote and directed Charlotte Forever, the story of a young girl (played by his daughter Charlotte) living with her widowed, alcoholic father. The film intertwined stories of incest and suicidal tendencies that French audiences found distasteful and difficult to understand. This reaction was upsetting for all involved in the film and to make things up to his daughter, Gainsbourg wrote her an album of the same name with poignant, touching duets. His audience forgave him, and Serge went on to record his final release, a rap album entitled You’re Under Arrest.

20. Dying in style​

Serge Gainsbourg would be found dead after suffering another heart attack at his home in Rue de Verneuil. It seems his decision to preserve his health by smoking and drinking even more didn’t quite work out. France stood still on hearing the news, and fans flocked to his home to pay tribute to the country’s most illustrious rock star. François Mitterrand, the president at the time, described Gainsbourg as “our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire ... he elevated song to the level of art”. Although leaving a legacy of scandal, drama and controversy, Gainsbourg is now remembered much more for his artistic ability, music and charisma. Serge Gainsbourg is still a highly debated, yet widely adored character. He also achieved what he intended, to have us all talking about him, even 20 years after his death.
 

Joseph Cosgrove

Moderator
Legionnaire
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
9,562
Reaction score
7,905
Location
Thailand
Home Country
New Zealand
At least it will give those who are going to join a bit of an insight to French culture, in this case music :)
 

Joseph Cosgrove

Moderator
Legionnaire
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
9,562
Reaction score
7,905
Location
Thailand
Home Country
New Zealand
And 100 years later, to the day, 1936 Spitfire makes its 1st flight (Eastleigh Aerodrome in Southampton)

Southampton is integral to the story of the Spitfire. The prototype Spitfire first flew from Southampton Airport and production of the earliest models was based at the Supermarine factory in Woolston. This was bombed in the Second World War with great loss of life to local workers.

Production continued in and around Southampton, dispersed in locations as varied as bus garages and launderettes. The bravery of Southampton people in continuing to build the Spitfire under constant threat of enemy bombing raids was crucial in the protection of England, and the Allies' eventual victory.

The Supermarine factory at Woolston​

The prototype Spitfire was designed by R J Mitchell and first took to the air at Southampton Airport on 5 March 1936. With a powerful Rolls Royce Merlin engine and eight machine guns it was a formidable fighting aircraft. Sadly, Mitchell was to die before seeing the aircraft go into operational use.

The Air Ministry ordered 310 Spitfires to be produced at the Supermarine factory at Woolston in Southampton. By 1940 the area was at fever pitch with the production, development and operation of all sorts of fighting aircraft. The industry was now employing thousands of technicians and engineers. Production of the Spitfires at Woolston was at full capacity. This was now an open-ended order for the aircraft to replace many of which were lost during the Battle of Britain. September 1940 could perhaps be described as this country's darkest hour; in two daylight raids the Woolston works were destroyed, killing 110 people.

The Blitz on Southampton was devastating and the town was hit time and time again, not only because of its aircraft industry but because of its docks and its many other strategic targets. It is an irony that the maps the German pilots used to navigate and accurately attack the target were originally produced at the Ordnance Survey in Southampton. The situation was extremely grim. Lord Beaverbrook, the Minister for Aircraft Procurement, came to Southampton and insisted that the Spitfire must be produced locally in any location where aircraft could be built. In a very short time, laundries, bus stations, garages etc. were requisitioned and within a few weeks the aircraft was back in production all over Southampton.

By the end of the war, 8,000 Spitfires had been built this way, having been constructed in pieces and taken to airfields for assembly and test flying. At this time the Spitfire possibly touched the lives of almost every family in Southampton. The difficulties in building the Spitfire in this way should not be underestimated when one considers the fact that this was done during the height of the Blitz and very often by unskilled labour. A large part of the workforce were women and young men, as most eligible men were out fighting for their country. The Spitfire was to remain in production throughout the entire war and eventually over 22,000 of the aircraft were built.

 

Joseph Cosgrove

Moderator
Legionnaire
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
9,562
Reaction score
7,905
Location
Thailand
Home Country
New Zealand
10 years after the maiden (if that is the correct term) flight of the Spitfire who helped to win the Battle of Britain -as it was the Hurricane which won it- Churchill coin's the phrase "The Iron Curtain".

 
Joined
Feb 14, 2021
Messages
57
Reaction score
4
Location
Las Vegas
Home Country
United States
On this day 07 December 1941 07:48 Hawaiian time the Japs attacked Pearl Harbor.

"The day after the attack, Roosevelt delivered his famous Infamy Speech to a Joint Session of Congress, calling for a formal declaration of war on the Empire of Japan. Congress obliged his request less than an hour later. On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, even though the Tripartite Pact did not require it. Congress issued a declaration of war against Germany and Italy later that same day. The UK actually declared war on Japan nine hours before the U.S. did, partially due to Japanese attacks on Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong, and partially due to Winston Churchill's promise to declare war "within the hour" of a Japanese attack on the United States."
World War Two in the pacific naval battles were tough. Many a men drowned , I don’t believe that many Marines actually made it to tarawa but instead drowned at sea by naval commands because the boats were sinking.
 

Attachments

  • B542700A-664C-42EF-86D1-3741D8195CA4.jpeg
    B542700A-664C-42EF-86D1-3741D8195CA4.jpeg
    32.8 KB · Views: 0

Joseph Cosgrove

Moderator
Legionnaire
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
9,562
Reaction score
7,905
Location
Thailand
Home Country
New Zealand
Hi the Beaches, men. On this day in 1965 The first US combat forces arrive in Vietnam, on the beaches of Da Nang

 
Top