Monday - October 13, 2014

human interest ….

I’m not one for kiddie pix.  Too often I notice cringe worthy toe curling articles about something Jr. has done when Jr. has no idea himself.
But papers often like to publish cute but meaningless kiddie shots. So generally, I don’t follow kid stories for the sake of cute kids.
That said, once in awhile something does grab my short attention span, and this is one of them.

Iris Grace Halmshaw, five, created a buzz in the art world at three years old
A private collector bought two of her original works for £1,500 each
Autistic youngster struggled to speak as other children unnerved her
But her pet cat Thula has relieved her isolation and they are inseparable
Her parents noticed Iris adding brush strokes which resemble a cat’s eyes

For Iris Grace Halmshaw, the world was a lonely place.

The autistic five-year-old struggles to speak, is unnerved by other children and is frequently thrown into panic by the world around her.

She fills her days with painting, and is so talented that her works sell for as much as £1,500.

But nothing could quite relieve her isolation. Until, that is, a cat called Thula came along.

The pair are now inseparable – and Iris’s parents credit the gentle Maine Coon with helping their little girl become more tactile and affectionate, as well as influencing her already much-acclaimed works of art.

The home-educated youngster has been producing astonishing Monet-style landscapes since she was three, when mother Arabella Carter-Johnson devised art sessions to help her with her daughter’s concentration and speech.

CONTINUES

There are some nice photos here and a video.
I don’t think the video needs any music, or if it does, surely not the soppy, boring dirge played here. The link is still worth seeing.

Posted by peiper     on 10/13/2014 at 05:08 AM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • Talented Ppl. •  
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   Tuesday - February 04, 2014

Unsung heros

Sir Nicholas Winton saved 669 children destined for concentration camps. As of now he is still with us and is 104 years old. Here is a short clip of him being reunited with all those children he saved. (Peiper, what is MBE? His Wikipedia entry mentions it.)

Posted by Christopher     on 02/04/2014 at 11:16 PM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • Heroes •  
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   Wednesday - August 28, 2013

THINGS WE’D LIKE TO SEE MORE OF

I don’t normally grab an article from the papers with nothing to say about what I post.
But there are exceptions and this is surely one.
Not only that, but one you will enjoy seeing.
Be sure to click the link for all of the pix.

Here’s what happened.  This guy tried to rob a couple of ladies at an ATM. Here in the UK they are called cash points or hole in the walls.
Watch this.

Cash machine thief gets his comeuppance - and he tells his would-be victims’ mother that THEY need to learn some manners

Cyclist sneaks up on two sisters and tries to grab money from machine
Two women immediately punch him the face and drag him from his bike
He then spits at them so sister hits him again in the head
Thief tells mother her daughters ‘need to learn some manners’

By Becky Evans

A thief told the mother of two sisters who beat him up when he tried to rob them at a cash machine that they needed to ‘learn some manners’.

The would-be victims punched the man in the face and dragged him off his bike when he tried to grab their cash from an ATM.

But the thief then cycled up to their mother to berate the sisters for not having ‘manners’.

Immediately the two sisters, aged 25 and 27, realise what he is trying to do and one punches him in the face.

The same woman then grabs him around the neck with both arms and puts him in a head lock.

After freeing himself, the man spits at the women as they walk away so one of the sisters promptly turns around and pulls him off his bike. 

SEE ALL THE PHOTOS HERE

Posted by peiper     on 08/28/2013 at 10:05 AM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • Self-Defense • UK •  
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   Sunday - June 23, 2013

how to lose a war one death at a time

Betcha there are a few old timers left who would love to refight WW2 under today’s rules.

How not to win a war 101. 

My hero son who won Victoria Cross died because of Army ban on weapons that damage Taliban mud huts

· Lance Corporal James Ashworth, 23, is said to have crawled within a few feet of enemy sniper
· His colleagues will claim at an inquest new regulations meant he couldn’t fire a grenade from a safer distance
· Rules came after request from President Karzai to protect local buildings
· Lance Corporal Ashworth has been awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross

By Mark Nicol Defence Correspondent

A British soldier awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross died in vain because of an order to prevent damage to Taliban mud huts, an inquest will be told this summer.

Colleagues of Lance Corporal James Ashworth – who won the UK’s highest gallantry medal – are expected to tell a coroner they were denied powerful weapons to take on the Taliban due to fears mortars and rockets could damage buildings.

Soldiers from the Grenadier Guards will claim James died because he was forced to crawl to within a few feet of an enemy sniper in a mud hut while clutching a grenade, rather than firing from a safer distance.

Last night his father Duane Ashworth accused top brass of sacrificing his son’s life to protect the building, saying his pride in his son’s VC was now coupled with anger over the way in which he had died.

‘We can build more mud huts but nobody can bring back my son. This is hard to stomach,’ he said.
Just weeks before L/Cpl Ashworth died in June last year, new tactics were introduced by the multi-national forces in Afghanistan that prevented use of heavy weapons in all but the most exceptional circumstances.

The change – in response to a request from President Hamid Karzai to protect local infrastructure – meant British patrols no longer carried mortars and shoulder-held rocket launchers on routine operations, forcing them to engage any targets at close range.

L/Cpl Ashworth would still be alive if they had been able to use the weapons that were restricted just a month earlier, his comrades will say.

The revelation follows last week’s ruling by the Supreme Court that any decision to deny troops access to adequate weaponry could constitute a negligent decision and therefore a breach of their human rights – potentially opening the floodgates for hundreds of damages claims from bereaved families.

READ MORE

Posted by peiper     on 06/23/2013 at 10:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • UK • War-Stories •  
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   Wednesday - June 12, 2013

Saving the last flying pencil

The Dornier Do 17, nicknamed “the flying pencil” for it’s long thin fuselage, was a “fast light bomber” designed in the interwar period. The idea behind it was that it would be as fast or faster than the fighter planes opposing it, and thus could evade them and drop it’s few bombs on target. With a bomb load of just over a ton and a top speed of only 255mph, by the time WWII got really hot the plane was more of a sitting duck. Although 2100 of them were built, not one survived the war intact.

A British museum on Monday successfully recovered a German bomber that had been shot down over the English Channel during World War II. The aircraft, nicknamed the Luftwaffe’s “flying pencil” because of its narrow fuselage, came down off the coast of Kent county in southeastern England more than 70 years ago during the Battle of Britain. The rusty and damaged plane was lifted from depths of the channel with cables and is believed to be the most intact example of the German Dornier Do 17 bomber that has ever been found.

“It has been lifted and is now safely on the barge and in one piece,” said RAF Museum spokesman Ajay Srivastava. The bomber will be towed into port Tuesday, he added.

A few fragments of the plane dropped off as it was being lifted, but officials said divers will retrieve them later. The museum had been trying to raise the relic for a few weeks, but the operation was delayed by strong winds and choppy waters. In 2008, divers discovered the aircraft submerged in 50 feet (15 meters) of water.

[ May 3, 2013] The operation will see the retrieval of what is the only known survivor of the Luftwaffe’s ‘flying pencil’ bomber from the Goodwin Sands, off the coast of Kent where it crash-landed in 1940. Using pioneering techniques, it will take approximately three weeks to complete the lift which has been made possible thanks to a grant of over £345,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF).

The aircraft is the only known example of its kind in the world and was spotted by divers in 2008. After sonar scans conducted by the museum, Wessex Archaeology and the Port of London Authority the identity was confirmed as Dornier Do 17Z Werke nr. 1160 (aircraft history below).

The aircraft is in remarkable condition – considering the events surrounding its loss and the effects of spending so many years under water. Other than the effects of sea life such as barnacles, corral and marine life, it is largely intact. The main undercarriage tyres remain inflated and the propellers clearly show the damage inflicted during the bomber’s final landing.

Amazingly, researchers were able to identify the very airplane itself, who the crew were and what happened to them, and even who shot it down with what kind of plane.

Over 400 Do-17 participated in the Battle of Britain during the course of which nearly 200 examples were destroyed. [sitting duck, indeed!]

Research by the Air Historical Branch and the RAF Museum suggests that the wreck is Do-17-Z2 Ser No 1160 of 7/III/KG3 (5K + AR) lost on 26 August 1940, the height of the Battle of Britain.

The Dornier 17 was part of a large enemy formation intercepted by RAF fighter aircraft at midday on 26 August 1940 as they attempted to attack airfields in Essex. This particular aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing on the Goodwin Sands at low tide after an attack by Defiant fighters of No 264 Sqn that left both engines stopped and the crew wounded.

The Dornier, flown by Feldwebel (Flt Sgt) Willi Effmert attempted a wheels-up landing on the Goodwin Sands. He touched down safely and the aircraft sank inverted. Effmert and his observer were captured but the other crewmen died and their bodies were washed ashore later.

Of the flight of 7 bombers that this one was part of, 6 were shot down that day, by half a dozen Boulton Paul Defiants from RAF No. 264 Squadron, which themselves suffered 50% casualties from the Dornier’s escorting Messerschmidt Bf109 fighters.  War is hell.

Lots more pics at these links:
Daily Mail Online
UK Mirror
This is Kent
The Guardian

Posted by Drew458     on 06/12/2013 at 09:06 AM   
Filed Under: • Archeology / Anthropology • Battling Brits • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles • War-Stories •  
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   Monday - February 04, 2013

Cometh The King

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
‘Til it’s gone
They deposed the king
And put up a parking lot


Life imitates a (slightly modified) Joni Mitchell song?

Scientists announced Monday that they had found the monarch’s 500-year-old remains under a parking lot in the city of Leicester—a discovery Richard’s fans say will rewrite the history books.

University of Leicester researchers say tests on a battle-scarred skeleton unearthed last year prove “beyond reasonable doubt” that it is the king, who died at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, and whose remains have been missing for centuries.

“Richard III, the last Plantaganet King of England, has been found,” said the university’s deputy registrar, Richard Taylor.

Bone specialist Jo Appleby said study of the bones provided “a highly convincing case for identification of Richard III.”

Richard III ruled England between 1483 and 1485, during the decades-long tussle over the throne known as the Wars of the Roses. His brief reign saw liberal reforms, including introduction of the right to bail and the lifting of restrictions on books and printing presses.

His rule was challenged, and he was defeated and killed by the army of Henry Tudor, who took the throne as King Henry VII.

The [Richard III] Society’s Philippa Langley, who helped launch the search for the king, said she could scarcely believe her quest had paid off.

“Everyone thought that I was mad,” she said. “It’s not the easiest pitch in the world, to look for a king under a council car park.”

Now, she said, “a wind of change is blowing, one that will seek out the truth about the real Richard III.”

For centuries, the location of Richard’s body has been unknown. Records say he was buried by the Franciscan monks of Grey Friars at their church in Leicester, 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of London. The church was closed and dismantled after King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1538, and its location eventually was forgotten.

Then, last September, archaeologists searching for Richard dug up the skeleton of an adult male who appeared to have died in battle.

Appleby said the 10 injuries to the body were inflicted by weapons like swords, daggers and halberds and were consistent with accounts of Richard being struck down in battle—his helmet knocked from his head—before his body was stripped naked and flung over the back of a horse in disgrace.

She said some scars, including a knife wound to the buttock, bore the hallmarks of “humiliation injuries” inflicted after death.

The remains also displayed signs of scoliosis, which is a form of spinal curvature, consistent with contemporary accounts of Richard’s appearance, though not with Shakespeare’s description of him as “deform’d, unfinished,” hunchback.

Pretty amazing, really. I’m not sure that the “humiliation injuries” stuff isn’t mostly conjecture; to a foot soldier with a knife, a buttock is about as high as he could reach a man on a horse. 

Posted by Drew458     on 02/04/2013 at 09:11 AM   
Filed Under: • Archeology / Anthropology • Battling Brits •  
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   Monday - January 14, 2013

dicks in a dress get some knickers in a twist

See how it works is, press freedom as approved by the scummy, ugly idiots of the left, like Lynne Featherstone. But hey wait, this all started just because Suzanne Moore quite rightly voiced an opinion, not in the press but in her Twitter page.  Moore is a well known journalist here, and the papers all have Twitter pages so perhaps her Twitter account is tied to her paper. Whatever, this truly ugly beast, speaking of Featherstone, seems to believe that folks who have the temerity to voice an opinion not shared by her, are all fascists of the first order and should all go to the wall.

I’m posting this cos apparently a new phobia has been discovered and introduced.
Yeah really.  How’s this grab ya.

Transphobic!  Iz that a werd er what? Write it down and paste it to your fridge or beer cooler.  The word today is,

TRANSPHOBIC

Leave it to the left to come up with terms for non pc crimes that they can attach ‘phobic’ to.

Oh yeah, take a good look at that ugly face on Featherstone and tell me; can you imagine her as an “Equality Minister”? She is a former minister of equality.  Yuk. Nothing that owns a face that ugly should be seen in public unless wearing a burka or a paper bag over her face. Plastic would work very well too.

Two top female writers, an insult about Brazilian transsexuals and a firestorm on Twitter. Do natural-born women have the right to say what they like about men who change sex?

· Julie Burchill has come under fire for a column in yesterday’s Observer
· The columnist described transsexuals as ‘dicks’ in chicks’ clothing’
· She was writing in defence of fellow columnist Suzanne Moore
· Miss Moore had been forced off Twitter after criticism of another article
· She said women were pressured to have bodies like ‘Brazilian transsexuals’
· Lib Dem minister Lynne Featherstone has called for Ms Burchill to be sacked
· Miss Featherstone also wants Observer editor John Mulholland sacked

By Ben Spencer

A controversial newspaper columnist has been accused of being transphobic after she wrote an article attacking transsexuals as ‘bed-wetters in bad wigs’ and ‘dicks’ in chicks’ clothing’.

Julie Burchill wrote a column in the Observer yesterday defending her friend and fellow columnist Suzanne Moore who came under fire on Twitter for an article that said women were under pressure to have bodies like ‘Brazilian transsexuals’.
The Observer website was swamped with comments in response to Miss Burchill’s column, many describing it as ‘vile’ and ‘horrible’.
Comments have since been suspended on the story and a message posted on the website says that it is now subject to an ‘inquiry’ to be carried out by the paper’s Readers’ Editor.
The comment also provoked fury on Twitter.
Liberal Democrat minister Lynne Featherstone called for Miss Burchill to be sacked for attacking transsexuals as ‘bed-wetters in bad wigs’.
The former Equalities Minister, a staunch supporter of transsexual rights, said she should be fired and her newspaper’s editor John Mulholland should also go.
Miss Burchill wrote the article in defence of fellow columnist Suzanne Moore, who became the target of transsexuals’ fury over what seemed to be a throw-away comment in a previous article.
Miss Moore, describing the challenges faced by modern women in an article for the New Statesman, had written that modern women were expected to look like ‘Brazilian transsexuals’.
She had said: ‘(Women]) are angry with ourselves for not being happier, not being loved properly and not having the ideal body shape – that of a Brazilian transsexual.’
The comment provoked fury on Twitter and Miss Moore subsequently said she had been forced to stop using the website because of the abuse she had received.
She added that the reaction of ‘the very vociferous transsexual lobby and their grim groupies’ reminded her ‘of those wretched inner-city kids who shoot another inner-city kid dead in a fast-food shop for not showing them enough “respect”.’

Some comments on the subject.

I happen to agree with them and find Ms Featherstone a repulsive moaning Minnie who should be getting on with the job she is overpaid to do, not criticise someone else’s opinion to the extent that she demands that they are sacked. So if you get them sacked, it is not going to change their opinion one iota. You can pass all the PC laws you like, but I for one will promptly ignore them!
- exUKresident ,

The world is completely insane, you cant say anything without hurting peoples delicate feelings or someone else championing them and attacking you in the name of political correctness, all this madness has to come to a head sooner or later, the majority of us are sick of the loud crass minority who will jump on any band wagon they can just to make themselves feel worthy
- frankbull, horley, United Kingdom

Lynne Featherbrain is the one who should be sacked! The day the fabulous Julie Burchill is banned from speaking her mind is the day I emigrate to Syria in search of democracy and free speech!
- Dolly Diamond, Brighton,

Now here’s an opinion from the left that won’t surprise anyone.
This is how they think.
THEY will tell you exactly what free speech is and what it is to be used for. Here, read this.

I love how most people commenting here seem to have mistaken ‘free speech’ with ‘vocal & literal bigotry’. Free speech is for anti-war movements, open debate and parity; not for some jumped-up woman to spew hate and insults which are suited to only one agenda: her own.
- Jiffy, Glasgow, United Kingdom

read more here

Posted by peiper     on 01/14/2013 at 01:33 PM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Politically Correct B.S. • Politically-Incorrect •  
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   Thursday - January 03, 2013

onward christian soldier, with a long bow. usual but lovable brit insanity. who else would dare?

Missed yesterday and this will be my only post today.  Unavoidable.

Caught this a couple of days ago.  Reads like something that Hollywood should do.  Of course, they’d make the Brit an American like they did in the movie The Great Escape.  Which in case you didn’t already know, was a Brit operation in real life. 

So anyway, I saw this and still wonder, did he really do that?  It may be brave but it’s a bit bizarre. This is something that is so purely Brit, if Hollywood did the story and tried turning the lead into an American, nobody would buy.  The feeling would be, no American GI would be that dumb. 

Some might say he had more guts than brains.  I don’t think he was dumb at all, but I’m not sure why I believe that.

Bottom line whatever you choose to believe, this was some kind of derring do.

One little niggling problem with the story however, and it will take BMEWS Weapons Guru Drew to tel usl.  And he will if the info printed is incorrect, as I suspect it is.

The article says the guy used the Long Bow, with American Indian arrows.

How?  Would not the Indian arrows have been a lot shorter?  And why Indian arrows? The article does not say.

The amazing story of Mad Jack, the hero who took on the Nazis with a bow and arrow (and later became a professional bagpipe player)

Commando leader said soldiers without a sword was ‘improperly armed’
Led his men carrying a bow and arrow and playing the bagpipes
Earned two Distinguished Service Orders and a Military Cross during war
His story recovered by researchers from website findmypast.co.uk

By Ian Drury, Defence Correspondent

He was nicknamed Mad Jack by his men during the Second World War.

After coming face to face with Lieutenant Colonel John Churchill, the Germans probably had a similar, if less affectionate, moniker for the eccentric officer.

Rather than wield a sub-machine gun in battle, the commando leader inspired his comrades by storming beaches armed with a bow and arrow and two-handed sword, dressed in a kilt and playing a set of bagpipes.

He enhanced his reputation by capturing 42 German prisoners with only his broadsword and later escaping from one of the most daunting Nazi jails before the end of the war.

The colourful officer’s bravery – he is the only soldier in the war credited with killing enemy troops with arrows – earned him a chestful of gallantry medals, including two Distinguished Service Orders and a Military Cross. But even though his career was one of the most remarkable in the history of the Army, his story is not widely known.

Now the heroism of Lt Col Churchill, who died in 1996 aged 89, has been recovered by researchers at family history website findmypast.co.uk.

His story has been put together from reports in local newspapers which have been placed online for the first time.

Born in Surrey in 1906, he was educated on the Isle of Man and at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He joined the 2nd Battalion the Manchester Regiment in 1926.

He later left the Army to become a professional bagpipe player and appeared in films. He was also a highly skilled bowman, representing Britain in the World Archery Championships in 1939. At the outbreak of war he was recalled to the Army.

Carrying an English longbow and American Indian arrows on to the battlefield, Lt Col Churchill’s fearlessness under fire became his hallmark.

He often said that ‘any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly armed’. An account in the Dundee Evening Telegraph from May 1945 described his deadly attack against Germans hiding in bushes during the retreat to Dunkirk five years earlier.

‘He was on patrol when some Germans were detected in a thicket about 200 yards away,’ said the report. ‘He shot two arrows into the thicket. There were some strange noises and no answering fire.’

He was also in the thick of the action with his bagpipes while leading 2 Commando through Sicily, to Messina and the landings at Salerno, Italy.

Alongside a corporal named Ruffell, he took 42 German prisoners and captured a mortar post using only his sword, taking one guard as a human shield and then creeping between sentry posts and forcing the soldiers to surrender.

Mad Jack was finally captured in an attack on the island of Brac, off the then Yugoslavia, when, as bombs exploded around him, he continued to play his bagpipes until he was knocked unconscious.

He later escaped from the Sagan prison but was recaptured and interned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp until being released by the German army.

MAD JACK SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 01/03/2013 at 08:04 AM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • UK • War-Stories •  
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   Tuesday - October 23, 2012

on the front line with some battling brits

No Photoshop, no makeup, no glamour runway boobs falling out or caked with makeup,
some real women and this one at least still looks damn good to these tired old eyes just as she is.

OK .... NOW CLICK THE IMAGE FOR A LOT MORE TO SEE AND READ. MORE SEE THEN READ.

Posted by peiper     on 10/23/2012 at 04:09 PM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • Military • War-Stories •  
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   Thursday - May 17, 2012

senior sees off two thugs putting hurt on one.

Do not get a lot of stories like this so like to pass on.

Might seem a bit weird and maybe I have missed other examples but, over the last 6 months or so with other stories dealing with people who have fought back and been lucky, it just seems as though the majority of them have been older folk like this fellow, or else women and then no spring chickens either.

They picked on the wrong pensioner! Boxer, 77, who trained with Henry Cooper, beats up two club-wielding thugs after home attack

· Michael Mather dusted off his fighting skills to send to thugs packing
· He smashed the nose of one of the yobs after they ‘walloped’ him on head

By RICHARD HARTLEY-PARKINSON
In his younger days, pensioner Michael Mather was used to sparring in the ring with boxing legend Henry Cooper.
But more recently he has dusted off his fighting skills to put up a fight against two brutal thugs who attacked him outside his home in Ilford, Essex.
The 77-year-old was hit on the head with a wooden club as they tried to force their way into his house while he loaded his car.
Proving he can still throw a good punch, Mr Mather hit one of them in the face and the pair, in their late teens, fled the scene.

Mr Mather spent his youth training with post-war heavyweight boxing icon Henry Cooper and East End gangsters, the Kray twins.
Mr Mather said: ‘One of the boys walloped me on the head with a two foot log and it started bleeding. I was so angry I swore at them and told them I was going to kill them.

‘They then tried to push past me to get into the house.
‘I went to hit one of the boys in the solar plexus with my left and then with my right hand hit him on the nose and it just burst which I do feel a bit guilty about.’
Mr Mather was on his way to referee a local football tournament when he was confronted by his attackers.
‘I was putting my ref’s gear into the car and I didn’t really notice the boys,’ he said. ‘I heard a voice saying “can I use your toilet mister?” but I told them it was out of order,’ he said.

They thugs insisted that Mr Mather let them into his house and attacked him from behind after he turned his back.
‘After I hit him the boys ran off,’ he added.
‘I assume it was the sight of me with blood over my face which was so thick I couldn’t see through my glasses.’
He was then taken to Queen’s Hospital, Romford.

He said: ‘When the nurse at the hospital was stitching my head back together all I could think about was getting to the football match as I didn’t want to let the boys down.

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 05/17/2012 at 11:37 AM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • Crime •  
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   Wednesday - September 15, 2010

A TOAST TO THOSE BATTLING BRITS OF THE BLITZ, bricks and bats to the spongers who don’t know

I read some obits today, the generation of WW2 is passing and the obits today had to do with three former members of the RAF. For the last week, Britain has been remembering the Blitz and the “Few” to whom so much is owed.  So today the Telegraph ran the obits of three of these brave warriors.  You just gotta read these.  These guys were truly giants in their day.  There equally brave men on all sides of course, but I’m concentrating on our side quite naturally.  I might do something on the other guys one of these days just to be different.  Well anyway ... so I read about these once young and dashing chaps and just had to admire them.  I’m not going to post the entire obit on all three. I’ll give you the link with the hope that you’ll follow it and read their stories.

I wasn’t going to post any obits at first to be honest.  I was afraid of overkill, but then something else caught my attention.  I read something that makes their stories as sad as their passing, and it’s set in modern Britain. 
I happened upon a headline which read as follows.

A Life Without Work ...
1.5 million Britons haven’t had a job since they left school. 

The article says that almost 1.5 million people never did a days work in their lives. Now, that does include a lot of those who might be genuinely disabled.  There might be thousands who for one reason or another are not shirkers but desperately ill folks in need.  But then ... then there are kids like young Jamie Cole. Jamie is a NEET. That stands for, Not in Education, Employment, or Training.

Jamie started drawing about $145 a week after dropping out of school and he says, “I deserve every penny of the dole money because I have to have food, don’t I?  It’s not my fault there’s a recession.” Jamie says he’s tried to find a job but nobody cares.  He trained as a plumber and passed vocational qualifications. He said he “didn’t fancy it” and added, “what’s the point?  I get up around 1pm and we hang out, play football and just enjoy life.”
Gee, isn’t that wonderful?  To be honest BMEWS, I think I feel sorry for this young fellow.  Yeah I know that seems weird but really.  He isn’t even remotely aware he might be tossing away his youth and a better future then the one he may end up with.

Then meet The Cromptons

Tracey Crompton, 42, has never had a job, despite having no medical
complaints that prevent her from working.

She and her husband Harry, 52, who has not worked for 15 years, and their ten children live in a seven-bedroom house in Hull and get £32,656 in benefits a year.

Mr Crompton says he is unable to work due to angina and irritable bowel syndrome.

‘I’m not satisfied with the benefits we get – I want more. I haven’t been able to work because I’ve had to bring up the kids,’ Mrs Crompton said.

Poor guy. Has IBS. How freekin awful.  I’ve known people on crutches who held at least a part time job and couldn’t tolerate the idea of being out of work.
I knew a fellow who held a full time job before everyone had rights to time off, and he was on a dialysis machine every week.  I can’t remember how often but it was the first time I’d ever heard of that sort of thing.  I thought he was very brave once I understood what that was all about and what he had to endure. And that was long ago.  More then 40 years now.  Thing is, he was not unemployed. So I’m not too sympathetic with IBS, which I’ve had a brush with in the past. 

And finally since we’re working (and it’s taken a fair bit of time) in threes ... the third and last recipient of easy money, compliments of a welfare state.
Meet Claire Davey.  Poor cow, all those kiddies to care for.  Kiddies who one day will, since mommy is setting the fine example, turn out just like her.
A baby machine .  CaChung.

Claire Davey is nearly 30 and has never had a job as she claims she has to raise her eight children.

She receives £815 (about $1200) a week in state handouts. Her husband Peter, 35, gave up his administrative job as he found he could make more living on benefits.

Yet they say they still need a bigger home. ‘It’s really hard,’ said Mrs Davey earlier this year. ‘We can’t afford holidays. The price of living is going up but benefits are going down.’

Of their income of more than £42,000 a year Mrs Davey said: ‘I don’t think I’m selfish. It doesn’t bother me that taxpayers are paying for me to have a large family.’ Uh huh. We hear ya you fat bitch.  The problem is, the taxpayers haven’t any say in the matter.  They are a captive audience at a theater with locked doors and no escape.  Even after death they will support this pile of unsightly blubber.  He .... needs to be made sterile and so does she.  I can’t even post here what I wish on them both.  And even less of the state that could condone and encourage this.  The present govt. says it doesn’t. We’ll see about that.
Stay Tuned.

Full photos if your tummy can take it and story source. The Mail
LIFE ON THE DOLE COZ IT’S THEIR RIGHT

Please see the link for their entire stories.  They really were awesome. And daring. And brave.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/

Which now brings me to just a few (3) of the many who fought to save their country but had no idea who they were saving it for.  They’d have fought even if they knew. What else was there?  Here’s to those brave boys, and to an England lost in time.

Wing Commander John Freeborn

Battle of Britain Spitfire ace who flew more operational hours than any other pilot and shot down at least a dozen enemy aircraft

Lieutenant-Commander ‘Steady’ Tuke

Lieutenant-Commander ‘Steady’ Tuke, who has died aged 89, was one of the youngest recipients of the DSC during the Battle of Britain after a desperate aerial battle over the English Channel, after taking on Messerschmitts in his sluggish biplane.

Wing Commander Norman Hayes

Wing Commander Norman Hayes, who has died aged 98, flew night fighters fitted with top-secret radar equipment during the Battle of Britain; he also piloted the only aircraft to survive an attack on Rotterdam on the opening day of the German invasion of the Low Countries.

And because I can and I think he belongs here, our late Uncle Ray. (RAF) The wife’s uncle but always Uncle Ray to me. I never just called him Ray.

He is seated far right.  A bit of a scraper I was told and one of great humor as well. I can attest to that. He was a joy to be around.  This photo was taken in 1940.

The color photo was Uncle Ray age 85, at the garden party for his older sister who was 89 on the day. It was July and hot, hardly any shade but he came sporting a tie and heavy jacket, with his RAF patch easily seen in the photo. You can also tell, I think, he was a man of some humor. 

Posted by peiper     on 09/15/2010 at 12:39 PM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • OBITITUARIES • UK •  
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   Tuesday - September 14, 2010

Eileen Nearne. Ever heard of her? Me neither. And that’s sad cos she was a brave Battling Brit. RIP

RIP, Eileen Nearne
A fighting veteran of WW2 nobody knew about as she never spoke about her experiences in the war, and was quite reclusive in old age.  And alone. Sad.

Caught this only a bit over an hour ago.  Quite a story. Read it all at the link below.

A fitting farewell at last for forgotten WWII heroine Eileen: Undertakers agree to foot bill for a proper church funeral after public outcry

By Graham Smith and Luke Salkeld
Last updated at 1:55 PM on 14th September 2010

The daring British Second World War spy who died alone in her flat earlier this month will receive an all-expenses-paid funeral following public outcry that she was to be cremated unmourned.

Eileen Nearne had hardly any visitors to her Torquay home over the past two decades before she was found dead after suffering a heart attack at the age of 89.

It is understood she has no surviving family and no-one was found to pay for her funeral.

Hundreds of well-wishers have today volunteered to donate money so that Miss Nearne could be given a send-off befitting her wartime service.

The members of the public, moved by her heroic tale, inundated the local council asking for details of where her funeral would be taking place and offering money to help pay for it.

But these donations are no longer needed as both the funeral home and crematorium have waived their fees.

Such was the national interest in Miss Nearne’s fate that the funeral director has offered to not only pay for the service, but to move it to a larger church to accommodate the members of the public who wish to attend.

The British Royal Legion has confirmed it will place a flag on her coffin.

Dozens of MailOnline readers joined an impromtu campaign by leaving messages expressing their admiration for Miss Nearne - and demanding she receive a ‘military funeral with full honours’.

Lawrence Rainform, from Ormskirk in Lancashire, said: ‘The bravery of those people working in occupied France helped to secure our freedom from Nazi domination.

Jane Roberts, from Oxford, added: ‘How sad, and how dreadful that a woman who served her country with such courage should have died alone.

‘I think some lasting plaque should be erected in Torbay to her heroic memory. God bless her.’

Details of her glorious past emerged after out-of-date French currency, correspondence written in French, and a selection of medals were discovered by officials trying to trace relatives or friends among her private possessions at her flat in Torquay.

As part of the UK’s Special Operations Executive Miss Nearne served in occupied France as a radio operator under the code name ‘Rose’.

READ MORE HERE WITH PIX

Posted by peiper     on 09/14/2010 at 08:52 AM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • OBITITUARIES •  
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   Monday - September 06, 2010

OBIT of a Battling Brit … Only Flynn could have played this guy if a movie had been made …

And when I say “battling” oh boy is that NOT simply a matter of speech and expression.  Wanna talk about your derring do ....

A sailor with a very funny sounding name.  Kinda reminds me of A Boy Named Sue who had to be tough.

Take a look.  And btw ... the photo I placed here is a dummy made in pow camp to fool the German guards. Even had working eyes. 

Lieutenant-Commander Tony Bentley-Buckle , RIP

Lieutenant-Commander Tony Bentley-Buckle, who has died aged 88, spent the last 18 months of the Second World War as a prisoner-of-war in Germany, when he and his fellow inmates of Marlag-O, a PoW camp for naval officers in northern Germany, built a man-sized dummy called “Albert RN”.

The dummy was hidden in towels and carried in its component parts to the wash house outside the camp, where it was assembled. It was then carried back into camp in the midst of the marching men, leaving one man to hide in the latrine while the Germans made their headcount. Later the hiding man would emerge and make his escape.

Bentley-Buckle was the camp’s watch repairer and lock picker, and he made the mechanism which enabled Albert’s eyes to blink and move, giving added realism to the dummy. In 1953 a highly fictionalised version of the episode was made into a film, Albert RN, but Bentley-Buckle’s true wartime adventures, behind enemy lines in Italy and Yugoslavia, were even stranger than fiction.

Anthony William Bentley-Buckle was born on August 13 1921, a child of empire whose early years were spent in Belgium, England and Ceylon, where his father was a tea planter; he was brought up largely by his maiden aunts. Educated at Ampleforth, he was sent out into the world with a caution about “the danger of women”.

Bentley-Buckle joined the Navy in January 1939, and his first ship was the elderly light cruiser Dunedin, on the Northern Patrol between Scotland and Iceland .

So many senior officers were away from Dunedin that Bentley-Buckle, while still a cadet, was ordered to board a Swedish cargo vessel which, after examining her manifest, he decided to take into Kirkwall. The Swedish captain refused to co-operate and took to his bunk, so Bentley-Buckle took her safely through the minefields into harbour.

Vice-Admiral Max Horton (then commanding the Northern Patrol) was so impressed that he recommended Bentley-Buckle for accelerated promotion.

On another occasion, when Bentley-Buckle boarded the passenger ship Drottingholm, he puffed out his chest and put his cap at a jaunty angle, only to be greeted by an American passenger who screeched: “Gee, honey, isn’t it a crime to send kids to war.”

Later, while serving in the battleship Revenge, he broke his arm and was landed in Durban to recover. After a few weeks he was made drafting officer, responsible for selecting officers and men for different appointments.

He immediately drafted himself home and nearer to the war.

After volunteering for special service, Bentley-Buckle was trained as a beachmaster at HMS Armadillo, the combined operations school at Loch Long, and took command of G Commando, Royal Navy.

The beachmaster’s task was to take control of the beach during amphibious landings and determine, often under heavy fire, when to call in landing craft and to order troops and supplies to advance inland — at this point the beachmaster outranked everyone else.

In June 1943 Bentley-Buckle was the first man ashore at Pachino, during the Allied landings on Sicily, and his commando took charge of the beach at Reggio during the crossing of the Strait of Messina.

At Reggio he met General Montgomery standing on an amphibious landing vehicle, haranguing the troops and blocking an exit from the beach. Much to the amazement of the soldiers gathered around, Bentley-Buckle ordered Montgomery to clear the beach. “Who in the hell are you?” demanded Monty — and when Bentley-Buckle told him he was the beachmaster, the scowling general departed inland.

After reaching Termoli on the Adriatic coast BB, as he had become known, volunteered to command a mixed flotilla of surrendered Italian torpedo boats and local fishing vessels operating behind enemy lines to rescue British PoWs who had escaped from custody after the collapse of Italy.

BB undertook nine trips, six of them on successive nights, navigating his craft in the darkness to precise rendezvous between Termoli and Ancona. Asked to bring back a German prisoner for questioning, BB set up a fake road diversion. Soon a German dispatch rider on his motorbike, following BB’s signs, drove directly onto the beach where Bentley-Buckle was waiting.

On his penultimate mission he torpedoed a German supply ship, and on his last he landed near Venice a priest who claimed he could round up many more prisoners who were hiding in the city.

Bentley-Buckle was mentioned in despatches for his skill and enterprise in rescuing prisoners from the coast of Italy

He then set up a base on the island of Lucin Piccolo, on the Yugoslav coast. A week later the Germans counterattacked and, after a brief but bloody resistance Bentley-Buckle was captured and taken to Pola.

Whilst being taken inland, he jumped from a lorry and rolled into the undergrowth. He was shot in the hand but hid until nightfall, when he approached a farmhouse and — after throwing pebbles at the window — was admitted by a couple who fed him and gave him a change of clothes.

Next morning he was taken by partisans over the hills into Trieste, where he was betrayed to two plain-clothes SS officers. Bentley-Buckle promptly seized one of their pistols and shot both men, but ran into a German army check point where he was arrested.

After a brutal interrogation, which included a beating by five German SS women, he was left with a damaged hand and swollen testicles; he was scarcely able to crawl.

THERE’S MORE HERE AT THE SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 09/06/2010 at 08:37 AM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • OBITITUARIES •  
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   Monday - August 16, 2010

Young women at the front …. Battling Brits

I hope she’ll be okay .... I wish her well and all those young people in harms way. 

There are some videos here of other young women in uniform and serving “Over There.”

MORE VIDEOS HERE AT THE SOURCE, TELEGRAPH

Lance Corporal Ashton Mulligan, who joined up at 16, explains why she now has ambivalent feelings towards ‘home’.

Posted by peiper     on 08/16/2010 at 09:53 AM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • UK • War-Stories •  
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