Wars and Conflicts

GF -
I do know about the Marines as I spent some time in Poole around the time of the Falklands when I spent some time in advising many of their wives who worked for a rather large bank and were bemoaning their fate - that this was what their husbands had signed up for and they counldn't grasp the term "left out of battle" where neighbours were still at home !
A cousin was also M.O. to the 40th Commando - you would hardly credit that now though - need a QE2 to haul him around !

+Lost W/end - I thought that you had turned over a new leaf recently as you have been making some sense in many of your postings but now I see that you have reverted to being the know it all that we had come to know.

As one of the parochial old men I do take great exception in being written off in that manner and would point out that I made no reference - good or bad about our commonwealth's contribution to the special forces viz - the SAS founded by Stirling and Mayne. It is well known that many Kiwis' and Aussies were involved in many special ops in the desert as they had a more common knowledge of natural terrain as did the city bred British troops and thus were involved in both the LRDG as well as Popski's Private Army.
The SAS as their name implies started with their first operations in jumping out of airplanes which were not too successful and thus the LRDG were called upon as a taxi service
for which they were eminently suited from their own experinces in recceing the enemy.
Mad Mike Calvert was instrumental in training New Zealand and Australian Commandos in the early years before he met Wingate and did not take over an SAS brigade until March of '45 prior to the SAS being disbanded - he was effective in the Malayan Conflict long after the WW2- so it can hardly be said that he was more effective than Stirling of Mayne or even Roy Farran in the early days, but he did have an input into the modern regiment - as did many others including Tony Drummond !

Caro -
My apologies if anything I wrote has you confused regarding what has been termed as parochial - any of my remarks were by no means parochial as I paid due honour to the efforts of the New Zealanders who were front and foremost in the initial SAS regiment around 1941 in the desert by Stirling and Mayne. And indeed for all New Zealanders in the desert and later in Italy.
I had the great honour of serving alongside them at both Cassino and the Gothic Line Battles and I am most cogniscent of their value. And again in Dunedin itself when I remonstrated against a picture of a scene from the Battle of the Sangro River - which cost the Kiwi's's great casualties - being hidden away in a dark corner of that City's museum.
So any remarks I made were of the initial British SAS regiment which was disbanded in nov /dec 1945 and re-formed later.
The New Zealand SAS was constituted in 1955, of which Willie Apiata is obviously a member ! Charles Upham was a member of the 2nd N.Z. Division both in Crete and at El Alamein, led by Gen. Freyberg V.C.
Again - my apologies for your confusion !
Cheers

Caro -
The Canadian version of the V.C. was changed in 1993 as L W/end states but the change of wording merely reflects the Bi-lingual nature of Canada - the neutral Latin prevents undue anquish from the Quebecois - and as to the change of metals - the Guns of Balaclava surely must be running out by now ...?


" A formal request for the creation of a family of Military Valour Decorations was signed by the Prime Minister of Canada on December 31, 1992. The Queen approved the Letters Patent on February 2, 1993."

"The highest British and Commonwealth decoration, the Victoria Cross, has traditionally been recognized as the most prestigious award for gallantry under enemy fire. Only one minor change will distinguish the Canadian VC from the original VC created by the Queen Victoria in 1856. The Canadian version of the Victoria Cross will have the Latin inscription "PRO VALORE" in place of the English - only "FOR VALOUR" found on the British VC."

Hi Trooper Tom,
It's either a BSc in bull sh*t or a history and french.....not much competition really!
Raybans13 otherwise known as another Tom

Lost w/end
Not surprised the Canadians won't tell the source of their bronze - probaby the same as the loonie & toonie coins - straight out of the US mint !

Take a look at Youtube and look for Jeremy Clarkson's (who i usually dislike)documentary on victoria cross heroes. Well worth watching. While you're at it have a look at his documentary on the St Nazaire raid "the greatest raid of all time" i think it was called.
Cheers,
Paul

His name is Mark Donaldson. He was awarded the first 'VC for Australia' for action in Oruzgan Province in Afghanistan in September last year

Aussiebrit, good afternoon.

Me, wrong? Surely not!

I think you'll find that when I made my post in May of last year, Trooper Donaldson was some four months from his act of gallantry.

I have many qualities, but clairvoyance is not one of them (not even on horse races, alas).

Cheers

LW