WWII; We were bloody lucky!

[Browser]

In the closing stages of reading the 'unabridged and complete' version of The Big Show by Pierre Clostermann and it's given me a truthful and painfully honest insight into the life of a front-line fighter pilot in WWII. He doesn't pull his punches as he describes not only the difficulty of flying a complex machine in combat but the wearying effect on morale that doing this day in and day out had.
It's also making em realise, as I read more about how far ahead the German engineers and designers were in their aircraft alone, that we were bloody lucky to win in Europe, and that they had Adolf the nutboy making the ultimate decisions for them. Had they had a sane and effective commander we'd have been suing for peace, either that or Truman would have been authorising nuclear strikes on Berlin, Hamburg, Munich etc!

 

[awemawson]

The whole of Europe was as you put it "bloody lucky" we managed somehow to pull though or otherwise they would all be in the sh#t. If we hadn't held on until at long last the Americans came to our aid the political nature of Europe would be far worse than it is even now in the EU

It has been distinctly beneficial to Europe twice in the last century that we weren't more 'integrated'

 

[roofman]

I think iff the German fighting machine had not over stretched by going East then we would be typing this in German now.

 

[DanielW]

Correction,the yanks didn't come to our aid they came in when pearl harbour got struck.....if that had not happened the yanks would not have give a fig about us.

 

[roofman]

Correction,the yanks didn't come to our aid they came in when pearl harbour got struck.....if that had not happened the yanks would not have give a fig about us.

The U-Boats used to sit in New York Harbour and view the Liberty Statue with the Periscopes so the Nazi threat was on there shores too.

 

[awemawson]

Correction,the yanks didn't come to our aid they came in when pearl harbour got struck.....if that had not happened the yanks would not have give a fig about us.

Not quite true: They were giving us quite a bit of assistance before Pearl Harbour. The Americans had legislation on their statue book that prohibited selling arms to any belligerents involved in any conflict, they lent over backwards to circumvent this. In the late 1930's we had spent a lot of our gold reserves setting up armament factories in, at first Canada, then the USA. The Americans were fairly co-operative in this and were entering into advantageous 'capital allowance' schemes. Unfortunately we ran out of gold reserves. We had managed to save the Belgian and French gold - the Belgians allowed us to use theirs for the war effort, but the French refused and shipped it to the French bit of Canada. What changed after Pearl Harbour was that the US insisted that these factories started producing American specification weaponry when they had completed the contracts that were 'in the pipe line'. When the gold finally was all used up they started 'Lend Lease' which although financially disastrous, let us 'win' (if we did) the war.

 

[wristpin]

Politicians never learn, Gordon Brown gave away" our gold reserves when last in government!

Politicians, like nappies, should be changed regularly and for the same reason!

 

[SmartWerks]

Politicians, like nappies, should be changed regularly and for the same reason!

Don't talk nonsense?!!!!

The contents of a nappy have far more substance and consistency than any political parasite

 

[roofman]

Politicians never learn, Gordon Brown gave away" our gold reserves when last in government!

Politicians, like nappies, should be changed regularly and for the same reason!

Ironicly i do believe we still have Tonns of gold left...public info floating about the world wide webb somewhere

 

[SmartWerks]

Ironicly i do believe we still have Tonns of gold left...public info floating about the world wide webb somewhere

We have something like 900 times the money in circulation compared to gold reserve. Remembering money is suppose to be a receipt for the gold held.

This was why we wacked Gaddafi, he said he was going to stop accepting dollar payments and exchange gas and oil for gold as the paper money is printed on is actually worthless. A lot of Africa was getting behind the idea of the gold dina as they were giving away valuable commodities for worthless paper which has no real value locally and can only be spent importing goods.

always much more than meets the eye, and any war we aren't fighting for what we think - just protecting the rich and doing there bidding.

 

[SmartWerks]

An interesting documentary

http://m.youtube.com/results?q=how money works&sm=1

 

[CRB]

Had the German military been more focused in their development of the multitude of projects, we would indeed be German.
http://www.luft46.com/
The aircraft, long distance guns, rocket systems, hand guns, tanks, and submarines, that where under construction or testing is positively frightening.

I know they are all Wiki links but a good number of the projects are well documented elsewhere.

 

[SmartWerks]

Would that be a bad thing? I've lived and worked there. Higher wages for fewer hours, no class system, unionised workforce were the unions are actually effective, low rent and utility bills, you can still afford to go to the match, great beer, great cars, clean streets and low crime with anti social behaviour an unknown nuisance.

 

[HMB]

Ah yes but not quite under the Führer tho is it

Oder in Deutsch, nicht ganz unter die Kontolle Führers obwohl

 

[awemawson]

But if Adolf Schicklgruber had won, what you see in Germany now is totally different from how it would have been - don't imagine it would have been a nice place. Part of the planning for Operation Sea Lion (invasion of England) was the SS identifying where on the south coast they would establish internment camps for the entire male population between the ages of 16 and 45 to be trans shipped to Germany as slave labour

 

[wheresmejumper]

Would that be a bad thing? I've lived and worked there. Higher wages for fewer hours, no class system, unionised workforce were the unions are actually effective, low rent and utility bills, you can still afford to go to the match, great beer, great cars, clean streets and low crime with anti social behaviour an unknown nuisance.

I do enjoy QI though.itd be a shame if it had a different presenter

 

[brightspark]

id have been ok 6foot tall blond hair {WHEN I HAD SOME ) blue eyes and crout relatives

 

[wheresmejumper]

I think iff the German fighting machine had not over stretched by going East then we would be typing this in German now.

I think there was natural resources to the east that were needed to keep the war machine going in the long term

 

[wheresmejumper]

id have been ok 6foot tall blond hair {WHEN I HAD SOME ) blue eyes and crout relatives

You wouldnt have to wait 4 weeks for a mig welder either!

 

[SmartWerks]

That's something that dumb founds me, the Germans are nice, intelligent people with good morale and very sociable. Very liberal too, lived and worked in Holland who are thought of as liberal but they are conservative in comparison to the Germans. So how the hell would Nazi propoganda influence intelligent people. I won't say it, but modern history has maybe shown us why they didn't want the country run by a certain group of people who now act like nazis?