...and then they'll likely bend a few elbows too! At this point, as heroic as it undoubtedly was being suspended from silk (weren't nylons too?jarndice wrote:
If you have need of a place to start why not phone or visit your local British Legion,
But be careful you could be stuck there for hours getting your ear bent by some old soldier
Shaun.
), or skimming in on fragile wing, I'd like to mention the bravery of our Reconnaisance/Scoutingunits. They were often the first to find the enemy, and the first to encounter a stream of lead, or an 88mm shell
. They were airborne too, ( 6th Airborne Armd. Recce-switched their wee Tetrarch tanks for Cromwells, eventually). I've been reading Richard Doherty's 'The British Reconnaissance Corps in WW2 (Pub: Osprey), and it points out the 43rd Recce (my late Father and Uncle's unit..) were the first British troops to reach the Seine (by hobnail boot, tyres, and tracks .. but not silk 
), and along with51st Recce (51st Highland Division) pretty much the first British troops to enter Germany, near the Reichswald (Goch).. They, and other Recce units, also took heavy losses racing to support the Yanks in the 'Bulge', and went to the rescue of the beleaguered Paras during 'Market Garden' (Arnhem),. That was 43rd Wessex, 15th scottish, and 52nd Lowland recce units. At other times, they took often heavy losses supporting trapped infantry units. Their 2-pounders, Brens, 3in mortars were no real match for 75mms and 88s; but they relied on speed and guts.
Maybe someday, they'll merit a movie..
The was an excellent B & W film, as also called 'Dunkirk', made in 1958, and starring the ever watchable John Mills as Corporal 'Tubby' Binns, with Bernard Lee ("M" in early Bond flicks), and a nervy Richard Attenborough as 'little ships' owners. The scenes on the beach depicted there, were probably not surpassed in scale, authenticity, and detail until 'The Longest Day" came along, and then 'Private Ryan'. Even now, I find that old classic has something to offer. Unusually too (for that time), most of it was shot out of doors. Apparently, the bunker used by 'Vice Admiral Ramsay' was the actual one used during the evacuation.