RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

This is one of my favourite pictures from WW2. Taken in the town of Putte nr Antwerp in October 1944, it holds for me a humble insight into the daily life of Tanker and civilian alike. I have a copy of this picture in my hallway and I have spent many an hour studying the faces captured in that click of a camera shutter.

The man on the far left resplendent in his long leather coat and boots strutting down the cobbled street.

The man with both hands in his boiler suit pockets looking inquistive with the look only a man with an engineering background can muster.

Cpr Young and Sgt Murray of The Fort Garry Horse far away from Canadian shore's stop on the cobble's of a Belgium town to toil and sweat over a track. I just love the non regulation civy waistcoat, jumper and fob pocket watch, it is just wonderfully casual. The censor scribbling out their cap badge.But my un-answered question, did they both make it home safe ? I hope so.

What are the two civilian men discussing in the background ?

The elder boy, the look whilst not fear, he looks pensive, uncertain in a world that must have changed so much since the war started.

The little blonde boy, we have all been him,what you doing ? what for ?,why kid.His mother has made sure he went out the house fully wrapped against the October
cold up in his heavy coat and scarf and extra tie around his waist, warmth is vital. Except his poor legs which have nothing on them. Shorts, really ? He is absorbed in the tap of the hammer and the churp of Canadian slang.

Human contact define's who we are, I just hope those in this picture lived on to build on the prospect of peace, for as in an Irish proverb, " It is in the shelter of each other that people live".

Let me know what you see ?, Everyone is different. that's the beauty.

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Hmmm, I guess I don't really wonder what people are thinking, but that is a good candid street photograph

One thing puzzles me, about what you though about the two boys in shorts. You're only six years younger than me, don't you remember wearing shorts to school, no matter the weather? Long winter socks and shorts, at least we were better off than the girls with their skirts and socks I guess a grazed knee was better than ruining trousers as well lol.

I have always found this photo interesting.. Something as cute as puppies, atop a machine designed to kill.

And this one, while in training not war, really warms the heart! The crew are helping kids get to school over the bridge they collapsed.

My cousins were born in the 1930s and 40s, and looked pretty much like those kids. In fact, fashions hardly changed in the 1950s either, when I was in shorts pants (handy to pee from, incidentally... )
Here's a pic I like. It's not simply because it's colourised; but really because it shows clearly how the cannon and MGs on a Messerschmidt Bf 109, are arranged, and could fire through the crank (and Prop boss), and past the (inverted) engine sump. As a kid, I'd always wondered how the cannon could fire though the crankshaft itself.

I do wonder if there's a couple of tanks somewhere under the tracks

I wonder where the tank crews have gone, and if they're getting some kind of "treat" for their good work, while the lone guard taking his post very seriously, looks after their transport

Roy, how do those guns fire through the crank shafts did you ever find out?

Not as bad as me, as a kid, I once read about T 34 tank crews digging charcoal pits for their tanks, and thought they were making charcoal as fuel for their charcoal fuelled T 34's

Son of a gun-ner wrote:Hmmm, I guess I don't really wonder what people are thinking, but that is a good candid street photograph

One thing puzzles me, about what you though about the two boys in shorts. You're only six years younger than me, don't you remember wearing shorts to school, no matter the weather? Long winter socks and shorts, at least we were better off than the girls with their skirts and socks I guess a grazed knee was better than ruining trousers as well lol.

Your right, I suppose I should recall wearing shorts when I was six, that and putting my little milk bottle on the classroom iron radiator to take the chill off in the winter! Forced to wear Aunties knitted jumpers, and vest,s were things we had to wear when mum was cold.

Kid’s today, don’t know their born... Gosh did I really just say that? Lol.

I am assured by my eldest sister that i once asked my Mum why I had to wear a (HandKnitted) Balaclaver helmet as well as woolen gloves together with my shorts.
Still I was a few years later the first kid in our school to wear cuban heeled winklepickers and a shortie raincoat and a pair of genuine Italian made strides.
Whatever happened to the 50s it seems like only yesterday

The Blue Pullmans (midland and western), Massey Ferguson '50s tractors, lS2/3 and T34s, Chaparral 2E/F, Garrard 401 with SME 3009 tone arm, Victor bomber. All things of great engineering beauty that make me go hhmmm.... Oh, and nearly all cats - design perfection.

Heavy horses (Still)/Working Traction engines, Steam railways (still) Humber Pig,Jowett Javelin,Bristol Brabazon, Valve radios, One Television channel,Smog,Six day working weeks,Bomb sites, Atomic Bomb tests.Smoking,Trolley buses,CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.National Service, Leaving School at 15,Semaphore car indicators.My Mum constantly complaining about laddering her stockings Frost on the inside of my bedroom window.