I thought that some of you might like to see the contact that was made on Skype this evening between yours truly and Bud (Footslogger) in Ontario. Now that we've set this up, we hope to make regular weekly contact, using this media, Ron [sharedmedia=gallery:images:22978] [sharedmedia=gallery:images:22977]
4 WW2Talk members at Lofty's SOGs meeting today: Lofty, me, Dave (kingarthur) and Paul Pariso. Great meeting.
Supposed to meet up with Colin Hotham at Vancouver Airport as he returns to Wiltshire but the 175 miles round trip might put me off - so hopefully my son will buy him lunch - and have photo taken Cheers
Met up with Wilf Shaw in Halifax last weekend. Had a good old chat for a few hours and he bought me lunch at the Piece Hall
As well as meeting Lee (PsyWar.Org) again at TNA last Tuesday we (my Aussie mate Mike B and I) had the pleasure of meeting John (horsapassenger) on Wednesday. After a slightly comical misidentification we had a good chat with John over lunch break from the readers room. My apologies John, as perhaps you can understand with Mike B's enforced change of plans, I was a bit distracted and completely forgot we were supposed to meet up there on Wednesday! We had a very busy and incredibly productive 2 days at Kew and our later plans to go to Leicester to meet the LCT skipper worked out well too. Mike B has now changed his plans for his extended trip to Europe and is en route back to Australia by a rather torturous and expensive route (although cheaper than a $4000 upgrade to Business Class) due to his Father's serious illness. As usual meeting a fellow WW2Talk member was an absolute delight and we enjoyed sharing our knowledge and experiences of research and military history. Looking forward to meeting more forum members.
Mike It was certainly good to meet you and Mike B and what a fascinating story he has to tell about his diving discovery and subsequent research. You can blame the misidentification on the photo that was posted on here about your get together at Lofty's. There's a certain similarity which was not helped by you both being called Mike. It's certainly a shame that his planned trip had to be curtailed by his Father's illness and I hope that he is able to get back in time to be with him. Keep in touch and let me know how things progress with your research. John
Great to meet you John. As I think Mike B mentioned he was having to re-arrange the plans for his trip to Germany due to a deterioration in his Father's health. The new plan was an extremely complicated route back to Australia from Germany and I dropped Mike and his wife Tanja back at Heathrow on Saturday. I had a brief message from Mike today (Sunday) to say that his Father passed away in the early hours. It wasn't totally unexpected but must have been a shock never the less. Mike will be back in Sydney Wednesday to help with the family arrangements. RIP Jimmy Bendon.
just noticed this. Sad to say I've drunk the bottles of wine I had earmarked for the visit Hopefully we will get to your side of the world soon.
I had the pleasure of meeting 'five-five' at Tankfest, where we had a lovely conversation whilst being showered in dust form a Tiger.
After a couple of years of trying, I finally met with Pieter F on his home turf. What a nice Gent he is. I collected him from Breda Train Station and we drove over to Bergen-op-Zoon War Cemetery where we placed a couple of Rembrances crosses for relatives of a couple of the fallen. Then whizzed over to Zeeland to look at a Wings of Victory Museum. All sorts of artefacts from downed aircraft. Apparently 600 came down in this area alone. I had a chance to look over an Auster Mark V which is still flying and in a hanger for the winter. I can't believe the RAF AOP pilots got in this flimsy plane. Then on to Kruiningen Churchyard to photograph a couple of RA graves. Finally to Nieuwdorp to see the Bevrijding Museum Zeeland with an amazing collection of weapons, uniforms and all things WW2 about the area. Back to Bergen-op-Zoon for a well earned bite to eat after a bitter cold day. Thanks Pieter for meeting up for a very enjoyable day out. Groetjes - Rob
Met up again with Gerry a couple of days ago and spent most of the time giggling at his stories, particularly about the story behind a cartoon he showed me. He said he's a very young 91 year old and I have to agree. His energy and enthusiasm for research and commemoration are infectious and he's been a great help with my own work over the years. Thanks again Gerry, esp for the book which covers a shared interest. You know I'll treasure it.
