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My local "Band Of Brothers".

Posted by Mick on Fri Jan 04, 2002 11:49:19 AM

In reply top Museum Reviews: 82nd Airborne W. M. Museum & Airborne Ops posted by Mike Henniger on Fri Jan 04, 2002 10:09:35 AM

Thanks Mike.

Always interested to hear about the 82nd Airborne as their HQ was in my city in a large old Country Hall about half a mile from where I live, now situated in the middle of a park surrounded by a very large and "boisterous" concil housing estate.....and NO I don't live on that estate !

After years as a girls school, and then even more years derelict while owned by the local council (same old story), it has now been taken over for use by the local community as their HQ, to argue about and dole out the millions that the gov has just given them to sort the bloody estate out once and for all (same old story).
Absolutely no chance anymore of a museum to the 82nd there.....and no damn point either because the local yokels have barely even heard of the Second World War, let alone the Brave Men of the US 82nd Airborne.

They were camped all over my city during the war until they went off to D-Day from Saltby Airfield, and one of their camps was directly behind the house where my Mother and her family lived at the time.
The actual entrance to the camp was between their house and another, but there is now a new house built in the spot.
My Mother and family well remember the Yanks with their gum and oranges etc, and my Uncle got a very nice collection of uniform patches to sew on his coat.
This camp is now a golf course, and the buildings weren't demolished until the early sixties, but in a small thicket of trees you can still find bits of rubble and stuff, if you dare to try and avoid the flying golf balls and the miserable w*****s that play with their balls whenever they can, and when I was about ten I found an aluminium mess tin, less handle, and some kind of large shell casing, about 12 inches long, but made from steel and not brass.

My Mother and her younger brothers found something much better a couple of years after the war though.
They were playing at the back of their garden, which was the boundary to the camp, and in the bushes they found an automatic pistol, fully loaded, bit rusty, complete with holster and belt, and said to be a Colt 1911 '45 !!!!!!!

Needless to say, their Father was rather concerned (!) and took it down to the Police station right away, and that's the last they saw or heard of it.....probably in some old Copper's loft as I write ?

There is a small granite monument with a plaque to the 82nd in another park in the city, where they also had a camp, but I have always thought it would be nice to have a C-47/C-53 on show there as well, preferably inside a building, but at least with a high fence around it to stop the local "Un-Appreciation Society" from ripping it to pieces.
I wonder if Air Atlantique have got a Dak going spare ?

Now with all the above clues, how long will it take for Paul Millan to work out where I live ??????

Cheers
Mick

Ps- Actually if someone does know of a very cheap (ie FREE !) Dak going begging somewhere, please let me know, and I can then get in touch with the British secretary of the 82nd Airborne Association who lives the other side of my city, and my local councillor who I already know well.

Also thinking of setting up a museum to the memory of the RAF's highest scoring pilot James Edgar "Johnnie" Johnson, as he came from my County as well..........anyone know of a spare Spit Mk IX or even a fibreglass full-scale model that no-one wants...........new ones cost about 22 grand and that's just a wee bit expensive unless the general public would like to subscribe to one in Johnnie's memory ?



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