Post No 713. "England Expects" and remembering ABERFAN,Plus HMAS Australia.

"England expects this day that every man will do his duty", was the signal hoisted at the yard arm of Admiral Horatio Nelsons Flag ship the HMS Victory ,commanded by Capt Hardy on the forenoon of Monday 21st of October 1805. Although certain standards of fair play in naval warfare were  expected this wasn't the case on this particular occasion, Inspections  of 'Victory's guns corroborate the fact that Grape Shot (balls on a chain) were a no no but were used during this battle against a superior number of French and Spanish ships and to add to the discomfort of the enemy upper deck gun crews and others were the bags of gravel (stones) fired by the forward guns of Nelsons fleet of ships. Can you imagine the destructive influence of a spread forty feet wide of several hundred large chunks of stone. If anyone was to blame for any infringement of the rules it would have been the orchestrator of the so called  dirty tricks Naughty Horatio Nelson  who was unable to answer any accusations due to him  being either dead or drunk on his arrival in Blighty pickled in a barrel of brandy, Kiss me Hardy, "Hic'..... Further info From Google.
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October 21st 1944. on a more sombre note , this was a major tragedy when the HMAS Australia_ a County Class Heavy Cruiser was struck by a Japanese Kamikaze plane killing 30 sailors and levelling her three funnels and upper decks, I personally recall seeing the ship on her return to Sydney,
The following year 1945 , the combined U/S and British Fleet downed an estimated 2,800 Japanese Kamikaze planes, Ask me about it !!. or Read 'The Forgotten Fleet.
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October 21st 1966. ABERFAN, Wales, How can anyone around at the time forget this absolute major tragedy. It pales with most stories about unnecessary loss of innocent lives.
Practically a whole generation of children and teachers were were suffocated by a descending Slag Heap caused by heavy rain, which covered the mining village. Please read this heart rending story.

Google. The Aberfan Disaster


On the 21 October 1966, 144 people, 116 of them children, were killed when a tip of coal waste slid onto the village of Aberfan in South Wales.
These pages were initially set up as part of a project to catalogue and conserve an archive of material relating to the disaster held at Merthyr Tydfil and Dowlais libraries. Their objective is to act as a starting place for those interested in finding out about the disaster. They provide an overview of the circumstances surrounding the disaster and, more importantly, a guide and link to the more detailed sources of information available elsewhere.
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On the health front, My own personal problems concerning my cerebral irregularities are no worse and contained. I have now only twenty five more days to wait before my consultation with professor Heard the Neurologist.
The Sydney Daily Telegraph  today failed in their history column, by only mentioning the above Oz segment.

Remember, we must learn which matters may be breached occasionally at our convenience and which ones may never be if we are to live pleasantly with our fellow man.
Have a wonderful weekend . Vest Daily Gaggle.





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