England expects, And More.History on this day, October 21. And More Telegrah Cock ups..

     The following snippets cover events on this glorious or inglorious day  as it turns out to be.
Today  is Trafalgar Day  which commemorates the English fleet defeating the combined French and Spanish fleets on Monday October 21 1805. Admiral Lord Nelsons ship 'Victory' is still on show to tourists in No 1 dock in Portsmouth England, In all of my 24.5 years in the Royal Navy  I failed to visit this great ship.. However, this was rectified during my visit to England from Australia back in 1993
The sadness is next, when in 1966 The tiny Welsh mining village of Aberfan  in the UK was totally engulfed together with its  population of aged and. worst of all, all of its schoolchildren and teachers, when during torrential rain a huge slag heap or heaps collapsed. ( Google Aberfan.).

   The next segment is the short caption  of a picture of HMAS Australia burning after being hit by a Kamikaze ( Japanese suicide plane)  on Oct 21 1944. This could be another concocted picture by the Sydney Daily Telegraph (Among other mistakes I read from this paper delivered daily to my door) My suspicions are raised by the fact that if the CO was killed with others as it states in the Telegraph story- the forward part of the ship would have been more than slightly bent as the saying goes and another thing looking dodgy in the picture are the Naval ratings in uniform supposedly gazing at the HMAS Australia in their No 1 uniforms. Although 99% of wartime films portraying the Royal navies of the British Commonwealth , show sailors in full dress uniform firing guns and waving flags on the upper or exposed decks of warships, it should be remembered that despite film directors being given advice most choose the fantasy  rather than the reality to please the ignorant ogling public who most wouldn't know a gun from a sausage. To put the record straight; I recall that all officers and ratings in the ship I served on, on closing up at 'Action Stations' Wore clean underwear shoes & socks and  blue overalls and in my case as well with 'Anti Flash hood and gloves and a steel helmet ( and a handy life jacket)
Oh and by the way Telegraph readers, The  Heavy Cruiser HMAS Australia when I gazed at it last When I was in Sydney With the B P Fleet during WW2 certainly didn't have all of its funnells still standing as in the picture on page 24. ..

BTW. Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't - you are right.

Vest .....Back soon.

 Labels.... Bullshite baffles brains By Syd  D Telegraph.

Comments

Lower deck lawyer. said…
Vest, I have had a looksee at the S D T page 24 and it would seem little is amiss with ship in the picture, it certainly isn't burning. Agree action rig of the day was as you stated.
Story may have been compiled by an out of season and ill informed Rugby league sports writer, one of your favourite people. Mike.

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