Battle of Britain Day

[HeadingNorth]

I helped a mate take down his Anderson shelter a few years ago. It took some serious hammer over several hours to bring it down.

 

People used to build to last. When I tried to dismantle my grandfather's shed, I gave up after three days with almost the whole of the structure still intact.

 

It's probably still there - and quite likely, is now older than the house to which it would by now belong.

[Harleyman]

People used to build to last. When I tried to dismantle my grandfather's shed, I gave up after three days with almost the whole of the structure still intact.

 

It's probably still there - and quite likely, is now older than the house to which it would by now belong.

 

Although it's been too long ago I too seem to remember those old Andersons as being pretty solid. The corrugated steel was pretty thick and it was all riveted together rather than bolted if memory serves me right.

 

My parents lived in a flat in London for a time and there was a brick built air raid shelter at the bottom of the garden which is still there as far as I know The bricks were two or three layers thick and the concrete roof about two feet thick. It had been converted for use as a tool shed

 

Once when on a visit to Sussex to see my sister my brother-in-law showed me a machine gun pill box which was still standing in the middle of a field.

 

If the Germans had invaded they would have according to historians landed in various places along the Sussex coast so that area was the first line of defence

[Harleyman]

I don't think anyone would have been justified on gambling that he had no such intention, even though with hindsight it's clear he did not. (I'm pretty sure that he didn't refuse to use it merely because we had taken some precautions.)

 

There seems to be a deep-rooted, and almost universal, aversion to the idea of making war upon breathing. Even now that we've developed non-fatal nerve gases that could incapacitate the entire enemy armed force while killing nobody, it is still considered just about the most heinous of war crimes to actually use them. If even the Nazis, probably the most evil governing party that has ever existed, declined to pour poison gas on the enemy, it clearly goes far deeper than just a moral sense.

 

 

 

I believe the use of gas had been outlawed by the Geneva Convention to which Germany had agreed to bide by The Germans never even used it against the Russians who had not signed the Geneva Convention agreement.

 

Dropping poisonous gas bombs on British cities was unthinkable Hitler had even issued strict instructions to the Luftwaffe to avoid all civilian targets and concentrate on military installations only. The original intention was to bring Britain to her knees militarily and force the government to sign a peace agreement.

 

Apparently though the Nazi mentality found it quite acceptable to gas millions of Jews, homosexuals, political dissidents, Gypsies and mentally and physically handicapped people

[HeadingNorth]

I believe the use of gas had been outlawed by the Geneva Convention to which Germany had agreed to bide by

 

...but did not, in various respects. In any event, given the large number of other treaties the Germans had agreed to abide by and the Nazis ripped up, I still wouldn't have relied on them not to use the stuff. I think the precautions were justified.

[Harleyman]

...but did not, in various respects. In any event, given the large number of other treaties the Germans had agreed to abide by and the Nazis ripped up, I still wouldn't have relied on them not to use the stuff. I think the precautions were justified.

 

And that's the reason that everyone was issued gas masks at the start of the war. They were supposed to carry them at all times but a lot of civilans didnt bother to although all military personnel were under orders to do so.

 

Hitler had been gassed as a soldier in WW1 and was temporarily blinded and had a hatred of gas. That is known to be true.

 

There were still a lot of WW1 veterans around when I was a kid and many of them suffered permanently from the effects of mustard gas.

 

There was one old bloke up our street who lived with his daughter who had

a permanent stream of mucus coming from his nose poor old fellow

[Rupert_Baehr]

Although it's been too long ago I too seem to remember those old Andersons as being pretty solid. The corrugated steel was pretty thick and it was all riveted together rather than bolted if memory serves me right....

 

My nephew and I dismantled one a few years ago. We started using angle grinders, but they were inadequate. - Then we made up some Thermite and used that. (Spectacular, but it worked well. )

 

Hitler had no intention of using gas anyway. He'd been gassed himself in WW1 and knew all about it

 

Hitler had Tabun, Sarin and Soman. All were mass-produced. He didn't use them because he thought that the Brits had their own nerve agents, or possibly something even worse.

 

The British 'experimented' with weaponised anthrax on Gruinard Island. They 'airburst' a container of spores and then waited to see what would happen. All the sheep on the Island died, but the spores contaminated the whole Island and the contamination was so severe that anthrax was scrapped as a potential bio weapon. (Gruinard was still contaminated until fairly recently - It was declared to be 'clear' in 1990. Decontaminating the Island required the soil to be sterilised with formalin.)

[Harleyman]

My nephew and I dismantled one a few years ago. We started using angle grinders, but they were inadequate. - Then we made up some Thermite and used that. (Spectacular, but it worked well. )

 

 

 

Hitler had Tabun, Sarin and Soman. All were mass-produced. He didn't use them because he thought that the Brits had their own nerve agents, or possibly something even worse.

 

The British 'experimented' with weaponised anthrax on Gruinard Island. They 'airburst' a container of spores and then waited to see what would happen. All the sheep on the Island died, but the spores contaminated the whole Island and the contamination was so severe that anthrax was scrapped as a potential bio weapon. (Gruinard was still contaminated until fairly recently - It was declared to be 'clear' in 1990. Decontaminating the Island required the soil to be sterilised with formalin.)

 

 

Aint the human race wonderful when you think of it? All those bright little scientific minds spending their lives devizing ever newer ways to wipe us all off the face of the earth, themsleves included.

 

Just think what the world would be had they instead spent their time developing a clean and safe alternate source of energy to oil