Fire Smoke & Shorts

As always, it's the fault of the USA & Canada!  

We are sitting here once again suffering the backlash from their forest fires.  We already suffer from their left over hurricanes bringing high winds and teeming rain, and now they are trying to smoke us out.  

Huge area of Canada and some in the US are burning away.  Some no doubt, started deliberately by wee boys looking for a laugh.  Vast acres burn, smoke obliterates the sky, choking people in houses and flats, especially the old and sick.  With poor health provision in the USA because of the greed of the medical and insurance world many are suffering without and are open to breathing difficulties cause by such smoke.   Several hundred fires are burning at the moment, various sizes, some under control, others appear to be being left to themselves.  Smoke is hitting both Canada and US States causing problems.    

High above the UK the smoke does give interesting sunsets in some areas, though normal cloud is blocking even that today.  Last night our sunset was bright but slightly dimmed by high smoke.  This was alongside some clown near here burning grass and green rubbish nearby and allowing his fire smoke to reach me as I lay attempting sleep.  Of course it could be someone's house was on fire but there you go.

The weather has become somewhat greyish today.  Cloud cover alongside that smoke has taken the edge of the day.  Add to that what the weathermen call 'a stiff breeze,' and I find my north facing penthouse somewhat cool.  Outside, in spite of the cloud and wind, men walk about in shorts and T-shirts.  The Englishman's desire to get into shorts even if the temperature is low amazes me.  

When I was a lad no-one wore shorts, that was for kids, and if shorts were worn it was on a rare foreign holiday in the sun.  Certainly not on the street.  In England the shorts fetish has always been noticeable.  Why?  I've known postmen who wear them all the year round, winter and summer, clearly they have a fetish or are just mental, possibly both.  

Now young men following fashion, and young men dare not follow fashion, wearing shorts because fashion dictates this is one thing.  However, fat, balding, aged men in similarly aged football shirts from a previous era with similar shorts, sometimes shorts that once fitted, are not the same thing.  This is not fashion, unless everyone in your street dresses this badly, or possibly this is the fashion for the 'Reform' voter while throwing bricks through windows to remove those nasty foreigners who take their jobs.  The jobs that is they cannot get because of all the criminal convictions they have and the foreigners do not have.   If only they had heard of 'Levi's' or their mass produced cheap brothers. 

Spring Advance at Arras, and Phillip.

In between the clouds today I noticed the buds appearing on the trees opposite.  Naturally, the picture does not show any!  However, the park was filled with kids today, plus guardian parents, none of whom appeared to wear masks while chatting to one another.  We forget, or ignore, so easily.  The young kids are better behaved than those that come later, the 'Chase me! Chase Me! crowd' of adolescents that gather to shout and scream in the darkness.  For a few years they have been reasonably quiet, this years lot may be louder.  They leave behind the same mess as all the others while also going on demonstartions to 'Stop Climate Change' and 'Save the Planet!  

It is understandable that those trapped inside, especially kids, wish to be outside making a noise and having fun so it is difficult to complain.  I wish I could do the same!  The lessening of the chill, it was cold when I visited Tesco early on, means people are fooled into thinking Spring is hear again.  I will cheer them all up by telling them it will soon rain all night and into tomorrow.  It is Spring!

 

Vimy Ridge, 9th April 1917.  This was the beginning of the Battle of Arras, a battle with a higher attrition rate than the Somme but almost nobody has heard of it.  Fought begrudgingly by General Haig to support a French 'Push' which was a disaster, it began in good style, the Canadians taking Vimy Ridge mostly within the first hour.  Hard fighting thereafter.  The British 3rd Army under General Allenby attacking south of Vimy advanced over three miles before being slowed by enemy resistance.  As the fight stuttered Allenby was removed by Haig much to his disgust.  Sent to the Middle East by Lloyd George he was happy to support the PMs later attacks on Haig.  

No celebrations occur in the UK re this battle, though it is seen, possibly wrongly, as the birth of an independent Canada.  The Canadians did fight well during the conflict, we could not win without them, yet are often ignored by the UK media.  No surprise there. 

Three local men died on that day, Private Ernest Arthur Clark, Private Bertie Charles Cooper, and Private Horace George Green.  There were to be several more in the days to come.  Cooper was one of four men from one family who was killed in action.  A fifth brother survived simply by being sent to India with a Territorial Unit and avoiding the war.

 

 

Not sure if you noticed but 150 posts on Twitter have indicated the Duke of Edinburgh has died at 99.  This is no surprise to anyone, he was sick, aged, and while well looked after, all knew it was likely.  

The media have gone into overdrive, endlessly repeating the things we all know, one or two dodgy bits about his comments ('Slitty eyes' anyone) and ignoring anything that makes them look bad.  Saturday's press will not be worth buying as it will contain the pre-prepared pull outs full of what has already filled the TV today. 

Personally I am raging!

The Heart of Midlothian game against Alloa was to be shown on BBC Scotland Channel tonight, this while the BBC channel is showing the same programmes, as is STV and SKY, so they have removed the match from TV as this is considered 'light' programming!

Since when was football Light programming?
Absurd decision, and another attack on the Heart of Midlothian by the Glasgow BBC.

Research

I was offered a small pack of letters and info one of our regular visitors found among his fathers paperwork.  These concerned one or two chaps who's names appear on the High School Memorial and some other bits from the second war.  Today I got around to checking out the two brothers who fell, one with the London Regiment north of Beersheeba and the other while with the Canadian Cavalry.  The one with then Canadians had emigrated at 18 years or so to Canada and enlisted at 21 at Calgary.  he went on to have many adventures in France and by October 1918 must have been longing to get the war over and done with.  The Canadian Division ended the war at Mons in November 1918 the place British forces first encountered the Germans in 1914.  It was south of there that our man was killed, the letter claims killed outright but who knows.

His brother enlisted Jan 1915, entered war in France during June 1915 with the Essex Yeomanry.  Most Yeomanry were country boys and their father ran a farm not far from here.  

During the Battle of Arras during April 1917 the village of Monchy was situated on high ground giving a clear view of the surrounding area and therefore a desperate fight evolved to capture this village.

The Essex Yeomanry along with another squadron were instructed to make for the village and join troops already attempting to occupy the ground.  In the charge to make the village they came under heavy machine gun fire from the enemy trenches.  Once in the village the survivors helped take possession and with the crowded conditions and under fire a decision was taken that the two squadrons should charge forward against the enemy to clear the area.  This they did while the enemy had already taken opportunity to set defensive positions.  The cavalrymen suffered from murderous machine gun and rifle fire causing heavy casualties.  A courageous and foolhardy attack

Our man was one of the many seriously wounded but Monchy was held.   However shrapnel in his brain left him paralysed with no speech.  Hospitalised 18 months and sent home but later returned to hospital in Holborn where he died 27th November 1918, one month and a day after his brother. 

A third man mentioned and on the High School Memorial was with the London Regiment as they fought the last Gaza battle, their part being attacking Beersheeba, and in the days following chasing the Turkish forces up the Hebron road.  This included some tough fighting, Turkish forces often being far stronger than they are given credit,and at a place called Huj he was wounded in the shoulder and died a few days later of his wounds quite unexpectedly.  He was Batman to the 2nd Lieutenant and about to go for a commission himself.  Knocked down while under shellfire as they attacked the strong point.

So I have sat here all day scouring sites and wishing it would stop as my head is exploding!  Worse still I did not have my siesta and what remains of my brain is slowly turning into mush.  I am glad I searched for this however, the question now regards why did this mans father have these letters and other information?  I suspect he was the one organising the memorial himself.  Anyway I am off to rinse out my skull.