Spitfire

Not for the first time a Spitfire, Mark IX has appeared in the town centre.  Remembrance Sunday tomorrow has brought it back for another viewing.   The man accompanying the Spitfire was more open than the one last year, though he was there fiddling about pretending he was busy, so as to avoid the public.  I was told this was a Mark IX, I knew it was a later one, 1942 apparently, by the four props at the front.  The six exhausts instead of the original three was also an indication of change.  These aircraft continued to change until the fell out of use around 1956.  The jet fighter was by then the most potent weapon. 

Remembrance brings many displays such as these, and this one is indeed fitting.  However, all over the nation 'Remembrance' has become, 'Event,' these days.  Groups combine to erect a display better than last years and the act of remembering is pushed aside to commemorate with a display.  It reduces the Armistice Day to an event like Halloween, or Valentine's Day.  This should not be.

Certainly many wish to remember, they might have memories of their forefathers part in the two great wars, and some have discovered lost relatives while searching their ancestry and their particular war tales.  This is good.  

The original reason for war memorials was the loss of men in war, and the impossibility of the majority being made able to visit a graveside.  While tours did occur, some private, some through regiments, the vast majority were struggling to keep their heads above deep waters, a visit was impossible.  There again, with 300,000 men unidentified, some under gravestones marked 'Known unto God,' and others still lying somewhere under the battlefield, a visit to a grave could never happen.  The need to mourn at a spot where the lost could be remembered was important for a great many.  Wives, mothers, daughters were among the worst hit.  The declaration of death meant the wages stopped.  A pension might be allowed but could take a long time to work through the books.  In towns like this there were few other men available to bring in a wage and times after 1918 were very tough indeed.  The emotional trauma was not lessened with the loss of an income.  The suffering during the 1920s ensured that after 1945 there would be a new government, one that put the needs of the people before any other need, no matter how broken the nations finances were.  This country owes a great deal to the work of Clement Atlee and his men.

Spitfire

With Remembrance to the fore the British Legion usually do something in the town centre at this time.  Late on this afternoon I discovered they had a Spitfire on show!  This is unusual as the normal items are merely small arms and the like.  So I rushed off just in case it was moved.  Indeed it will be moved as it is only here for the day, tomorrow it will be on show elsewhere, and no doubt just as popular.  

When standing next to a plane you get a better idea of size, it appears so small in the air.  The cockpit appears to be quite tight for an individual, though the German fighter the Me 109 was not quite so good, and the heavier cockpit canopy opened to the side, rather than slide back making escape difficult.  

The Legion was as always there to talk and take contributions.  Personally I never find them that communicative though occasionally one of them will talk well.  They had no interest in the aircraft, only their own world was important.  This one has many medals from his time in the French Foreign Legion.  

Some kids were seen standing close by, an occasional male would be telling them how it was, though they themselves appeared to have been born long after the war.  Many I met who were children during the war told off how the sky could be black with aircraft of all types.  The local bomber bases nearby constantly flew overhead.  The men themselves making use of the pubs and clubs of the town.  The US airmen were popular with the townsfolk until they finally departed in 1992.