Two Nations Divided By An Uncommon Sentiment

A strange thing happened to me last week. It was quite surprising although not unpleasant. Two merican gentleman had taken the tour on HMS ALLIANCE and in conversation afterwards, it transpired that they were over here for a month or so, visiting sites with a D-Day history and would finally end up in France. As we talked and I told them a little about the HOLLAND 1, they asked about the guides and I told them we were all volunteers. They asked how long I'd served in the Royal Navy and I replied that it was for 32 years. "Thank you for your service", one of them said.

A quite un-British thing to say.

We've just bought a fantastic new Zanussi fridge.

It cools all the way to absolute zero. How cool is that?

Generations

This past Sunday was a day of generations at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum. I worked with a man who was on board HMS BELFAST as it undertook the bombardment during the D-Day landings at Normandy in 1944; guided visitors on a Cold War submarine, talked to submariners who were on HMS CONQUEROR when it sank the ARA Belgrano during the Falklands War in 1982, and worked with a young man who's been patiently waiting to join the Royal Navy at HMS Raleigh for several months despite knowing that others who join up quit within the first week because they find the training too hard.

THE ROYAL NAVY SUPPORTING ALLIED FORCES 

IN NORMANDY, JUNE 1944. Starboard 4 inch guns of 

HMS BELFAST open fire on German positions 

around Ver-sur-Mer on the night of 27 June 1945.

Sharkey's World: "Black Buck" Documentary

Sharkey's World: "Black Buck" Documentary: “Black Buck” Documentary – “fiction, of course”. By Lester May (Lt Cdr RN – retired: HMS Hydra 1980-83) Camden Town, London. “Full ma...