In the news

That’s quite a thing to have to cope with.

I could never really understand it all: caught in france, prisoner in Poland, escaped (?) and ends up in Yugoslavia, ends up home in the north east.

It sounds fantastical tbh. But I never got to speak to him much. He was dead by the time I was 15.

Yeah, never met my 2 great uncles on my mum's side as one died at El Alamein and the other at Monte Cassino.

My nan didn't believe her brother died at Monte Cassino because they never found a body. I looked him up on the Commonwealth War Grave website and located exactly where his name was, then I was Umbria one year and made a detour one day to go to the Commonwealth War Grave at Monte Cassino, took photos of the site, the views and his name on the memorial. I made up a memorial for her with some of the photos in a nice frame.

The work the CWG Commission do, along with the locals who maintain the sites is really exceptional.

My grandad was a career soldier after the war, guardsman at buckingham palace(how he met my Nan who was a housekeeper there), served all over the Middle East during the 50s-60s and then Ireland in the height of the troubles.
My mum got very very little out of him about his career during his lifetime but know he saw some atrocities in the Middle East and had some serious ‘views’ about the Irish(despite being born there himself and an Irish Guardsman).
Oh, we do know he enlisted aged 13ish though. Him lying about his age back then caused issues for the rest of his life and I’m not even sure my mum knows what his true age was when he died.

He died when I was about 21 so knew him as well as I could have hoped.

Reassuring that Sunak has solved net zero, so this won't be an issue

had some serious ‘views’ about the Irish

Don't worry about it, we have some serious views on him as well.

My dad's dad was a little too young for WW2 but was a British soldier in the troubles too, never heard him say anything bad about Irish people or anyone really but I'm not sure you got to be a nice guy doing that, my dad was born on a military base in Malta and grew up in Germany for a bit. That granddad only carked it a couple of years back.

I didn't follow my dad or my brother in joining the army and seeing the world.

prisoner in Poland

Ben Macintyre has a great book about a British POW/spy in Poland. Colditz and other nazi pow camps in Poland were absolutely hellish. Brits were treated relatively well, esp. vs. Eastern Europeans who were received extreme abuse, but it would’ve taken real mettle to survive there without turn-coating or cracking mentally.

The dark nicotine residue on your finger nails after a week's work

When I picked it we got a layer of tar on the backs of our hands and our forearms. It was so thick that it was crumbling at the knuckles. When we passed the plants the hairs on our forearms would get pulled out, so we shaved them.

Hamas invading America Lite will probably not end well.

Robert Kee wrote an excellent account of being a POW (A Crowd is not Company), in which he cheerfully confesses to being one of the ones not motivated to attempting escape (even though he did eventually make several goes at it). He also recounts the forced marches. At one point, his group of POWs found themselves walking parallel to a column of Russian POWs and were appalled by the state of them. They started throwing cigarettes and spare rations to the other column, only for one of the Russian column's Volksturm guards to run up and beat the shit out of a Russian who was picking the gifts up. This nearly started a riot among the European POWs, shouting and throwing things to the point where the Volksturm guard was about to shoot them. The Luftwaffe guards of the European column intervened. Kee says that one of his fellow Brit officers turned to him and said "After seeing that, the Russians can do whatever the hell they like to the Germans and not hear a peep of complaint from me."

He may have changed his mind if he heard about the gang rapes. Book doesn't say.

Hamas now has an air force inspired by Grand Theft Auto and are taking out Israeli tanks with drone dropped grenades inspired by Ukraine.

1 Attachment

Hamas now has an air force inspired by Grand Theft Auto

To be fair, the Assassin's Creed gameplay was getting old.

.

Plays right into Bibi’s hands. Sadly

i guess it's the only option left for the palestinians, they've been treated like they were in the warsaw ghetto for the last decade, their land stolen, their people oppressed, no sympathy from the international community. what choice do they have ?

Although it is also a massive security breach was on his watch.

Which might topple him, but if it does I'd lay good odds on his successor being an extremist.

good odds on his successor being an extremist

I don’t doubt it. Also it means he will strike all the harder to try to hold onto power and silence any critics.

He is without doubt one of the most cynical and soulless politicians around. Remember the conversation between Obama and Sarkozy when they didn't know the mic was still open?

Sarkozy: I can't stand him. He's a liar.

Obama: You’re tired of him; what about me? I have to deal with him every day.

But the bastard keeps coming back.

But the bastard keeps coming back

Raison d'etre for the state of Israel

I can see Hamas thinking this is a no lose situation- win, or make the Israeli response so genocidal that the international community (finally) cannot just stand by?

They have the choice to not slaughter civilians in bus stops, cars and those standing in the street

Fuck off. Imagine supporting the oppressors in an apartheid. Guess you can’t even believe the savages dared to fight back in South Africa? People fight like they’ve got nothing to loose when all is taken from them.

Looks like Hezbollah has come to Hamas’ call for assistance.