Waritme icons. Who would you have most liked to share a glass of nectar with?
 

I thought I would post this thread thinking to myself how great it would have been to sit down with all the personalities involved in WWll and share a glass of the nectar with them.
I will start this thread with a grand Lady whose angelic voice still plays in my shop on a regular basis. Cheers Rob

And of course Winston...
 

Myself , being a keeper of the greens, I would have loved to have a couple of weak whiskeys discussing the landscaping of Chartwell. Cheers Rob

General Officer Commander in Chief Anti-Aircraft Command
 

Since the blue jobs were out flying their vintage aircraft over Ottawa today, I would like to sit for a chat, tea and scones with General Sir Frederick Alfred Pile (AKA Tim 1884 – 1976).

It would be interesting to find out how he was able to put together his command when the army was less than impressed with air defence (seems it is a tradition) and the air force was convinced it alone "ruled the skies" (seems a tradition).

Dame Vera is Wonderful
 

...and so is Sir Winston. Aside from the fact that he's supposedly a distant relation (on my fraternal grandmother's side), he was a wily, hard-living, hard-drinking sonofabitch who stands out as arguably the Man of the Twentieth Century. There's little question that we wouldn't have the world we have today without him.

Aside from him, I think I would have gotten along famously with such bloodthirsty bastards as Douglas Bader. :)

As with some here, I have met some like him (mostly Brown Jobs) whom I still find immensely inspiring; they did what they had to do when it was necessary to do it, and they neither gave nor asked any quarter.

To me, personally, all of them are my heroes. We share certain.. er.. values. :salute:

War time icons..
 

If I could talk to anyone,I would like to sit down and talk to Staff Sergeant A Carl Blair.....who passed away at 90 years of age..back in 1999....
The only time he would talk of his war time experiences was a week before he died ..when I was visiting him at my sisters home in Halifax..
He served in the artillery on 25 pounders and I would give anything to talk to Carl,my dad ,again...
RIP dad....
:remember:remember :support:remember:remember

People
 

Interesting and timely topic. I bought a book just yesterday which has a fascinating central theme which is the reason why we had so many fatal Beaufort crashes here. One of the key reasons it was solved was because of a chap named Charles Learmonth... anyway I was thinking I would have loved to discussed this with my dad as I don't know he ever knew the reason. He served on Beauforts.

Other than that I have been very fortunate to meet and speak to many of my childhood heroes such as Bobby Gibbes, Dick Cresswell and Tony Gaze, all Australian aces.

I would love to have been able to speak to Blackjack Walker, a Beaufighter pilot and also a chap named Davenport who commanded 455 Squadron. Clive 'Killer' Caldwell is another. Then there are bomber boys such as Guy Gibson and Leonard Cheshire. I have been very fortunate to meet men who knew them well, also have some great stories from pilots who knew and flew with Douglas Bader.

For army I would like to have met Claude Auchinleck.

The Phantom Major
 

David Stirling, I really enjoyed Virginia Cowles' story of him and the S.A.S. and would jump at the chance to discuss tactics with him.

Not sure if I would want to, but ...
 

My journalism instructor, ca. 1975, had been a Spitfire pilot in WW2, then "invalided" out, as he put it, and went into PR for the RCAF, which was how he got into journalism. He and I were chatting one day, and he knew I was interested in aviation and history. He mentioned he had watched a 60 Minutes interview with a guy who had been a professional hit man. He said the guy reminded him of George Beurling, whom he had interviewed during the war. As he put it, he had the same cold blue eyes as the hit man, a "stone-cold killer."

So, Beurling, given all the stories and controversy about him, and the intrigue around his death, would be a most interesting guy to chat with. Maybe.

The instructor, by the way, was named Stan Helleur, and he died in a tragic and absurd elevator shaft accident.

Kurt Meyer, Commander 12th SS (Hitler Jugend) Div, in order to try and psych him out as to why he allowed the atrocities of Abbe d'Ardennes and Oradour-sur-Glane to happen.

Air Marshall William Avery Bishop VC, CB, DSO & Bar, MC, DFC, ED
 

The TRUE Ace of Aces of The Great War. Any student of WWI knows that in order for a kill to be counted, it had to be verified, quite often by ground troops. The swashbuckling Canadian seldom stayed on the Allied side of no man's land in order to hunt down his prey, consequently, not all his "kills" were awarded to him. Conversely, Von Richtofen did indeed spend most of his time either over no man's land where friendly troops were able to witness his kills or over land held by the Central Powers. By the end of the war, Von Richtofen had the greatest number of "confirmed" kills and so has been considered the greatest Ace of the war, but we C :cheers: :salute:anadians know better!

Futile Task
 

Jon, I visited the Abbe and asked a similar question to our French host. He simply replied "He was a Nazi". I think I would let him share in the terminal effects of an explosive train...

Spike Milligan
 

Nuf sed?

Mike

I would like to again be able to talk to any of these heros in this song..
 

The Soldiers Song..God Bless 'em..
:remember :support

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8gRx8tWJmI&NR=1

:remember :support:remember :support :salute:

Douglas Bader
 

I had a short chat with him in Winnipeg when I was a young lad, and he was gracious enough to sign something for me. Yes, a pint with him would have been alright. Just going thru all of my old slides and I came across this pic I took of him. Is that his first wife with him? Cheers Rob

I think the minds of Barnes Wallis and Mr Bailey of the bridge fame are the types of fascinating engineering types with whom I would like most to have spoken.

R

Icons
 

Guy Gibson or Bernard Montgomery would be interesting to meet.
Attachment 47009
For that matter, General Eisenhower would be in with a chance also.
Attachment 47010
Most of all, I would give anything to have my Father back again.
R.I.P James Baker, Q131216

Major General John Hamilton (Ham) Roberts, CB, DSO, MC
 

The scape goat of Dieppe. A fine and broadly experienced officer who was set up for failure by Dickie Mountbatten. It would be wonderful to pick his mind about life as a subaltern in WW I, the struggle to maintain a professional army through the inter-war years, the amazing tour de France of 1 RCHA in 1940 and, of course, Dieppe.

http://www.rcamuseum.com/English/Gre...rs/roberts.htm

Cheers! Mike :support:remember

No body said the drink had to be peaceful. You could always get Mountbatten drunk, then knock him off his chair and flail away with fists and feet until he $hit his pants like so many good Canadian men did after his foolish plans were enacted.