War Stories
Mar. 31st, 2006 08:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lyoreI am a bad, bad person. But at least now I am a bad, bad person with a pair of Oakleys. A poor bad, bad person. (And it was $50 off!)
Anyway, before I went on an unscheduled shopping spree, I was on a tour of the War Memorial. I'd forgotten how much difference a good guide makes. I am normally not a museum/gallery type person, pictures and objects and dioramas generally leave me cold.
But once you have someone there telling stories, I could stay there for hours. The stories varied from the tragic - the story of the youngest Australian even killed in action (14yrs, 9 months) - to the amusing - stories of the Aussies climbing the pyramids to carve their initials in the top and smuggling assorted Australian wildlife like Kangaroos, wallabys, and emus into Egypt. (Apparently, by the end of the war the Cairo zoo had the largest collection of australian animals outside Oz.)
But this one I had to share.
At the start of WWII, Australia couldn't even build a car from the ground up. By the end of the war, we had a nice little industry manufacturing a type of plane known as a 'Wirraway' (otherwise known as a Harvard trainer). The only problem was that these planes were neither the fastest nor the most maneuverable of machines, and were therefore of rather limited use in wartime, used mainly for supply runs and training. The Australian War Memorial Museum has the honour of housing the ONLY Wirraway to actually shoot down an enemy aircraft, and this is how it happened:
So this plane was flying back from Darwin to PNG, rather higher than it should have been, when suddenly the pilot spots a Japanese Zero (that's a type of plane, for the uniniated) underneath him. The pilot of the Zero, knowing that Wirraways weren't allowed to fly high, was paying no attention to what was going on above him, which as it turned out was rather a large mistake. The Wirraway pilot came from above and behind, with predictable results. After dispensing with the inattentive Zero, the Aussie plane continued on its merry way to PNG.
None of this would be particularly remarkable, except for the reason the plane was flying so much higher than usual. The last thing the pilot did before leaving Darwin was pick up a six pack to take back to his mates, and he was flying high to keep it cold. Which really says alot about the attitude of Australia to war - it may be hell, but there's no situation that can't be fixed by a cold six-pack.
Anyway, if any of you find yourselves at the AWM, I definitely recommend getting the guided tour.
Random Observation of the Day - If beer is good, tequila is better
Anyway, before I went on an unscheduled shopping spree, I was on a tour of the War Memorial. I'd forgotten how much difference a good guide makes. I am normally not a museum/gallery type person, pictures and objects and dioramas generally leave me cold.
But once you have someone there telling stories, I could stay there for hours. The stories varied from the tragic - the story of the youngest Australian even killed in action (14yrs, 9 months) - to the amusing - stories of the Aussies climbing the pyramids to carve their initials in the top and smuggling assorted Australian wildlife like Kangaroos, wallabys, and emus into Egypt. (Apparently, by the end of the war the Cairo zoo had the largest collection of australian animals outside Oz.)
But this one I had to share.
At the start of WWII, Australia couldn't even build a car from the ground up. By the end of the war, we had a nice little industry manufacturing a type of plane known as a 'Wirraway' (otherwise known as a Harvard trainer). The only problem was that these planes were neither the fastest nor the most maneuverable of machines, and were therefore of rather limited use in wartime, used mainly for supply runs and training. The Australian War Memorial Museum has the honour of housing the ONLY Wirraway to actually shoot down an enemy aircraft, and this is how it happened:
So this plane was flying back from Darwin to PNG, rather higher than it should have been, when suddenly the pilot spots a Japanese Zero (that's a type of plane, for the uniniated) underneath him. The pilot of the Zero, knowing that Wirraways weren't allowed to fly high, was paying no attention to what was going on above him, which as it turned out was rather a large mistake. The Wirraway pilot came from above and behind, with predictable results. After dispensing with the inattentive Zero, the Aussie plane continued on its merry way to PNG.
None of this would be particularly remarkable, except for the reason the plane was flying so much higher than usual. The last thing the pilot did before leaving Darwin was pick up a six pack to take back to his mates, and he was flying high to keep it cold. Which really says alot about the attitude of Australia to war - it may be hell, but there's no situation that can't be fixed by a cold six-pack.
Anyway, if any of you find yourselves at the AWM, I definitely recommend getting the guided tour.
Random Observation of the Day - If beer is good, tequila is better
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no subject
Date: 2006-03-31 02:03 pm (UTC)That's it, we are no longer friends.
Also
CAR!
no subject
Date: 2006-04-01 01:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-01 02:10 am (UTC)CAR CAR CAR CAR CAR CAR CAR
Just a reminder.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-01 02:11 am (UTC)oops.
Think of all the things that I could do as lyore.
Mwah hah hah hah!
no subject
Date: 2006-04-01 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-01 07:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-02 11:56 am (UTC)