Topic: Escaping Hollywood.

[Killer Canary]

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Great-Escape-Canadian-Story/dp/1771022728
A fantastic read. Differs slightly from the movie, though

[70CB750]

Good to see you again:)

[Killer Canary]

I'm still hanging around.

[demon78]

Yeh there seems to be a lot of stuff from Hollywood about history that's not quite true and they do seem to pirate other peoples stories and make it their own you know never let facts get in the way of a blockbuster.
Bill the demon.

[Killer Canary]

I would part with a kidney to see a quality, modern production about the Dambusters.

[ken65]

me too, what a great old movie (dam busters), was one of my favourites. ken

[BeSeeingYou]

I would part with a kidney to see a quality, modern production about the Dambusters.

You should read The Wooden Horse by Eric Williams.  Also took place at Luft Stalag III just a bit earlier but there is mention of the tunnel efforts.  The Colditz Story by Pat Reid is another very good book.  For films check out Stalag 17 made in 1953.

Have you ever seen the BBC series Foyle's War?  In one episode Casualties of War a murder investigation leads him to a top secret lab designing the bouncing bomb.  A lot of historical fact was woven into the story....not the murder of course.   IMO one of the best TV series every produced.

[70CB750]

I would part with a kidney to see a quality, modern production about the Dambusters.

Be careful what you wish for    They often over do it - compare Pearl Harbor and Tora! Tora! Tora! - modern war movies often look like a dumb video game.

Red Baron was another too busy to be true.

[demon78]

Like Foyles War, when my wife was alive she used to watch it religiously.
Bill the demon.

[Killer Canary]

Red Baron was another too busy to be true.

Amen to that. Flyboys also blew mightily.

[MickB]

Read "Outlaw Platoon" Sean Parnell, an amazing account of the battle in Afghanistan, had tears streaming down my face reading the last chapter.

Also "Band of Brothers" is a great read, better than the TV series.

Mick

[Terry in Australia]

What a great title for this thread! Being a Steve McQueen fan I loved the movie, but was disappointed to discover that there wasn't one American POW involved in the escape, in reality. Oh well, it was still a great movie.........

[Killer Canary]

It was a very entertaining movie(especially the escape via Bf108 Taifun)  but it should have had a different title so that there would have been no implied affiliation with the actual event. I can imagine how one of the participants would have felt after watching it.

[demon78]

Yeah I'm of the age and stage that I knew people that fought in WW2 in all branches of the service there was the comments of how Hollywood was a propaganda machine something that the Russians were later accused of as well.
But it was mostly in the legion when every one was in their cups, that the comments would come, my father in law would get really uptight about Monte Cassino saying it was the Poles that took it.
But then he was in an division that had Poles as part of it's make up, our squadron had an PPCLI type in it who went through one of the death camps at the end of the war and when I was in air cadets one of our CO's was a nav in 6 group, later when I was in the regulars one of our CO's was a "Dam Buster" survivor. So history being rewritten by movie studio's to make our neighbors be # 1 annoys me.
Bill the demon.
Ps the CO I'm talking about was Joe McCarthy a yank in the RAF's 617 squadron in the raid on the dams, I think he finished up as a Wing Commander in the RCAF.

[BeSeeingYou]

Like Foyles War, when my wife was alive she used to watch it religiously.
Bill the demon.

It's the only TV program that we accept no invites, visits, or other outside activities when it's on.  The stories have so much depth, nuance, and multiple story lines that you can watch all the episodes and then  two or three years later watch them again and it seems fresh.  They are filming a new season.  They film some of it in Dublin as it is a good stand in for WWII era London.

[demon78]

They're filming a new season great now if I can get a season of New Tricks and the Biederbecke Affair life would be good.
Bill the demon

[Killer Canary]

So you met Joe? Nice

[demon78]

Not really KC, I reamed him one night they were returning from an exercise with the us navy and I was marshaling A/C in comes this A/C so I parked one along and went to meet the next, now, well established procedure was for the A/C to wait for the guy with the wands to go to spot where the pilot could see him and then we'd proceed from there, any how this pilot wouldn't wait so I slowed him down and to make sure that he was clear, he wouldn't wait and kept coming faster so I slowed him down again and again faster now I was doing this with out wing walkers so I stopped him so I could check where the A/C was in relation to the rest of the flight line then the dumb S.O.B. turned on his nose wheel light and taxied past me and parked crooked to the space that it was supposed to go in.
By this time all I can see was bright spots in front of my eyes now this may sound like I was power tripping, but remember that I'm responsible for the A/C and I can't see, I had to hold up other A/C till I gave the wands to another guy, so when his nibs got out of the A/C I caught up with him and gave him #$%* for blinding me I wish now I had called him a self important #$%*, but then I probably would have been court martialed  and Bluberry Hill (military prison by Edmonton) was not a fun place to go for a vacation. So I'm not a fan, he was the worst combination of a Yank trained by the Brit's, arrogant self important wouldn't accept advice.
Bill the demon.

[Killer Canary]

That's sad to hear.
On a brighter note, a girl that I used to go with in the nineties worked in a care home founded by Leonard Cheshire. I've heard that he threw himself into many humanitarian causes after the war.