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'Great Escape' PoWs remember comrades... and boo 'silly' Steve McQueen
Times Online ^ | 03/25/09 | Fran Yeoman

Posted on 03/26/2009 5:49:43 AM PDT by DFG

It was film night in Stalag Luft III and the dwindling band of surviving PoWs was marking the 65th anniversary of the daring breakout by watching The Great Escape. Even though this is Hollywood’s celebration of their story and ensured their enduring fame, it wasn’t the Nazis they booed — it was Steve McQueen and his motorbike.

“We were not impressed when that film came out,” said Reginald Cleaver, 86, a flight engineer who had been shot down over the Netherlands and who helped to make disguises for the escape. “The bits about the way the tunnel was dug and how things started was quite accurate, but the later bits were nonsense.

“The Americans played no part in the escape. To have Americans riding motorbikes was ridiculous.”

(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: mcqueen; poland; zagan
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To: Deb

244 American pilots served with 3 RAF Eagle squadrons between Sept 1940 and Dec 7, 1941.


101 posted on 03/26/2009 12:19:49 PM PDT by DFG
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To: DFG

Okay, then it was “hundreds” (Whew!). Thanks.


102 posted on 03/26/2009 12:21:33 PM PDT by Deb (Beat him, strip him and bring him to my tent!)
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To: Professional Engineer; SAMWolf; snippy_about_it; alfa6
And now they fly over your flat to bust you for energy emission having driven by to bust you for failing to pay for the BBC telling you how bad the Jews are.

Apologizing for our Islamist-Marxist Kenyan president's returning the bust of Churchill who galvanized a great nation to defeat a Nazi fiend.

Prefer the performance of Patton to the vacillations of Montgomery; history needs a settling of accounts on that matter.

Here's a great page

103 posted on 03/26/2009 12:53:27 PM PDT by PhilDragoo (Hussein: Islamo-Commie from Kenya)
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To: stinkerpot65

Another USAF salute to a brave man.


104 posted on 03/26/2009 12:54:16 PM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi
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To: wtc911
Now it looks like we are going to manage to tick off the Australians too. Well done!!

BTW, the CIB theater (the C stands for China) is where most of the Japanese Army was.

105 posted on 03/26/2009 1:15:36 PM PDT by Tribune7 (Obama wants to put the same crowd that ran Fannie Mae in charge of health care)
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To: Swiss

“So if the movie “Patton” or “The Longest Day” had been made by the Soviets...”

Why would I care about any movie made by the Soviets? And to draw an equivalency between your scenario and the one that led to this entire thread strains credibility.


106 posted on 03/26/2009 1:42:34 PM PDT by raptor29
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To: ansel12
You shouldn’t leave the impression that you are belittling the American aircrews either.

Coming down on the side of the RAF ... especially in light of the outrageous accusations by a few ignorant jerks in this forum that our British allies were somehow weak & cowardly in WWII ... hardly puts me in the bashing American aircrews category. But, hey ... this is FR ... opinions are like assh**** everyone has one.

107 posted on 03/26/2009 5:48:06 PM PDT by BluH2o
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To: stinkerpot65

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkaoTs58Bbk


108 posted on 03/26/2009 6:04:58 PM PDT by mware (F-R-E-E, that spells free. Free Republic.com baby.)
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To: DFG

...Good thing they weren’t posting on this thread, they’d have killed each other istead of the enemy...


109 posted on 03/26/2009 6:06:34 PM PDT by gargoyle (...Lincoln abolished slavery, Obama wants it back, for most of us...)
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To: DFG

...Good thing they weren’t posting on this thread, they’d have killed each other instead of the enemy...
...Sorry, had to add the n...


110 posted on 03/26/2009 6:09:43 PM PDT by gargoyle (...Lincoln abolished slavery, Obama wants it back, for most of us...)
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To: BluH2o

You can come down on the side of the RAF without seeming to belittle our American dead airmen and their sacrifices.


111 posted on 03/26/2009 6:13:11 PM PDT by ansel12 (Romney (guns)"instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people")
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To: DFG

Wow, some of you folks have flipped out. All the guy said was that there weren’t any Americans involved in the escape, and there was no motorcycle riding. He’s an eye witness. Let’s just take it at face value.

By introducing American movie stars such as McQueen and James Garner, they pulled in an American audience. It was Hollywood making a buck.

Nothing bad is implied about the American military personnel who fought in the war. It doesn’t seem appropriate to bash Great Britain, who have been one of our closest allies through the years.


112 posted on 03/26/2009 6:18:12 PM PDT by Rocky (OBAMA: Succeeding where bin Laden failed.)
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To: DFG

I dated a girl whose father, an American pilot, was in that POW camp. He told me that he did not know — and he doubted any other Americans in the camp knew — about the escape until after it had gone down. He said that there were always rumors and whisperings of plots for escape, but that was normal. As for the escape that was the subject of the movie, he said that was a British gig.


113 posted on 03/26/2009 6:22:58 PM PDT by ought-six ( Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
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To: Mr Rogers

“Unlike the other Europeans, they FIGHT.”

The Brits are superb warriors, and if they are allowed to fight, they are capable of incredible achievements. I would always be proud and grateful to have the Brits on my side in any war. Don’t equate the British soldier with his government. British troops are top knotch.


114 posted on 03/26/2009 6:26:30 PM PDT by ought-six ( Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
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To: ansel12
You can come down on the side of the RAF without seeming to belittle our American dead airmen and their sacrifices.

What ever ... by the way, do you have your drivers license yet?

115 posted on 03/26/2009 6:50:29 PM PDT by BluH2o
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To: BluH2o
You can come down on the side of the RAF without seeming to belittle our American dead airmen and their sacrifices.

Maybe you can't, you seem a little childish.

116 posted on 03/26/2009 6:52:44 PM PDT by ansel12 (Romney (guns)"instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people")
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To: mware
Thank You for posting.

One of my favourite songs

117 posted on 03/27/2009 6:13:45 AM PDT by Snowyman
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
I rode limeys for almost 2 decades - most on 1 tricked out Norton with the big valve RH7 head, nickle plated frame, open reverse cone megaphones, eventually a 940 kit (bad move), 38 flat slide mikunis, Ceriani ft end, tomasselis.....the sound of that bike still haunts me.

Had a couple other Nortons that came & went unmolested, and a T120C that saw alot of miles, not all on the road.

118 posted on 03/27/2009 6:18:21 AM PDT by 4woodenboats (Congratulations Lt. Col Chessani!! (Murtha, Ewers & Winter, you too are free - to suck an egg)
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To: 4woodenboats
My last Snortin’ Norton was a ‘72 850. Black with gold script, naturally. It had been thrashed pretty badly before I got it (in a trade, and I think a pickup load of firewood might have been part of the swap) so I took it apart and was surprised to find the bore was nearly perfect. The head needed a complete rework as it would shoot engine oil out of both peashooters on cold startup. I had the only self-lubricating turn signals in motorcycledom, I think...
119 posted on 03/27/2009 6:59:20 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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