[Leica] IMG: Russian cannon

[Jim Nichols]

Hi Douglas,

I had forgotten Ireland's neutrality during the war.  Flying and its 
associated activities can be very unforgiving.  Two of my college 
classmates were killed after we left school.  One was a test pilot for 
Ryan Aircraft, testing vertical takeoff designs. The other was testing a 
new parachute design.  A local engineer and pilot who I knew was killed 
in his high-performance sailplane.  A couple of other pilots I knew 
thought they were immortal and pressed their luck.

I only scratched one airplane, and that was on a hangar door. :-(

Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA

On 8/7/2018 7:34 PM, Douglas Barry wrote:
> Ireland during WW2 was "neutral" so we didn't melt down anything. As a 
> result, we still have a lot of the metal architectural flourishes that 
> vanished from British cities during the war. We didn't even call it 
> WW2 here, but rather "The Emergency" and, while we were ostensibly 
> intransigent in our neutrality, we were secretly supporting the Allies 
> with covert information, quick repatriation of crashed aircrew and 
> sailors, and, of course, many Irish fought for them during the war.
>
> Funnily enough, my mother's brother Griffith ran away from home with a 
> friend to join the RAF in 1942. Both of them were 17 at the time and 
> they headed up from Dublin to Northern Ireland on their bicycles. They 
> made it to just outside Dundalk when they were stopped and returned 
> home by the Gardaí.  My grandfather who was a Chief Superintendent in 
> the Gardaí at the time and head of the Local Security Force during the 
> Emergency had eventually extracted their plans from my mother and her 
> sisters, and made a couple of quick phone calls to cut off the obvious 
> routes.  My uncle was "returned" home in a police van and was promised 
> he could fly instead for the Irish Air Corps once he had finished 
> school. Sadly, he was killed in May 1944 when he crashed his Miles 
> Magister trainer (serial no. 37) just after going solo when he looped 
> the loop for friends and clipped a tree.
>
> Douglas
>
>
>
> On 07/08/2018 22:53, Jim Nichols wrote:
>> Looks as if it belongs there.  You are lucky.  All of the old cannon 
>> in my home town were turned in to the salvage drive to support WWII !
>>
>> Jim Nichols
>> Tullahoma, TN USA
>>
>> On 8/7/2018 4:41 PM, Douglas Barry wrote:
>>> Local wags have placed a Burger King crown to decorate a cannon on 
>>> Dun Laoghaire pier. The cannon overlooking Scotsman's Bay and the 
>>> James Joyce Tower at Sandycove, is a Russian one captured during the 
>>> Crimean War in the 19th century - probably at the siege of 
>>> Sevastapol. It has the Romanov coat of arms embossed on it. Sony 
>>> A7ii with kit zoom.
>>>
>>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/DouglasBray/Dublin/Dun+Laoghaire/DL+11062018+Burger+King+Cannon+East+Pier.jpg.html 
>>>
>>>
>>> Douglas
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
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>
>
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