[BITList] The Lancaster Bomber

[HUGH]

John,

The Lancaster is probably the easiest of the WW2 planes to recognise.  When I wor a lad I could tell them all at a glance, as any lad in our street worth his salt could, but the skill has lain unused for too many years.  I can tell a Spitfire/Hurricane, but not always which one.  Reading the Agincourt speech I hear Olivier enunciating it precisely - I love the last verse.  It's a fictional speech, as the man points out.  Another famous fictional speech appeared in an article I read last week, and equally stirring.  I refer to the one put into the mouth of Calcagus, the semi-fictional hero of a proto Scotland, by the Roman Tacitus, supposedly to add gloss to the history of the Roman campaign by creating a noble adversary. As with the Agincourt speech, the last bit is memorable. Some translations say "desert" for "solitude".

"Whenever I consider the origin of this war and the necessities of our position, I have a sure confidence that this day, and this union of yours, will be the beginning of freedom to the whole of Britain. To all of us slavery is a thing unknown; there are no lands beyond us, and even the sea is not safe, menaced as we are by a Roman fleet. And thus in war and battle, in which the brave find glory, even the coward will find safety. Former contests, in which, with varying fortune, the Romans were resisted, still left in us a last hope of succour, inasmuch as being the most renowned nation of Britain, dwelling in the very heart of the country, and out of sight of the shores of the conquered, we could keep even our eyes unpolluted by the contagion of slavery. To us who dwell on the uttermost confines of the earth and of freedom, this remote sanctuary of Britain's glory has up to this time been a defence. Now, however, the furthest limits of Britain are thrown open, and the unknown always passes for the marvellous. But there are no tribes beyond us, nothing indeed but waves and rocks, and the yet more terrible Romans, from whose oppression escape is vainly sought by obedience and submission. Robbers of the world, having by their universal plunder exhausted the land, they rifle the deep. If the enemy be rich, they are rapacious; if he be poor, they lust for dominion; neither the east nor the west has been able to satisfy them. Alone among men they covet with equal eagerness poverty and riches. To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a solitude and call it peace."

Hugh.
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