Gimme Another Vee

I Should Have Thought Of This Earlier
Back when I was looking for posts to do with the letter "V", but then there are only 25.23 hours in a day.*  
     Anyway, I have to ask, is Victoria Cross?  You would guess so, from the pictures about her, which Art can illustrate -

More winsome than cross!

     Apparently Victoria's rages were so impressive that they named a medal after her.**  It was forged from a brass cannon captured by the forces of Perfidious Albion from the Ruffians during the Crimean War (rumours are that this cannon had been completely consumed, and that current VCs are made of moonshine and rainbows)**.
     Anyway, from the criteria for being awarded, to win a VC one needed to have carried out an act of incredible bravery, or many acts of mere bravery.  
     Here a kind of aside.  Art?

Captain Noel Chevasse

     Do you have a hanky ready?  That above is Noel Chevasse, who was a doctor during the First Unpleasantness, in the Liverpool Scottish.  Not being satisfied with being awarded the Military Medal, Nole went on to win the VC at Guillemont.  Which was a bit difficult, him being a non-combatant doctor and all that.  Doctors not being supposed to take up arms unless in defence of their patients; Ol' Nole won his award through stooging around for wounded right up to the Teuton wires, dozens of times.  He is also one of only 3 people evah to get the VC and bar - which means the same award twice.  They don't hand those things out in packets of breakfast cereal, you know.
         
                                                 Back on track      As much as we ever are.
     Back to the "History of the 18th Division 1914 - 1918 by GH Nichols" - I know this is the first we've mentioned this, but try to keep up - it's good mental exercise.  'Quex', the pseudonym he chose, made no bones about the squalid awfulness of the Passchendaele battlefield in autumn of 1917.  Casualties in the two major offensive the 18th took part in were heavy, and one of their unsung heroes was the medical officer of the 6th Berkshire Regiment.  Art?

The Doctor.  No!  Not that Doctor.

     Doctor Ackroyd was everywhere on the battlefield and treated over 300 of the wounded.  When the guns had stopped for a while, the 18th Divisional staff tallied their notes and found that Captain Ackroyd had been recommended by various units for the Victoria Cross.
     Twenty three times.
     And he got it, unfortunately posthumously.
     Wow.  That's a bit of a downer.  Art, cheer us up.  And motley?  Motley, you may go for an unassailed gambol in the grass.

<sighs>  No, Art, no.

"The V.C.'s"
You may consider this to be in shockingly bad taste, but I don't care, because I'm horrid that way, and am unlikely to change in the near, middle and far future.
     Anyway!  We hearken back to the glory days of 2000AD, the early 80's, and a future-war story of this post's title.  Art?


     The illustration above is a bit misleading, as the artist (Mike McMahon) only did this single strip, though he did establish the characters and spaceships.  Thank you, Mike!
     Conrad loved this strip, which he picked up halfway through, as I was still completing my collection and going backwards. 

Artist the redoubtable Cam Kennedy

     That's the VC's (Vacuum Cleaners) ship dishing out deadly destruction right there.  It was a great series, lots of battles in space and on the ground, and the VC's were a right bunch of rapscallions from various worlds in the Solar System.  Who tended to not get on with their replacement crewman, Slugger Smith - because he was from "Ma Earth".

     <gazes off into the distance wistfully>
The New Year Can't Start Properly -

 - unless your humble scribe is complaining and whining and generally being annoyed about something.  In this case it was the Cryptic Crossword in The Metro, which must have a new compiler, because ! it was hard.  I even had to resort to <ahem> cheating for two clues.  "Remaining partners" (6) and "Inability in volume" (10).

     No, I shan't tell you what the answers were, because YOU WERE VERY VERY BAD!**

Capable of inspiring Frothing Nitric Ire.  O Yes Indeed!

Once Again -

Conrad is annoyed!  Irate!  Upset!

     "What is it now?  Who is rashly rattling the ancient fogey's cage?" I hear you ask.

     139, I'll have you know, is not ancient.  Not for an alien like me -

     -  but I digress.  I am typing this at work, and what do I espy on the BBC website but this photo (which I will have to add-in once I get home).  Art?

     Just the thing to pass an idle moment or two at work as the hamsters get up to speed - except not, because the damn work PC won't recognise me.  I AM ME!  YOU NEED KNOW NO MORE THAN THAT! 

     When I take over there'll be a few hearty hellos and happy handshakes being given out.** 

*EU Amended Sidereal Time/Martian Standard Utopia Planitia Time
**  This may not be entirely correct.