Attack Of The Brolly-Men

I Know, I Know -
It sounds like an especially cheap and nasty episode of "The Phoenix Five", which was a very cheap sci-fi series from the Seventies that nobody seems to miss very much; you don't see anyone dressed up as one of their characters at Comic Con, do you?

No wonder

     Do you see what you did, Gene Roddenberry?  Do you see what you did?  You empowered a generation of cheap hacks who wanted on the sci-fi gravy train -
     Which is completely off-course and nothing to do with what I wanted to talk about.  For Lo! we are back to "A Bridge Too Far", which has been very fruitful in terms of generating content.  Also, "brolly-men" was army slang for paratroopers, but probably not to their faces.  Right, let's look at Edward Fox, who played General Horrocks.  Art?

Eddy

     In real life Edward was a close friend of Brian Horrocks (or "Jorrocks" as he was nicknamed) and so mirrored his mate's manners and bearing.  If Art will put down his plate of coals -

A typically smiley Jorrocks

     Jorrocks was well-liked as he was both humourous and personable, and he was very able in military terms; somewhere in my book mine I have his own memoir of his wartime career in both Unpleasantnesses and the Ruffian Civil Unpleasantness.  As you can see, there is a certain physical resemblance.
     Now, remember the tanks in ABTF?  Well, I have been re-reading a memoir from a British tank commander, and he explains one reason that British tank crews suffered a lot more from head wounds than other armies.  Art?

Mister Vandeleur of the Irish Guards, realising he's left a sock in his underwear drawer

     That's Michael Caine, that is, demonstrating how the radio headset was worn.  It was normally worn only with a beret because, if you wore the Brodie pattern helmet (the "soup-plate" helmet by Teuton usage) you couldn't fit your headphones on.  And it was essential, literally life or death, to have your headphones on.  The inside of a tank turret is a crowded and claustrophobic place - Art?


     As you can see, there are countless bits of protruding metal you can whack your bonce into, resulting in everything from a scratch up to a concussion.
     Besides, wearing a helmet would imply that you were unable to demonstrate Typical British Stiff Upper Lip, old boy - simply not chukka.
     I have also noticed a bit of a flub in the production design, which of course gratifies my shrivelled and bitter soul.  Art?


     Notice these tanks; they ALL mount a long gun, implying that they are the 17 pounder equipped Firefly version of the Sherman.  If you look closely you can see where a prosthetic has been added to extend the barrel length (Freud would love this).
     However, at this time of the Unpleasantness, only one Sherman in four was a Firefly, perhaps shading into one in three by September.  Thus, most of them should have the short barrel.

This -

Not this.

     Of course this is the sort of detail that only a sad anorak like myself would either notice or bother about, which is entirely correct and accurate as an observation.

Plus!

     You can't mention "Brolly" and ABTF and not include Digby Tatham-Warter, who is winding up the Teutons above when they request surrendering.
     Motley!  Let us go for a refreshing stroll in the refreshing rain, safely covered by a pair of -

Another Thing That Will Make Sense On Facebook
Dear Reader, please allow BOOJUM! to show you a picture of a crankshaft.

Thus

     There you are.   Now, allow us to show you another picture of a crankshaft.

Now we know

     Actually that's a lie, Your Humble Scribe has no idea what these things do, apart from rotating?  Nevertheless, we have shown you two crankshafts.


The Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry
If you're not interested in TANK then THE EXIT DOOR IS THAT WAY!  The SRY were a tank regiment in the armies of Perfidious Albion in the Second Unpleasantness, one of three regiments that made up 8th Armoured Brigade.
     Don't worry, there will not be any exhaustive rehashing of their battles and engagements*.  Rather, I realised that I now have 3 books of memoirs about this regiment.  The first is "From Alamein To Zem Zem", by Keith Douglas, who was one of the foremost British poets of the time.  Art?

My edition

     He fought with the SRY across North Africa and was killed only several days after D Day.
     Then there is David Render, a troop leader in "A" Squadron of the SRY, who wrote "Tank Action", about his arrival in Normandy two weeks after D Day and from there to Bremen.  Art?

My edition

     This book is excellent on the technical and tactical developments that leading historians David French and John Buckley have also analysed (and which I have pronounced on).
     Then there is "By Tank Into Normandy" by Stuart Hills, which I dug out yesteryon and am re-reading.  Stu arrived in Normandy on D Day, only for his tank to sink immediately it went into the water.  Art?

A lot of the same names recur

     I also have another book on order from Abebooks, the diaries of Major Stanley Christopherson, who was the Regimental CO, but which appears to have vanished between vendor and myself.  To be chased up.
     There, that wasn't so bad, was it?

This Will Make Sense On Facebook, Honestly
Think of financial institutions and the first word that comes to mind is "blood-sucking shysters getting rich on other people's sweat" "Banks".  So, let us have some appropriate illustrations.  Art?


     There we are - Oldham's banks.

     And with that, we are done!

*  Not today, anyway.