hi members
i have a graunper bismark coming soon and noticed that it is supplied with flags which seem not to move in the wind also they the centre of the flag is blank , whils i understand feelings still run high from ww2 and this particular ship in the intrest of autheticity i my likley to be sunk by people who still hold memorys from this dark period in history
look forward to any consructive comments from members who may have come across problem
howard spary
scuppers
I wouldn't worry about it Howard...…...when I lived in my coastguard cottage close to the prom, I had a next but one door neighbour who showed me his life story in mementos and photographs
he was a CPO on HMS MAORI when she was involved in the group involved in the sinking of the Bismarck. Maori was sent in to fish out the survivors from the sunken ship, and then transfer them to the Dorsetshire,
he showed me photos that he had taken of the survivors being helped up the scramble nets onto the deck of Maori, some still wearing their hats.
he would tell me of the friends he made from the survivors over the years and his last reunion with the men from the Bismarck Survivors Association the last time he went in 1987 to Germany top meet them, was down to just seven men.
the comradery of both British and German sailors, he said was second to none, and even one elderly man having made a model of his ill-fated ship which he had brought along to the gathering.
Barnie, as my friend was called [Stanley Barnes to be exact] asked him about the Swastika painted on the bow and did people in Germany think about such adornments, and I will always remember what barnie said of the mans reply. he said..….."it is history, and it belongs in history as a warning not to go down that avenue again. all nations have things that they are ashamed of, but if modern society is not aware of our shame, they will never learn from our mistakes"
I think he was a wise, but also a brave man......I wish I had met him.
Sadly, my friend Barnie died 3 years later, and I cried at his funeral.And his memoirs that covered his life from an early age, probably went into a skip, because I sadly never saw them again.....a priceless relic of history gone for good.