[427TJ]

Pete, my dad was a WWII history buff and I got my interest from him. I remember watching the English series "The World at War" back in the early '70s and I now have it on DVD, as well as the 1953 "Victory at Sea" DVD set (less than 10 bucks!). One of the World at War episodes is titled "Whirlwind" and it begins with a magnificent shot of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Lancaster in full flight. I think it was Churchill who said that the Germans had chosen to sow the wind and so shall reap the whirlwind. The fire-bombing of Hamburg and Dresden and other German cities followed. Reading "The Big E" has gotten my interest in Pacific war history re-ignited and I have been locating WWII battle sites in the Pacific island chains on Google Earth. I even found one of the the bases used by the VMF-214 "Black Sheep" marine fighter squadron on Vella LaVella island--the runway is still visible! (They called it "Vella LaCava" on the 1976 TV show. They also called Espiritu Santo "Espritus Marcus." Marcus is a small island we re-took from the Japanese in early '42.) As a kid I loved the names of the Pacific islands: New Britain, New Georgia, New Caledonia, Santa Cruz, New Hebrides, New Ireland, the Solomans, the Caroline Islands, etc. The names sounded magical and conjured images of island paradises but in reality the battles there were terrible blood baths. My dad used to play his "Victory at Sea" record soundtrack and I still love to listen to that music. My dad even built me a 1/72 scale aircraft carrier--nothing fancy, just a place for me to land my 1/72 navy planes (Hellcats, Wildcats, Dauntlesses, etc.). Anyway, WWII history has fascinated me since childhood. Try locating battle sites and old bases on Google Earth--it's addicting! East Anglia in England is still FULL of now-unused WWII 8th Air Force bases, 9th AF bases, and many of the RAF bases. Just start surfing over the area and they start popping up. I probably placed 100 yellow push-pin locators on bases in East Anglia alone. Yeah, geeky but still fun and more importantly, fascinating. Something to do when it's too cold to be in the garage.