The 79th Anniversary of D Day.

Posted byiainlawson27Posted inUncategorizedTags:, , ,

Yesterday was the 79th Anniversary of D DAY.

I was born less than ten years after this crucial event. I went to school in Clydebank, a town that was flattened by the Luftwaffe in March 1941. I remember many years later going to school through the bombed out tenements that were still visible, along with many areas of “spare ground” where some of the victims of the German bombing had lived and died.

The impacts of that catastrophe are felt to this day, families that were evacuated out never to return. The schoolmates who had lost family and friends. Yes people suffered loss but it created a tough determination and in Clydebank in those days you knew you were living in an environment where a strong community existed and despite a high level of poverty in some areas folk had a real pride in their town.

These days will never be forgotten and likewise those who stormed the beaches of Normandy are owed a debt of gratitude by all future generations because it could have been a very different world we had to grow up in if the Allies had not been successful and Europe had remained under the jackboot of Fascism and the Nazis.

Each year their sacrifice is remembered but each year fewer of those who actually took part are still alive, and I was struck by the appeals for those few that still are, to make contact so that they can be invited to visit Normandy and take part in the 80th year Remembrance event. 

I am of the first generation of Scots for a very long time to reach my seventies without having to survive a major conflict along the way. I am very grateful for this good fortune. There have been plenty of conflicts of course Suez, Aden, Falklands, Afghanistan to mention just a few but none in my adult lifetime that resulted in the need for conscription or involved our civilian populations being under attack. How lucky are we?

Contrast the above with the ongoing war in Ukraine following Putin’s illegal invasion of their country. Just as my home town of Clydebank was flattened by Nazi Germany many cities, towns and villages in Ukraine face the same prospects with attacks coming from missiles, aircraft and long range artillery. Little of these towns and cities are left for either side after the battle is “won”. 

It makes you think why do these battles need to take place? I suppose it’s because people have a right to freedom in their own land. To enjoy that freedom long term, people need to fight off potential aggressors who refuse to accept that right. Putin has made clear he does not believe Ukrainians have any right to their own country. He thinks they should be part of a Greater Russia. He has made clear his desire is to recreate a new, larger Russia along the lines of the old Soviet Empire that collapsed in 1991

In the late thirties Hitler got away by first taking over several neighbouring countries as the Allies hesitated in intervening, anxious to avoid serious conflict. Delaying confrontation did not work, Hitler having succeeded with taking over several of his neighbours eventually went too far by invading Poland and World War 2 was the result. Few have any doubt that if Putin was able to takeover Ukraine unchallenged then several other countries, including Poland, would be threatened. We would be looking at a potential World War 3. 

Putin, like Hitler, requires to be stopped. Ukraine is a sovereign Independent nation. The Ukrainian people have shown their determination and courage to defend their right to freedom in their own land. I support their right to do so.

Above all though I wish Putin and Russia would realise the folly of war. As this war is proving there is no winners in war, only hundreds of thousands of dead and injured and for what? Destroyed territory, causing mass misery and hatred for the aggressor. 

There is nothing good that will come for this for Russia or her people, just building up more suspicion and insecurity amongst neighbouring nations. Some try to excuse Russia by saying Putin had to act because Russia was being threatened by NATO.

There is no evidence of this, yes many countries in Europe had over the thirty plus years since the collapse of the Soviet Union applied and voluntarily joined NATO. WHY DID THAT HAPPEN? Surely one of the main reasons was Putin’s public pronouncements about his ambitions to expand the borders of Russia. Can you blame them for this? For almost a half century from the end of WW2 had seen them all either occupied by the Soviets or dominated by them during the Soviet years. None of these now independent countries had any desire to revisit that status and joining NATO to them seemed the best route to help secure their borders.

Even if you believed this was Putin’s motivation, it has been pretty disastrous. Previously unaligned countries like Finland have joined NATO and Sweden is in the process of doing likewise since the invasion of Ukraine. At the end of this conflict Russia will be even more encircled by NATO than before. New members directly created by Putin’s actions. He is a certainty to win the NATO recruitment award for 2022-23.

I wish the people of Russia success and prosperity living within the existing borders of Russia. I suggest they find a political leader who shares those ambitions as well.

From a very early age I saw the horrible consequences of war. Respect and goodwill for neighbouring nations seems a small price to pay to avoid it in the future.  

I am, as always

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53 thoughts on “The 79th Anniversary of D Day.”

    2. I presume you are speculating on how we deal with any escalation? The current war was deliberately started by Russia. It is about its imperial might.
      Yes the US and UK are using it as an excuse. The US, like many wars before, as a proxy to show its ‘defence of western ways’. The UK to pretend it is still a major power in the world.
      Putin wants the Soviet Republic reinstated. He will continue to invade the former Soviet states until he is stopped. He miscalculated the reaction of the Ukrainians first and foremost. Unlike Georgia and Chechnya, they have resisted.

      Liked by 1 person

  2. Also my father fought in the Spanish civil war, imprisoned but then exchanged for Spanish Fascists . He was extremely malnourished but my mother looked after him and he recovered enough to be enlisted in WW2. He survived both wars and i’m proof of that.

    Sent from Outlook for iOShttps://aka.ms/o0ukef ________________________________

    Liked by 8 people

    1. In large measure it was the duplicity of the British establishment and the Government of the day that lead to the fall of the democratically elected Spanish Republic. All honour to your father and that other band of brothers who ‘came because their open eyes could see no other way.’ I had the honour of designing the memorial to the crews of those merchant vessels serving the Spanish Trade which were sunk by the combined fascist forces of Portugal, Italy, Germany and the rebelious Spanish Army of Africa. a total of 61 merchant ships were sunk of which 29 were flying the red ensign of the British Merchant Navy. As a Glaswegian I am doubly proud that the monument was raised on the Clyde Walkway. Had the democracies not failed to support one of their own the war that followed may well have been averted and the world as we know it may have been spared the anguish and loss of life that followed. Many of those mariners who survived would go on to serve and lose their lives on convoy service. That war was the testing ground for blitzkreig and much else. Regarding the bombing of Clydebank, I’d like to share a wee memory my mother passed down to me. She was standing ouside the railway station at Hamilton Top Cross. A crowd had gathered there as the bombs were falling on your home town. There was a police sergeant there who would look at his watch and then the distant skyline. He was measuring the intervals between the flash and the sound of the explosion reaching him. “It’s Clydebank” he said. Regarding the current situation. As weans who lived through the Cold War the prospect of a Nuclear War was an ever present feature of life. When the wall came down and the Warsaw Pact dissolved, the raison d’etre for NATO also vanished, and yet rather than that outcome we seem instead to have adopted a trumphalist attitude which reinforces the narrative that the Russian Federation are still under siege. I am no apologist for Putin, nor Biden for that matter. In the 30’s diplomacy failed. In concequence our parents were a lost generation. We can’t afford another failure.

      Liked by 7 people

  3. And still some good followed in the post war period with the formation of the welfare state, building of social housing, an economic policy favouring full employment and a general desire to give people a decent life following the horrors of war. As early as 1953 however, the spectre of neoliberalism was already with us – plans were already underway to dismantle the social fabric of society via Milton Friedman, James Buchanan and Frederick Von Hayek of the Mont pelerin society.

    Australian journalist Claire Connelly describes neoliberalism (the Mont pelerin brainchild) as “ a thought collective that formed a consensus not to put the market at the centre of the state, but to take it over completely. Its entire objective is to co-opt economics and subvert the public interest to suit the needs of powerful capitalist institutions and the politicians, economists, financiers, philosophers, bankers, think-tanks and media organisations that support them.”

    As we now know, Friedman’s ideas were not only bonkers, but quite dangerous. He famously stated “ Truly important and significant hypotheses will be found to have “assumptions” that are wildly inaccurate descriptive representations of reality, and, in general, the more significant the theory, the more unrealistic the assumptions”. Thus today we have ideological government policy based on well funded phoney economics.

    All the ‘freedoms’ fought for have been appropriated away within our own borders. With a few exceptions, our politicians have been passengers, or worse – profiteers benefitting from the theft of public resources, dismantling of welfare and the race to the bottom. Many topics discussed on this site – SLAPPS for example, are symptoms of this neoliberalism’s dire effects on society. The political classes look down their noses at groups such as Salvo, yet they exist because politics is captured and politicians have failed. What else can people do?

    Our peacetime ‘fight’ now lies within our own borders. Sadly most of our politicians have laid down their manifestos and portfolios and walked to the other side. Where are the heros?

    Liked by 10 people

    1. The current Tory UKG knew they were going to tank the pound and aided and abetted their cronies in betting against it. Scum does not begin to describe them. We are threatened with jail for any number of grey, politically motivated crimes – what does it take to put our criminal politicians in jail?

      I am no apologist for Putin – seems though he is a role model for our ex FM and the current UKG – also it seems it is Russian money that have funded this Tory UKG. I wonder if Putin is surprised they are not more supportive? Never sit down to tea with the devil Mr Putin …

      Liked by 4 people

  4. Some would say that the semi-official attacks in 2014 by Ukrainians on Russian speakers in the provinces of the Ukraine that border Russia were sufficient provocation for Russia to intervene. Thousands of ethnic Russians were murdered. It is not unreasonable for Russia to welcome these provinces to the mother country. While comparisons are drawn with the occupation of the ethnically German Sudetenland what is overlooked is that both Czechoslovakia and the Ukraine were just random crayon lines on a map. They had no prior existence as real separate countries.
    Contrariwise it is very doubtful that Russia seeks to possess either the bulk of the Ukraine or any other parts of Europe. There would be no point.

    Liked by 9 people

  5. Russia agreed to move out of Warsaw Pact countries for an agreement NATO would not move a further foot towards Russia. They did; by hundreds of miles. Of course it is also true that Putin is a dangerous man who has taken power since those decisions and who can blame neighbouring countries for wanting protection for him. As ever in geo-politics much is murky and few (in power) are blameless. It is always the ordinary civilians who suffer most though, regardless of side.

    As Edwin Starr said

    “War what is it good for, absolutely nothing. ”

    Unfortunately it seems ever present worldwide.

    Liked by 7 people

  6. Panda paws,
    Edwin Star was 100% wrong!!
    War is VERY GOOD for producing PROFIT. The arms industry and its elite shareholders first, then the rebuilding companies and their shareholders next. when the clear up gets underway.

    Liked by 6 people

  7. Since Scots were duped and bribed into the supposed ‘union’ the United Kingdom’s forces (or forces with a ‘British’ mandate) have invaded, had some control over or fought conflicts in 171 of the world’s 193 countries that are currently UN member states, or nine out of ten of all countries.

    Since the end of the Second World War, Britain has deployed its armed forces for combat over 80 times in 47 countries, in episodes ranging from brutal colonial wars and covert operations to efforts to remove regimes or prop up favoured governments or to deter civil unrest.

    I suspect that had Scotland remained independent we would not have been involved in most if not all of these wars.

    WWI was essentially a war between the ‘Great Imperial Powers’ and WWII was largely a consequence of the one-sided outcome of that. Most other conflicts Britain ‘used’ Scots in involved the same Imperial powers fighting over colonies around the globe.

    So long as Scotland remains a colonial appendage to an Imperial power we will continue to be dragged into conflicts we would never have been involved in as an independent country, conflicts we have no say over. Kenny MacAskill demonstrated Scotland’s different values with Megrahi’s release, whilst our Imperial masters would only send bombs.

    Liked by 11 people

  8. America – You drop two atomic bombs on Japan, burned thousands of people who are suffering to this day just to show that then Soviet Union you have nukes and must be shut down.
    In Vietnam you burnt and burnt and burnt with the napalm bombs, the forests and also the infrastructure of the whole state, you left nothing standing, you dropped the bombs in the villages towns and cities destroying everything.
    You destroyed by bombing Belgrade itself, throwing bombs at houses and hospitals and everywhere without counting a thing.
    You tried Milosevic as a criminal in the Hague with a trial of parody and killed him letting the Ucedades baptize Kosovo as you like.
    You forced to Turks to invade Cyprus – an independent state and even 50 years from then we still can’t find texyohhe bones of the missing…
    You destroyed Libya along with your European friends because you didn’t like Gadaffi who wouldn’t provide the oil at a cheap price.
    You armed and funded your Islamic state proxies to fight 6 whole years of civil war in Syria because you didn’t like Assad, and you were bothered by the Russian naval base in Syria, and Assad turned out to be in favour of Russia.
    You invaded Iraq allegedly to find the nuclear weapons, and invaded Afghanistan to find your former friend Bin Laden and demolished both countries, bombing towns and villages indiscriminately…
    And you talk about democracy you bastards… You who built the perfect centre for physical and mental torture in Guantanamo;
    you hanged Hussain without trial, he who was your best friend and Ally until 2-3 years before..
    You with your wars and politics created Isis and the Taleban;
    you who overturned Salvador Allende with the bloody coup in Chile, a democratically elected president, killing him inside the Presidential Palace and installing Pinochets most violent dictatorship;
    You who when the Berlin wall fell promised Russia that NATO would not extend an inch and reached to the edge of Russia despite your promises and agreements…
    And you talking about democracy, peace and war crimes of Russia, you lying traitors and murderers of innocents.
    You filled all of Europe with Persian missiles and cruise missiles which Russia ignored.
    You didn’t adhere to a single condition of the Minsk agreement while on the contrary Russia obeyed them all.
    A lifetime of f****** and hypocrites
    Even Hitler – your own multinational and companies funded him and made him a beast.
    So only Ukraine was missing from the puzzle to complete NATOs nest around Russia and to drown it.
    Since 2009 Putin has been warning you that Ukraine is a red line
    In 2014 with the coup you underwent. You overthrew Yanukovic using Nazi and fascist clashes to kill Ukraine and you installed a puppet government that was intended to prepare the country for entry into NATO and the EU whilst you knew it was a red line for Russia
    Today’s Russia if they wanted could make the whole of Ukraine muddy, but doesn’t want to.
    Russians and Ukrainians are brothers.
    Again America did not tell the truth, they are unmerciful liars. America is taking advantage of the pain of the Ukrainians and the Russians and again is lying to the World
    Russia warned asked pleaded for the noose not to be tightened anymore around her neck. But when you have to deal with NATO directors creators of war and misery, unfortunately there was no other way.
    Russia is not Iraq or Syria. You later and now you’re playing the victim. Were you at assuming that Russia would roll over and it would all end quickly.
    It is such a great pity that America does these things to the people of the world. It is the ordinary people who pay for America’s crimes against humanity every time.
    My soul is hurting…..

    Liked by 11 people

    1. The whole thing is more grey in its origins than our current narrative admits. However, what Putin is now doing, either by design or by consequence of sending untrained thugs/Wagner to war is jaw droppingly awful. He has to be stopped. And not just for the many Ukrainians who have suffered and will suffer but also for the Russian men being forced to go to a war they despise and die terrible deaths. Putin is a monster.

      Liked by 3 people

  9. Given we know that the MSM lie about independance I am shocked that you have fallen for their lies regarding the Ukraine. One fact you may like to consider, is that from 2014 til 2022 the Government forces killed over 12,000 Donbas residents, including over 6,000 civilians, 800 of which were children. this indiscriminate shelling of residential districts, markets and the churches at Easter continues to this day. The UN was doing nothing, NATO was arming the facists for their final solution, Putin had to do something!

    Another fact is that only 45% of the Ukraine population was ethnic Ukrainian, with 35% Russian and 20% Polish/Belorussian/Hungarian. The Ukrainians are enforcing there language and politics on the rest.

    Liked by 8 people

    1. Tell me about the civil war in Donbas. Were bullets only going in one direction? All the Russian support in the form of money, guns and ammunition never used?

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      1. In 2014 the elected president of Ukraine was ousted by rebels controlled by the USA. They drove the supporters of democracy out of Kiev, then Odessa. The supporters of the rule of law congregated in the Donbas, where they were subject to attack by the rebels. These rebels were intent on driving out or exterminating the Russians, in Russia as well. Unsurprisingly wealthy Russians organised a Noraid style support for the oppressed. When it looked like they were winning the EU and NATO forced Russia to agree the Minsk agreement whereby the two breakaway regions would be reintegrated as autonomous regions of the Ukraine. This is now revealed by the guarantors to be a trick to allow NATO time to arm the Ukrainians to annihilate the Russians in Donbas.

        Liked by 4 people

      2. What rubbish. In 2014 the Russian puppet President was overthrown because he was blocking Ukraine’s application to join the EU. There have been a number of elections since all with big turnouts and Zelensky was elected with over 70% of the vote.

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      3. Before you say something is rubbish you should first consider where you are getting your facts, theMSM? The Dombas was not allowed to vote in the Zelensk election, so how was it democratic? Never the less he got in on a promise to improve relations with Russia, because the Ukranian people prefer the Russian Federation to the EU (from academic studies )

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Not so, the Donbas were allowed to vote but the militants did not allow them the opportunity. They did vote in the elections where Ukraine was created and voted overwhelmingly to join Ukraine rather than stay as part of Russia.

        Liked by 1 person

  10. The actual recorded, pro-Ukraine vote in the UN belies the scenario that we’re relentlessly being presented with by the UK media. Best be careful: for all of the security-council members indulge in irresistible arm-twisting amongst the smaller client nations to achieve a desired result. Take sides if you wish, but there are no hands completely clean at the top-table, in this conflict, or in any other. Put aside ideology and follow the money!

    Liked by 7 people

    1. I think you will find it is the smaller Eastern European NATO countries who are most supportive of Ukraine. They know from experience what lifebnder the Russians is like.

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  11. Salutations all.

    They say there are two sides to a story and then there is the truth. But that’s probably not even a tenth of it.

    For me I am not at all sure that it is all Russia bad and the West, or should I say the G7, all good.

    Neither am I sure that it’s all China bad and the USA all good.

    To believe that makes about as much sense as believing in the tooth fairy. There’s a big world out there India, China, Russia, Africa, South America, the Middle East, Asia and it’s bigger than the G7 / Nato.

    As Alf Baird pointed out the UK has fought wars or insurrection in 171 countries out of 193 countries forming the world’s UN.

    What are we to draw from that then. Sainthood for Great Britain.

    On present form I suspect that many, at least some here in Blighty might buy that.

    Finest democracy in the whole world. Mother of all parliaments. We know the script. And when needed bit of humanitarian bombing here and bit there. It’s ‘s all in the script too. Gunboat up the Liffey 2016, gunboat diplomacy of Shanghai a few years before that.

    Or Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the Americans in 1945 to bring the war to an end. A war that by that time had been was.

    But regardless we all know that Russia is bad, bad, bad whilst China is bad bad too. And the others too that we’ve fought over the last century and before. We only fight wars to fight the good fight.

    More war, not less, is sadly what certain interests want.

    And so we pump billions, if not trillions of weapons into Ukraine, whilst in Asia the sabres rattle there too. Defence, conflict, war is big business.

    Ben Wallace in a speech some four months, ago declared that before 2030 Britain would be at war.

    Not sure how he could be so certain about that or who with. But it certainly seems, at least to me, that someone is cruising for a bruising. Maybe the current Ukraine – Russia conflict is but a mere tickle as to what might be to come.

    But, I digress. At least we all know who is wrong and who is right, and that’s reassuring.

    Liked by 7 people

  12. Have far back must we go to find the origins of the world’s current military folly? Never far enough some would argue – and I might agree with them.

    Liked by 3 people

  13. I know very little about world politics as I have problems closer to home to give me sleepless nights. What I do know is that my new neighbours and friends had their homes and jobs wiped off the map in Mariupol as a result of Russian artillery and they are now without a home. You have to have a rather troubled mind to blame their situation on NATO and claim they provoked that nice Mr Putin into lobbing ballistic missiles into residential areas. What I do know from experience is that if you back off from a bully he just keeps on coming so if the West had been a bit more resolute when Putin and his cook took over Crimea we could have possibly avoided the mess we see today. My Ukrainian neighbours are professional people and had the resources to get out and I fear for those less able who are stuck there.

    Liked by 2 people

  14. Just been watching coverage of the environmental devastation caused by the bursting of the Nova Kakhovka dam. And what devastation it has caused. as Ukraine and Russia cat call each other as the instigators of the disaster.

    Widely proclaimed in the MSM as an attack on civilians the parallels with the RAF’s bouncing bomb attacks on the Mohne, Sorpe and Eder dams that caused huge flooding and loss of life in the Ruhr valley are uncanny.

    And in the case of the Ruhr valley dam attacks we made a film to commemorate the success of the dam rupture. Dambusters they called it. History certainly repeats albeit that one has to cynically opine who is going to get a Grammy for this disaster. But as I have opined before the Ukraine – Russia proxy war may just be at the tickle stage with bigger and better blockbusters to come.

    I hope not.

    Other than that the headline news item is that of journalistic hacking of Prince Harry. Now that is big big news.

    Liked by 4 people

  15. Wars are fought by the working class for the enrichment of the ruling elite. My ancestors came from near Clydebank two days of Nazi bombing decimated the town . However every fighter station in the Central belt of Scotland had planes in the air but where instructed not to attack the Germans luftwaffe. Some Squadrons where in prime position above the Nazi bombers . RAF pilots where begging to be allowed to swoop on their pray, however to no avail. Some have suggested that Red Clydeside was collateral damage, that the great Churchill saw this as a means to get the shipbuilders motivated in the war effort and to stop the industrial action that persisted on the Clyde during the early part of the war. Others say that fighter command wanted all the fighter aircraft preserved for the defence of London. Which ever way you look at it Scottish lives dont matter to the British elite.
    No country should invade another country , the Ukraine War is not a black and white an issue as it seems. A democract government was overthrown by right wing fascists. A regime that was put in place by the American CIA and British security services. Putin was goaded into the War by the shelling of the Russian ethic population in the Donbas by Ukrainian Nazi’s military.Unfortunately Putin picked up the rope and trap the Americans had laid for him. Three quarters of the World support Russia, our media is censored along with all other Western countries, propaganda is pumped down our throats daily. What is it they dont want us to know ?. Where is the UN why dont they try and stop this horrendous war ? . The Americans are making a fortune out of this selling shalegas to Europe after blowing up the nordic gas pipeline. The Ukraine is hocked up in dept for the next hundred years by American and European arms dealers. The American military claim they can fight a limited nuclear war in Europe and win. These people are dangerously delusional and see the distruction of Europe as a opportunity to make Billions in Europes reconstruction. We must do everything to prevent this war escalating.
    The War is destroying European economies particularly Germany who are paying the cost of fuel, gas and food. A proxy American war fought in Europe for the enrichment of Americans its suits UK , Ok because it takes the heat of the economic disaster of a Tory Brexit. But how foolish is the EU and NATO to be a willing tool of American imperialism and expansionism . They want Putin out the way to get their hands on Russia’s vast resources, of minerals oil, gas. They tell you they are fighting for democracy whose, where is my democracy.

    Liked by 7 people

    1. Whoa the condensed PUTIN propaganda in the one comment. I think if you actually lived in Eastern Europe or have friends there you will find the people there know exactly about just how dangerous Putin is. The big cost in the future in Ukraine will be rebuilding their cities from the damage inflicted by Russian bombs, Russian missiles, Russian artillery shells. It is Russia who is the aggressor here, nobody else.

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      1. I am no friend of Putin however the annexation of Crimea was as a direct result of the coup in the Ukraine of a democratic government by the American CIA .The purpose was to deny Black sea to the Russian Navy.
        Strategically going forward into the new world order Russian is a natural potential ally against the emergence of China as a world power. The EU playing the America’s game has ostracised Russia in to the Chinese sphere of influence. Russia should have been embraced into the European family of nations till the time was suitable for its integration. 50% of American industry is attached to the defence industry in one way or other the bottom line is Corporate America needs conflict to make money. All ready their eyes have turned to China. Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Granada, Panama, Syria, Libya, whose is the Warmonger .
        I sympathise with the Ukrainian people who are pawns in a game of American imperialism and Russian aggression. We dont need a rerun of the cold war for the benifit of Americas elites.

        Liked by 6 people

    2. An anecdote from a trusted family elder suggests that Polish fighter pilots based at Abbotsinch were more than keen to attack the Luftwaffe to make some amends for their homeland’s devastation.
      They were instructed to stay grounded because there was ‘no ammunition’

      Liked by 2 people

      1. They probably told the Poles they had no ammunition as to their credit they where notorious for not following orders engaging Nazi’s aircraft at every opportunity, a good example of this being when the Polish training squadron broke of to maul Nazi bombers attacking London, the RAF then made them operational as a result . However with Clydebank we had what is called defence in depth. RAF Drem (East Fenton), East Fortune, Macmerry, Balado Bridge, Donibristle, Grangemouth,Turnhouse, Kirknewton, Abbots Inch, Charterhall, Dundonald, Prestwich. If the RAF where caught napping by the German’s they would have to face the dauntlet on the way back, two nights running. Ammunition was not the issue they where told to hold there position. On the BBC documentary pilots are on the record as stating they where in a prime position to attack the Nazis being above them but ordered not to attack and to stand down. Think on this, the way to attack Clyde bank was straight past every fighter station in central Scotland. Incidently the Nazi attack on our Celtic cousins in Belfast the Germans pilots would have to follow the same route. We may never get the true reason for the inaction of the RAF these two nights of notoriety in Clydebank, but it is clear that someone high up in the chain of command thought Clydebank was collateral damage.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. The star defender of Clydebank those nights was a Polish destroyer that was being repaired in the Rothesay Dock and who put up withering defensive fire which protected a section of the lower town.

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      3. I dont buy the lack of ammunition story as the standard British army round was a 303 the same round uesd by Spitfire and Hawker hurricanes machine guns. This round was made in perfusion on mass. The reason was its interchangeablity in a variety of weapons. The Lee Enfield’s, Bren Gun etc.

        Liked by 1 person

  16. Aggression comes in two varieties. Passive and active. The punitive treatment imposed on the vanquished of one war will inevitably lead to further conflict. Versailles is testament to that. It’s not a case of white hats and black hats. “War is all Hell. War is all Cruelty. There’s no point in trying to reform it.” It’s proximity that makes us sit up and take notice. Too close to home for comfort. A rich rogue Arab State is killing weans in the Yemen. The basic human rights of the Palestinians have been denied since 1948. We sleepwalk into wars. The lessons of history revisited. ” A far away country of which we know nothing.” ( Nevil Chamberlain on Czechoslovakia.) ” Who now remembers the Armenians?”( Adolph Hitler on the final solution.) Putin is a monster cast from the same mould as Josef Stalin and not dissimilar except perhaps in intellect, from a recent U.S president. The first victims of tyrants are their native population.

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  17. Nope. The war was started by the Ukraine. Their government is the catspaw of the USA. How else would the US get to build biowarfare labs in the Ukraine? Putin is dangerous? Of course! I would hope so. Would we want a Prime Minister in the UK who was not dangerous, who did not stick up for us, who did not “walk softly and carry a big stick”?
    The US uses the UK like sock puppet. Throughout the 20th century and till now the US has worked hard at every opportunity to destroy the fortunes of the UK. The Russians have not. (Have a look at the Leningrad Albums. I’d make a distinction between the relations of the UK to Russia, and the relationship of Scotland to Russia. The Scots have been their friends. See the documentary made by Brian Cox, the actor from Dundee. see “klondykers”.)

    Liked by 7 people

    1. it is grey. The US does use the UK as a sock puppet – agreed. They have no love for us either as the UK or as Scotland. The US does play dangerous games – world “leaders” tend to do this. Putin played the wrong cards. This game is biting hard now. Russia is up to her neck in war crimes. Best I can do for Russia is ask we start to say ‘Putin’ not ‘Russia’ when citing this monstrous behavior.

      Liked by 2 people

  18. The self appointed champions of democracy, the Anglo Saxon alliance are democracy’s worst subverters.
    The collapse of both empires can only be good for world peace.

    Liked by 6 people

  19. With sincere respect to all opinions, I think with regard to what’s happening in Ukraine, I think the scales between good and bad are finely tipped, but what I am also certain about, is that we are truly through the looking glass when it comes to the distortion of information and propaganda.

    I grew up believing it was the “enemy” behind the Iron Curtain who were fed propaganda 24-7 and their journalism was suppressed. “Pravda” became a by-word for propaganda. But we are now in the diametrically opposite scenario, where it is us in the West who are blinkered by deceit and “management” of our media. The BBC is a dreadful phenomenon, but a marvel of its type. The best of the worst.

    The Russians argue, with some justification in my dispassionate opinion, that their intervention in the Donbas has similar justification and credibility to NATO’s intervention in the Balkan’s and the bombing of Yugoslavia. Russia is only following where NATO and the US has already led. Kosovo is as legitimate to Russia and Serbia as Russian Donbas and Luhansk is to the West, as indeed is the respective faith in legitimacy. Now ask yourself, were you actually aware of that? At all?

    There are also layers to the indigenous societies in this part of the world, histories and bitterness we in the West do not fully appreciate, nor take into account when trying to grasp what’s going on. There are old divisions which the Nazism of WW2 didn’t create but only exacerbated. Frankly, I believe we risk being the proverbial fools rushing in where Angels fear to tread.

    I know you’ve had your differences Iain, but the latest Scottish Prism is very much worth watching, because Mick Napier is on, and I think (fear), that his reading of the current events is both adroit and chilling.

    I believe the rise of BRICS nations will be unstoppable, and while peaceful in itself, (because I believe it does have peace in it’s heart), there is a massive, massive inherent danger that the BRICS “phenomenon” will not take kindly to Western interference or Military grandstanding or threats. Yet, at the same time, the US seems incapable to seeing BRICS as anything but an existential threat. We are on a collision course.

    The powder keg is not Ukraine, nor is it Taiwan. The powder keg is Israel, and how the US, UK and Israelis “manage” the decline of Western supremacy which does not bode well for peace and stability. The Israelis are going to be terrified of the retribution which awaits if their US protection ever falters.

    The West needs to be having profound and open debates about what’s happening in the world, far, far, far more honest and objective about the narratives and the decades of hypocrisy than ANYTHING we are seeing in the Western Media.

    The World is changing, fast, and while we Scots are standing beside those we perhaps feel most comfortable to be allied with, but next round, I have deep, deep, misgivings about who the “good guys” actually are.

    I do not believe Scotland should abandon the West, but the West urgently needs brought to it’s senses and cured of it’s hubris. “The Rest” need persuaded to be patient while Western powers reorganise their societies to be much, much less hostile and militaristic. But that, any of it, is a big ask. US society in particular seems to be on it’s edge already.

    We cannot let this dog off the chain; war with China, war with Russia, war with Islam, war with South America, and an African society deeply bitter about it’s long running poverty and exploitation. This is a war we CANNOT win, yet losing will assuredly see the planet vaporised.

    We are fools, led by fools, to continue on our current trajectory.

    Scotland is I think unique, with I believe genuine capacity to become an influential Ambassador for Peace, and Scottish Independence will see both the West, particularly NATO, and Russia / Europe paying closer attention. But we need a Scotland that is much, much, smarter than ANYTHING we have seen so far, and get it in to our heads that Scotland has the brains to do this without the braun.

    We need Scotland switched on an firing on all cylinders. We’re not even close to that, and steaming in the opposite direction.

    Liked by 6 people

    1. Salvo and liberation.scot really are our crucial hope. Scotland must be contributing part of the changing world, not a cinder in the power play of the old world.

      Liked by 5 people

  20. I have to say I disagree with this article. It starts off by talking about the sacrifices made at D-Day, but makes no mention of the role of the Soviet Union, who lost approx. 98% more lives than the US for example, in defeating Nazi Germany, and then goes on to support the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev and calls for regime change (that old NATO trope) in Russia. The Russians were not Nazis then and they are not Nazis now. It is not Russia, but NATO and the West who have inherited the Nazi mantle (see Operation Paperclip for example and the link below). “Above all though I wish Putin and Russia would realise the folly of war.” Have NATO or the US or the UK ever understood the folly of war? I by no means think that Vladimir Putin is whiter than white or holier than thou – he has his faults like any other leader – but if you listen to his (or Lavrov’s) speeches and then compare them to Biden’s, tell me whose are the most cogent? Is Putin’s critique of transgenderism not correct? And if you watch footage of the horrific events that unfolded at the Trade Unions House in Odessa, or consider the indiscriminate shelling of civilians in the Donbass for instance, then Russia’s actions to protect the pro-Russian population are not, it can be argued, without justification. Of course it depends on the lens through which you look, but when you share the same lens as NATO and Biden and the UK, and it has to be said Nicola Sturgeon, then there is surely something amiss with your optics. Peace will only come about through dialogue, and we should be doing our upmost to encourage both sides to sit down and talk, not urging a perpetuation of the conflict which has the potential to end very badly indeed for the whole of humanity.

    http://www.infowars.com/posts/journalists-are-asking-ukrainian-soldiers-to-hide-their-nazi-patches-nyt-admits/

    http://www.voltairenet.org/article174656.html

    http://www.voltairenet.org/article219379.html

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Not a single sentence or word about Ukraine’s right for Independence and the right to live in freedom and peace within their own country. It is you that needs to revisit your views.

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      1. Iain, I respect your opinion greatly and cannot fault it in regard to any other matter, but in seeking a solution to the conflict we cannot be deaf to one side. Of course I do not deny the right of any nation to live in peace and freedom, but the Ukrainians were far from living in peace. They were shelling their own citizens in the Donbass. And the former German chancellor is on record as saying that the Minsk Agreement was a ploy to allow time for NATO to re-arm Ukraine. Regardless, however, of the rights and wrongs of either side (and I do agree with you that Russia is far from blameless), in my book there is a very simple rule of thumb – it is never acceptable to support neo-Nazis.

        Whilst I don’t necessarily agree with the politics of the following article, it does present a very balanced analysis of the conflict:

        http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/12/22/ffci-d22.html

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      2. They are not Nazis in fact from 2014 the far right vote has fallen in each election. Secondly the Minsk Agreement was only made AFTER Russia breached the 1994 Budapest Agreement where Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees provided by Russia, GB and the USA. IT CONTAINED AMONGST OTHER CLAUSES

        1. The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.

        2. The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America reaffirm their obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine, and that none of their weapons will ever be used against Ukraine except in self-defence or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

        ANY ANSWER TO THAT AND WOULD UKRAINE HAVE BEEN INVADED AS A NUCLEAR POWER?

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      3. I wouldn’t dispute that, Iain, but when the US started inciting ultra-nationalist sentiments in Ukraine, Russia felt compelled to react. Putin had no option but to secure Sevastopol. What was he supposed to do? Vacate Sevastopol and allow the US to waltz in and take control of the Black Sea? From the Russian perspective it was an act of defence, not one of aggression, especially as the vast majority of the Crimean population were in favour of Russia. NATO and the US care not one jot about the Ukrainian people, they are simply using them as pawns to wage a proxy war against Russia. It is a true indictment of the conflict that the “US is prepared to fight Russia down to the last Ukrainian”.

        And in the context of the D-Day landings, the following comment by Ricky Miller is worth noting:

        “The Grandfathers of the nationalist movement in Ukraine that assumed power in the 2014 coup were Nazi era collaborators. This included forming SS units to round up Jews and fight the Red Army, and included two full divisions of Ukrainian soldiers who helped the Third Reich man the Atlantic Wall in France, where Ukrainian soldiers battled the D-Day landing forces on Germany’s behalf. Yes, you read that right. Allied forces on D-Day fought Ukrainian troops who were part of the Third Reich. Today’s Ukrainian nationalists are Nazi-loving and hate Russians for among other things “race mixing” and not remaining “true Slavs.” Those are their ideas, not mine. No amount of MSM whitewashing is going to cover up why Ukrainian units have Nazi symbols or hide the fact that this current Ukrainian government and its thugs are fully fuelled by hate and are brutally amoral.”

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  21. You might get that answer yet Iain.

    Nuclear weapons just mean a bigger war. A potentially quicker war too.

    Maybe it’s time to get it over and done with and lance the boil.

    Humankind thrives on wars, has a propensity for wars. It’s big business. Why else would we do it.

    And then someone thinks they were the winner.

    There are enough nuclear weapons stationed and ready for the Ukraine – Russia war to become a much bigger and wider conflagration.

    And with all the toys on display out East there is bigger potential again.

    It’s really just about scale. How big do you want the bangs to be.

    Theatre, tactical or strategic? Low level or high intensity?

    Utterly cynical comments I fully understand. But are they so wrong. I don’t think so. I mean wars don’t matter until they affect you.

    And then ask yourself this. When has there been a weapon that has been made and never been used?

    Jaw jaw instead of war war certainly doesn’t look the option just now.

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