WW2 British steam engine vs. German fighter

[DSchmitt]

http://www.ww2f.com/topic/57364-the-train-that-brought-down-a-german-fighter/#entry640031

 

[BaltACD]

DSchmitt

http://www.ww2f.com/topic/57364-the-train-that-brought-down-a-german-fighter/#entry640031

I suspect, that was not the only time an exploding steam engine took down a plane on a straffing run.

[Firelock76]

That  "V For Victory" hand gesture popularized by Winston Churchill supposedly had another meaning:

Take one with you.  In the event of a German invasion, that is.

Looks like that steam engine took the advice to heart!

Seems like ol' Heinz had a bad case of what we used to call in the Marines "target fixation."  It'll get you killed if you're not careful.

[Great Western]

Late looking at this thread I am afraid, however, to clarify the V sign gesture.  Sir Winston Churchill made his version famous - two fingers and palm outwards!

The insult version is with palm facing you. 

[Firelock76]

Ah yes, palm inwards, a very historic gesture in it's own right, I've been told it goes back to the Battle of Crecy and was invented by the English longbowmen to show what they thought of the French knights.

It's also referred to as "The British Workingman's Salute," or so I'm told.

[wjstix]

Legend has it that in a Medieval battle, the French claimed that they would cut off the first and middle fingers of any English archers / longbowman they captured. The English won the battle, and held up their two fingers to the French showing that they still had their fingers.

(For those not familiar with it, it's meaning now is similar to holding up just your middle finger to someone.)

[Deggesty]

wjstix

Legend has it that in a Medieval battle, the French claimed that they would cut off the first and middle fingers of any English archers / longbowman they captured. The English won the battle, and held up their two fingers to the French showing that they still had their fingers.

(For those not familiar with it, it's meaning now is similar to holding up just your middle finger to someone.)

 

Was this the battle of Crècy (Edward III and the Black Prince) or Agincourt (Henry VI)? In both battles, the English longbowmen did better than the French aristocracy on their horses and the French crossbowmen. The French had not learned from Crècy and so lost at Agincourt.

[Deggesty]

Wup! It was not Henry VI, but his father, Henry V, who won the battle of Agincourt. Henry the VI was the son of Henry V, and he was not a warring king--until his cousin Edward of York decided that he should be king--and the Wars of the Roses (White of York and Red of Lancaster) began.

[Firelock76]

It was an English friend of mine who tole me the "salute" goes back to the Battle of Crecy, and for exactly the reason Deggesty described.

Deggesty's also correct on another thing, the French nobility didn't learn a thing from Crecy, and got their heads handed to them again at Agincourt.