How To: Ford CMP "Blitz" miscellany

[Jacques Reed]

Originally Posted by Private_collector

As always, Jacques, Your work is exceptional! Don't suppose you Wanna finish my truck, do ya?

I had the same thought regarding Pearl Harbour. Strikes me as ironic that our media in Australia climbs all over themselves to get best coverage of ANZAC Day, yet similarly significant commemorations in other parts of the world hardly get a look in. I know it's not 'our' event, but it sure is our history, regardless of where it occured. If not for Pearl Harbour, it is just possible USA may not have entered the war. That could have proved disastrous for Australia.

Hi Tony,

Thank you for the offer of the loan of the videos on Pearl Harbor. No doubt it will include a bit on the salvage and repair of the 7th fleet. A subject of much interest in its own right. Will see if the local library or JB Hi Fi has it but if not may kindly take you up on the loan of the set.

The danger to Australia from Japan was driven home to me very personally two weeks ago. I traveled to Cairns to stay the weekend with my son who was laying over there. He sometimes is rostered to fly there on a Friday, spend the weekend in Cairns and fly the 737 freighter back to Melbourne on a Monday. A real tough assignment!
We both love old Warbirds so it would be a good chance to see the only P-39 Airacobra in Australia at the Mareeba War museum. A very unique airplane by any standard. I hired a car on the Saturday and we took off. Unfortunately when we arrived there the museum was shut and despite a few messages left on the phone we got no reply.

Oh well, we had a car, a full tank of petrol, our sunglasses on, and Daintree was only one hour away (apologies to the Blues Brothers)
Driving back, north of Mossman we saw a small historic marker which read "WW2 Bomb Site" A slight diversion was in order. I thought I knew a bit of Australian WW2 history but I never new Townsville was raided four times.
Most people can tell you about the midget sub raid on Sydney harbor or the bombing of Darwin but when I asked people my own age if they new Townsville was bombed I drew a blank. Apparently "Emily" flying boats conducted the raids flying from Rabaul in 1942. A single bomb was dropped at this site in the middle of a sugar cane farm injuring a 2 year old girl. On the 50th anniversary of that event she opened this roadside monument shown attached.

Hope this is of interest to all the readers.

Cheers,