Most interesting anecdote, Andrew. So much so that I almost forgot to view
the image.
Piers
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Fildes [mailto:afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 18 October 2010 11:38
To: Olympus Camera Discussion
Subject: [OM] A tale of Australian aviation for the flyers here...
A flimsy excuse for posting a girlie pic but amusing at least.
The young lady here -
http://www.pbase.com/afildes/image/129529700
- came in the other day to do some retro pin-ups. A concept compromised
somewhat by the tattoos but she belongs to an odd subculture of girls who
like ink but don't go in for the conventional burlesque style popular these
days. Lovely girl in ohsomany ways.
Anyway, I was interested in the image on her left shoulder - it's a
depiction of a WW2 Beaufort bomber dropping beer bottles. Most unusual.
Turns out her late grandfather was a member of RAAF 71 Wing who carried out
one of the last strikes of the war. Gun crew on a Beaufort. There is some
argument about whether they went ahead with the run despite knowing that the
Japanese had surrendered. Anyway, as well as bombs they dropped empty beer
bottles with razor blades in their throat to act as screamers, hoping to
persuade the Japanese troops below to jump into the croc infested rivers.
She had the tatt done as a personal memorial to her grandfather.
700 Bristol Beauforts were built in Melbourne.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb271/is_4_47/ai_n29322108/
http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/museums/abbr.htm
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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