Just Remembering a Vet...

I sometimes take my neighbour's dog Sophie for walks in Mill Creek Ravine.  If you walk enough there, or anywhere, stuff happens and you meet people.  Here's one:


On a beautiful sunny winter day, I was walking in Mill Creek Ravine by the Velodrome with Sophie, and we passed by an older gent wearing a hat with a "Lancaster" logo. A Lancaster is a WW2 Allied bomber. This is my favourite era for airplanes, so I had to chat him up. Turns out that his name was Ken Taylor, an airman on a Lancaster bomber on a raid who bailed out over occupied Holland a couple weeks before D-Day. He was captured and put into Stalag Luft VII Prisoner Of War camp. He mentioned something about a long march from the camp - not to complain, but to maybe trigger a historical fact in my head. Didn't work. Apparently, he and a few friends now meet at that Argyll McDonald's on the same day each week.

At the time of his evacuation from the POW camp, the Germans knew that the war was unwinnable and were basically fleeing the Soviets and taking prisoners with them. The Germans were positioning themselves with the prisoners to be captured by anyone other than the Soviets, because of the horrible things that Hitler ordered against them (somewhere in the range of 20-30,000,000 Russian people were killed). Somehow or other, one of the Germans, maybe one of his guards, became a friend of his and they now live in the same condo complex overlooking Mill Creek Ravine. Ken now considers his former enemy to be his best friend. Unfortunately, Sophie was getting anxious so that's all I got from him.

I tried, off and on, for years to get some info about him, but wasn't at all successful. It doesn't help that the name "Ken Taylor" is also shared by that Canadian diplomat that helped get Americans out of Iran (as in the movie "Argo" by Ben Affleck). Somehow or other though, I found some info today. Here it is:

I couldn't remember if it was Stalag 3 or 7. Stalag 3 was "The Great Escape" one.  It turns out that he was in Stalag 7, and it was the last Luftwaffe (German air force) POW camp.  Later he was moved to one of the Stalag 3 camps...so that's close to the movie.

He was a Nav II Warrant Officer and bomb aimer/observer aboard an Avro Lancaster bomber.

On May 21/22, 1944 their plane was hit by flak and the starboard outer engine caught fire. He and a Sergeant bailed out. The crew, despite injuries to the pilot and flight engineer, were able to limp the plane back to Manston RAF base in England, where their lack of brakes caused them to run into a gas tank used for filling airplane tanks. No-one was further injured, but the pilot and engineer were kept in hospital.



It turns out that The March was quite a thing. There were three main marches with several POW camps. He was in the 'central' route.

19 January, 1945 – evacuation from Stalag Luft 7 at Bankau, near Kreuzberg, Poland, begins in blizzard conditions – 1,500 prisoners were force marched then loaded onto cattle trucks and taken to Stalag III-A at Luckenwalde, south of Berlin.

27 January, 1945 – Red Army liberates Auschwitz.

27 January, 1945 to February 1945 – evacuation from Stalag III-A at Luckenwalde, 30 km south of Berlin, then onto Stalag VII-A near Moosburg, Bavaria.

29 April, 1945 – Stalag VII-A at Moosburg was liberated by Patton's Third United States Army.

30 April, 1945 – Berlin falls to the Red Army and Hitler commits suicide.



Today I ordered The Long Road - a book about the liberation of Stalag 7. Ken was mentioned in it a couple of times and it seems full of interesting stories.  411.ca indicates that he's still alive and living where he said.  After I read the book I think that I'll do some snooping at the McDonald's and 'happen' to drop by when they meet. If nothing else, I want to tease him about bailing out while most of the rest of his crew flew home - which wouldn't compare to the teasing his old crew would've given him after they met up after the war.

"Ken, why are you leaving early?  It's not like you to bail. Hahahahahahaha!"

Or maybe I'll be there to apologize for not knowing much about the history of my neighbours and to listen to old war stories that are new to me. I hope I get the chance to get him to sign my book.


It may not mean anything to anyone else, but here are some links on this:

Link to The Long Road (pdf book)

link to The_March_(1945) [wiki]

link to Stalag 13  As you can see, Hogan's Heroes wasn't historically accurate, as Stalag 13 was actually two camps, which were both in factories.  You know you were thinking about the show, so don't even pretend to take the high road.



So anyway...that's why I chat to people who I don't know.

No Trivial Matter

How the heck does all this trivia pile up so quickly? Must vent...

The Grateful Dead is from the folk tale motif of a wanderer who gives his last penny to pay for a corpse's burial, then is magically aided by the spirit of the dead person.


Oops 1 - The Salton Sea -- is a saline lake, below sea level, located directly on the San Andreas Fault in California.  The sea was accidentally created in 1905 when a cut was made in the bank of the Colorado River.  The outflow overwhelmed the engineered canal, and the river flowed into the Salton Basin for two years.  The Salton Sea is the largest lake in California.

Oops 2 - The Aral Sea -- was the fourth-largest lake in the world by area, but has largely disappeared after giant Soviet irrigation projects began in the 1960s in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.  It's now 10% of its former size, and has split into four lakes.

Alberta is the largest rat-free area in the world.

When the US was sending up supplies and bombers to fortify Alaska during WW2, Blatchford Field (recently Edmonton City Centre Airport) was the busiest airport in the world.

My Typing 10 teacher, Mr Lopushinski, talked like John Wayne.


When you think of a witty retort too late, it's known as l’esprit de l’escalier, or staircase wit.

With rifles, 30/06 ("thirty ought six", not "thirty odd six") means it is 30 caliber and it was designed in 1906 (nineteen ought six).  30/30 means it is a 30 caliber bullet using 30 grains of powder.







If you travel back in time, it might help to know the following terms:

Drawn and Quartered -- Convicts were fastened to a wooden panel and drawn by horse to the place of execution, where they were hanged almost to death, emasculated, disembowelled, beheaded, and quartered (chopped, or pulled into four pieces by four horses). Their remains were often displayed in prominent places across the country, such as London Bridge.

Keel-Hauled -- The sailor was 'hauled' along the barnacle-encrusted 'keel' of the vessel aided by the movement of the ship and pulled back aboard at the stern of the ship.

Shiver Me Timbers -- In heavy seas, ships would be lifted up and pounded down so hard as to shiver (vibrate) the timbers (beams).  Also reminiscent of the splintering of a ship's timbers/mast in battle ('shiver' means splinter in olde English).

Captain's Daughter -- aka Cat o' Nine Tails (multi-ended whip).  When Captain Tractor sang "Throw him in the hold with the Captain's Daughter", it wasn't what it sounds like, but it probably resembles what the Captain would do to you if he found some seaman on his daughter.


Right of Parlay -- (like Johnny Depp used in Pirates of the Caribbean) is where you get to talk to the leader of the group who captured you.  It's likely from 'parlez' - French for speak.

Emmet -- means ant in olde English.  But remember, Emmet Smith won't be born for years.



Freelance -- comes from knights who sold their skills (their lancing abilities).


Rocky Road -- ice cream invented in 1929, and named in part to reflect the difficult economic times ahead.








Space Stuff that You Sometimes Wonder About:

Every August the Earth passes through the debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle, forming the Perseids meteor shower.

Meteoroid -- rock in space
Meteor -- rock in atmosphere (ie. meteor shower)
Meteorite -- rock that hits Earth

Asteroid -- rock that orbits Sun
Planetoid -- same as asteroid, but bigger

Other related terms:  planetesimal, planetule, protoplanet, dwarf planet, comet, meso planet, and small solar system bodies.

Amphibian vs Reptile?

Amphibian -- means "living double lives" - one in water with gills and the other on land by growing lungs as they age.

Reptile -- "to creep stealthily under cover of darkness"

Navy Seals were formerly 'frogmen'...which are amphibians. Obviously a case could also be made for them having a reptilian name...like The Alligators or The Sea Turtles.

Salem is short for Jerusalem.

Henry Schrapnel invented the schrapnel bomb/grenade.

Thomas Crapper did not invent the toilet.

Sanpaku -- is originated from a Chinese & Japanese term and means “three whites”.  The term refers to eyes in which the white space above or below the iris is visible.  According to the myth, it represents physical imbalance in the body and is claimed to be present in alcoholics, drug addicts, people who overconsume sugar or grain, and mentally imbalanced people such as psychotics, murderers, and anyone rageful.  The lyrics to Edmonton-area band's Darkroom song of the same name now makes more sense.

Daisy Dukes (cutoff jeans over nylons) were originally only worn to appease the network censors, and were Katherine Bach's solution to the problem.

I'll be in my bunk