Newport County?
Brilliant story. Thanks for sharing.A wee story about "German" binoculars
For VE-Day - My dad, Field Marshal Rommel’s binoculars and a game of dominoes to the death!
A little bit self-indulgent - but indulge me.
My dad, Daniel Dingwall, served in the war as a Royal Engineer.
It won’t be that long now until we have no-one left who experienced the Second War World much like the passing of those who could tell us first hand about the Great War.
Growing up it seemed every adult had been in the war. Everyone had tales to tell either of the home front or exotic theatres of battle overseas.
My cousins and I made a few shillings acting as waiters at family or house parties - in those days almost all men drank whisky, Piper or McEwan’s Export in those cans you had to burst open with the pointy edge can opener. The men were usually in the living room while the women were in the sitting room with sherry, Advocaat or Babycham.
The talk was always of shipyards - virtually everyone had worked in the yards, even the women, Auntie Jennie as a forklift driver and Aunty Joey in the canteen - and the war.
One of my dad’s pals was nicknamed “Sass” as he claimed to have been an original member of the Long Range Desert Group, the forerunner of the SAS Regiment. As the nights grew longer the tales got taller!
My dad’s favourite yarn was told about field glasses he had won in a game of dominoes with Field Marshall Rommel while he was a Desert Rat.
My dad was in the 8th Army Royal Engineers but said he went along with a commando raid on Rommel’s HQ and saved his captured comrades from execution by beating the Field Marshall in an all-or-nothing game of dominoes in which Rommel was caught trying to cheat and thereby got his nickname of the Desert Fox!
Quite why a sapper who was trained to clear mines and then spent the rest of the war maintaining cranes in Port Tufic was selected to take part in an assassination attempt was never full explained. Work accident and ringworm scars were shrapnel wounds!
Being a domino game away from execution didn’t really explain why dad or his 8th army pals seemed to hold Rommel in such high esteem as a decent man and a worthy foe. In fact, they idolised him and the Africa Korps as much as they idolised Monty.
It was explained that the graticules - markings on the lenses - on the binoculars worked so that you work out the range of tanks - and so they do.
I was delighted to be able to take the binoculars out to Israel a few years ago and use them in Haifa, the Golan, Jerusalem, beside the River Jordan, the Judean Hills, the Dead Sea and on top of the great fortress of Masada. The old man would have loved to have seen the Holy Land and I thought of him as I used them.
On top of Masada the thought suddenly struck me as I adjusted the eye-pieces. Why would Field Marshall Rommel have been using a pair of British binoculars made in 1944 - the year after he left Africa?!
The old man - as usual - had the last laugh. One more time.
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103Gary Cardwell, Christine Holmes and 101 others
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Nah mate they’re tourist tat and nothing more. That being said I’ll gladly give you £20 for them.Who did they play in the final? I’ve just googled the binoculars and seemingly they are worth a couple of hundred quid, I doubt he’d have given me them if he’d realised what they could be worth.
My grandad never spoke of the war, and it wasn’t mentioned when I was a kid, but he was injured in battle with shrapnel wounds, so he had a built up shoe, and lived well into his 80s, but it was on his wedding anniversary that we were chatting in the hallway of my uncles house, and he started telling me about his service. He trained with a Welsh lad who he called Taff, and Taff called him Jock, they went everywhere together, and how they had a laugh, then they went into battle and Taff was shot dead yards from my grandad, he told of tanks rolling forward and bombs going off around him, and then he was hit by the shrapnel. Thanks to the great people of the hospital in Aberdeen, and then Erskine, he made a full recovery and led a full working life.A wee story about "German" binoculars
For VE-Day - My dad, Field Marshal Rommel’s binoculars and a game of dominoes to the death!
A little bit self-indulgent - but indulge me.
My dad, Daniel Dingwall, served in the war as a Royal Engineer.
It won’t be that long now until we have no-one left who experienced the Second War World much like the passing of those who could tell us first hand about the Great War.
Growing up it seemed every adult had been in the war. Everyone had tales to tell either of the home front or exotic theatres of battle overseas.
My cousins and I made a few shillings acting as waiters at family or house parties - in those days almost all men drank whisky, Piper or McEwan’s Export in those cans you had to burst open with the pointy edge can opener. The men were usually in the living room while the women were in the sitting room with sherry, Advocaat or Babycham.
The talk was always of shipyards - virtually everyone had worked in the yards, even the women, Auntie Jennie as a forklift driver and Aunty Joey in the canteen - and the war.
One of my dad’s pals was nicknamed “Sass” as he claimed to have been an original member of the Long Range Desert Group, the forerunner of the SAS Regiment. As the nights grew longer the tales got taller!
My dad’s favourite yarn was told about field glasses he had won in a game of dominoes with Field Marshall Rommel while he was a Desert Rat.
My dad was in the 8th Army Royal Engineers but said he went along with a commando raid on Rommel’s HQ and saved his captured comrades from execution by beating the Field Marshall in an all-or-nothing game of dominoes in which Rommel was caught trying to cheat and thereby got his nickname of the Desert Fox!
Quite why a sapper who was trained to clear mines and then spent the rest of the war maintaining cranes in Port Tufic was selected to take part in an assassination attempt was never full explained. Work accident and ringworm scars were shrapnel wounds!
Being a domino game away from execution didn’t really explain why dad or his 8th army pals seemed to hold Rommel in such high esteem as a decent man and a worthy foe. In fact, they idolised him and the Africa Korps as much as they idolised Monty.
It was explained that the graticules - markings on the lenses - on the binoculars worked so that you work out the range of tanks - and so they do.
I was delighted to be able to take the binoculars out to Israel a few years ago and use them in Haifa, the Golan, Jerusalem, beside the River Jordan, the Judean Hills, the Dead Sea and on top of the great fortress of Masada. The old man would have loved to have seen the Holy Land and I thought of him as I used them.
On top of Masada the thought suddenly struck me as I adjusted the eye-pieces. Why would Field Marshall Rommel have been using a pair of British binoculars made in 1944 - the year after he left Africa?!
The old man - as usual - had the last laugh. One more time.
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103Gary Cardwell, Christine Holmes and 101 others
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How do you best get to these places? Football wise only really been to Dusseldorf in Germany (probably ideal for beginners!)
Due to the Welsh Cup. Merthyr Tydfil went toe-to-toe with Atalanta in 1988 and they were non-league.
For Rostock Hamburg is best as the Train journey you see lots of Hansa graffitti as soon as you get in to Mecklenburg V, also lots of fans get on along the way so a good atmosphere builds up. Anywhere else in the East I have just flown to Berlin, Leipzig is the central place for many of them really mind - Jena, Zwickau, Aue, Chemnitz. Berlin is a bit of a crap Airport situation as you are spending an hour really before you get to Central Station but I think that is improving now, sure you can get to Rostock direct from Brandenburg Station
Great stuff - sounds brilliant!
Been a great laugh, seen things I never thought I would. Became very addictive the more confident I’ve got. £6 to Eindhoven and stuff being booked when bored working and before you know it 3 matches lined up to go to!
Think I spend my life on skyscanner!
Lazio, PAOK and Dinamo Zagreb. Have been to Dinamo but for Croatia v England, want to see the Club play and get in some fans bars etc..
Yes, but a quarter final!!!
I saw them win at Newport County in the 1980's in A ECWC quarter final.
I watched the video in an earlier post and Newport battered them, don't know how they never scored. Actually listened to the game on the radio at the time, they had an amazing run to get that far. The crackling radio reception and the crowd roaring their heads off gave the listner a brilliant experience.
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