RIP Lieutenant-Colonel Eric Wilson, VC

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themanintheseersuckersuit
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RIP Lieutenant-Colonel Eric Wilson, VC

#1 Post by themanintheseersuckersuit » Tue Dec 30, 2008 4:35 pm

Wilson who was awarded a posthumous VC in 1940, died December 23 aged 96

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituar ... on-VC.html
Wilson, an acting captain with the Somaliland Camel Corps, was given the vital task of siting the corps' machine guns on four small hills of the Tug Argan Pass – named Black, Knobbly, Mill and Observation – though they were too widely separated to cover their entire vista. Placing himself on Observation, which commanded the widest arc of fire, he was tremendously exposed on a position well-known to Italian truck drivers who had driven past it daily before the declaration of war.
Suitguy is not bitter.

feels he represents the many educated and rational onlookers who believe that the hysterical denouncement of lay scepticism is both unwarranted and counter-productive

The problem, then, is that such calls do not address an opposition audience so much as they signal virtue. They talk past those who need convincing. They ignore actual facts and counterargument. And they are irreparably smug.

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VAdame
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Re: RIP Lieutenant-Colonel Eric Wilson, VC

#2 Post by VAdame » Tue Dec 30, 2008 4:42 pm

Wilson who was awarded a posthumous VC in 1940, died December 23 aged 96
I was going to ask "how is that POSSIBLE?" but the article explains it.

RIP!

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MarleysGh0st
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Re: RIP Lieutenant-Colonel Eric Wilson, VC

#3 Post by MarleysGh0st » Tue Dec 30, 2008 4:42 pm

themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:Wilson who was awarded a posthumous VC in 1940, died December 23 aged 96
The Victoria Cross wasn't really posthumous then, was it? :?

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KillerTomato
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Re: RIP Lieutenant-Colonel Eric Wilson, VC

#4 Post by KillerTomato » Tue Dec 30, 2008 4:42 pm

themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:Wilson who was awarded a posthumous VC in 1940, died December 23 aged 96

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituar ... on-VC.html
Wilson, an acting captain with the Somaliland Camel Corps, was given the vital task of siting the corps' machine guns on four small hills of the Tug Argan Pass – named Black, Knobbly, Mill and Observation – though they were too widely separated to cover their entire vista. Placing himself on Observation, which commanded the widest arc of fire, he was tremendously exposed on a position well-known to Italian truck drivers who had driven past it daily before the declaration of war.

OK, I have to ask. Have to, I say.

If he just died last week, how was he awarded a posthumous VC in 1940?
There is something wrong in a government where they who do the most have the least. There is something wrong when honesty wears a rag, and rascality a robe; when the loving, the tender, eat a crust while the infamous sit at banquets.
-- Robert G. Ingersoll

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KillerTomato
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Re: RIP Lieutenant-Colonel Eric Wilson, VC

#5 Post by KillerTomato » Tue Dec 30, 2008 4:44 pm

KillerTomato wrote:
themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:Wilson who was awarded a posthumous VC in 1940, died December 23 aged 96

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituar ... on-VC.html
Wilson, an acting captain with the Somaliland Camel Corps, was given the vital task of siting the corps' machine guns on four small hills of the Tug Argan Pass – named Black, Knobbly, Mill and Observation – though they were too widely separated to cover their entire vista. Placing himself on Observation, which commanded the widest arc of fire, he was tremendously exposed on a position well-known to Italian truck drivers who had driven past it daily before the declaration of war.

OK, I have to ask. Have to, I say.

If he just died last week, how was he awarded a posthumous VC in 1940?

Ah, now I get it. I really should read the links before asking questions. Really.
There is something wrong in a government where they who do the most have the least. There is something wrong when honesty wears a rag, and rascality a robe; when the loving, the tender, eat a crust while the infamous sit at banquets.
-- Robert G. Ingersoll

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