Grozibou : I was surprised by this statement for I can't remember anything of this kind so I went to the "first" page of TOCH and I could find nothing. If this "primary purpose" is mentioned somewhere please tell me where, post the relevant quotation here. In any case, no matter if it's rivet-counting or top-level strategy or anything in between, I think any subject is allowed and legitimate just as long as people are polite. I don't mind posts by rivet-counters or modellers, with a reservation though : in many cases they don't announce the purpose of their post clearly in the title, so that you read many posts which to you are useless and you waste a lot of time. Luckily modellers have become rare here lately, I suppose because they now have some sites of their own, which is a good thing and I wish them luck and success (I was a modeller myself when I was a boy). Personally I don't care in the least who was the pilot, or the mechanic-air-gunner, of He 111 so and so which crashed at this or that place, but, unlike some people here around, I do not jump at their throat to ridicule and insult them every time they dare post something which I find uninteresting or... because I don't like these persons (I am the victim of such attacks all the time - look again and you'll admit it - of course I use to hit back, I am not a sissy. Provocations?...). Quite on the contrary, they have every right to try to find the information and data they are looking for and I wish them luck too. To be really clear at last, or so I hope : millions of people buy and read newspapers and magazines I wouldn't even look at. So what? They're interested in yachting, cars, motorbikes, fashion, famous movie-stars etc. and I am not, and conversely they don't find airpower exciting in the least. Sorry for making such basic, grass-root-level, obvious statements!

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These other subjects (theory, strategy, tactics, military leaders, politics, industry, technology and more) inevitably are much more controversial than the difference between Me 109 E-3 and E-4 or some RLM paint colour shade.

- I couldn't agree more. I am the most democratic person in the world on top of the greatest angler (baits...). Did I do something of this kind? When? References please. Of course I use to write, for example, that so-called "historians" are unserious and incompetent if they write in their books that the Polish and French air forces were annihilated in the first day(s) of the German offensive, or that "French aircraft production was not of the same quality..." (the contrary was true), or that French fighter pilots didn't like to fight and preferred to fly the wrong course (course to the front + 180°). All evidence including the graves prove the contrary. I am going to demolish these scandalous allegations of Polish origin completely, soon. A little patience please. Mr. Franek Grabowski, you may prepare your apologies to French fighter pilots, the bravest in the world (together with all others).

Some wrong statements are not outrageous, only erroneous. Some others, especially on the French, who are permanently targetted by people having their own reasons to do so, ARE totally unacceptable and dishonest and they do have a certain purpose. Remember that Boeing not Dassault sold a new fighter to Poland a few years ago... It was a $ multi-billion-deal. Dassault is a French aircraft maker and it existed from approx. 1914 through 1940 under the name of Marcel Bloch, later Marcel Dassault... 1940 numerous Polish pilots flew a Bloch 151 or 152 fighter. I'd say they were slightly better than their ol' PZLs. This could be the explanation of all the hate SOME people have for everything French...

In any case, trying to destroy the honour of a whole air force (!) is something extremely vile and filthy, disgusting, contemptable*. My dear John, some things cannot be accepted in life, like nazism, neo-nazism and spitting at the graves of French airmen who died 1940 fighting nazism. I'll never change this point of view, if this is what you are hoping for. No way.

*It would be sooo easy, to me, to do the same for 1940 RAF fighter pilots and also for the whole British army! They FLED with their tails between their legs didn't they. Sure, but they, too, were the victims of circumstances and of military operations far beyond their influence and even their understanding. Many died fighting nazi Germany, just like the French and the Poles. All I am asking for is fairness and honesty instead of systematic insults (just have a look at Franek Grabowski's posts : "Too bad the Polish pilots couldn't shoot the French", or something like that... I know you find this statement fully all right for you never warned FG to stop making such statements and you never deleted it. You warn only ME. This is an interesting one-sidedness indeed. Do you realise at all that your behaviour is totally one-sided? No you don't for you feel, "deep inside", that decent people (this means British people) can only despise those small French cheese-eating monkeys and the outrageous Polish accusations of cowardice are OK. Proof of this : you never reacted. WHY? This is a question and I am expecting an answer : thanks in advance.).

[quote]Precisely, some people here clearly can't stand any discussion at any level which is a little higher than the fin of a Fw 190. It ought to be possible to discuss everything as civilised people, without being called names nor threatened with a big club or a "big stick". You don't like it? That's fully all right for me - don't read it!
- Fine! Wonderful! AT LAST! Not to soon! Of course this is valid "even" for people insulting ME? I hope you'll really implement this and I expect you to do so. Remember, though, that polite and civilised criticism, in particular of books, is fully legitimate, always was even long before you were borne, and always will be. You really should inform yourself and read the book-reviews of all kinds (about novels too) published in the press for several centuries.