21st August 2008, 23:10
Ruy Horta
Super Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Amstelveen, The Netherlands
Posts: 1,134



Re: 1939-45 airpower and professional historians
I'm closing what is little more than a monolog, with a dose of name calling in between...

Grozibou :

I dare disagree. What monolog? Look better. The by far greater part of the thread on historians (professional or not?) was written by me simply because some other persons asked questions which I - with my usual generosity (my supply of time is not unlimited) and
good-will - answered as well and as completely as possible, taking my stupidity and my incompetence into account. Of course I could give much shorter replies and save myself a lot of time and effort, but these short replies would be far from satisfying. You failed to discover, to this day, that I never get involved in approx. 95 to 99 % of all threads! Don't you think this gives an acceptable average? If you don't like my "monolog", as you put it, just don't read it! You could call Ed West's photo threads "monologs" too because in many cases the main part is written by Ed. There are other examples of this kind.

As for name-calling you also failed to discover that a few trolls - and you know them - are PERMANENTLY looking for any opportunity to attack me viciously. The result : almost every time I post anything (even just a reply) there is trouble, dog-fighting and name-calling. Your naïve conclusion is that there is always trouble with me, which is a pain in the ass. This is precisely what the trolls are wanting. Remember a few years ago, when one of them (a well-known "member" (?) attacked me under a false name in such a clever way that everybody knew who he was. EVEN HE felt compelled to apologise by you (not by me!). Quite generally your patience is ALWAYS much shorter-lived for me than for those trolls who attack me systematically and unprovoked.

Why do they do this? I am NOT paranoid, quite on the contrary. I think there are two main reasons, close to each other :

1. 1985 I published the very first French translation (deserving the name) of Adolf Galland's book "Die Ersten und die Letzten / Les premiers et les derniers / The First and the Last". Galland himself told me that it was the best of all (16) translations. Indeed, I had made every possible effort to produce a comprehensive (not one single cut...) and very exact translation. In 23 years there never was one single justified criticism. The worst criticism was published by Mr. Michel Bénichou in "Le Fana de l'Aviation", October 1985 : "La traduction est par trop exacte, c'en est énervant" - "The translation is all too exact, this goes on your nerves." Some criticism! In the same issue (or in the following one) M. Bénichou published his translation of an English article on "Typhoons" (and "Tempests" I think). "The 4th Tactical Air Force" was mentioned, which gave the following in Bénichou's translation : "La 4th Tactical Air Force (4e Force aérienne tactique). Thanks God he was there to help the readers for without his help nobody could possibly have guessed that "4th Tactical Air Force" reads "4e Force aérienne tactique" in French. Here you can see who avoids all too precise translations. He simply had found nothing he could criticise in my book but he wanted to criticise something... I published this book about May 15, 1985. Already in July it received a fairly prestigious prize, presented to Galland in a big aviation festival before an audience of WW II aces and astronauts of the time. Galland having been unable to come I received the prize (and later forwarded it to him) and made a short speech to explain why Galland could not come. As you can see I had "my 15 minutes of fame", or something, much earlier than some people thought... (in fact much earlier than that).

In any case, at least 99 % of the interested people were absolutely enthusiastic but a few individuals almost died of envy and jealousy and, to this day, never "forgave" me for this feat, which they afterwards died of not having achieved themselves. They "only" forget that in order to produce such a faultless translation and earn the esteem, friendship and respect of Adolf Galland (who sent me some very clear letters on this) you need to have the necessary competence, will and skill to translate such a long and complex text (700 typed pages), which discusses many different, difficult subjects, and to become a publisher in the first place in order to publish it because all the existing publishing companies refused my proposal. These Internet-worms (not the publishers, although...) are going to persecute and harass me, mostly under false names, until I eventually die and even afterwards and they'll go and spit at my grave - some revenge! (Wonferful : no risk of a counter-attack or of retaliation... they naïvely think). "Who is that bl... Michelet anyway?" Just the son of a French Air Force major murdered by German soldiers as a member of the Résistance (some people still today prefer the nazis...), a parachutist, a reserve Air Force officer, combat aircrew and top-ranking international translator, in particular for German and having worked mainly in Germany, sworn translator and interpreter with German courts (including the highest court) from about 1969 to 2002 (with a few interruptions when I was not in Germany - it ends when you leave the region).

"Adolf Galland" is something of a magic name particularly in France. This has some historical reasons (too long to elaborate on). So the man who "suddenly" (after a career of 25 years already!) became Galland's translator, publisher and friend MUST expect incredible hostility from petty-minded, rather stupid, jealous people who quite simply can't accept that others are successful. This is very widespread in France and I understand in Great-Britain too. I guess Ruy Horta, too, was at the receiving end of similar attacks simply because TOCH was and is succesful.

Some insane worms, who possibly are not very far from here, even added something to Galland's Wikipédia-biography in French : "The translator has added many pages of his own without asking the author, etc. Keep clear of it!" This is quite simply a lie. So you see how far such people are prepared to go just to try to destroy a honest man (in my case they have NO CHANCE of success so they'd better give up!). Galland and also his wife, who both could read French pretty well, were delighted with my translation. What's more, thousands of German veterans who understood French were perfectly able to check it, which they did and they were fully satisfied and full of praise. What a difference with the usual nonsense in translations! (Recently, in an important historical book translated from German, "one single tank" (it was a French char B1bis, 1940 the by far heaviest in Western Europe, and it destroyed 13 German tanks III and IV, or perhaps only IVs, as well as several anti-tank guns) became "a minuscule tank" (!) just like "my seat-pack parachute" had become "the ejection seat" on June 22, 1941, in Galland's Me 109 F, in the old, terrible French translation (1954).

Besides, a few months ago one of the main moderators or members (I can't remember) at LEMB gave the advice, to people who understand written French, to read my French translation, which is much better, instead of the English one. A British citizen giving such a piece of advice in favour of a horrible French frog, this is certainly a unique historical event. We are right in the middle of History again!

2. The 2nd reason, close to the first one, is that some bilious, envious people simply can't stand other people being successful. Many females HATE famous top-models and actresses, many men hate successful men etc.

3. Well, in fact there is (at least) a third reason : some people consider me a competitor and want to kill any competitor, if possible. I need not insist on how stupid this behaviour is. I for my part am extremely glad and grateful that Docavia (Editions Larivière) and "Histoire de l'aviation" (Editions Lela-Presse) and more (in France), Schiffer, Crandall, D. Caldwell, "After the Battle" (with i.a. author Peter Cornwell), Motorbuch-Verlag and last but not least Jochen Prien (in spite of many errors), and all the others, exist and publish lots of extremely good and useful books.

It is quite disappointing, I have to say, that nobody ever intervenes and says, "Stop this, just leave him alone!" They're visibly afraid of being targetted too, and think that I am quite able to defend myself and hit back, which I am, but unfortunately Mr. Ruy Horta has a visible anti-Michelet bias and often deletes or locks my posts etc. but virtually never deletes insults hurled directly at me. I call this BIAS. OK, OK, I know this is no f... democracy here - nazism was not one either. "Qui se ressemble s'assemble?"

Don't insult me or any airmen (not the French alone) and I won't hit back - very simple!

If some of you wonder why most well-known authors abstain from appearing here as far as possible I think the main reason for this is to be found above.