Thursday, May 22, 2008

Bits O' History-- Doolittle's Raiders Come to Florida-- HMAS Sydney-- Guns Back to Tower

Bits O' History-- Here's Some New Stuff About Some Old Stuff.


1. DOOLITTLE'S RAIDERS COME TO FLORIDA-- The May 17th Northwest Florida Daily News reports that seven of the remaining eleven members of Doolittle's Raid are coming to Fort Walton Beach later this month for a celebration to raise $100,000 or more for the Fisher House of Emerald Coast.

They trained at the then Eglin Field in Fort Walton Beach in March of 1942 a few weeks before they took off from the USS Hornet in their B-25s. One member, Ed Horton, Jr. lives in Fort Walton Beach. A three day celebration is planned.

I'd sure like to shake their hands. These men are really heroes.


2. HMAS Sydney-- The May 16th Perth Now reports efforts are underway to have an interpretive center built near where the ship went down. In 2001, a memorial with a silver dome and 645 seagulls was built to honor the crew.

The Western Australia Museum has a popular Shipwrecks Gallery about Dutch shipwrecks from 1629 and 1727, as well as a section on the Batavia Mutiny.


3. GUNS BACK TO THE TOWER-- The Tower of London will be getting some of its guns back...400 years late. The Alderney sank in 1592 near the Channel Islands of the English Channel. On May 25th, a team of archaeologists plans to begin work at the site.

Items to be recovered are cannons, muskets, grenades, swords, rapiers, body armor and helmets. The ship was carrying arms to English troops fighting in France.

Diving time will be limited to 40 minutes a day as this is a particularly dangerous stretch of water called the "Swinge." Divers can only safely dive during that 40 minutes called slack water.

And the HistoryJust Goes On. --Cooter

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