Operation Justice To Hollywood!

The Doctor

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Well, according to Hollywood. The LRDG - the original SAS - was composed of three Americans and one Brit with two .50 cal armed Willys Jeeps chasing Rommel around the desert. Two Yank pilots - Afflek and Cruise - won the Battle of Britain. An American sub crew captured Enigma. What are you guys complaining about - by Hollywood standards, The Rat Patrol, Pearl Harbor and U-571 are realistic!

17pdr - is there some address we can write to? I know it won't do any good, but it needs to be done!

I saw the original Battle of Britain on the big screen when I was 9. It has always been one of my favorite movies. I wore out my VHS copy and bought the DVD the moment it came out.
 

17poundr

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The Doctor said:
Well, according to Hollywood. The LRDG - the original SAS - was composed of three Americans and one Brit with two .50 cal armed Willys Jeeps chasing Rommel around the desert. Two Yank pilots - Afflek and Cruise - won the Battle of Britain. An American sub crew captured Enigma. What are you guys complaining about - by Hollywood standards, The Rat Patrol, Pearl Harbor and U-571 are realistic!

17pdr - is there some address we can write to? I know it won't do any good, but it needs to be done!

I saw the original Battle of Britain on the big screen when I was 9. It has always been one of my favorite movies. I wore out my VHS copy and bought the DVD the moment it came out.
I got the dvd asap too! hearing the guys explaining how they did the film made me respect it even more! They really went to troubles, and alsmost all the shots are of real aircraft, The models are mostly of the expoding aircraft...

That was my question, anybody have the e-mails, through a fanclub which I couldng google on two tries on different search machines? But in the end of the summer, I managed to find a Michael Mann fan e-mail address that I put a polite plea to...
Just cant find it, maybe mr Mann was so insenced from even a polite suggestion he pay respect to the 'fiew' and to history as a consept, was enough to enrage him, and do someking of 'filter' for me, so anything coming from my modem is filtered as 'junkmail' in the search! Just joking.
yep, all we need is an e-mail or two...
 

michammer

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The Doctor said:
Well, according to Hollywood. The LRDG - the original SAS - was composed of three Americans and one Brit with two .50 cal armed Willys Jeeps chasing Rommel around the desert. Two Yank pilots - Afflek and Cruise - won the Battle of Britain. An American sub crew captured Enigma. What are you guys complaining about - by Hollywood standards, The Rat Patrol, Pearl Harbor and U-571 are realistic!
And Errol Flynn ran the Japanese out of Burma!!

Don't want to sound nitpicky, but the LRDG and the SAS were 2 totally different, independent units. The fact that they worked very closly together is often mistaken as one being the forerunner of the other.
 

The Doctor

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michammer said:
And Errol Flynn ran the Japanese out of Burma!!

Don't want to sound nitpicky, but the LRDG and the SAS were 2 totally different, independent units. The fact that they worked very closly together is often mistaken as one being the forerunner of the other.
Errol Flynn didn't? You mean Wingate and the Chindits weren't just back-up for Merril's Marauders? ;)

I didn't know that about LRDG, always thought SAS grew out of that and the name came from attacking axis airfields.

Well anyway - only in Hollywood did the LRDG originate as 3 Yanks, 1 Brit, 2 Jeeps, 3 funny hats...sounds like a sit-com!
 

17poundr

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The Doctor said:
Errol Flynn didn't? You mean Wingate and the Chindits weren't just back-up for Merril's Marauders? ;)

I didn't know that about LRDG, always thought SAS grew out of that and the name came from attacking axis airfields.

Well anyway - only in Hollywood did the LRDG originate as 3 Yanks, 1 Brit, 2 Jeeps, 3 funny hats...sounds like a sit-com!
I think the sas was started with the experiences of the lrdg in mind, and in the beginning were totally dependent on them for transport, but indeed were separate groups, the LRDG coming first, but today even the SAS carry a memory of the lrdg in their vehicle troops, who use the pink landrovers, the colour scheme is probably a kind of honour back to the days when the SAS hitched lifts from LRDG 'pink panthers'.
Besides being a suprisingly good desert camouflage colour.
 

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17poundr said:
I think the sas was started with the experiences of the lrdg in mind, and in the beginning were totally dependent on them for transport, but indeed were separate groups, the LRDG coming first, but today even the SAS carry a memory of the lrdg in their vehicle troops, who use the pink landrovers, the colour scheme is probably a kind of honour back to the days when the SAS hitched lifts from LRDG 'pink panthers'.
Besides being a suprisingly good desert camouflage colour.
The LRDG was formed by Ralph Bagnold in the summer on 1940, primarily as a reconnaissance unit. The first LRDG patrols were carried out just 6 weeks after Wavell had given the order for the unit to be formed. Most of the interior Egyptian/Libyan desert was mapped for the first time by the LRDG.

In the early days of the desert war, the LRDG showed that they could operate freely behind enemy lines. David Stirling, whilst laid up in hospital, came up with the idea of a unit to raid enemy airfields and bases. So was born the SAS.

The first raid, during Operation Crusader, was a disaster. The high winds encountered meant that they were dropped in the wrong place and were then blown all over the desert. Not many survived. Those that did, were picked up by the LRDG and, between them, the 2 units came up with the idea that the LRDG would act as a "taxi" service for the SAS. This worked well until the SAS obtained their own transport and stole one of the LRDG navigators!
 
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