DGM HQ A kitchen conversation
12.19
DGM HQ.
A kitchen conversation of significance. David opens himself to the available future…
The Vicar’s forever-ongoing project is, at last, in a powerful, tangible & convincing form of here-and-now.
News factoid of terror: DGM is paying artist royalties at around twice the level that Virgin paid in even its best years (noting the difference between what-was-paid and what-should-have-been-paid). This is a comment on the effectiveness of DGM, surely an exemplary manager of a niche catalogue; and possibly also the uselessness of Virgin EMI.
What is Mr. Stormy doing this morning?...
Is this drummer challenging himself to smile & hit things at the same time?...
A challenge too far. The attempt abandoned & the smiling continues. Alright then – what function is Mr. Stormy discharging in his role as archiving engineer?...
… preparing KC at Shepherds Bush on 2nd. July 2000 for DGM download.
The street I…
II…
Other arisings: support acts on the upcoming Porcupine Tree Squash The World Flat tour; and a conversation with Declan of Panegyric re: future catalogue releases.
The afternoon ahead: Uncle Bill, on a Fripp Family Mission. I am collecting Uncle from Southbourne around 14.00.
19.35 Bill Fripp, as he is known in the family, is known to his RAF friends & comrades as Squadron Leader Alfred George Fripp (retd), or Alfie for short.
Driving from Southbourne to & from Witchampton, Uncle Bill reported on his trip last week, with fellow RAF colleagues, to the site of Stalag Luft III in the woods of Zagan, Poland.
Defence News...
If any Diary visitors would like to Google Alfie Fripp they will find lotsa links to the UK national press on this. No US POWs took part in The Great Escape, and the participation of Americans characters in the film (1963) falls under the heading of artistic licence.
Veterans of the Great Escape visit old Stalag
Mr Fripp, a former squadron leader from Bournemouth, was returning to Stalag Luft III for the first time yesterday. Aged 95, he had come to pay his respects to his former pilot, among the 50 men shot on Hitler's orders. Three years after the war, Mr Fripp was back in Germany aboard flying-boats on the Berlin air lift. His aircraft used to land on the city's Wannsee lake.
"It has been an emotional and thought-provoking return," he said yesterday. "I have forgiven the Germans, but I won't forget what they did."
Veteran British POW's Visit Stalag Luft III...
From the local paper…
Emotional return to ‘Great Escape’ site
7:00am Wednesday 25th March 2009
By Joanna Cod
AN RAF veteran from Dorset has made an emotional return to a German Second World War prison camp to honour a comrade who was gunned down by the Gestapo after taking part in what became known as the Great Escape.
Former navigator Alfie Fripp, 94, of Southbourne, was one of six ex-prisoners to take part in a memorial event to mark the anniversary of the escape from Stalag Luft III.
The veterans gathered for a minute’s silence at the exit of the tunnel nicknamed “Harry” at 10.15pm on Monday night – exactly the time that the escapees started entering it 65 years before.
A total of 78 Allied airmen took part in the escape, but only three made it to safety. Fifty were rounded up and illegally shot in the back on the direct orders of Hitler.
RAF personnel accompanying the veterans read out a roll call of the murder victims before everyone raised their glasses to toast them in Champagne. On Saturday, the mayor of the nearest town, Zagan, now part of Poland, will be hosting a civic service to rededicate the renovated memorial stone to the 50.
Although Mr Fripp did not take part in the escape, his Irish pilot, Mike Casey, then 28, was among those killed after the escape.
Speaking from Zagan, Mr Fripp told the Echo: “I’m very pleased to have said goodbye to my pilot. I’m sure he’s much happier up there than we are down here. He was a very nice bloke and very friendly. He got married two days after I did, on September 8 1939, and we flew out to France on September 30.”
The pair’s Blenheim aircraft was shot down during a reconnaissance flight over Germany 16 days later. “In the first place, there were just a few of us, so things weren’t too bad,” he recalled.
Mr Fripp – known as Bill to his family, including his famous musician nephew Robert – was held in a dozen different POW camps during his five years and seven months of captivity, but spent two years in Stalag Luft III.
“The guards weren’t too bad because they were Luftwaffe (German air force). They realised that the English had some Luftwaffe prisoners and were looking after them, so they treated us well. Food was very scarce. We had a lot of black bread, which was 25 per cent sawdust.”
Mr Fripp was put in charge of the Red Cross parcels and, through that, was able to help with the escape effort. “I went down to see the tunnel and determine what instruments, if any, I could get from my liaison with Polish workers at the railway station.”
He managed to procure wire cutters, pliers, screwdrivers and parts used to build a radio set, which was hidden inside a portable gramophone. “If the Germans came along, we could put on a record,” he explained.
Mr Fripp was transferred to another camp six months before the escape, then was repeatedly moved around as Russians moved in from the east. After three weeks of marching, he and his fellow prisoners eventually met up with British troops advancing from Holland.
After the war Mr Fripp stayed in the RAF, taking part in the 1960 Berlin air lift. After retiring in 1969, he spent a further 10 years as chief laboratory technician at Brockenhurst College.
Widowed after 57 years of marriage, he has two daughters and four grandchildren.
Today he said to me: we didn’t feel we did anything special.
The Fripp Family Mission was for Witchampton Church I…
II...
… to put some of Uncle Charlie’s ashes on my Parent’s grave I…
II…
III…
During the Fripp Family’s time at the cottage next to Witchampton Church (1929-30) Baby Charlie, reportedly, howled without end.& Uncle Bill wheeled Charlie in a pram to the end of the garden.
Fripp Family c. 1912, L>R Arthur, Grandma Bennet, Betty, Emily Bennet Fripp (probably Gosport)…
Fripp Family c. 1916 with Ma Fripp above Arthur, Betty & Bill.
(probably Gosport)…
Fripp Family c. 1930, at the entrance to the cottage next to Witchampton church, L>R Arthur, Phyllis, Bill, Charlie & Betty…
Try to spot the youngest Fripp in this today-picture…
Appropriate to the occasion, the War Memorial has been renovated…
… and Uncle Bill knew several of the local-fallen, from his time living in the village…
Many stories told along the way. Uncle returned safely to Southbourne, with cake adventures planned for next time.
Back to DGM HQ c.17.00 to royalties & cake meeting with David I…
II…
… followed by a Future-Thinking listening in DGM Sound World I.
David has just left, homewards & Westwards I…
II…
An evening of computing ahead.
