TUNNEL WARFARE

With all the talk in the news of potential tunnel warfare in Gaza, I thought it timely to post a picture of myself in the Cu Chi tunnels during a tour of Vietnam a couple of decades back.

 

These non-fortified tunnels were carved out the earth by the Viet Cong about 30 feet below the surface.  The light you see was from a camera flash otherwise the tunnel was completely black.  As a veteran of several night dives in the Indo-Pacific, I thought I could handle claustrophobia quite well, but I was never so glad to finally crawl to the exit and see daylight again!! Not my kind of warfare!!!

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KIBBUTZ MISGAV AM EVACUATED

Misgav Am, population 385, is the most northern kibbutz in Israel just metres from the Lebanese border. I visited back in 2018. Under threat of rocket and artillery fire, Misgav Am along with 38 other northern kibbutzim has today been ordered evacuated by Israeli authorities as Hezbollah now tries to extend military operations in the current crisis. 

FORTIFIED MISGAV AM OBSERVATION POST 

 

MISGAV AM MAYOR

 

BEING PREPARED

Misgav Am was the victim of a terror attack which resulted in 6 hostages being taken back in 1980. Thanks to the intervention of IDF forces, 5 of the hostages were liberated but  unfortunately 4 Israelis were killed. 

VIEW INTO NEIGBOURING LEBANESE VILLAGE FROM MISGAV AM

AMANDA HEAD, HOSTESS OF REAL AMERICA’S VOICE “JUST THE NEWS”

Fellow tour member Amanda Head poses at Misgav Am lookout above Israeli vineyards below the Golan Heights.  

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HELL BREAKS LOOSE IN ISRAEL

On the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war, Hamas has struck a massive and highly coordinated attack on its Israeli neighbour.  1,400 Israeli civilians have been killed and over a hundred hostages taken back to Gaza. This horrific event carried out against many innocent Israeli civilians brings back memories of my visit to the area of the attacks several years ago.

MAP OF GAZA BORDER

Much of the attack and violent fighting was centered on the southern Israeli town of Sderot (top right), just kilometres from the Gaza border.

MAYOR’S BRIEFING

Our tour group received a briefing from the mayor of Sderot. The briefing was given in a indoor children’s playground, hardened against air attack.  His first question to us was, “What are you doing here? This is a war zone!”  How prescient!  Sderot is just a few kilometres from some of the worst atrocities commited aganist the now infamous rave festival and other outlying kibbutzim (Nir Am and Kfar Aza) near the Gaza border. 

HARDENED INDOOR SDEROT PLAYGROUND 

CLIMBING WALL

The climbing wall shown here is of limited height to allow instructors to pluck children off the wall and into hardened bunkers within seconds in the event of an attack.

SDEROT FORTIFIED BUS SHELTER

ROCKET SHELTER  NEAR BUS STAND

RESIDENTIAL BOMB SHELTER

Because of their proximity to the Gaza border, families have but seconds to  gather children into the safety of hardened shelters.

“CANADA HOUSE”,  SDEROT COMMUNITY CENTRE

Nir Am is a kibbutz on the outskirts of Sderot. At the sound of gunfire, a local heroine alertly opened the local armoury and distributed weapons to a few brave colleagues. They set impromptu ambushes and took out 25 assaillants with no losses thus saving their kibbutz.  Unfortunately, the kibbutz of Kfar Aza, a mere 6 kms away, did not fare as well as it was the scene of the worst of the massacres with 40 babies slaughtered.

ISRAELI “IRON DOME” BATTERY

Built to defend against conventional rocket attacks from Gaza, the Iron Dome seems to have been rendered technologically useless by multiple attacks from such simple platforms as hang gliders and slow moving drones dropping munitions on the vulnerable  tops of tanks much as the Ukranians have deployed against the Russians. On goes the endless military cycle of challenge and response that has flowed down through the ages even in to our modern era. 

Terror and violence, much like rust, never sleeps. Pray for peace.

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RED MORPH SCREECH OWL

 

 

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BRETHERN IN CHRIST

The BIC was founded by my 6th great uncle, the Reverend Martin Beam back in Pennsylvania in the 1770s. The Reverend Otterbein heard him speak and rushed forward to clasp him in greeting, saying “We are Brethern,……. Brethern in Christ!”. Their church continues to this day.  

 

BRETHREN IN CHRIST CEMETERY, RIDGEVILLE, ONTARIO

Their abhorrence towards oaths other than to God and their refusal to bear arms, led to a flood of  BIC members to Upper Canada during the American revolution. The Reverend Martin Beam’s brother, Jacob, my 8th great grandfather, became a good friend of Governor Simcoe and the first alderman for the village of Chippawa, Ontario. The connection of the church with its antecedent in Pennsylvania continues to this day. 

LAKE ERIE  BIC BAPTISM, LOWBANKS, ONTARIO

Like much in the Anabaptist tradition, the BIC believes in full body baptism. Adults only. Here members of the Wainfleet, Ontario BIC patiently await their turn for spiritual confirmation.  

Despite their conviction to traditional values, the Canadian branch was not immune to the modern precepts of wokeism which came about the day before yesterday. It is now known as “Be in Christ”. Too much toxic masculinity or something. 

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SQUILAX GENERAL STORE AND HOSTEL

Alas, the old Squilax General Store and Hostel is no more. It succumbed to the recent wildfires in the Shuswap area of  British Columbia. Glad I shot it when I did just a few years ago.

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19 August 1942

19 August 2023 was the 81 st anniversary of the disasterous Canadian raid on the French harbour town of Dieppe.

The following legacy photos were shot with a 35mm film camera in a tour I did of the town back in  the 80s and have been scanned into a more modern digital format.

While the debat lingers on as to the strategy and tactics of the raid,  painful lessons learned undoubtedly led to the success of the Normandy invasion two years later.

 

RUE DU 19 AOUT 1942, DIEPPE

 

APPROACH TO DIEPPE HARBOUR (NOTCH IN THE CHALK CLIFFS)

 

VIEW OF DIEPPE BEACH FROM SOUTHERN CLIFF

GERMAN GUN EMPLACEMENT ATOP SOUTHERN CLIFF

 

VIEW OF DIEPPE’S SHINGLE BEACH

Tank tracks spun uselessly in the shingles and few were able to mount as far as the sea wall, thereby dooming the mission.

 

VIEW OF BEACH RISE TO SEA WALL

VIEW FROM SEA WALL ACROSS SEA FRONT PARK

 

FURTHEST PENETRATION

Dieppe Church, two blocks in,  pockmarked with Canadian rocket shells shot at German defenders inside.

 

STREET MEMORIAL TO TWO FALLEN SOLDIERS

 

 

CEMETERY OF CANADIAN RAID DEAD

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LIONHEART

Just got back from an Adriatic cruise. While in Venice, I snapped this shot of the super yacht “Lionheart” which was moored across from my hotel on Guidecca.

LIONHEART

LIONHEART has a crew of 30 and is owned by British billionaire Philip Green. It was just one of the many toys of the rich and famous  cruising through Mediterranean waters in the summer months.  Based upon the private lifestyles of our hectoring and lecturing elites, fossil fuels would seem to have a very bright future.

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CAPE MAY WARBLER

The warbler season is off to a good start this Spring with the arrival of male Cape May warblers.

 

 

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KING CHARLES CORONATION

Today is the coronation of King Charles. It seems like yesterday that I watched his investiture as the Prince of Wales. 

Long live the King!!

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