No "French Bashing" at Trafalgar!

[samildanach]

Battle must not 'bash' French

Lord Admiral Nelson won the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805
A re-enactment of the Battle of Trafalgar will not be a "French-bashing" opportunity, the Royal Navy has said.
Instead of the British taking on a French/Spanish fleet at next month's event to mark the battle's bicentenary a "red" force will take on a "blue".

Navy organisers fear visiting officials may be embarrassed at seeing their side beaten, The Sunday Times reported.

One event sponsor said: "Surely 200 years on we can afford to gloat a bit."

"Not even the French can try and get snooty about this."

Official literature for the event refers to "an early 19th-century sea battle" instead of the Battle of Trafalgar, The Sunday Times said.

Fireworks

Organisers have confirmed there will be no "sides" at the Trafalgar 200 event on 28 June, which is taking place off Southsea, near Portsmouth, it added.

The spectacle will involve tall ships in a mock battle alongside fireworks, lights and music.

Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson, whose fleet was based at Portsmouth, famously led his sailors to victory in 1805.

His 27 ships defeated the combined French and Spanish fleet of 33 ships, sinking or capturing 22 vessels off Spain.

Nelson died during the battle but his victory paved the way for a century of British naval supremacy.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Navy said of the event: "This is an illustration and theatre on water.

"Nelson is featured, but we are not billing it as Britain versus France. This will not be a French-bashing opportunity."

Hmmm......"this will not be a French-bashing opportuinity." If this isn't a french-bashing opportuinity I don't know what is. This is like giving the British people free beer and telling them not to get drunk. My prediction for this celebration is that we will all sit and be a nice appreciative audience. Then we will file out in an orderly manner and head off to the French embassy and burn it to the ground for old times sake.....sweet.

 

[Hotpoint]

Well that'll take some of the shine off the planned son et luminaire reinactment

And it shouldn't be a French bashing event... it's supposed to be a French and Spanish bashing event

I've actually got one of the best places to watch the show from. My office is in a Fort on top of Portsdown Hill which overlooks Portsmouth. The view up there should be fantastic.

 

[classical_hero]

England must celebrate one of their greatest victories. France must watch because it was one of their nations greatest losses.

 

[stormbind]

Why don't the French & Spanish hold a new battle for second place?

 

[HamaticBabylon]

stormbind the French nuclear program will wipe out the Spanish!

 

[classical_hero]

There is no second place, just a winner and losers.

 

[puglover]

So stupid it's funny.

History is biased to the conquerers. Get over it!

 

[samildanach]

Why don't the French & Spanish hold a new battle for second place?

They would both probably find a way to lose such a contest. My money would be on a drunk guy in a rowing boat stealing second place. Or maybe godzilla. Or maybe a giant turtle. Or maybe a particularly belligerent stalk of seaweed.

The good thing about Trafalgar is that the French and Spanish can say they lost to the British as opposed to having their imperial ambitions thwarted by themselves.

 

[Quebec Patriote]

It would be funny if the "Charles de Gaulle" carrier arrived midway through the battle and started sinking all those "red" wouldnt ships.

Then France could cancel all contracts to build UK's own nuclear carriers. That's the real victory right there. 200 hundred years later, France is building the UK's carriers, the future pride of the Royal Navy MADE IN FRANCE - with of course a hidden device to blow the thing up with a remote control on top of the Eiffel Tower.

 

[stormbind]

No worse than British Aerospace being responsible for the USAF

 

[stormbind]

I did a search on that, and discovered the following British-French carrier collaboration project.



However, it is not the same as the 60,000 ton Royal Navy supercarriers to be delivered in 2012.

I also discovered there is a Super Harrier project that might be operating in parallel to the JSF British-American collaboration fighters.

These all come after the British-German-Italian Tornado project, and the British-German-Spanish-Italian Typhoon project.

It seems the UK just likes to spread it's technology far and wide

 

[YNCS]

There doesn't have to be any French bashing at the Trafalgar reenactment. Nelson did that to Villenueve 200 years ago.

 

[Mario Feldberg]

French bashing event?

Where do I sign up?

 

[MarineCorps]

I did a search on that, and discovered the following British-French carrier collaboration project.



However, it is not the same as the 60,000 ton Royal Navy supercarriers to be delivered in 2012.

I also discovered there is a Super Harrier project that might be operating in parallel to the JSF British-American collaboration fighters.

These all come after the British-German-Italian Tornado project, and the British-German-Spanish-Italian Typhoon project.

It seems the UK just likes to spread it's technology far and wide

The JSF is American. The British aren't sharing with us, we're sharing with them.

 

[Perfection]

Gagh, PC gone to far. Someone needs to vandalize this event.

 

[stormbind]

The JSF is American. The British aren't sharing with us, we're sharing with them.

The British gave them the technology, and anyway, BAE (formerly known as British Aerospace) practically powers all USAF electronics and weapons systems.

Key parts will be manufactured in the UK.

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is a joint venture between the UK and USA to replace the current generation of strike fighters, particularly the Hawker Harrier and the F-16 Fighting Falcon.

Face it, the US military is just a puppet of the British banking industry

 

[Britannia]

Isn't this some European event aswell though, I'm sure I saw something about it being something like the European naval show 2005 which is why the Frenchies are coming.

 

[Hotpoint]

The British gave them the technology, and anyway, BAE (formerly known as British Aerospace) practically powers all USAF electronics and weapons systems.

The JSF might find it a tad tricky to go anywhere without the Rolls Royce supplied engines too

 

[stormbind]

Makes you wonder what the US actually contributed

The airframe, mostly

The engines on the JSF are weaker than those on the Harrier, so it won't be able to achiev vertical take-off. It can still hover and do vertical landings though. Like a cut-dow version.

There is also the Super Harrier project which is exclusive to the UK but nobody knows if these planes will enter service. It might be a backup plan incase something goes pear-shapes with JSF. That is good news for national security

 

[IglooDame]

Will the HMS Victory be participating again?