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Henry Gill's avatar

Liabeetes - I absolutely love this and it is so bang on. As a child, I went with my late father to a Battle of Britain Day celebrations where he chatted up old friends who were "The Few," while they were still relatively young men. Amongst themselves, they always 'fibbed' about flying, or the 'old days', etc., but were always proper, careful and accurate with other people. One former Spitfire pilot always attended, but was always shunned, with hard glares or quiet whispers of 'Bad Show' or 'Bad Sport.' It seems that during the BoB, he engaged in unchivalrous conduct or fibbed about things. He was quickly fobbed off to another squadron where the new and inexperienced pilots worshipped him, and he eventually became a major hero within the RAF. But the 'old timers,' especially those within his original squadron always remembered and avoided him with distaste. And so, when I read about "LIABEETES," I suddenly saw and remembered his face after all of these years. Having been a member of "The Few," to have saved Britain when they stood alone, to have survived and to have become an ace should have been enough for any man, but this man could never own up and finally stop fibbing.

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