While searching for that Gallipoli beach shot I came across some old photos from long ago.
The Brits, at the time, ran a Jungle Warfare Instructors course held in Brunei. Lol. Anyway, met an Irish Guardsman, a Lance-Sergeant, from Liverpool. He and I became friends and he invited me over to visit him at London. One day, while there he asked if I wanted to watch him rehearse changing of the guard which they would be doing for real at Windsor Castle in a few days. During a lull in their rehearsals, I snapped shots of these vehicles. The first photo above is a Ferret scout car. Says so on the placard.
This next one I can't remember, and seriously do not know its identity. Looked cool in its colourful camo though and is pointing something more substantial than a pissy-ant machine-gun. Anyone know this I would appreciate it.
Prominent feature of the Gallipoli landscape. Took a series of sweeping view when I got there of which this is a part of. That feature sticks up like a sore thumb alright. Terrain also looks very steep and rugged.
I still have the negatives and while it will requires some detective work piecing together, I reckon I can compile a collage that will suitably show the scale and magnitude of the landscape that the ANZACs fought and died over. And make an ideal landscape painting.
This last photo is from Crete. View from the Maleme German war cemetery looking east along the northern coastline. Airfield is below and directly to the left. Cemetery is behind me. Painted this as a small canvas but wanting to enlarge it into a series of sweeping views. Cheers.
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A couple more...
Bad photo. Guy on the left was moving when I snapped the photo. Dude on the right spotted me taking the photo so naturally paused out of curiosity and surprise. This is what I based my foil painting on. By the way, this was our normal day wear in camp when not on formal duties. Sometimes you wore a shirt when it was cooler. But in Singapore, cold is a relative word for any weather condition that's not hot and steamy.
Definitely doing this as a painting. For one thing, we were celebrating finishing the course. Two, we were drinking beer in a strictly Muslim country (Bandar Sari Bagawan, Brunei). Three, the beer came in tea pots. Certainly looked like frothy tea. Finally, it features my good Irish-English friend, Jim, whom I would later visit twice in London and his home town of Tottington. Cheers.
Footnote: Our flight back to Singapore was delayed half an hour because we had to wait (already boarded and sitting on the runway ready to take off) for someone important who finally turned up in an orange stretch limo. I chuckled to myself as that important personage got out and boarded our flight. No idea who that VIP was but they were certainly important enough to actually drive up to the waiting aircraft. Like in the movies. Lol.
