Goodbye to all that

[Guest Biplane pilot]

the known visual horizon from sea level (1.1 nautical miles).

I do not believe it! For a gnat, maybe! Care to check?

PS I was a professional meteorologist for 41 years and know a little about this ........

Already did check, years ago, or I wouldn't have posted it! I don't have my old Sea Scout manual with the table showing 1.1 nautical mile visibility at 1 ft elevation, or the material from the Coast Guard boating class, but here's some other confirmation.

http://www.warships1.com/index_tech/tech-011.htm

http://www.boatsafe.com/kids/distance.htm

http://www.globalspec.com/mediakit/samplenewsletter

What do you think is the correct figure?

[Muerrisch]

If you are taking it lying down, emulating the gnat, I have no problem with your figure. Visibility is assessed standing up. I wrongly assumed your bloke was standing up. My mistake. I gather your case involved someone swimming or floating, which, of course, I did not know. I hope he drowned!

[Guest Biplane pilot]

Right-o; Ens. Gay was floating in his life preserver; his raft sank with the aircraft. But even if he'd been able to find a raft and stand in it, at 6 ft elevation the visible horizon was only 2.8 nm while the Japanese carriers were some 25 miles away!

[andigger]

George Coppard refutes this in "With a Machine Gun to Cambrai", not unreasonably asking how pleasant tea made with water containing oil, mineral deposits, etc would taste.

Coppard thinks that Graves saw MG crews laying down indirect fire, and that he coupled this with the trench-myth prevalent among non-MG troops that they simply fired off a few belts when they fancied a brew.

Here I am riding into working this moring and come across this passage in With A Machine Gun and I remember this thread. I am excited to resurect the topic and add something new.... alas Paul beat me to it 2.5 years ago. Oh well.... at least I am bring the thread back up and can say I am really enjoying the book. Andy

[AndyHollinger]

Well done!

[Jerrymurland]

not unreasonably asking how pleasant tea made with water containing oil, mineral deposits, etc would taste.

Probably about the same as tea made in old petrol cans, under those conditions anything hot and sweet would have been welcom.

Jerry

[AndyHollinger]

In a far-away universe ... we made coffee in "Jerry Cans" warmed next to the tanks engines - Some of these cans were probably NOT water cans ... but other stuff. Frankly I still remember coffee smelling like Diesel fumes and that red "brake" fluid we used in the tank recoiling pistons that got over everything ....

[Justin Moretti]

I suspect some of the truth vs. fiction with Robert Graves is, as you say, that he was convinced at the time it was true and reported it as such. Much like WW2 ace Douglas Bader's recollection that he was brought low by a mid-air collision. Subsequent research suggests being shot down by a high-scoring German ace (I have heard Galland suggested - at the least, a worthy opponent) or even accidentally by one of his own, but there is no doubt that what he experienced at the time felt to him like a mid-air, and he was IMO quite justified in telling this to his biographer. And even Bader can't be expected to remember that sort of event 100% clearly...

So yes, "He lies like one who was there" sounds about right. Very apt.