Ardent

Long history of animosity between the countries going back 300 years although those on the islands claim British familiarity and no Argentine-supporting residents Becket coming under fire for favouring Argentine relations over recognition of British losses

unfortunately Wikipedia is grossly mis-informed by people who know "something" of the subject this extract is sort of accurate but lacks finese

ok - Electronic Warfare is the detection, analasys and destruction of enemy use of the EM spectrum - at its most basic level it's receiving an enemy's radar transmissions at up to twice their receiving range (if they have a range of 50 miles you know about them 50 miles before they know you're there) and identifying who/what they are and taking appropriate countermeasures or counter-countermeasures (jamming) can't tell you much more or I'd have to kill you after

Electronic Warfare - passed at Leading Seaman rate (my original branch before I went green)

There are a few different styles of German stone/cross in the area: In Commonwealth cemetaries you'll find a very square white stone of the same marble as our own but with rough cut lettering under an impression of the Iron Cross Some cemetaries have thin black metal crosses with a name on each side of each cross-arm - they're about half inch thick and perfectly in line vertically, horizontally and diagonally (the only exceptions being small round rough stones between the ranks for the Jewish soldiers) The majority of stones however are laid on the ground rather than upright and there were quite a few mass graves in the area too

Air Electronics Operator - the EW (Electronic Warfare) specialists that man Nimrod, E3D, etc

Right - just to clear up one point - the Submarine Parachute Assistance Group badge is completely different from the trained parachutist badge (para wings) and is an AdQual and therefore on the right wrist (oh - and only one at a time!)

To my knowledge from the late 70's onwards it was only Pilot/Observer on the left arm - para wings on right shoulder - branch right arm - rate left arm - everything else right cuff

Additional Qualifications things like Bomb Aimer, Seacat Guider, Navigator's Yeoman - used to be Commando Qualified (like myself) but that's been "unified" so it's now on the upper left arm

Only RN Pilots and Observers wear their flying wings on the left cuff - all parachute wings are on the upper right arm with AdQuals on the lower right cuff

Unfortunately as Ieper is on "dead end" rail line it's the only way to travel (it's on the Kortrijk-Poperinghe line - Poperinghe being the end of the line) Friendly and relatively cheap and convienient places to stay would be the Old Tom, Sweerd, Regina or Sultan hotels - all of which are on the Grote Markt or market square and 2 minutes walk from the Menin Gate They can be found online relatively easily

Same place as Rum Bum and Baccy (someone's obviously not using enough masking tape!)

several of the long-standing Brantweer band have the MBE for their services to this

you get a great view of the area from the top of the tower - there's an aluminium plate all round the rampart with lines engraved and painted in it showing directions and distances to all the major landmarks around the region (if you can cope with the strangly unsupported and "open" metal staircase that spirals up from the viewing area in the cross arms)

WWII bullet holes again