I know we've gone over all the "why Bertie" topics, and I'm not disparaging Bertie in any way here, but I was just interested as to which other member of 666 do you think had the potential to join Biggles' team? Which do you think would have been the most interesting addition?
Frankly, I can't help but feel that Tug would have been the most natural choice, after "slightly posh" Biggles and the "Honorable" Algy. Tug was put into the squadron to show that people from different backgrounds and classes were joining in to fight the war (and how this sometimes caused conflict--note how Tug tries to pick a fight with Bertie the first time he walks into the mess), so it would make sense to put someone like him into the team. In fact, with Bertie being a Lord, Algy an Honorable, and Biggles related to Algy and possibly having other titled relations, Ginger is the only member of the team to represent the working classes (a lot of whom bought and read Biggles books).
Angus is a bit too much like Algy--rebellious and impulsive. The same goes for Taffy, who seems a bit too accident-prone to be true. Tex and Ferocity are such good friends that no doubt they went off and did their own thing after the war. Henry in the later WWII books feels a lot like a mini-Ginger....
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And another argument in favour of Tug is that Biggles asked him to help out in 'Hunts Big Game'. We also find out that Biggles had arranged to lend Tug the means to buy his own taxi, so Biggles must have felt kindly towards him - and been able to afford it!
ReplyDeleteafter Bertie I would have to go along with SA and say Tug and for the reasons that Soppy has already noted.
ReplyDeleteBy the 666's time, though, Ginger's working class roots were well and truly hidden thanks to Algy and Biggles influence. True, WEJ was concerned with showing the many different backgrounds and social classes who served in the RAF during the war, butI'm not sure he felt the need to supply a social mix in his team. in the later books, maybe, but not at the beginning of the Air Police books.
One question, I have,however. If Tug had joined the team and moved into Mount Street, wasn't there a danger he would get on a few nerves? Biggles, Algy and Ginger are fairly quiet people in general and Tug wasn't a retiring violet. Just a thought.
Ginger - quiet??? I know he's often portrayed quietly sticking things into scrapbooks and the like (what one did in the good old days) but also he's often portrayed as fidgiting because he wants do go somewhere exciting and have an adventure... Still maybe he pesters Biggles quietly :-)
ReplyDeleteWell, he's not noisy as in loud generally, is he? Not as in clattering around, loud voiced etc. I just get the impression that Tug would be more inclined to disturb their peace.
ReplyDeleteIs Tug so loud, FB?
ReplyDeleteBy the end of the Battle of Britain, he seems a pretty normal 666 pilot - happy to do anything if Biggles says so! And even when he has a grumble, if Biggles rebukes him, he accepts it (e.g. in 'Sweeps the Desert').
Certainly he hated the Germans for what they did to his family, but I don't remember him making a loud noise about it and clattering around. Maybe I need to re-read Spitfire Parade and refresh my memory :-)
Might be me, SA. I'd always got this idea of Tug being big and loud, don't know why. I'll re-read Spitfire Parade again and acquaint myself with him. But I definitely don't have him down as the quiet type. Maybe I've done the unforgivable and stereotyped him! If you read Spitfire Parade again and you find I'm barking up the wrong tree point me in the right direction, please.
ReplyDeleteOOPS! BIG MISTAKE, HUGE!
ReplyDeleteI've got Tug and Tex confused! Ignore everything I've said. I'm off to read Spitfire Parade again! Sorry to confuse you, SA.
Well I know my memory's not reliable [big smile].
ReplyDeleteFunny thing is, I always thought of Tug as a quiet type! Sort of nursing his grief and bitterness internally, apart from behaving like a madman in his plane - in the early days of 666 anyway. He seemed to calm down later on in the 666 Special Atmosphere :-)
Biggles said in 'In the Orient' of his squadron: they didn't booze and they didn't brood.
I realized as soon as I'd opened Spitfire Parade what I'd done. I can only plead RL having an undue influence on me. Tex and Tug are not alike at all. Obviously, I 'd got my 'T's crossed! But to confuse one with the other **shakes head in disbelief**
ReplyDeleteI don't think Tex was particularly noisy either.
ReplyDeleteTug was just very touchy about certain subjects, and I think that when he first got posted he was feeling very out of sorts and tried to cover it up by being brash and rude, but after he settled in he seems to have gotten on with everyone all right. He is said to have a violent temper, but that could be said of both Biggles and Algy--they've both done crazy things in a fit of temper in their time!!
Temper! How right you are - Biggles threw tumblers at the fireplace; Algy threw bombs at lettuces and geraniums (poor plants - it wasn't their fault they had been planted on a Hun airfield).
ReplyDeleteJust want to say how much I enjoy the comments on this blog!
ReplyDeleteBiggles even in a fit of temper threatened to quit his job if Raymond wouldn't let him rescue the chap in Follows On.
ReplyDeleteWe all like it when our boys show some spirit!
That's right he did! And Raymond told him to calm down or some such remark.
ReplyDeleteHe (Biggles) was rather tired at the time.
Raymond seems awfully lacking in backbone considering how quickly he rose through the brass hat ranks. He caves at the slightest sign of trouble!
ReplyDeleteMost people do cave in eventually against Biggles.
ReplyDeleteThat's true. I'm surprised that Raymond never pulled rank with Biggles, but then again, most of the missions he sent Biggles on were impossible hush-hush no-one-can-know-about-this type of stuff and if Biggles didn't do them no one would.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if WEJ was 'listening' as it were to public opinion. Perhaps he got a lot of letters saying how they liked Bertie or Tug etc.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, Bertie and Tug have the strongest personalities of everyone else in 666, so it's really only between the two of them.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, but I'm biased. No contest.
ReplyDeleteAny Tug fans out there?
ReplyDelete