Strange Dream About Biplanes

[Shiftkitty]

It was weird, like half-symbolic, half-PL, though I'm not 100% confident about the PL part. Here goes, see what y'all think:

My brothers (whom I am somewhat estranged from) and I were at this deal where people would get together and play a laser-tag dogfight in the air. The biplanes were modern, bright yellow fuselages, red wings, and the color on the rudder identified which side you were on. The bright colors were so that you were easily spotted (safety's sake). My plane was #46. I don't know why that was significant, but it stood out.

Strangely, I am afraid of heights and I don't know how to fly. I could taxi the plane to its spot, but fly? No way, Jose! Anyway, as the moment neared that we were to hit the runway and take to the air, I became more afraid than I have ever been in my life, waking world or otherwise. I dashed into a nearby shop and hid, curling up and trembling something fierce. My brother came and found me and asked what was wrong. I told him I was afraid of heights and wouldn't be going any higher than 300 feet. (Again, I don't know why that number. 300' is pretty high!!!) He asked why I was afraid of heights. I told him it was past life related. I was Lieutenant Car---- (I don't have the name completely. Cartwright? Carstairs? Carter?) and I flew a Sopwith Camel in the War. It got shot out from under me and while I survived the impact, I didn't survive the German soldier who found me.

I woke up with the name "Shropshire" on my mind, but that's a name I have heard in this life a few times, so it's unreliable. I have no fear of flying, only of heights.

I looked at some war memorials dealing with Shropshire but found nothing that stirred anything.

If it counts for anything, when I play flight simulators, I always feel most at home in a Camel, even with the odd torque to the engine. (Heh, in one arcade simluator, my friend chose a P51 Mustang and I took the Camel. I had him splashed in seconds!)

 

[argonne1918]

It sounds WWI related to me. Have you researched sopwith camels role in the war? Maybe locations and/or maps of battle? WWI pilots had a life expectancy of about 2 weeks. Technical note: the reason those old planes had 2 pairs of wings is because the engines were so small. You need a certain amount of airflow over the wing to stay in the air. You can achieve this either by speed or wing surface area. By the 1930's they had bigger engines and higher speed and could use less wing surface.

 

[helz_belz]

There was a Royal Flying Corp station in Shropshire: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Shawbury Of course, Shropshire could have been the county you were from, it's a county on the border with Wales.

 

[Shiftkitty]

argonne1918- I didn't know that about biplanes, or of the life expectancy of the pilots. I remember a feeling from the dream that as I was recalling the memory to my brother (in the dream), that there was a sense of feeling very fortunate to have survived the crash, but then looking up and seeing this German soldier. His face was stout and brutish-looking, though his body was somewhat lean and wiry. I thought he looked like they'd recruited him from the ranks of hardened criminals. His lip pulled back a little bit as if he was disgusted by my very presence before he killed me. My last thought was "Oh, Hell..." (What else could I do?)


I always assumed the two wings had to do with control surfaces. I should have made the connection when I read a book that described some biplanes reaching the "break-neck speed of 70mph!" I've never studied the Camel. Everytime I get near something about WW1, I always seem to want to hear about Verdun and the Somme. One my desk I have two models, one of a Fokker D7 and one of a Sopwith Camel.


helz_bels- I wish I had more of the name to go on. I know for sure it began "Car". In the dream I had it completely, and I lean heavily towards "Carstairs", but when I looked up the name, most of what I got back was a British sitcom character. I'll keep looking around, though. I only just had the dream last night.

 

[argonne1918]

Everytime I get near something about WW1, I always seem to want to hear about Verdun and the Somme. On my desk I have two models, one of a Fokker D7 and one of a Sopwith Camel.

Tell us more about your interest or feelings about Verdun and the Somme.

 

[Shiftkitty]

The impressions that always pop into mind are what a waste it was. Throwing men and shells at each other in unimagineable numbers and for what? A piece of dirt? I'm not sure what speaks worse about humanity, the politicians and high commanders wasting all those young men while they sit back in their warm, safe offices sipping cognac and talking about what a jolly little war it is, or the thousands of men who agreed to do it. Bullets, shells and shrapnel falling all around like rain, and when's the last time you were outside in the rain and didn't get hit by a drop? Who won? Nobody. And with men buried beneath the dirt thrown up by the blasts, not even the undertaker can score a victory.

 

[BriarRose]

You have a lot of emotion attached to this, Shiftkitty. That's one of my guideposts for an authentic PL connection. Have you identified any other life in the World War I time period?

 

[argonne1918]

Yes, it's hard to imagine a million casualties in one battle today. WWI was the last war fought with the old tactics but with modern weapons. The troops didn't have a chance. Wave after wave of men climbing out of the trenches only to be mowed down by machine gun fire. And the generals and commanders were not smart enough to try something different. Without the arrival of the AEF (American Expeditionary Force) in 1917 England and France would have run out of men to fight. The reason it took the US so long to enter both WWI and WWII was fear of a public backlash. The white collar and management class were strongly pro-British. But the blue collar working class was largely Irish, German, and Italian. Groups that very much hated England. This is the reason for the propaganda that included posters of German soldiers (the Huns) bayoneting babies, etc. Anti-German sentiment was so high in 1917 that many German-Americans changed the spelling of their names so it didn't sound German.


The Americans were smart enough to understand that the British and French method was not very successful. The British and French wanted the American troops to be replacements under their command. Gen. Pershing (Blackjack) said no. American troops did not arrive in France until late in 1917. But what a difference they made. One year later the war was over.

 

[helz_belz]

Don't forget the Germans sank the Lusitania, that was one of the major incidents for bringing America into the War. The Germans were also running out of men too, many of their soliers new to the front near the end of the War were pensioners. But the Allies weren't much better off, many new soldiers by the end of the War were barely more than boys, and there were more than a few women fighting in the trenches too.

 

[Shiftkitty]

You have a lot of emotion attached to this, Shiftkitty. That's one of my guideposts for an authentic PL connection. Have you identified any other life in the World War I time period?

Verdun, the Somme, and Sopwith Camels are pretty much it. I've seen videos of the poor guys suffering from shell shock as well as images of the prosthetics some of the guys who got mangled had to wear, and even though they're long since out of pain my heart still goes out to them. As for other lives that might be from around that era, I seem to have a muddled gap between the early 1890's (I had died very young that time, maybe 5) and 1918. Some memories aren't lining up or else I'm surrounded by elements that are older than the period would suggest (such as being in the 1930's but surrounded by furnishings, etc. from the 1880's). In this life I have to be careful with "memories" jumping out from the 30's to the 50's because my parents had the house loaded with antiques that were still in use. (No carefully preserved museum pieces here, we used a 1935 Eureka vacuum cleaner for years!)

 

[helz_belz]

Its time-period gaps like that which are indications for me of a 'missing' life, a life which is there but hasn't yet surfaced as memories, dreams or indications. If you had a life starting in the early 1890s, you would have been just the right age to get mixed up in the War, either as a combatant or a relative left at home.