Longtime peace campaigner Helen John is setting up a new peace camp at RAF Waddington, the Lincolnshire RAF base that is to become the new home for pilots controlling British Reaper drones.
Helen is calling for support from fellow activists, protesters and campers, from within UK and internationally. The camp is open to all. It is intended that the camp at RAF Waddington will be mixed, and not ‘Women only’ as some protest camps are. The only request made to anyone willing or wishing to attend is that no booze or drugs are brought to the camp.
It is hoped that some communal facilities will be available from the outset but in the early stages visitors/campers are advised to arrive reasonably self sufficiently equipped. Anyone wishing to attend the camp but needing camping equipment should email Kate, ktholcombe@aol.com or phone on 0774 8015601 to discuss their requirements. Where possible stuff will be provided for anyone in need.
Helen says:
I learnt recently that RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire had become the home base for the Reaper Stealth bombers (Drones). I was horrified. Having lived through WW2, I witnessed the destruction of my grandmother’s house, cut in two by a V11 rocket (as we then called them).
I feel deeply ashamed that we now in the 21st century are bringing back Nazi technology to blight the future. Killing and maiming others for oil it
appears, while our ‘pilots’ sit in comfort and safety at their computer consuls, thousands of miles away. Murder by remote control. Whatever next?Will we follow Werner Von Braun, the inventor of this weapons system? He hung 800 prisoners of war and left the corpses hanging as a daily reminder to the captive workforce not to continue sabotage.
We have seen the back of Cruise Missiles, the son of Von Braun, now we have the grandson Drones. Do we want them? – NO.
Von Braun and other prominent Nazis were welcomed with open arms into the U.S.A after a change in the constitution – what have we gained or lost? Can we afford this criminal folly, I think not.
For more details and further information see RAF Waddington Peace Camp
Helen says:
I learnt recently that RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire had become the home base for the Reaper Stealth bombers
There is nothing stealth about the MQ-9 Reaper, lets see a propeller at the back, (huge radar reflection) clutter from stores under the wings, (No internal bomb bay) more radar reflections and a top speed of 300mph which means that it isn’t getting anywhere fast after somebody hears its distinctive sound from the ground. (Never mind its radar picture)
Helen wrote:
I feel deeply ashamed that we now in the 21st century are bringing back Nazi technology to blight the future.
Err the UAV programs of today have nothing to do with Nazis Germany, seeing as Braun was a rocket scientist and not a flight engineer. Ironically the modern UAVs stem from how Israel found a way in which to defeat Russian supplied anti-aircraft missiles after 1973s Yom Kippur war. Missiles I should add which derived so much from captured Nazis technology.
Any hangings at Peenemunde were the responsibility of the Commandant…General Walter Dornburger. Von Braun had nothing to do with cruise missiles, either; the device you refer to was the V1, made by Fieseler. Von Braun’s device was the V2, the first ballistic missile. He was fixated on getting mankind into space and to the moon…and he would espouse any system that helped him to do that; finally it fell to the Americans to provide the money and expertise needed.
Completely different technology….. You really know not of what you write….
Wehrner von Braunn was a rocket scientist….. forcibly encouraged to work for the Nazis during the war, and then allowed to escape prosecution by working for the Americans on the space program following the war.
The Reaper drones have nothing to do with Braun in either technological content, or idealogical intent…. Your viewpoint is flawed.
These weapons systems have the capability for precision, real-time strikes against targets identified as hostile, using high quality, real-time intelligence. Far removed from the Nazi concept of blind, long distance rocket attacks, I would say…?
And as for your assertion, Helen, that Vehrner Von Braun Hung 800 prisoners of war, and left them hanging as a deterrent…. I have been unable to find information that corroborates your statements. Many will be waiting for you to post provenance in this forum to justify such serious remarks, concerning the darkest period in the history of so many nations. I call upon you to provide information to support these statements, lest aspersions be cast upon your reputation…..