Thread: Happy Birthday Royal Air Force...

...now can we admit it was all a highly expensive & elaborate April Fool's hoax

Originally Posted by CaptainPlume

...now can we admit it was all a highly expensive & elaborate April Fool's hoax

No need to rub it in, we know that we are nobodys little bastards.

Originally Posted by CaptainPlume

...now can we admit it was all a highly expensive & elaborate April Fool's hoax

Thanks CP but I'm afraid not. I look forward to our Centenary with considerable confidence!

Regards,
MM

Originally Posted by CaptainPlume

...now can we admit it was all a highly expensive & elaborate April Fool's hoax

I think this has been known for some time. The crab unofficial motto is "If you can't take the Air Force, you shouldn't have joined a joke".

It's a little known fact that that official motto isn't what was originally intended. Given their 'brylcreem boy' tendencies, it was supposed to be "Prada ad Astra" but a latin scholar thought it was one of those "send three and fourpence" mistakes and changed it to "Per Ardua". The loss of the Prada account was a terrible blow to the clothing budget, resulting in the rather simple outfit that passes for an RAF No 1. No self-respecting officer from a decent Regiment was going to put up with that and demanded action to correct it. The Government couldn't sort the issue out by the November deadline, so thousands of RAF Officers downed tools and left. When the RAF went off in a huff, everyone else followed out of solidarity. The Germans cried fowl (chickens! come back and fight), refused to accept they lost on points and demanded a rematch. The RAF uniform hadn't improved by 1939 but we agree to go ahead after the combined German and Russian team took on Poland, with the proviso that the RAF recruit its own players to avoid the 'misunderstanding' of 1918. Still, the boys done good in their first home fixture and still treat 1940 like the rest of England treats 1966.