My two oldest Idaho granddaughters and their friend are staying with us for a few days to avoid the flu. Their parents and siblings caught a virulent strain of flu over the weekend while visiting out-of-town relatives.

Their parents called my granddaughters and told them to get out of the house and not to be there when they got home. The reason was that one of my granddaughters has her recital this week and she must be able to sing solos, play the piano, and to play her flute without throwing up.

The Circus started as soon as these three showed up at our front door.

Yesterday morning my neighbor backed out of his driveway and rammed their friend's car, causing about $1000 damage. Then my oldest Idaho granddaughter rammed a guy from behind out on the highway.

She banged up her dad's van and got a citation for following too closely.

Yesterday, I went to the store to pick up my oldest Idaho granddaughter from work. She checked me out at the cash register and her sister loaded my groceries into the back of my pickup.

We got home and unloaded the groceries. I told my oldest to put the pizza into the freezer in the garage.

When we were putting the stuff away in the kitchen, I noticed that a half-dozen items were missing. We called the store. They found nothing.

The stuff was on my receipt, which for some reason I had put in my pocket rather than just throwing it away as I usually do.

I went to the store and picked up duplicates.

On the way home I remembered that my oldest had put the pizza in the freezer. My oldest is what my wife calls blond. Then I knew where the stuff was; in the freezer.

I got home and found the stuff in the freezer and I returned the duplicates to the store.

I can hardly wait to see what happens around here today.

My granddaughters challenged me to write an article entitled The Unfinished Eagle. This was because they were looking at some of my paintings that hang on the walls of my house for all to see.

My last painting is a landscape of a few skimpy evergreens bordering a mountain and lake scene. The trees are skimpy because my oldest granddaughter asked me to leave them that way. That way the mountains in the background can be seen through the trees.

There is a Bald Eagle in the foreground of the painting. I told my granddaughters and their friend that the Eagle was unfinished like the trees and that I was going to leave him that way. The reason is that you don't need a lot of detail in a flying eagle.

That's when I was challenged to write this article, The Unfinished Eagle.

HMS Eagle

Well, there was an unfinished Eagle. It was the HMS Eagle designed for WW I.

The war ended so the Eagle was not finished until much later. It was finally commissioned in 1924. Read about the HMS Eagle at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Eagle_(1918)

The HMS Eagle, a British aircraft carrier, played a major role in World War II. Her principle duty was in the Mediterranean Sea where she was sunk by a German U-Boat on August 11, 1942. Most of the crew of the carrier HMS Eagle was saved by escort ships. There were 927 seamen saved and 160 seamen lost their lives.

The survivors, among them Captain L. D. Mackintosh, were picked up by the HMS Laforey (F 99), the HMS Lookout (G 32), and HMS Jaunty (W 30). Her wreck is located 70 miles south of Cape Salinas, Majorca, Balearic Islands. See http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/2034.html

U-73

The U-Boat that sunk the HMS Eagle had a number. It was U-73. We even know the U-Boat Captain's name. He was Helmut Rosenbaum.

At http://uboat.net/boats/u73.htm we learn that the U-73 was sunk on December 16, 1943 in the Mediterranean near Oran, in position 36.07N, 00.50W, by depth charges and gunfire from the US destroyers USS Woolsey and USS Trippe. There were 16 dead and 34 survivors.

Captain Helmut Rosenbaum received the Knights Cross and many other awards. He was killed in an airplane crash in 1944. Read about him and see his pics at http://uboat.net/men/rosenbaum.htm He was quite the dashing fellow.

Back to HMS Eagle

The HMS Eagle's first offensive action of WW II was in the hunt for the Admiral Graf Spee. Make sure you read the jolly good song about the Admiral Graf Spee at http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/pages/tiGRAFSPEE;ttVANTYGL1.html You can sing along if you like.

The final action of the HMS Eagle was in August 1942 as cover for the Malta-bound convoy of Operation Pedestal.

The HMS Eagle was an important ship in the fight that destroyed German and Italian forces in the Mediterranean Area. Her aircraft were effective in helping to end Hitler's ugly aims.

So, there! I wrote the article.

copyright2006 John T. Jones, Ph.D.