Brilliant IWM Interview with Erk Eric Marsden

[Dave Homewood]

This page has a chart showing that up till 1940 the UK pound was indeed hovering around the US$5.00 mark! It seems to have plummeted in the 1940's and more so in 1950.

www.miketodd.net/encyc/dollhist.htm

[ErrolC]

Jun 19, 2020 14:19:04 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

This page has a chart showing that up till 1940 the UK pound was indeed hovering around the US$5.00 mark! It seems to have plummeted in the 1940's and more so in 1950.

www.miketodd.net/encyc/dollhist.htm

Then the USA forced all UK investments in the USA to be sold (in practice at fire sale prices) as part of Lend-Lease. Wasn't a famous actor fined for hiding assets or something?

[Dave Homewood]

Oh right.

It shows the UK government obviously did not suffer so badly from the Great Depression as the USA did.

[ErrolC]

1GBP got you the following USD (reciprocal of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tables_of_historical_exchange_rates_to_the_United_States_dollar#Table_for_1850_to_2000 )

2000 $2.00
1995 $1.78
1989 $2.32
1970 $2.48
1960 $2.84
1950 $2.85
1940 $3.96
1930 $4.98
1920 $3.92
1910 $4.98
1900 $4.98
1890 $4.98
1880 $4.96
1870 $6.42
1860 $4.96
1850 $4.96

[Dave Homewood]

This has to be the Corsair collision that Eric witnessed at Vella Lavella, where the pilot's head came down in the doorway of the US squadron's crewroom. From Mark Allen M's post on WIX. His caption states, "Wreckage burns from two Marine F4U Corsairs that collided at what appears to be Barakoma airfield on Vella Lavella Island in the Solomons, late 1943 or early 1944."