Thank you Peter

[Peter Werry]

There is another more contemporary gentleman who over the years has collated and uploaded a tremendous amount of aircraft photographs but sadly is ceasing his endeavours, has however left a most remarkable legacy.......Peter D. Evans......Many thanks for enriching my life.

Best Regards

Peter

[Steve Coates]

Yes, agreed. I'd also like to acknowledge Peter's time and effort and hope a similar yet new forum can continue maybe in a slimmed down version.

[Ralph Zimmer]

Fully agreed! In addition I'd like to thank Peter for the possibility of making contacts - which I wouldn't have without this forum!

Thanks and regards

Ralph

[Clint Mitchell]

Well, as most of you would have seen posted here. Sadly the LEMB will be closing soon. I wish to take this opportunity to thank Peter for all his years of hard work in making this the best Luftwaffe research forum on the net and the place that was solely responsible for igniting my interest in this wonderful subject. It takes a hell of a lot of behind the scenes time and commitment to keep a place like this ticking over and running smoothly. Knowing that Peter has done this in his spare time for the last 19 years of his life, just speaks volumes about the effort and sacrifice he has undertaken to make this place what it is today. It is fully understandable why he needs a clean break having given so much of his life to something.

 

I understand and wholeheartedly support your decision. I wish you the very best for whatever you choose to do with your future. I also thank you for allowing the LEMB to stay online for the forceable future as an archive to stand testament to the input made by many over the years.

 

Cheers Pete and all the best for the future mate.

 

Clint

[P Hemingis]

Peter, thank you very much for all your effort to keep the LEMB alive and for your patience if my posts didn't correspond to the LEMB rules. Perhaps we will meet us again somewhere in the web.

 

All the best wishes to you and your family

Paul

[Vince Malfara]

I agree wholeheartedly and applaud Peter for his dedication to this forum and my thanks for all his hard work, I did learn so much from Peter and all the other contributors and I hope I contributed somewhat to the remainder of the LEMB motto.

 

All the best Peter in your future endeavours.

 

Vince...

[Lovro]

Dear Peter, dear Experten,

 

With only around 90 posts on this forum and relatively short time I spent here I can not be in a same position like many of you who know Peter's work longer and better, but I am deeply grateful to Peter on all the help and all the possibilities that this forum opened for me. I tried to give my contribution in things I had some competencies and knowledge. I wish I could do more but it didn't happen.

 

I found many materials on this forum for my first book, many people from this forum offered their help and advices, archive materials etc. As a relative novice in the field of the history of the Luftwaffe, I learned a lot here, from Peter (but also from many of you), and if learning about history and making contacts was the goal of the forum: it is fulfilled.

 

It is a great pity that this forum will come to end. Many thanks Peter and all the best in future, to you and to your loved ones.

 

Lovro Persen

Lyon, France

 

P.S. I am sure that Peter will be the same Peter from my first post and will find something to edit in this post too .

[John Vasco]

Peter,

 

I echo the sentiments of all who have posted before me. All the best for the future.

 

Your legacy is: We shared, we ALL learned...

[Bob Davies]

Thank you, Peter.

 

Thank you for your vision.

for launching the LEMB 19 years ago.

for your hard work nurturing and maintaining it.

for your own huge contribution to it's content.

for the vast amount of information it now contains, especially for the gaps filled and the entirely new knowledge added to the envelope.

for your encouragement to learn, and in turn to contribute so that others may learn.

for your patience.

 

Because of you the LEMB now stands as probably the most extensive and reliable archive of Luftwaffe material on the internet.

[ChrisMA]

Dear Peter,

I would also like to take the opportunity to say "thank you very much" and especially for giving all us a very pleasant "home" for our special field of interest. For me the old LEMB on ezBoard was my very first contact with forums on the web, way back in 1998. And since then, this site always remained a very special place to go to. And from the very simple beginning, LEMB has matured to what we all know now. Here I also have/ had the honor of learning so much from our other members. What a treasure trove of knowledge and people. The only bad thing is actually the fact, that I never had the chance to meet all the interesting people in live.

 

So, I would like to "raise my glass" (with what ever you deem appropriate) and say thank you, for a job well done. And to my member peers, I also want to thank you for making this my most favourable site. Peter, all the best to you and for what ever endeavour you have in mind or planned. Maybe you might surprise us all with something new.

 

And as everything good has to end at some time, until we meet again somewhere, some when "Auf Wiedersehen", take care and see you soon, ingat ka, Hasta luego, Au revoir, ....

[John Beaman]

Peter,

 

Thanks so much for all your hard work and dedication over the years. It is, and was appreciated. That being said, I fully understand the "burn out" process.

 

John

[Martin V]

I would like to also raise my glass a thank Peter.

Thank You Sir and and all the best.

Martin

[Hein C]

Dear Peter Evans,

 

Time to say farewell or rather "Auf Wiedersehen"? I liked the atmosphere here. I`ll miss it, hoping that someone is already screwing together the Phoenix that as you wrote shall rise from LEMB`s ashes. But I`d also like to thank you for your hard work and your sufferings with the not always compatible idiosyncracies of not only my inputs and LEMB`s necessities. Personally, I found the possibility to read first-hand information from real experts exciting and rewarding; your photo raids in return occasionally enabled me to add some observations and to make Flugbuch deciphering exercises.

 

With highest respect,

Hein C.

[Giampiero Piva]

Dear Peter, as you well know, my english is terrible, so only a word: THANKS !

All the best and 'arrivederci'

Giampiero Piva

[Mathias.B]

Hi Pete,
As many fellow researchers, I want to express my sincere thanks and wholehearted gratitude to you especially for all the heart blood, effort and dedication you put into this forum. This is the most knowledgeable and enthusiastic forum among the various Luftwaffe online fora I tend to visit on a regular basis. It is something yourself and your team can be very proud of to have built and grown.

 

Thank you very much

Kind regards

Mathias

[Armin W]

Nothing more to say, I fully agree to what has been said above. Among all Luftwaffe-forums I felt most well here - a newbie like me experienced much encouragement and met a lot of friendly people who are always keen to help (instead of much arrogance and ignorance in other forums). Apart from you Peter, I have to say many thanks to Chris Simmonds and Göran Larsson. But most of all to Merlin, who I first met in this forum. He knows unbelievable lot of Luftwaffe stuff and still is patiently answering my questions where answers can't be found in any books or forums. As my Luftwaffe knowledge still is very rudimentary I liked the eBay listings and the eBay photo questions most. There is nothing comparable around and now I have to search eBay on my own for rare pics - a very time consuming business. I joined the LEMB just a couple of years ago, a short but very helpful time. So I am thankful and sad at the same time. I hoped to the last the LEMB wouldn't close the doors. Goodbye to you Peter and all others of the 'small band' who contributed regularly. I always enjoyed your posts and learned a lot from them. I will miss these forums a lot.

 

All the best

Armin

[RPBarry]

I just want to say thank you Peter, for making not only a home for all of us to indulge in our quirky little hobby but also for regulating this forum as well as you have over the years. This was always a forum you could count on for accuracy...no threads about Skoda-built flying bells on this website! And we always had to be very careful as to what we posted, as there would always be others who would cheerfully (almost gleefully) point out inaccuracies with the utmost of haste. But there is nothing wrong with that... it's just the organic process of figuring things out. I think the end result illustrates just how well this process of arguing and "hashing-out" of topics has worked here. There is a heck of a lot of really good information on this forum and I am heartened to know it will remain accessible. Over the almost 5 years of being a member here, I had very little to contribute. My project was of a relatively narrow scope but when I could, I did help to the best of my ability if a question arose which I could answer. But honestly I probably had more questions than answers overall. I think it's a safe statement to make that we all DID learn something here. I know I sure did.

Best of luck in future endeavours, Peter.

[RudiS]

Peter,

 

Many thanks for the time and effort you have spent on making the LEMB to what it is today. I wish you all the best.

 

Regards,

Rudi.

[ju55dk]

Hi Peter.

 

Thank's for your huge effort with this superb forum.

 

Regards

Jörn Junker

[SES]

Hi all,

I share all the praise and the sentiments expressed above. With LEMB gone there will be a terrible void in our research, which will be very hard to fill. I for one hope to stay in touch with some of the members I got acquainted with through this excellent forum.

Many kind regards

SES

[Chris Simmonds]

Pete,

 

You have impacted the lives of all the regulars here with the creation of what is still one of the best Luftwaffe sites on the Internet. The huge mass of information is outstanding and is in no short measure directly attributable to your outstanding attention to detail, perseverance and dogged determination.

 

Personal best wishes to you Pete for the future.

 

Chris Simmonds AKA Hurricane

[David McKee]

i also would like to echo the above comments for what is a superb first stop reference site. although i didnt post much outside the book catagories this was always my first stop on the net. i would like to thank you peter for all of you outstanding efforts over the past and wish you and your family all the very best for the future.

 

david mc kee.

[David E. Brown]

Peter,

 

In addition to all the compliments from fellow members, I fully understand your situation, as I have been in similar ones over the years. Mind you, your creating and nurturing this site for almost two decades is far and away an outstanding accomplishment that we all are eternally grateful for. The benefits are incalculable. Best wishes to you and your family. We'll keep in touch.

 

Cheers,

David

[Richard502]

Peter, thank you for sending me Dunn's "Exploding Fuel Tanks". It turned out to be my book of the year 2012, and I would not have gotten it without your help. Your way of adopting and solving MY problem, above and beyond the effort you put into LEMB, will be a cherished memory.

Cheers,

Richard

[Olivier Menu]

A big thanks Peter for all your invest in what I consider to be the best Luftwaffe database I know.

 

Thanks,

Olivier

[Phil Canonne]

I can not believe the news. For all who are interesting with Luftwaffe studies: there was before Lemb, there was during Lemb !! so fantastic ! – and after Lemb ... So Peter I am grateful to you : always here to help, correct … Database, information, spirit! You created an excellent world ! We will never forget.

 

Philippe Canonne

Tours, France

[Brian Freer]

Peter - thank you for your assistance and energy and for the many corrections to my posts. I am also sorry to see such a dedicated resource disappear!

 

Thank you.

Brian

[Sean Ryan]

Hi Peter, thank you for providing such a wonderful forum which will be sorely missed !

 

THANKS,

 

Sean.

[PeterEvans LEMB Admin]

Many thanks to each and every one of you for your kind words (including those sent via PM too)... believe me, they are very much appreciated and incredibly humbling... but all may not be lost, so watch this space for possible positive developments chaps...

[Giampiero Gamalero]

Peter, I want to express all my gratitude to you and your moderators for the invaluable work in what I too consider the best Luftwaffe site on the web. As you know I'm a modeller and my collection of now some 220 pieces would not have been possible w/o the LEMB. There I put many questions and always got precious answers. I hope in a way or another we will found the LEMB (or something equivalent) soon.
Bye
Giampiero

[Joe Kudrna]

I add my voice of thanks.

[Michael F]

Many Thanks Peter !

 

It was one of daily rituals to check this site !

 

Cheers!

[PhilippeDM]

Peter,

 

I enjoyed every minute spend on this site. Thanks for 19 years of pleasure!

 

Very best regards,

 

Philippe

[Peter Kassak]

I would like to contribute to THANK YOU PETER posts....not often visiting/participating to this forum, but it was great to be able to ....THANKS!

[Norbert Bichler]

Yep, thank You Peter.

[Bernd P]

All that I can say is: I will l miss the LEMB. I´ve learned so much about the Luftwaffe, the planes and members. And yes, Peter had done a fantastic work all over the years.

Thank you for that, Peter.

[David Ransome]

And I too would like to thank Peter for all the time and effort that he put into the LEMB, much appreciated. Whilst I have looked in from time to time over the past months I have unfortunately been unable to offer or do much in the way of LW, particularly Heinkel He111 research, so I have had to make a change in direction. Eyesight isn't what it used to be so no longer looking at books and microfiche that's why all will be up for sale, or whatever, soon.

So, again, thanks Peter and best wishes to you for the future!

Kind regards,
David

[Andrew Arthy]

Many thanks from me too, Peter. I've really enjoyed participating in the discussion forum over the years. Hope we can catch up in the UK in a couple of weeks.

 

Cheers,

Andrew A.

Air War Publications - www.airwarpublications.com/earticles

[James Russell]

Hi Peter:

 

Let me add my small bit of thanks to the chorus, what has always struck me about this forum is the civility, this is the direct result of your guidance (and of the moderators)! Thanks again & I hope to meet up w/ you when I can travel to England.

 

Thank you!

Regards,

James

[Tim G]

Just want to add my Thanks, to both Peter, and everyone who has assisted along the way. All the best in the future for you Peter

[Rick Anderson]

G'day Peter,

 

Thank you for all the hard work you have put into this forum and thanks a whole bloody lot for turning my hobby into a drug like obsession. But seriously, I am so sorry that I wasn't able to add anything really informative but what I have learnt over the last 9 years is invaluable.

 

All my best to you for the future.

 

Kindest regards mate from Adelaide, Australia,

Rick.

[Piet Bouma]

Dear Peter,

 

Thank you very much for all the effort, blood, sweat and tears(?) you (must have) put into the LEMB forum..! It's LEMB that triggered my interest in the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. I started out here as an aircraft modeller / an aviation enthusiast who wanted to know more about certain Luftwaffe subjects, but during the years my hobby changed into seriously researching those Luftwaffe subjects..!

 

LEMB was an enormous boost for my research. I've met a lot of very nice people like yourself here in the Forum who were always helping each other..! Lots of 'Luftwaffe Experten contacts' started out here at LEMB..! Many correspondences have started here..! Most valuable back-ground information on various Luftwaffe subjects came for a great deal from LEMB, LEMB members and LEMB moderators..!

 

I'd like to thank you and all the other moderators for everything and I wish you all the best..!

 

Many happy landings for the future..!

 

Piet Bouma

The Netherlands

[Michiel DN]

Dear Peter,

 

I would like to thank you for creating, maintaining, uploading, editing, researching, posting, answering to what has become a milestone board. Your kindness in helping others has been an example to me. I will miss my daily dose of LEMB.

 

Thank very much, and as one could say: Hals und Beinbruch!

 

Regards

Michiel

[ChrisDNT]

Thank you Peter, I learnt a lot here and the Ebay listings helped me also very much for my projects, so again big thanks for your work.

[Chris Simmonds]

Posting here probably for the last time with a very heavy heart as LEMB has been a 'home' for me as I learnt and grew in knowledge. So I have much gratitude to Peter for having the tenacity and guts to keep LEMB running for all these years through thick and thin.

Wishing Peter all the very best for the future.

[Peter van Gogh]

Thanks Peter I always remeber this.

[FranZee]

Thanks Peter - without your forum I would not be where I am now. Can´t say more and it makes me sad seeing you´re doing some kind of final, hard cut. But maybe sometimes this is the best thing to do. Sorry for many typing mistakes which you had to correct and all the best for the future and I hope you won´t lose fascination about some prop planes flying by...

 

Always blue skies

Fran

[Ricardo Barrientos]

Dear and most appreciated Peter,

 

My sincere gratitude for your efforts during such a long time. An invaluable resource of serious knowledge. Please, accept my congratulations. We all will miss the quality of this forum.

 

From Guatemala, sincerely,

Ricardo.-

[Ralph Zimmer]

Hallo Pete,

 

I just want to express my thanks to you again before this forum is closed - and I sincerely wish you all the best for the future!

 

Ralph from Essen

[Norbert Schuchbauer]

Hello Pete,

Thanks for all the years keeping this board running. It allowed me to improve several aspects, especially quality of data, of the database me and Barry are working on. Unfortunately for me you were always two clicks ahead of me in posting some of that "stuff" here. I really enjoyed our personal cooperation away from this forum as well.

 

All the best for the future und Hals und Beinbruch,

 

Norbert from California

[Marcel Hogenhuis]

Hello Peter,

 

Not a frequent visitor anymore for reasons which bear no relation to my frantic interest in several air war related subjects, your 'retirement announcement' exploded with more force than a Grand Slam of 22.000 lbs could do. I always admired your patience and energy to operate a forum, even more when I did not deserved it: for instance when I wrote (the drilled) I./NJG 1 instead of the desired I/NJG1. Your patience was stretched beyond limits when a researcher and I drifted apart after the initiation of a very long and most prosperous thread about a certain type of German nightfighter. Your diplomacy can't be valued enough and I am still sorry that I have disappointed you.

 

Now I read about your 'standing down from ops' and I suddenly realize, that I am one of those many members who might not have said 'thanks!' enough. What you have accomplished is beyond any doubts and almost a superhuman effort over all those years. I do welcome the idea that some of your most loyal fellows like Clint Mitchell and others, will continue with a Luftwaffe Experten Message Board 2.0. Why? Not because I will become a more regular visitor, but because IMHO a continuation in a new forum would be a virtual statue to honour your giant effort for us.

 

Now that the burden of running a forum like this is moved to a new team, I do hope that you will find the relaxation to spend time and energy in your own interests and projects. The expertise you have gained must be tremendous after all these years

 

Therefore I do not say 'good bye' but looking forward to continue our contact as a fellow research colleagues. Many, many thanks Peter for your kindness, patience, diplomacy and occasional neccesary warnings, which made the LEMB such a magnificent forum to exchange data, photo's and numerous new insights!

 

All the best, Marcel

[Simon Schatz]

Peter, just want to say "thank you" again here and not just via PM. I can't imagine how many hours you spent to keep this forum alive, but understand that there must me a life after all these years. I wish you all the best in the future.

 

Cheers, Simon

[Göran Larsson]

One day to go before LEMB turns silent although Peter has announced it will remain open for visits why all information will still be accessible. Thank you Peter for letting it be open. As I have 6.000+ posts here it would honestly be sad to see it all disappear together with the collective effort of all other members. Now more than 100.000 posts will stand as a testimony to the many who contributed and a valuable source of information.

 

I initially posted at flight Sim forums before I found LEMB. I didn’t like some other forums with a less good moderation and where personal assaults and mudslinging was common. LEMB gave a serious impression and posters kept to the subject entering good information with their posts. I wasn’t disappointed. In fact I’ve spent more time here than I first imagined I would. I also became Moderator for a while. I have realized how much effort it takes to make a forum like this to tick over and run smoothly. It is a massive undertaking and Peter deserves a lot of praise for his effort in keeping it running for so many years. To me it has been, and still is, the best Luftwaffe forum and it is sad to see it close. I can on the other hand understand Peter who has decided to shift his focus to something else, as his untold hours spent keeping the forum going hasn’t always been generating the response one could expect. Perhaps typical to forums of this type that a few die-hards put in the bulk of posts while others contribute on a lesser scale or not at all. This does in my opinion only reflect the differences in level of interest, ability to contribute and time available for individual members. In this respect LEMB was no different from other forums. What was different was the forum’s ability to upload photos and documents. This enabled a growing and very valuable eBay photo posting section. Peter shall have a big thank you for the huge effort put in here. It generated many new and very interesting finds which greatly increased the knowledge about Luftwaffe aircraft and their emblems and markings. A great contribution to Luftwaffe research! Thank you Peter for your sterling effort with LEMB and wishing you success with what you will undertake in the future!

 

Göran

[Peter Werry]

Thank you Goran,

I fully endorse your sentiments and am sad that only 53 persons out of a membership of 5,059 have had the common courtesy to thank Peter for all his work.

Best Regards to Peter E and the "53".

Peter

[ChrisMA]

Hi Peter (W.), to add a little statistics on on your finding, of the now +5000 members that we have so far, some 500 members did make more then 50 posts. Those who posted more then 100 are only about 40. An additional 200-300 members had done 1-10 posts. All other members are zero posters , with some even being years long members (in german: Karteileiche ≈ index card corps, a dead or just for statistics member). So the ~50 members posting here are a good representation of our core members. And don't forget, some of those posting here, did post more then once. So the number is actually a bit smaller. But nevertheless, it is still a valid representation of the core members. And roughly the same partition of memberships goes for almost all forums. No need to be sad, that is just the way it is.

 

Please understand, I'm not contenting or objecting what you posted. You are right! I'm just changing the perspective a little bit.

[PeterEvans LEMB Admin]

Well my friends... that, as they say, is that. To the small number of you who have bothered to post here with your kind words, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart...

However, it really would have been good to get a small amount of recognition from our peers for what the forum has achieved. When I say peers, I mean the authors and experts in our midst. They are among a number of members I see here, day after day after day, names who appear in print or who are held in great esteem by us all, but for whatever reason, they never fully embraced what a small minority of us were looking to achieve. As I've said before and as I'll say it again, if the old guard don't foster and encourage the younger members today, where will the authors and enthusiasts of the future come from? Also, what is the purpose of you being a member of a community like this? Sadly, one can only assume it's because they are looking to get the maximum return from doing the square root of nothing...

The one thing I hope the LEMB will be remembered for was its willingness to share material without the blinkered petty selfishness and rudeness seen elsewhere. It's never been about me or any one individual, it's been about us as a group, trying to foster a community ethic. However, my one big regret is that we never did manage to fully achieve this but despite my disappointment, I really don't know what more we could have done...

I wish Clint all the very best with his new venture... the internet is such a different animal today from when the LEMB was created. Members expectations are to be spoon fed information with little or no thought at offering information or comment back and even the most basic expression of gratitude is not forthcoming.

With regards the LEMB, it was never my legacy, it was OUR legacy...

Cheers
Pete