Comments on: Is that war?

By: Airminded · A Guilty Man?

Airminded · A Guilty Man? — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:20:28 +0000

[...] the declaration of war, Spears wrote, many MPs 'were as worried as I was that we were doing nothing by way of air attack on Germany to relieve the intolerable pressure the German Luftwaffe was exerting on Poland', particularly in [...]

By: The Elfin Ethicist

The Elfin Ethicist — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 22:08:47 +0000

History Carnival XXI

The twenty-first History Carnival is up at CLEWS: The Historic True Crime Blog. This edition features several bloggers I haven't seen before, including: Greg tells us about two saints named Gregory. >> Brett Holman notes...

By: Brett Holman

Brett Holman — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 08:58:04 +0000

That story seems plausible. Wait, is that the right word? No, I mean ludicrous - I always confuse the two! Alex: I don't think the scenes in the film are referring to the Emden, or if they are they are grossly distorted. The ship is very definitely bombed rather than crashed into (and I notice the film shows that a submarine was hit as well). Now, the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer was also hit in the raid, but the bombs bounced into the sea without exploding, so the film is greatly exaggerating the actual results of the raid. I'll post some captures on the front page, mainly because I can!

By: Chris Williams

Chris Williams — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 14:54:31 +0000

Yes, that story had me raising an eyebrow - in fact it nearly had me feeling sorry for the mad old bat. "Dead bloke's shrink makes unverifiable claims" is a far less striking headline, though, isn't it?

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 10:55:46 +0000

The ship was the cruiser Emden, she was damaged by a Blenheim that crashed, possibly deliberately, into the forepart of the ship. Further, re: Shirer and the mighty Polish Strategic Air Command, I would argue that a considerable percentage of reporters throughout history lack clue on at least one major field of their job :-) Look at this story, for example..

By: Brett Holman

Brett Holman — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 05:03:58 +0000

Yes, you're right, it wasn't intended to be merely a gesture; it was about the most that Bomber Command could attempt given the politically-imposed restrictions. I think it is also true that there was an expectation that such a small raid could/would be much more effective than it was (of course debates about the effectiveness of bombers v. battleships had been raging throughout the interwar period, some airpower extremists thought that aircraft made navies obsolete).

Incidentally, I watched The Lion Has Wings (1939) recently, which features a dramatisation of the raid, and it is strongly implied that at least one German ship had the stuffing knocked out of it. I guess the RAF had little else to boast about at that stage of the war ...

By: Chris Williams

Chris Williams — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 20:36:53 +0000

The Wilhelmshaven raids turned out to be a gallant gesture - but was the RAF expecting them to go that way? I'm under the impression that they were expecting a repeat of 'Mitchell vs Ostfriesland'. Could be wrong, though, as ever.