...ntract. Some of Ashgate books are reasonable, but many are notoriously over-priced. For example, thecheapest title displayed on the Ashgate history home page is 54 GBP. As a result, many libraries no longer purchase Ashgate books, and your work will be unavailable to many scholarly readers. Alan Allport Congratulations! But: I don't anticipate that my blogging will fall off dramatically I wouldn't be too sure of that ... JDK Well done, delighted t...
...pel.2 Here the argument is that Americans generally believed that aircraft -- and the new connections they would create between people and peoples -- would bring about a golden age of peace and prosperity. The same could not be said of the British (at least, not in general). Having hesitantly asserted a bold generalisation, I probably ought to try and explain it. Here are some possibilities, none of them particularly compelling: Time. The First Wo...
...y plot an insurrection while the leaders of British India supinely look on -- the Viceroy is forced by the Labour government at home to order a loyal prince, the Sultan of Jehanabad, to allow a Communist demagogue to spread sedition in his state. The uprising eliminates most British military forces on the sub-continent as well as the civil government at Delhi (which city Blair clearly detested). Only pre-emptive action by the maharaja and the lead...
...me. (And John Holman's father, also named John, had a brother named James -- Jacob?) I'm going to stop there before my brain melts! After that it was back to Truro, via Tremayne, Praze and Camborne. I wish I'd been a bit better prepared -- if I had been, perhaps I would have known about the former Methodist chapel in Praze, or found the address of the Holmans (if not my Holmans) in Tremayne from the 1841 census. But it was still very evocative to...
...Calcutta was in fact bombed during this time, albeit only on a small scale -- 5 raids, 160 bombs -- and even as early as April 1941, street-sellers were telling people to 'Take what is available now, in a couple of months' time we shall all have stopped bringing supplies to Calcutta on account of the impending air-raid'5 But even though it was still very distant, the possibility of a Japanese invasion of India must have played a part. However, the...
...te. On 10 May 1968 it encountered the worst storm in New Zealand's history -- the collision of an extratropical cyclone and an Antarctic storm -- as it entered Wellington Harbour. After struggling towards safety for hours, it eventually foundered, and out of the 733 people on board, 53 perished. Taking place so close to Wellington, the disaster and attendant rescue efforts were a media sensation which left behind dramatic images and some artefacts...
...calling up masses of trained mechanics is very different --crazy different-- from calling up a mass of schoolboys and issuing them rifles. Neil Datson I find figures that don't tally deeply irritating. I've just been reading The Most Dangerous Enemy, in which (Chap 18) Bungay tells the reader that in the middle of Aug Fighter Command had 1,438 serviceable fighters. This was apparently made up of 855 with the squadrons, 84 with training units and...
...on until recently. I know there are "combat simulators" in the martial arts-- a wood pole with paddles. What about the models the Japanese drew up for bombing Pearl Harbor? (http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-pac/pearlhbr/ph-ja5.htm at the bottom) Generally, were the plates supposed to be theoretical targets (like Berlin) or just random practice? Chris's monkeys The Link Trainer was a 1930s innovation., wasn't it? A simulator is just a...
...ers into their attacks on this country. The R.A.F. will soon be reinforced -- in accordance with the undertaking of General Marshall -- by units of the United States Army Air Forces working from bases in Britain. Even if Germany were to redeploy bombers from Russia and Italy 'in order to strike at hated Britain', they are reaching 'the limit of their air power, whereas the United Nations are now coming to the point of greatest augmentation'. Unles...
...er David Lightman, has hacked into WOPR -- or rather Joshua, its alter ego -- and inadvertently caused it to start playing its primary wargame, Global Thermonuclear War, for real. The big screens at NORAD start showing phantom Soviet ICBM launches and bomber penetrations. The DEFCON level drops perilously close to all-out war. General Berenger, the NORAD commander, must decide whether he should recommend to the President that the US launch its mis...
