Author name: Brett Holman

Brett Holman is a historian who lives in Armidale, Australia.

Horse-drawn carriage with people seated and standing children in front.
1910s, Civil defence, Conferences and talks, Home Fires Burning, Periodicals, Pictures

Civil defence from below

Next July, the Australasian Association for European History (AAEH) conference is being held at the University of Auckland. My abstract having been accepted, it looks like I’ll be going to New Zealand! My presentation is entitled ‘Civil defence from below: street patrols and air raid risk in Britain, 1915-1918’ and here’s what it’s about: As […]

In the aftermath of the second German daylight Gotha raid on London, crowds watch as smoke pours from the roof of the Central Telegraph Office, struck by a 100 lb bomb, 7 July 1917
1910s, Books, Pictures, Reviews

First Blitz? – II

In my previous post, I discussed my concerns with the way sources are used in Neil Hanson’s First Blitz.1 Here I turn to the problem of strategy, which goes more to the argument of the book. Again there are two parts to this, one broad and one narrow. I’ll start with the broad. Hanson’s argument

A large biplane Gotha bomber seen from below
1910s, Books, Pictures, Reviews

First Blitz? – I

This is a continuation, of sorts, of my series of posts critiquing the recent trend of describing the air raids on Britain in the First World War as the ‘First Blitz’. I’ve separated it out because, although it is about the best-known book to use that phrase in its title – Neil Hanson’s First Blitz

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