James Hinton. The Mass Observers: A History, 1937-1949. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. This is not yet another book of extracts from Mass-Observation diaries (not that there’s anything wrong with that) but a history of the organisation itself. Even within the chronological span covered, the focus is on the first five years (i.e. before Tom […]
Yesterday’s report of an airship seen crashing in flames near Potsdam in Germany has been picked up by a number of newspapers, including the Aberdeen Daily Journal, the Dundee Courier, the Evening Telegraph, the Liverpool Echo, the Manchester Courier, the Manchester Guardian, the Standard, and the Western Times — most of which don’t say anything
[Cross-posted at Society for Military History Blog.] Previously I argued that two books by Frank Joseph, Mussolini’s War: Fascist Italy’s Military Struggles from Africa and Western Europe to the Mediterranean and Soviet Union 1935-45 (Helion & Company, 2010) and The Axis Air Forces: Flying in Support of the German Luftwaffe (Praeger, 2011), were at the
No phantom airships have been seen in the skies over Britain for the better part of a week, but it appears that one may have crashed in, of all places, Germany. The Derby Daily Telegraph carries the following story from Reuter’s in Berlin (p. 3): Eighty chasseurs of the Guards are searching for the remains
There is very little phantom airship news today. The Exeter Western Times reports on the airship seen over London on Friday night (p. 4): An airship hoax has been worked on a London crowd. A smithfield [sic] porter, realising how little a thing will attract a crowd, stood for a few seconds looking intently up
The Aero Manual: A Manual of Mechanically-propelled Human Flight, Covering the History of the Work of Early Investigators, and of the Pioneer Work of the Last Century. Recent Successes, and the Reasons Therefor, are Dealt With, Together with Many Constructive Details Concerning Airships, Aeroplanes, Gliders, etc. London: Temple Press, 1910. 2nd edition. Well, the title
For the first time, a phantom airship has been seen over the very heart of London, ‘A full week behind the provinces’, as the Daily Express says (p. 1). Previously, no reports came from closer than Croydon (South London) or Hendon (North London), about a month ago. Yet relatively few newspapers seem to be interested
Phantom airships attract relatively little attention in the press today. For the first time in more than a week there are no new sightings to report. Stale (and slightly garbled) news about the Grimsby box kite and the City of Leeds and Othello sightings appear in the Aberdeen Daily Journal and the Western Gazette, while
Press coverage of mystery airships hasn’t quite fallen off a cliff, but it is perhaps scrabbling down a rocky slope. Only a handful of newspapers mention them today, and not even yesterday’s startling report from the trawler Othello rates a mention. While there is still considerable (mostly negative) discussion of the new aerial navigation regulations,
The big news today is that the government has issued, in the words of the Daily Express, ‘a long list of regulations under the new Aerial Navigation Act to prevent foreign aircraft from flying over Great Britain or Ireland’ (p. 1) The extraordinary thing is that despite their length (9 orders, 4 schedules, a notice,
