I was on ABC New England again today, my fourth contribution to ‘The road to war’, looking at the events of 3-9 September 1914. My main topic was the Battle of the Marne — the advance of the German 1st and 2nd Armies towards Paris, the evacuation of the French government from the capital along […]
On ABC New England last week I briefly mentioned rumours of secret Zeppelin bases in Britain in the early months of the First World War. So far as I have been able to determine, the stories, which peaked in October 1914, centred on three locations: the Lake District, the Scottish Highlands and the Chiltern Hills.
My third contribution to ABC New England’s ‘The road to war’ series is now online. Today I looked at the events of 20-26 August 1914, focusing particularly on events in Belgium: the march of the German 1st Army through Brussels, 320,000-strong; more German atrocities against civilians, as well as the burning of the library at
The 1955 novel Biggles in Australia is the subject of an interesting article in Inside Story by Adam Nicol, ‘Uncivil aviation: Biggles down under’ (I like the line ‘The common term “civil aviation” — that is, flight for leisure — suggests that aviation is intrinsically warlike’), which could be usefully read alongside my UNE colleague
My second contribution for ABC New England to the increasingly inaccurately named series ‘The road to war’ was broadcast today, and is online here. Increasingly inaccurate because my topic today was the outbreak of war in August 1914 between Germany on the one hand and France and especially poor little Belgium on the other, including
An update of my list of early 20th century British newspapers online is well overdue. As such, there are a large number of new titles available (some only for a limited range of years), along with the usual additional ranges of years for existing titles. But it’s clear that the imminent First World War centenary
Today I had my very first radio appearance, on ABC New England North West, talking to Kelly Fuller on the Mornings show. I was talking about what was happening in Europe 100 years ago, during the July Crisis of 1914. More specifically, I spoke about the Royal Navy’s test mobilisation at Spithead (above) and the
No sooner is one conference over than another one looms. The one which is over is the Australian Historical Association annual conference for 2014, which was held last week at the beautiful St Lucia campus of the University of Queensland. I spoke on the topic of invasion, Zeppelin and spy scares in Britain during the
The New Zealand government, despite its lack of a homegrown air arm, was little inclined to get involved in the Imperial Aircraft Flotilla. Even though a local Over-Seas Club president happened to have a seat in Cabinet, official participation was largely confined to forwarding money collected by New Zealand individuals and organisations to the Over-Seas
As of May 1916, the Imperial Aircraft Flotilla consisted of 91 machines purchased with funds donated by Britons overseas, 69 for the RFC and 22 for the RNAS. The RFC donations were organised through the Over-Seas Club — £1500 for a B.E.2c and £2250 for a Vickers F.B.5 — and were as follows.1 The Imperial
