Actually, as interwar visions of armageddon go, this is pretty mild. But it reminded me of the scene in Terminator 2: Judgement Day where Sarah Connor has a nightmare about the coming nuclear war, with a nuclear warhead exploding over a playground filled with children: He was lying on a hill-side. Below him there was
James S. Corum. The Luftwaffe: Creating the Operational Air War, 1918-1940. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997. This will be a helpful reality check, as I spend so much time reading (usually greatly exaggerated) accounts of the capabilities and intentions of the German air force. Peter Fleming. Invasion 1940: An Account of the German Preparations
Lorna Arnold. Britain and the H-bomb. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave, 2001. Well, at least they weren’t blowing up bits of Australia this time! Got this cheap — last time I saw it, it was about 6 times the price. Glad I held off. Lisa Blackman and Valerie Walkerdine. Mass Hysteria: Critical Psychology and Media
Executive Council of the New Commonwealth. An International Air Force: Its Functions and Organisation. London: The New Commonwealth, 1934. A submission to the International Congress in Defence of Peace, February 1934, detailing the organisation and role of an international air force. Lawrence Freedman. The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Third edition. An
[Cross-posted at Revise and Dissent.] He 111 over London, 7 September 1940. Image source: Wikimedia Commons. So, I’ve looked at J. M. Spaight’s predictions in The Sky’s the Limit about how the British fighters would fare in the Battle of Britain, and how the German ones would too. All that remains is to examine his
Reginald Berkeley. Cassandra. London: Victor Gollancz, 1931. A workers’ uprising and a Soviet invasion (including the inevitable aerial bombardment), along with a future archaeologist digging through the ruins of London — as seen via clairvoyant visions of things to come! Looks like fun. Hamish Blair. Governor Hardy. London: Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons,
Hamish Blair. 1957. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1930. Something a bit different — an air control novel, instead of a knock-out blow one; India ablaze instead of London. As the dust-jacket ominously says, ‘1857: Indian Mutiny. 1957: ?’ Luckily 1947 came first. John Ramsden. Don’t Mention the War: The British and the
[Cross-posted at Revise and Dissent.] Fw 198. Image source: Current Aviation, 26 November 1943, via Model Airplane Kits. In the course of my research, I get to read many predictions about the future, partiularly the future of warfare. One of the reasons I like doing this is that it helps to restore the uncertainty of
[Cross-posted at Revise and Dissent.] This is the front cover of a book by J. M. Spaight on British airpower, called The Sky’s the Limit. It was published in 1940, a not-insignificant year for the RAF. In fact, this ‘New and up-to-date’ edition was published in August, right in the middle of the Battle of
Antony Beevor. The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006. The Spanish Civil War was a crucial event in British airpower history. I have the first edition of this book, but I haven’t read it yet, so … Andrew Milner, Matthew Ryan and Robert Savage, eds. Imagining the Future:
