So if there were no mystery aeroplanes over Berlin on 23 June 1933, and nobody who even saw any mystery aeroplanes, why did the German government and press say otherwise? There are three-ish reasons, that I can see. The first is the most obvious. It was strongly implied in the original English-language reports that the […]
I did my second Turning Point for ABC New England radio today, and chose to talk about the founding the League of Nations in 1920. The League is usually considered to be a failure, because it didn’t prevent the Second World War or even play any significant role after the Italian invasion of Abyssinia. But
For my twelfth (and last?) contribution to ABC New England’s Road to War series, I spoke about what was undoubtedly the most important battle to take place in late April 1915, the Second Battle of Ypres in Flanders. The reason why this was so important is because it opened with the first successful, large-scale poison
I found this pro-disarmament poster on eBay (at US$1985, I won’t be buying it!) The text reads: THE TRANSPORT OF THE FUTURE. FOR WHAT? DEATH AND DESTRUCTION OR FRIENDSHIP AND PEACE Abolish All War Aeroplanes This is the seller’s own description: An incredibly rare original vintage anti-war poster circa 1938 in fine condition, archivally mounted
As we all1 know, the Aerial League of the British Empire (later the Air League of the British Empire, now just the Air League) was founded in 1909. Less well-known is that the Aerial League also sponsored the formation of the Women’s Aerial League (they are often described as being affiliated, or as the latter
[Cross-posted at Society for Military History Blog.] (Or, ‘Trenchard at sea’.) Jamel Ostwald’s recent post on urban bombardment in the early modern period, itself partly a response to my post on Trenchardism, prompted me to wonder how straight the line was between aerial bombardment and earlier naval and land bombardments? Was the naval precedent more
The front page of the Daily Mirror today is almost wholly given over to a story which the other papers are far less interested in. The recently-installed Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr William Temple (that’s him on the left, though what is being done to him I have no idea; and that’s his forehead on the
The war news today is much closer to home for the Glasgow Herald than usual. A big air raid last night on ‘a Central district of Scotland’ (5) is vividly described, as though the reporter had witnessed it: readers would know for themselves just how far away it was. One Nazi ‘plane which appeared to
In February 1912, the International Arbitration League issued ‘A Memorial Against the Use of Armed Airships‘, an early proposal for arms control. The memorial claimed that ‘For the first time, in the face of a new development of the arts of fighting, nations possess both the conscience and the machinery necessary to check that development
This is the talk I gave at Earth Sciences back in May. It’s long and picture heavy and much of it will be be familiar to regular readers, but some people expressed some interest in it so here it is. I’ve lightly edited it, mainly to correct typos in my written copy. I’ve put in
