Home Fires Burning

The image presents two schematic diagrams of a dugout, labelled "Plan of Dug Out" and "Section A B." The top diagram is a top-down view showing the layout of the dugout, featuring rectangular sections with labelled areas. The entrance steps are on the right, leading to a larger central space with an emergency exit on the left. Arrows indicate the paths and functions within the space. The bottom diagram provides a cross-section view, illustrating the underground structure. It shows layers of earth and stones above the dugout, with a stairway leading down from the ground level. The dugout consists of various compartments, depicted with solid lines and labelled for dimensions.
1910s, Civil defence, Home Fires Burning, Periodicals, Pictures

Spooked

One of the fun things about historical research is finding something when you’re not looking for it. Alan Murdie, in his regular ‘Ghostwatch’ column in a recent Fortean Times, wrote the following: At Folkstone [sic], in 1917, candles in an air-raid shelter were mysteriously extinguished amid other poltergeist events. Natural gas from strata was blamed.1 […]

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

Postcard, 1916
1910s, Art, Books, Ephemera, Home Fires Burning, Periodicals, Pictures, Publications

The German air raids on Britain, 1914–1918: a reading list

While you’re waiting for me to write Home Fires Burning, here are some other books (mostly) on the same topic, whether wholly or in substantial part. This is not meant to be in any way a comprehensive list; it’s merely what I have found to be most useful. I’ve included links to out-of-copyright/open access versions,

Graphic, 24 April 1915, 518
1910s, Art, Books, Home Fires Burning, Periodicals, Pictures, Publications

Book contract: Home Fires Burning

I am delighted to announce that I have signed an advance contract with Cambridge University Press((Founded in 1534. Just sayin’…)) to publish my next book, currently entitled Home Fires Burning: Emotion, Spectacle, and Britain’s First War from the Air, in their Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare series. Here’s a one

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