Rumours

Thanet Advertiser, 29 April 1916, 5
1910s, Ephemera, Periodicals, Pictures, Rumours

Queer letters and alien hands

The above facsimile letter was published in the Ramsgate Thanet Advertiser on 29 April 1916. It reads: April 7th. The writer of the first ‘German messages’ has been absent from Ramsgate some time now, so the ‘Alien’s post-card’ is by another hand. If I did not fear prosecution for “failing to register an alien,” I […]

Big Ben
1940s, Books, Periodicals, Pictures, Radio, Rumours

A tall tale of Big Ben

As part of a discussion about the worldwide syncronisation of time, Yuval Noah Harari writes: During World War Two, BBC News was broadcast to Nazi-occupied Europe. Each news programme opened with a live broadcast of Big Ben tolling the hour — the magical sound of freedom. Ingenious German physicists found a way to determine the

F. W. Sickerdick, 1 May 1918
1910s, Archives, Australia, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures, Post-blogging the 1918 mystery aeroplanes, Rumours

Wednesday, 1 May 1918

NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, pages 849 through 854 is a report from Detective F. W. Sickerdick of Victoria Police (seconded to military intelligence for the duration, possibly due to German descent) to Major F. V. Hogan of the Intelligence Section, General Staff. Sickerdick had been ordered by Hogan to travel with Lieutenant A. Edwards of the

James French, 24 April 1918
1910s, Archives, Australia, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Post-blogging the 1918 mystery aeroplanes, Rumours

Wednesday, 24 April 1918

NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, page 79 is a copy of a letter from James French, Shire Secretary, Maffra Shire, to the ‘Officer in Charge’ of the ‘Intelligence Department, Melbourne’. French has a lot to say on the subject of ‘hydroplanes’ that ‘have been seen of late in this District at night time’, and he thinks ‘the

1930s, 1940s, Books, Civil defence, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Rumours

Air panics of the British Raj

As long-time (and very patient) readers of this blog will know, I am fascinated by the historical evidence for what I term air panics. Most obviously this includes phantom airship and mystery aeroplane panics, but also rearmament panics, Zeppelin base panics, red balloon panics… anything and everything which provides evidence for what the British people

British Journal for Military History
1910s, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures, Publications, Rumours

Publication: ‘Constructing the enemy within’

The latest issue of the British Journal for Military History is out, and with it my peer-reviewed article ‘Constructing the enemy within: rumours of secret gun platforms and Zeppelin bases in Britain, August-October 1914’: This article explores the false rumours of secret German gun platforms and Zeppelin bases which swept Britain in the early months

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