As was widely announced in the picture-houses of the United Kingdom at the close of 1936: THERE IS NO DEFENCE AGAINST POISON GAS This is from a book by the German exile and novelist Heinz Liepmann, Death from the Skies: A Study of Gas and Microbial Warfare (London: Martin Secker & Warburg, 1937), 273. There’s […]
Airfix Spitfire Mk 21, a work in progress. Image source: Airfix gallery, user HawkerTempest5. It looks like Airfix, Britain’s oldest and most famous manufacter of plastic model aeroplanes (among other things), might be going under. It will probably not surprise readers of this site to learn that I had a collection of model aeroplanes as
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
Last night I watched Threads, an extremely affecting BBC film from 1984 about the effects of a full-scale nuclear war on one British city, Sheffield.1 One might say it’s a very British ‘kitchen sink’ approach to the subject, following the lives of two ordinary families during the international crisis (involving Iran — so what else
Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries has an article on academic blogging in its latest annual web issue, and guess which academic blog scores a mention … Airminded is an example of a graduate student blog; it is devoted to the topic of fears of air attack in Britain prior to World War II.1 Note
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
Veteran history blogger Alan Allport (Horizon and Cliopatria) has an interesting new blog: War Starts at Midnight! I can’t find anything defining the blog’s scope, but so far the posts are a mixture of links to images, reviews and news relating to the World Wars, centering on the Second World War and Britain. Which is
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,
It’s exactly 40 years since the Battle of Long Tan, a notable feat of Australian arms during the Vietnam War. But I have a more personal anniversary in mind — yesterday was 90 years to the day since my great-grand uncle John Joseph Mulqueeney was killed by an artillery round during the Somme campaign, on
