The death last week of Margaret Thatcher was, naturally enough, the occasion of a plethora of reflections on her place in history. Equally naturally, the value of these reflections varies (and no doubt depends partly on the politics of both the writer and the reader). One of the less valuable ones was written by Dominic […]
The third leading article in today’s Economist is entitled ‘Airship fiascos and preliminary puffs’ (p. 868). It begins by casting back to ‘A FEW weeks ago, just before and after the Army and Navy Estimates were introduced’, when ‘a section of the Press was filled with lurid accounts of the danger in which Great Britain
Peter Gray. The Leadership, Direction and Legitimacy of the RAF Bomber Offensive from Inception to 1945. London and New York: Continuum, 2012. An interesting title, and looks like an accurate one (if an annoyingly difficult one to shorten for citations!) Gray’s background before doing his PhD (which this book is based upon) is in the
A prominent headline on the front page of the Daily Express today rather startlingly refers to the ‘BOMBARDMENT OF LONDON’, a ‘NIGHT VISIT FROM A DIRIGIBLE’, and a ‘WAR LESSON’ (p. 1). It turns out that the capital has not been destroyed by a sudden Zeppelin raid; rather, Londoners are promised that tomorrow night an
[Cross-posted at Society for Military History Blog.] I learned something new from an article in the March 2013 issue of History Today: Exactly half a century ago, in the spring of 1963, Israel was suddenly gripped by a curious mass panic. Sensational newspaper reports and radio announcements claimed that the country was threatened by enemy
It’s been a while, but after three previous visits the mystery airship has returned to Cardiff. From the Manchester Guardian (p. 9; above): Our Cardiff correspondent sends a report that again last night [8 April 1913] an aircraft was seen at Cardiff, where one was reported to have been seen frequently at the beginning of
I’ve written before about how the air defence problem seemed to inspire ‘wildly creative’ thinking in the early 20th century. Here are a couple more examples, submitted to the British government by members of the public, c. 1943 — the one effectively a form of death ray, the other a (technically) non-lethal weapon: One of
Z4 had only a brief stay in Lunéville. It has already flown back to Metz, though not before being searched by the authorities for any evidence that the Zeppelin had been photographing French defences. They didn’t find any, but did impose a £300 customs duty anyway (which will be refunded). Except in the frontier provinces,
There’s some sensational airship-related news today. Many newspapers report that yesterday an airship was forced down at Lunéville after first getting lost and then had mechanical problems. The reason why this is sensational is because Lunéville is in France and because the airship is German: the very latest Zeppelin, Z4, which has been undertaking proving
Quite some time ago I promised to write more about J. M. Spaight’s Volcano Island (published in 1943 but written late in 1942). I probably should do that at some point. Such as now. Here I want to look at what he has to say about area bombing. He quite unapologetically uses this phrase, even
