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
Having updated my list of online early 20th century British newspapers, I have mostly good news to report. The most exciting development comes from Wales. I have previously lamented the total lack of digitised Welsh newspapers from the period 1901-1950, and it appears that in large part the reason for this is that the National
An unusual phantom airship reference today. The Dundee Courier reports on the ‘successful debut’ of ‘Mr William J. Wallace’s talented company of entertainers’, who ‘made their bow before Dundee [sic] public on Saturday night’ at St Mary Magdalene’s Hall (p. 4). One ‘descriptive sketch’ in particular, entitled ‘Coach Ride from Newport to Balmurnie via Pickletullem
The Dublin Sunday Independent has the following brief account of the phantom airship or aeroplane seen at Galway last week: AIRSHIP OVER GALWAY Several persons in Galway state that they saw an aeroplane over that city on Wednesday night [26 March 1913] at about 8.15. A man named M’Avoy, coachman to Mr. B. Parkes, said
After an absence of more than a week, a mystery airship has been seen again, this time in Galway, Ireland. The Connacht Tribune‘s report gives a sense of the debates surrounding the ‘nocturnal apparition’ (p. 4): Was it an aeroplane or a kite? That is the question that is troubling the minds of the people
Robert Bollard. In the Shadow of Gallipoli: The Hidden History of Australia in World War I. Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2013. Focuses on the Australian home front, in particular the growth of dissent which culminated in 1917 with the Great Strike and the second anti-conscription campaign. The final chapter looks at industrial and military unrest as
Judging from the report in the Western Gazette, Captain Faber, Conservative MP for Andover, evidently is not convinced by the letter he received from the Prime Minister downplaying the mystery airship visits, for in a speech to his constituents at Weyhill in Hampshire he invoked them as a counterargument to the War Minister’s downplaying of
The art of Charles Dellschau has been receiving some attention lately, thanks to the recent publication of a book about his work. Dellschau, who produced thousands of strange and wonderful watercolours, drawings and collages in Houston, Texas, between about 1899 and 1922, is significant as an early outsider artist, but he is mainly of interest
Here’s a rarity these days: an actual phantom airship report, from the Aberdeen Daily Journal (p. 5): About a quarter past nine o’clock on Thursday night [20 March 1913] a ‘phantom airship’ was seen hovering above Glasgow. To a eye-witness, it appeared at first to be a star of unusual magnitude and brilliance. After watching
