The Observer‘s lead story (5) is about Japan’s continuing advance in Burma. It’s very hard to work out what exactly is going on based on the summary report: there are at least three fronts, their relation to each other is not stated, and the map provided is too small-scale to be of much use. The […]
Lots of interesting things in today’s papers about the campaign in Burma, the future of India, Anzac Day, and so on — but there’s also a lot on bombing, so I’m going to talk about that. The predominant theme is, as the Daily Mirror‘s front page headlines above claim, that Bomber Command is now delivering
Yesterday’s muted announcement of a British retreat in Burma is followed today by more prominent headlines of a further withdrawal, albeit this time in the Taungdwingyi sector. But while the front page of the Yorkshire Post (above) grimly declares that OUR retirement through Central Burma is bringing us nearer the plains of Mandalay and the
Most newspapers today lead with the story of a successful Commando raid on the French coast near Boulogne early yesterday morning — though only the Daily Mirror (above), rather bizarrely, focuses on the fact that ‘All wore gym shoes’ (1) (apart from the ex-Limehouse police inspector who wore slippers). More colour is provided by the
Philipp von Hillgers. War Games: A History of War on Paper. Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 2012. Really only traces one strand of the history of wargaming, the abstract ‘German’ one which passes through 19th-century Kriegspiel and not the boardgame-style ‘American’ one or the ‘British’ miniatures one (not that these aren’t abstract, or purely American
The Lebaudy-built Patrie, seen above, was France’s first military airship. A descendent of the Jaune, in 1906 and 1907 it carried out a number of successful proving and publicity flights, including one where it carried the prime minister, Georges Clemenceau, over Paris. Afterwards it was moved to its operational base near the fortress of Verdun.
10 April 1940 has remained in history as “the great panic day”. The reason for this designation is the panic that spread through the population of Oslo, after the rumors of the British bombing of the capital had spread. Here you can see how the Oslo people rush out of town on foot, on bicycles,
MONSTER EAR TRUMPETS FOR AIR DEFENCE During the last years of the Great War, sound detectors played an increasingly important part in the air defences of all the belligerents. Since those days they have undergone great development. Here the emperor of Japan is inspecting the huge trumpet-like detectors that work in conjunction with the anti-aircraft
It’s now a year since my article ‘The air panic of 1935: the British press between disarmament and rearmament’ was published in the Journal of Contemporary History. As noted noted previously, as it was with SAGE this means I can now self-archive the accepted version (i.e. which has passed peer review). This is the abstract:
Virginia Nicholson. Millions Like Us: Women’s Lives During the Second World War. London: Penguin, 2012. Disappointingly, not the novelisation of the film. I haven’t read her Singled Out — I think the ‘lost generation’ thing is a bit exaggerated — but the Daily Mail liked this one a lot, and that’s good enough for me.
