Let’s begin at the beginning: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. No, that’s not the beginning. For understanding J. R. R. Tolkien and the aeroplane, the beginning is the Great War. He may have seen one flying overhead at Birmingham, where he grew up and went to school, or at Oxford, […]
Last year Alun Salt pointed out to me a proposal for a collection of essays on the theme of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and history, and asked if I’d thought about sending in something on ideas about airpower and the dragon Smaug. I hadn’t, but immediately saw what he was on about! I
Randall Hansen. Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942-1945. New York: NAL Caliber, 2009. Can’t do better than to quote the blurb: ‘most of the British bombing was carried out against the demands of the Allied military leadership, leading to the needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians and prolonging the war.
The last time Britain nuked Australia was at Maralinga on 9 October 1957, over half a century ago. The last of the Antler series of tests, code-named Taranaki (above), involved the detonation of a 25 kiloton fission bomb from a captive balloon at a height of 300 metres. The fallout ‘moved east and then north-east
[Cross-posted at Cliopatria.] Folk physics (or naive physics — there’s also folk biology, folk psychology, and so on) is the term used in philosophy and psychology to describe the way we all intuitively understand the physical world to work. It’s very often at odds with scientific physics (unsurprisingly or else there’d be no need for
In July, 1917, a new scheme for warning the people of London of impending air raids was adopted. When enemy aircraft were approaching, policemen with a notice warning passers-by to “take cover” went out on bicycles, blowing their whistles to attract attention. When all danger had passed, Boy Scouts went round blowing bugles.
Alan Brooks. London at War: Relics of the Home Front from the World Wars. Barnsley: Wharncliffe Local History, 2011. What’s left? More than you might think — shelters, bomb damage, memorials (lots of those), even ghost signs. Profusely illustrated. Zara Steiner. The Triumph of the Dark: European International History 1933-1939. Oxford and New York: Oxford
I’ve sometimes wondered if the air raids on Belgrade during the German invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 can be considered as a knock-out blow from the air. From the accounts I’ve read it seems that the Luftwaffe launched a surprise attack before the declaration of war, intended as a punishment for the pro-British coup.
[Cross-posted at Cliopatria.] I’ve been using the Internet for nearly two decades: in 1992 — after nervously checking with the physics computer lab manager first — I sent an email to my future Honours supervisor while she was visiting Toronto. I was quickly hooked by the promise of overcoming the tyranny of distance and transparently
I’ve been remiss in not noting the arrival of Military History Carnival #28 at Cliopatria. While it seems to be moving from a round-up of the best military history blogging to covering ‘military history on the Internet’ generally, there are still some good old-fashioned blogs therein. For example, Sellswords, mercenaries and condottieri presents a fascinating
