…nd non-fiction (invisibility less so). Particularly since sound was (publicly) the only known way to detect bombers at a distance, the possibility of silent or at least relatively quiet engines added to the threat. JDK The was an ‘invisible’ Great War German bomber, of course. Now, where did I last see it?… JDK No one offering sightings of the invisible bomber? Obviously a success then. Except for its effectless bombs, I suppose. A bit more seri…
…the Zeppelin Building. I don’t know when it received this name; possibly only recently. But it owes it to the fact that its predecessor on the site was destroyed during an air raid on the night of 8 September 1915. The most famous of the Zeppelin commanders, Captain Heinrich Mathy, flew L.13 across central London, dropping bombs from Russell Square to Liverpool Street Station. He and his crew killed 22 people, injured 87 and did over half a millio…
…(the actual failed structure was of fibreglass ADF aerial apertures, commonly called ‘windows’ – of G-ALYP and are in the London Science Museum’s collection, on show a couple of years ago). Likewise the background to Shute’s ‘No Highway’ and its coincidental overlap with the later real accidents is easily explored. A read of the book shows clearly that it is an interesting coincidence, but no prediction, and the character of the engineer is both o…
…s of human kindness and brotherhood which everywhere prevailed — incidentally completely breaking down the foolish and artificial class barriers, which, I trust, this war will do much to remove finally. There may be some evidence for Lloyd’s thesis in today’s paper. Or not. A strike by five hundred Glasgow carters ended yesterday after receiving wage increases of 3s a week and double time on Sundays. An official of their union, the Scottish Horse…
…have been these attacks on our shipping, which certainly are resented very bitterly, and if we can find any method short of war which will enable us to stop them, by all means let us carry it out; but do not let us allow a thing of this sort to involve the British Empire and the British people in the horrors of a European war. On the subject of aerial warfare specifically, Barclay-Harvey was ‘very glad that the Prime Minister and the Government ar…
…the opinion that (4): To have at our disposal in the midst of war not simply a man who knows a great deal but actually a man who knows everything about the enemy’s policy, plans, weaknesses, hopes, and fears is a unique experience […] It is the wildest dream of the intelligence services come true. Berlin, of course, wants to downplay any such notion. The Guardian reports that German ‘officials’ yesterday claimed that ‘Military and diplomatic acti…
…spiritual air defence? Here’s what got me thinking about it: Padre Pio, Italy’s flying monk. (Technically, bilocating, but that doesn’t scan as well.) Here’s a sober, historical account by Claudia Baldoli: With the intensification of bombing after the armistice in September 1943, a rumour spread across Italy that God had granted Padre Pio could fly and intercept the enemy’s bombs […] it seemed plausible that Padre Pio could fly and intercept the e…
…glimpsed long ago by Sam Butler, sticks out so plainly and is so horrifyingly exhibited in our time, with its even worse menace for the future, that it seems almost a world wide mental disease that only a tiny minority perceive it. Even if people have ever heard the legends (which is getting rarer) they have no inkling of their portent […] Well, I have got over 2 thousand words onto this little flimsy airletter; and I will forgive the Mordor-gadge…
…Roger Moorhouse. Berlin at War: Life and Death in Hitler’s Capital, 1939-45. London: Vintage, 2010. Bomber Command found Berlin to be of great interest, so it’s something I should know more about. There are two chapters on Berlin under the raids, and the topic appears elsewhere in the book too: for example, how Berliners adapted to the blackout. Should make a nice companion piece to the Ziegler I picked up last week….
…the illustrations, there doesn’t seem to be much on aircraft (aside from a bit on the BCR debate). There are chapters each on training, exercises, mobilisation plans. It ends with an assessment of how French air doctrine performed in 1940; but potentially more interesting is the first chapter on ‘sources of reactive air doctrine’, which has a section on the Rif War. Most of the sources are Armée de l’Air, as you’d expect, but this is definitely an…
