…ia, Clacton, Southend, Peterborough, Lincoln, Ipswich, to quote only a few instances. But this is the first time that the Standard has made mention of this mystery (at least in May), so the writer appears to assume that the reader will be aware of the story from other newspapers. There is a new sighting (or rather hearing) to report, however, at Windsor made by Patrick Alexander, ‘the well-known expert on aeronautics, who is not likely to make a m…
…ul springs, held in place within our specially designed costume, extending instantly in every direction on being released. You can positively enjoy the sensation of the longest fall, and anticipate the inevitable bump with pleasure. Unsolicited testimonial from Mr. WILBUR WRIGHT:– “Say! I came an Orville cropper to-day, but I was all Wright. I wear your patent suit in spring, summer, and fall. Thought you might like these easy puns.” Absolutely in…
…ing like this in the 13th century. The view towards the Great East Window, installed in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Being highly vulnerable to blast from high explosive, it was removed for safekeeping during the war and thus is the only medieval window left. The choir (or quire), which happens to be where the choir sits. The misericords (benches to lean against during long services, like you often see in public transport these days) in…
…y is a neo-Gothic fantasy built in the 19th century. This clock tower, for instance. That’s not medieval. It’s imitation. The reconstruction of Cardiff Castle was the work of two generations of an enormously wealthy family of Scottish aristocrats. The 2nd Marquess of Bute started the job, but his son took it much, much further, modelling both outside and in on his vision of the past. And, while from our point of view it may not be a particularly a…
…e British army. It’s actually a liquid (as was mustard ‘gas’) which causes instantaneous (and very painful) death if applied under the skin. This made it impractical as a battlefield weapon, because the intended victims would need to already have some minor cuts to allow the poison to get in. There is also the problem of how to spray a liquid over a large area. The plan put forward was to use tanks for this purpose (a la J. F. C. Fuller in The Ref…
…casualties is not yet available. Bombs were also dropped on an industrial installation on the north bank of the Thames estuary, causing fires. “Reports received up to 8 p.m. show that twenty-one enemy aircraft, sixteen of them bombers, have been shot down by our fighters in the course of these attacks. “Five of our fighters are missing.” And this is the German side of the story, as reported by Bremen radio. “A bomber squadron reports having attac…
…d ends in the hands of the civilian workers of the Buna. The traffic is an instance of a kind of ‘kombinacja‘ [combination] frequently practised: the Häftling, somehow saving a ration of bread, invests it in Mahorca; he cautiously gets in touch with a civilian addict who acquires the Mahorca, paying in cash with a portion of bread greater than that initially invested. The Häftling eats the surplus, and puts back on the market the remaining ration….
…tive mythology of Rosenberg and Krieck were virtually unknown. Hommes, for instance, writes that “the concept that twice two make four is somehow differently tinged in the minds of a German, a Frenchman, a Negro, or a Jew.” I suspect G. A. Sutherland of Victoria Park knows where Needham is coming from, even if his target is British broadcasting rather than German scholarship (8): By its action in protecting the public from the pernicious singing o…
…Peter Hennessy. The Secret State: Preparing for the Worst 1945-2010. London: Penguin, 2010. Second edition. The instant classic on how the British government has gone about defending the realm, particularly in preparations for the Third World War. Hennessy has updated it with information from masses of newly declassified files from the Cold War, and has a first stab at telling the story of the post 9/11-era….
…The workers of the Humboldt-Deutz, the diesel-engine plant in Cologne, for instance — some of whom were killed on the night of May 30 last — must inevitably take the risk of war. Just as our merchant seamen who man ships which the U-boats (equipped with Humboldt-Deutz engines) would have tried to torpedo. Were not the aircraft workers, their wives and children, at Coventry just as much ‘civilians’ as the aircraft workers at Rostock and their famil…
