…pletely 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 and Motormen’s Association referred to the recent blitzing, implying that it play…
…ion to the suffering victims of the bloody savagery of the enemy, of which Rudolf Hess is one of the most guilty, to know that Rudolf Hess is “very comfortable.” Shall we next have our day made sweeter by being assured that, in spite of the treachery of his friend, Hitler has passed a good night! Not there is much ‘bloody savagery’ to report in the way of air raids: ‘little damage and no casualties’ were reported yesterday (4). However some censor…
…’s from a shore base then appeared, dropped their loads, and the whole destruction was thoroughly and neatly completed.7 While in some ways this is a reversion to the aerodrome set-piece of 1926, at least there is a bit more of a narrative, and some human interest in the form of ‘Miss November’. Although I must say I don’t understand this reference. Why a female observer in the balloon? Why is she called ‘Miss November’? Maybe it is meant to be a…
…offensive weapon. Germany’s rearmament and movies like “Things to Come” thrust airpower and it’s destructive force into the public’s thinking. My view on these subjects is not from the historian’s perspective, but more from an airman’s view. I know how very difficult it is to find towns, railways, docks (meaning targets) flying at night. It had to be nearly impossible over England during August 1940 with the blackout in place. How much fuel do I…
…nk). The most serious seems to have 13 October 1915 — 9 people killed and rumours that the town had been wiped off the map according to Thomas Fegan, The ‘Baby-Killers’: German Air Raids on Britain in the First World War (Barnsley: Leo Cooper, 2002); others were on 2 September 1916 (the night Leefe Robinson shot down SL11) and 19 October 1917. Chris Williams Maybe Strasser had it in for the beer. Fair play to him if so. Alternatively, it might ha…
…’s also the following note: In the period to 1900 when aircraft were still rudimentary in design and the word was still active in sense 1 the denotation is sometimes not clearly either ‘a surface’ or ‘an aircraft’, but something between the two concepts (see quots. 1868 , 18942 , 1896). For a full discussion of the development of the term in this period see S. Stubelius Airship, Aeroplane, Aircraft (1958 ) 251ff. Jakob A quick browse through Gibbs…
…al Archives war poster collection including detailed poison gas attack instructions and anti-fire civil defense. The level of detail in these instructional posters is quite intense, and would be really useful in classroom situations. Brett has a few questions about them, that I’ve tried to answer, but go on over and lend a hand, will you? […] Brett Holman I hoped you might chime in, Jonathan! Re the dates thing, I did think of that, but I doubte…
…urse, that it’s well nigh impossible to predict the arrival and impact of truly disruptive technologies: the development of the Internet being a prime example.” http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/where-will-we-be-in-2013/4697232 And that’s a pretty good summary of why E F Spanner was clearly sharp, and on the ball, but not right overall – it was those ‘disruptive technologies’. Errol Cavit And of course you can have a wizz-ba…
…, but they did have success with the Finnish forces against Russia, so the design wasn’t a total disaster. And the Zero’s tight turning radius and effectiveness in close combat was more than offset by its lack of self-sealing tanks and cockpit protection for the pilot. So I can understand Pulford’s comparison with the Italians even though subsequent history proved, for a time, a nightmare for Allied forces in the Far East. Great post — keep diggi…
…battle for air superiority over the Western Front, which saw new fighters rushed into service every few months to counter new German types. But I’m somewhat surprised that there were so many fighter types introduced in the early-to-mid 1920s, given that the bomber orthodoxy was supposedly being established at this time (though some of the fighters were for export or were otherwise speculative ventures, not designed to Air Ministry specifications)…
