…copy for years, but haven’t come across it in a shop and haven’t seen any online at a price I’d be willing to pay… Brett Holman Well, quite; there aren’t many alternatives, unfortunately! I bought mine sight unseen for US$29 which is pretty reasonable. Now I have seen it, but not read it; it looks like it does pretty much as advertised, provides a history of French air doctrine in the 1930s (Cain calls it a ‘reactive doctrine’). Despite all the…
…formations.” Brett Holman Yes, I found references to the 1935 Heyford loop online; apparently it was a vic of Heyfords looping in unison? Oddly, though, I couldn’t find anything about it in Flight. JDK I shall check my refs… Airminded · Comparing Hendon […] RAF Displays held at Hendon between 1920 and 1937 were unique, in that no other air force attempted to project a vision of itself, its capabilities […] Rob Langham As ever, very interesti…
…n pre-war, but never seen any. The National Archives has recently released online a series of Luftwaffe Target photos and the one for Deptford clearly shows the roof over the North Terrace as visible. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/261887619 So is it all a trick of the light? Gazza Argh I see much of this was covered with Chris Going on the previous posts, still worth it post the link to the release National Archive Photos. Did Chris get his arti…
…1891 Brett Holman Yes, that seems very likely! However, I’ve looked in the online archive for the Standard back to 6 January and can’t see a letter from him. Perhaps it was earlier, or perhaps it was mentioned in a article or lecture report. Unfortunately the OCR is extremely poor (it doesn’t find ‘standard’ at all for the period 1 January-30 April 1913!) so I could only do a manual search. Roberto Labanti Using my last days of subscription to New…
…h ‘KOB theory’ wormed its way into RAF doctrine? Chris Williams I wrote an online ‘game’ about one aspect of WW2 – agriculture in the UK – as a educational tool. The point was to get the players to work out what some of the main factors in play were. It’s not an especially good simulation. Brett Holman Alan: I guess I’m assuming that players (or readers!) would have a reasonable understanding of the realities of aerial warfare — I mean anyone int…
…Brett Holman. The Next War in the Air: Britain’s Fear of the Bomber, 1908-1941. Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate, 2014. :D…
…ly inaccurately named series ‘The road to war’ was broadcast today, and is online here. Increasingly inaccurate because my topic today was the outbreak of war in August 1914 between Germany on the one hand and France and especially poor little Belgium on the other, including the Schlieffen Plan and German atrocities against Belgian civilians. I also talked about Plan XVII and the French occupation and then retreat from Mulhouse, which had been los…
…igma, for instance.) Can we get to the appropriate programme you developed online somehow? Neil Datson May I, using Brett’s hospitality, pass on my thanks to Chris for his accidental creation. Things We Forgot to Remember is one of the best series on Radio 4. Which, to do it justice, does have a lot of good history and cultural programmes. I’ve just checked the archive, and it seems that series 1 is the one and only series that the BBC has forgott…
…nly the last person to ask about night clubs post 1930! But there’s enough online to provide social context, I think. Given that the ‘Ministry of Food’ effectively is a counter to state shortfall and from a particular individual, there has to be layers of irony intended in the name. Acquisitions – Airminded […] Hatherley. The Ministry of Nostalgia. London and New York: Verso, 2017. Hatherley’s misapprehension about the origins of Keep Calm and Car…
…ns as being instructions to avoid the wide open spaces: https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/03/26/britain-is-sliding-into-dystopia/ Every bit as bonkers as filling the spare bedroom with toilet paper. Brett Holman Bearing in mind that this is 5 weeks later, I think it’s clear that it’s better to stay in than go out, as a general rule. Yes, police harassing people sitting in parks is a bit over the top, and we need to keep an eye on civil liberties,…
