20th Century
The Spitfire, of course, Part 3
A look at the Miles M20, the “Emergency Fighter” Design and build us a cheap fighter, knock it up out of wood, shove in this night fighter engine, loads of fuel, plenty of ammo and [more…]
WW II
20th Century
The Spitfire, of course, Part 2
A couple of years ago I wrote an article here concerning the design of the Spitfire and questioned its status as the best fighter of WWII. I mentioned in that article a follow up piece [more…]
20th Century
The Desert War – June 1940
80 years ago this month the North African Campaign, or Desert War kicked off. On one side were the Italians, desperately trying to expand their Empire in Africa, on the other were the British who [more…]
20th Century
The most dangerous man in Europe
Otto Skorzeny was mentioned the other day and in the process of investigating something else I stumbled across his story. What a lad, his fearsome reputation didn’t quite match up to reality. He was in [more…]
Arts
Postcard From Vilnius
Background For the last 15 years I have been traveling to Central Europe each month on business. Many of my trips are to Lithuania and Poland, so I have decided to send a postcard from [more…]
20th Century
The Desert War – an Introduction
Something inspired me to do a series of articles on the North African Campaign or Desert War as it it is also known. A quick look at the timeline and it seemed to be oh [more…]
Arts
A Street Corner in Pest
Friends tell me that I’m a ‘Master Raconteur.’ At least, I think that’s what they’re telling me. Perhaps it’s an anagram? No matter, I must recount the following. Every tall tale should have its own [more…]
20th Century
A Massacre of the Innocents
Introduction On Saturday 10 June, 1944, while heading north towards Normandy to help counter the Allied D-Day invasion, German troops of the Der Führer Regiment of the SS Panzer Division Das Reich, committed an unthinkable [more…]
20th Century
Operation Keelhaul
Come the end of the second world war, the last thing Stalin wanted was any number of Russians who were potentially his enemies wandering around the Western countries. To ensure this did not happen his [more…]