20th Century
The Desert War – October 1941
We reach October 80 years ago and it is still fairly quiet on the ground in North Africa but the Royal Navy is still busy. The big news this month is that there is a [more…]
RAF
20th Century
Mystery Album, Part Seven
In part four of Mystery Album, I speculated that the above photograph (taken by our mystery family aboard the wherry Palace) was of a Norfolk Broads maltings. Judging by the order of the photos, it [more…]
20th Century
The Desert War – September 1941
Into September 80 years ago and only one piece of news from the lingering battle for East Africa where the Italian garrison at Wolchefitt Pass in Abyssinia surrendered to the King’s African Rifles. Meanwhile back [more…]
20th Century
The Desert War – August 1941
August 1941 was extraordinarily quiet in the theatres we are concentrating on. This month it is only news from Libya and precious little of it there is. But things were happening in Italy. In Tobruk [more…]
20th Century
Albert Ball – The Angel-Faced Killer
Breakfast His place was laid, The messroom clock struck eight The sun shone through the window On his chair. No one commented on his fate, Save for a headshake here and there; Only old George [more…]
20th Century
The Desert War – July 1941
We reach July 80 years ago, it was quiet on the ground in North Africa but the navies were as busy as ever. There was no news from East Africa and precious little from Greece [more…]
20th Century
The Desert War – June 1941
And so to June, the first anniversary of the Desert War and it was a hot month in more ways than one in Libya and Egypt. There is also a small report on East Africa [more…]
20th Century
Scout Moor
In weather fit for neither man nor beast, we climb through a northern landscape, sculpted from rock by water, and the detritus from receding ice, to emerge into sunlight. And there we come across a [more…]
20th Century
Exocet – the missile that almost cost Britain the Falklands War
Exocet is the French word for a flying fish. It is also an anti-shipping missile that can be launched from submarines, surface ships, helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. The Exocet designed and built by Aerospatiale [more…]