Iffy IFF

For Yes, We Are Back In The Second Unpleasantness
 - and the skies over Occupied Europe, as the brylcreem boys battle the bally Bosche by night.  
     I haven't mentioned the Teuton anti-aircraft guns, which were directed both by radar and searchlights.  There were an awful lot of them, based around heavy industrial sites, aerodromes, potential approach paths of aircraft and so on.  Albert Speer, Teuton Armaments Minister, bemoaned the enormous organisation required to man and maintain these guns, as well as their tremendous expenditure of ammunition.  Art?

A 105mm* FLeiger Abwehr Kanone - hence 'flak'

     They came in two flavours, the whopping big barrelled variety seen above, and the multi-barrelled smaller type.  Art?

Thus

     One problem for these gunners was distinguishing their own night fighters from enemy aircraft; after all, a silhouette at 25,000 feet is merely a silhouette, so a fair number of Teuton night fighters were shot down by their own guns.
     A remedy then arrived in the form of what is termed "Identification Friend or Foe", shortened to IFF because - efficiency! a black box which gave off a particular radio signal, and this piece of kit was installed in night fighter aircraft, stopping friendly fire from becoming unfriendly.
     However.
     One day a Luftwaffe night fighter landed at a British airstrip; the crew had plotted their reciprocal course spectacularly wrongly, and were pounced upon by RAF police when they left the cockpit, fondly imagining that they were back home in Germany.  'How generous!' said the boffins at Telecommunications Research Establishment, as they took everything apart.
  They then came up with 'Perfectos', a black box that picked up those Teuton IFF transmissions.  Hey presto, it immediately became extremely hazardous to fly with your IFF transmitting -

 - 'cos you would end up with one of these on your tail

     - because the night fighter Mosquitos of 100 Group would be stooging around the skies, looking for business. Hapless Teuton night fighter crews switched their IFF off - and started to get shot down by their own guns again.  Kind of a lose-lose situation, one feels.
     Right, I think I've proved that Perfidious Albion, when at war, plays cricket using the rules of rugby.  Time to drop the motley in a sewer in full flood and see how far it goes before it can get topside again!

The Haul
Today I ventured into that hive of scum and villainy, Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell (Manchester to you), not because I like the sinful big city, but to pick up a comic trade paperback I'd ordered from Travelling Man.   Art?

     And there it is, 'Starlight'; the staffer in the shop endorsed it as a good read.  The two hardbacks are from Church Street Books, because they were there.
     I'd gone into Waterstones looking for two other books: 'Triplanetary' by E. E. Smith, and 'Serious Crimes' by Frank Tallyer, neither of which were on the shelves, so I shall have to Abebooks them.  That title 'Meddling Kids' immediately got my attention - raised by weasels on a diet of 'Scooby Doo' as a child, you know.
     The Strugatsky novel (top right) is one I'd never heard of before, and with good reason; it was deemed so politically risky that the Sinister government censors would never have let it be published.  I will report back on this one.

This is loosely based on "Roadside Picnic" by the Strugatskys
(and is nothing to do with unwanted followers)

Right!  I suppose I'd better stick some science-fiction in here, just in case anyone from the Space Opera FB page drops by.  That opening post would have been science fiction in 1918, I'll have you know!


A Rumour Of War
Nothing to do with P. J. Caputo's autobiography (which I might have to get again as it's decades since I last read it), rather I have been told that Duncan Jones, writer and director of the very excellent 'Moon', is working on a film version of "Rogue Trooper".
     I know!  How exciting is that!  What?  You don't know who Rogue is?
     HERETIC! THE EXIT DOOR IS THAT WAY!
     Art?

Not someone to mess with

     Rogue is the sole survivor of the Quart Zone massacre, where his fellow Genetic Infantrymen were all killed on their initial drop into action.  Well - almost sole survivor.  His gun, helmet and backpack all contain powered bio-chips that each store the personality of three dead comrades: Gunnar, Helm and Bagman.   Rogue is so-called because he's technically a deserter, on a quest to find out who betrayed his comrades, so he's being hunted by his own side (the Southers) as well as taking on the enemy (the Norts).
     The series was one of 2000AD's most popular and long-running, and it will be very interesting to see what Mr Jones makes of it.

Oooh I'm so excited!

Later!

*  I apologise for using metric measurements but this is the official description