The Dark Tower

No!  Not What You're Thinking
At least, I don't think so.  Normally when I use that term it refers to the dark domicile in which I ply my professional trade, involving REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED black cockerel's blood.  Not today.
     No!  For today, we are going backwards in time, always a fun thing to do, and we shall be looking at the exploits of the 23rd Division in Flanders.  This, lest you be confused, is before they got transferred to Italy, which is where I have been regaling you of, of late.
     If you want to imagine how the battlefields of the Third Ypres campaign looked, imagine the Slough of Despond, and then add poison gas and pillboxes. 

A fixer-upper in Flanders

The Teutons had constructed many a muckle of these, since the water table was so high that any deep excavation simply filled with water.  They were supposedly proof against anything smaller than an 8" shell hitting them.

Spalling in armour plate*

     Here an aside.  Don't whine complainingly so, it's undignified.  Anyway, I was going to mention the concept of explosive spalling as it applies to protective structures.  Normally it's an issue in tanks, which nowadays have an anti-spall lining if they know what's good for them.  Your Humble Scribe doubts that this was done to Teuton pillboxes in 1917, so whilst the bunker might remain intact on the outside, it's highly probable that the PBI inside were getting blasted with chunks of concrete.  This is quite aside from the transmitted shock -
     Back on track.  Behold The Tower -

     Whilst this structure will not win any awards for architectural beauty, it was intended to be robust robust robust, capable of standing up to the long-duration heavy shellfire that Perfidious Albion took great delight in deluging the Teutons with.  What it was not, however, was infantry-proof, and the Durham Light Infantry captured it in September 1917.  They then had the brass neck to use it for observing their's, and their brother regiment's, progress across the battlefield since it was built on high ground and had splendid vistas.  Of course Brother Teuton took this ill, and bad-temperedly shelled his ex-abode.  At one point the major in command of troops in the area counted over 1,500 shells impacting on and around The Tower in the space of an hour.      At which point those inhabiting it probably considered it the very Darkest of Towers.
     So, that's today's title explained.
     Glad you could make it, motley!  We've raked leaves out of the swimming pool and refilled it with water.  Yes, water.  No, no sharks, nor pirhanas neither.

Thus.  Please note NO SHARKS.**

A Bit Of A Tant
Where would we be if the week went without a withering wail of <can't think of any relevant word beginning with "W"> protest from Your Humble Scribe about -
     - the Codeword!
     "EXOTISM": I mean what the actual Dog Buns is this as a word?  It's not in my Collins Concise, which is not necessarily the last word, I admit - despite being three inches thick it is still concise - but teh Interwebz are singularly unhelpful, too.  It seems to be a contraction or variation on "EXOTICISM".  How on earth can you solve a Codeword if they start making things up?
     <pause to calm down a little>
     <okay a lot>

Close enough.  Pretty exotic in my eyes, anyway.

     Then we have "VATIC".  Go on, admit it, you've never heard of it before, have you?  Is it a brand of hoover?  A dyspeptic condition related to liver disease?  A port town on the Baltic shores of Poland?
     None of the above.  It means "To predict or foretell of future events".
     You WHAT?!  I am on the verge of using 3 exclamation marks, so annoyed am I.

"I foresee a big fat biffer frothing at the mouth with rage.  How's that?"

WHWOMYT: Ol' Jim's Childlike Enthusiasm
I refer, of course, to author James Holland, who is the driving force behind the Chalke Valley History Festival.  You or I might think that this is some event arranged that we may be reminded (after Santana, I think) that those who do not study history are condemned to repeat it -

CAUTION!  Doing this may break time.

     Here another aside.  Does this mean that Prometheus and Sisyphus and that chap in the pool - Tantalus! that's the bloke, were lacking in knowledge of preceding events, because you can bet your bottom leu that they repeated history every single day***.      Anyway, Ol' Jim revealed on a podcast back in July that his motives for helping establish the festival were entirely selfish:  it's so he can lay his hands on lots of military kit of the Second Unpleasantness.
     Hence his sweaty-palmed excitement at being allowed to climb into and over a genuine restored Sherman tank, one which featured in "Fury".  Art?


A different view

     I could probably create a whole blog post just on this topic alone, yet I am feeling merciful and will not do so today.  Instead we shall be satisfied with a single picture that explains what Adrian (the tank's owner, the lucky swine!) pointed out.  Art?

     As Adrian pointed out, there are limited places for natural light to illuminate the interior of a tank, and you don't always want to have electric lighting on, so you paint the inside walls white in order to make the most of reflected ambience.       This simple and elegant solution to a problem impressed Ol' Jim pretty much, as he'd never even considered he subject before.

     Enough of military misery!  Bring on something light and frothy, like a well-whipped omelette!

Finally -
Just a little domestic updating.  I am working this Saturday <booh!> so you're only going to get a single post then, which I think is quite appropriate, since I do have a life beyond BOOJUM! incredible though that may sound.
     Thus I am off tomorrow in compensation <hurray!> but you're still only getting a single post AND it will doubtless contain a lot more about the inside of a Sherman tank.
     You have been warned.
     And, because that wasn't very light or fluffy, here's a picture of a monotreme -

 - being cute.

*  Note how "armour" is correctly spelled here.
**  Even though they are still our friends.
***  The leu = Moldovan currency.