Mister Chamberlain, You Are A Bottom

In The Sense Of Being A Dishonourable Person
 - for we are discussing how the Teutons, under Herr Shickelgruber, managed to acquire the borderlands of those most noble and Slavic nationalities, to wit: Czechoslovakia.
     Seriously, chaps, Mister Chamberlain saying "O who cares about the Cheeks, let them eat hake!" or some such bizzle back in 1938, rather undermined things big time.  You see, the Czech military arsenals produced enough military kit for the military adjuncts of the Third Reich to militarily invade Poland and the West with 25% of their military heavy metal being Czech.

"Grrrr" in Czech

     Now, because BOOJUM! is quite cosmopolitan, which if we were being punnish as regards TANK would have been put across as 'cosmopolitank', we here do take notice and pay attention to other bloggers out in the bloggosphere.
     So.  Marketa <surname removed because I cannot trust you lot>!  Art?

Marketa

     Marketa is ANGRY!  Possibly at Mister Chamberlain, though that isn't clear.  Anyway, she put together a list of things that annoy the Czechs.  You'd think that being invaded by the Teutons would be up there, wouldn't you?  Or the Ruffians.  Okay, Number 10 on Marketa's Angry List is - not speaking Czech.
     Hmmm.  Well, young lady, whilst I do see your point, and were I travelling in Czechia, I would most certainly learn how to say at least "Hello!" and "Are you single?" "Goodbye", Czech is not an easy language to learn.  For one thing, look at all those diacritical marks!  It may be similar to Polish yet it's definitely harder to learn.  Art?

So many diacritical marks

     As Marketa says, people of her parent's generation don't speak English, as they were forced to learn Ruffian (boo hiss!) so a few words of Czech go a long way to establish goodwill, as it means you're neither Teuton nor Ruffian.
Aha! Gloated Conrad
What arrived yesteryon but another book, this being "Telling Lies About Hitler", which Conrad purchased after reading a short but devastating critique by the author, Richard Evans, about David Irving.  Ol' Davey boy didn't come out of it well.  The publishers cheekily included a very bad-tempered response from Ol' Davey on the back cover, which is hard to read without smirking.

     Richard was hired as an expert witness by the defence team hired by Deborah Lipstadt, because he was an expert in the field under examination, namely the history of the Third Reich.  Sadly he does not include the 740 page report he submitted to the court after his investigation, which he classed as being more in the realm of legal administration instead of anything historically interesting.
     This is one of those books I would class as "Dangerously Interesting" because all one needs to do is crack open the covers and then suddenly you realise it's 1:37 in the morning and you have to be up at 06:00 -     I dare not pick it up until lunchtime.  Be strong, Conrad, be strong and resist!

Well Did You Ever
I bet Ol' Davey fawns at the furry cloven hooves of Herr Schickelgruber and worships the Wunder Waffen, like all true Wehraboos.  "Look!" he'll say at night when he gets tucked in, "Look, at my Big Book of Wonder Weapons -  Tiger tanks!  Jet bombers!  Helicopters!"
     Yes, David, calm down before you give yourself an aneurysm.
     Conrad has only just learned of the South Canadian use of helicopters in the Second Unpleasantness, after a tip-off from Listy - you know, the David Lister who's not a rabbi and has published books about tanks and shizzle rather than Intergalactic Judaism.  Art!

The Sikorsky R4

     These things were produced by the hundred and were used from 1943 onwards in the Pacific and Burma/India theatres, where they proved jolly useful in rescue operations where no conventional aircraft could go.  They were safe, as well.  Yes, the Teutons managed to build 20 of their unwieldy Fa223, which were always crashing and generally a dangerous bit of kit to fly in, or be near when it came to landing.

Also used by the Royal Navy

     Sorry, Davey; the South Canadians did it earlier and better than your beloved Teutons.  Go weep into your cornflakes*.

"Alamein to Zem Zem" By Keith Douglas
A bit of self-satisfied gloasting is in order here, as Your Humble Scribe continues to chip away at the list of pseudonyms adopted by Ol' Kay in order to avoid being sued for libel; of course the fellow never expected a volume about the regiment to be published by his commanding officer, heh, or that a hair-splitting pedant (Me! and my two best qualities) would take the trouble to cross-reference both and work out who's who.  Art!

     This illustration accompanies a rather ghastly incident where Keith was describing the chaotic nature of radio comms during an action; a gunner comes on the air with no pretence of keeping to procedure, as his driver has just been killed and his commander is bleeding heavily from a serious injury.  "The 'orse 'as 'ad it" he explains, Sherwood Ranger Yeomanry slang/code for his tank being knocked out.  He requests "Monkey Orange", phonetic code for "MO" or the regiment's Medical Officer, who was busy elsewhere at the time, necessitating the gunner trying to administer first aid himself.

The unpleasant aftermath

     Ol' Kay was a pretty good sketch artist, reminiscent of Ardizone, in my well-informed opinion.

Finally - 
Conrad noted with interest that Kasabian's singer, Tom Meighan, suddenly left the band yesteryon, with no kind of warning or preparation.  The band seemed to be as surprised as entertainment media were, and of course speculation has run rampant about exactly what his "personal" reasons were, whether the band will continue or not, and if they do, who's going to sing for them and co-write their songs?  Because Serge might not want to do it all.  Your Humble Scribe heartily hopes there's no horrid sleazy seedy reason behind this news which means not listening to them anymore, as I'm selfish that way.

Kas as was

     And on that gloomy note, we are once again done!

*  Because you don't deserve any porridge.