- if only a smidgeon. Heh!
Yes, gentle reader, we are once again looking at that montage from "The War Illustrated", which I have cannily loaded ahead of arriving in The Dark Tower, as my work laptop refuses to co-operate, the dirty cur. Don't blame me for the nursery-rhyme title, they used it themselves. They also mistakenly call the 6 pounder anti-tank gun as illustrated a 'field gun' WHICH IT IS NOT. This is important for later on.
You can tell this is a 4.5" gun (the correct appelation) by the enormous trunnions. It fired a 55 pound shell over 11 miles and was greatly un-appreciated by the Axis as this range allowed the Royal Artillery to come and say hello well behind the front lines. Technically you could use it in the anti-tank role, with the barrel at the lowest possible elevation and an HE shell with the fuse taken out as the round; there are no cases of this actually happening in real life <sad face>.
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| I told you about the barking |
This particular slayer of the enemy is the 25 pounder gun/howitzer FIELD GUN, another weapon greatly disliked by the Axis, since it could lay down a barrage of appalling intensity at the drop of a Brodie Helmet. A British division would have perhaps 70 of these noisemakers, which would be co-ordinated (very possibly by that very same signals truck posted previously) with other divisions and Corps artillery groups using the 4.5" gun, delivering such a mincing-machine of massed misery that it would stop an Axis attack dead in it's tracks. Some of the Italians being barraged by this beastie were seen to run forward in order to surrender.
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| Saying hello the noisy way! |
TWI doesn't go into the details of how these units established baselines and mapped themselves in, co-ordinated sighting poles, stockpiled ready-use ammunition, netted-in on regimental and divisional frequencies, prepared emergency shoots and a hundred other details - because of course - obviously! - the Axis would be fascinated to learn all this. There is more to artillery than just blindly bashing the baddies.
Motley! Have a can of lemonade. Blue-ink flavour.
I did have a crack to put in here, except that I squandered the photo opportunity yesteryon, which has become herewon. I wonder if it's possible to copy from a previous blog without causing the internet to explode <squints and hunches shoulders in anxious preparation>
It worked! That low rumbling noise is either traffic or thunder and definitely not the internet exploding.
ANYWAY Your Humble Scribe was going to make a crack about Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell's ' - cloud-piercing towers of porcelain and adamantine steel -'
because that is a quote from - you're probably waaaay ahead of me here thanks to the font being bold and fuschia - "Forbidden Planet". A day can only be improved by reference to FP*.
Let The Shrieking And Rending Of Garments Begin
For Lo! we are back on the vexed subject of Codewords again SIT BACK DOWN! for this is the scourge of the civilised world I'll have you know. Or it will be once I take over.
Here an aside. Although Conrad seethes with righteous anger o' er this subject, it does have the beneficial effect of providing endless random subject matter of an unpredictable nature. A silver lining in every cloud, hmmmm? If that aphorism is true then Gomorrah-in-the-Irwell must be rich indeed
ANYWAY - I shall proceed
"CHUTIST": You what! Go on, tell me how many times you've seen or heard this term. Exactly none. People say or write PARACHUTIST when making reference to the art of dropping from the sky in a manner calculated not to kill oneself. Believe me the compilers who dreamed this one up are going to be going down a chute, or I shall chute them myself. Bah!
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| I hope they land in a bed of nettles. |
"IAMBS": What a gift to those with a bent for satirical wordplay! "I am B.S." and ne'er was a truer word spoken. This is a species of literary device, most notably used by that loathsome piker the Barf Of Avon with all his 'Iambic pentameter' where you have ten words that each have to end in the reverse number of the alphabet inverted and inside out. Or something. I cannot be bothered to go look it up as I am still seething about such a word being used. Really, whom, apart from hideously pretentious English graduates would EVER use this word?
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| Look what you started, matey |
"NASCENCE": ARE YOU SERIOUS! <short pause for blood pressure to fall> Defined as 'Coming into existence' and a word I had never encountered before. NASCENT - yes, familiar with that one and even used it in BOOJUM! recently. I shall see to it that certain Codeword compiles cease to be in existence when I take over. O yes indeed John Steed. Art!
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| Close enough |
I think we shall leave this topic here, as my blood pressure is getting more elevated by the picosecond and I GUARANTEE you that there will be plenty more excoriating obtuseness to come. That's a deal, Emma Peel.
It's A Puzzle
Yes, another update on the 3D Empire State Building, that one of the 975 pieces, of which several appear to be missing. Foolish Conrad did not bother to count them all upon opening the box, so the previous (desperate and despairing) owner may have lost a few, too. Well, they're not here to defend themselves so if any are missing, it was their fault**. Art!
These are the larger sub-assemblies, which I am having to assemble by shape of piece, as the box illustrations are practically useless. I am making very slow progress - but am still making progress. As I like to philosophise, a small win is still a win.
Finally -
O my journey home tonight! Once again Worst Bus managed to seriously underperform by - not turning up. This means that their service from Oldham Bus Station after 18:00 is more like once per hour than every half hour. Kreplach! If it takes that long for a chariot to arrive Your Humble Scribe could WALK home quicker.
Bah! raised to the tenth power! I know some First Bus staff who are going to be joining Russell Brand and Alan Carr in the uranium mines.
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| Your new home from home, Russ! |
And with that, Vulnavia, we are not quite done as I want to boost the word count up to at least 1,100 words - which we've done.
* Dissenters from this view will be Remote Nuclear Detonated. Thank you and have a nice immolation.
** Blaming the person who isn't there to defend themselves is a winning principle, I find.
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