Curious Parellels

I Haven't Really Plotted This One Out

So who knows where we'll end up.  Down a rabbit-hole from another rabbit-hole, probably.  Yes, you're probably thinking of cute little fluffy bunnies scampering adorably across the grass, bobble-tails a-twitching.  Sadly not the kind of rabbit I meant.  Art!

CAUTION!  Not suitable as a domestic pet

     I'll say!  You'd need a rabbit hutch the size of town house, and made out of steel plate - not concrete rebar, it could probably gnaw it's way through that.  

     ANYWAY I wanted to - What's that?  Why talk about "Rabbit holes"?  I think it comes from "Alice In Wonderland" when our titular heroine falls down a giant rabbit hole with anti-gravity installed, since her descent is to slow.  A good thing, too, because falling to her death at the very beginning of the tale would make for a pretty bleak short story.  Art!

Hmmm although her skirt might have had an aero-braking effect

     ANYWAY this has nothing to do with what I was going to harp on about today.  I wanted to look over a period in the early years of the Second Unpleasantness, when This Sceptred Isle stood alone against Herr Schickelgruber and his Teuton minions.  Conrad has already recounted how, during the Battle of Britain - considered one of the pivotal battles and far more important than either Moscow or Stalingrad to the horrified rage of the Sinisters and Ruffians - the Luftwaffe accidentally bombed London, causing the RAF to strike back at Berlin.

     O my goodness!  Art!

     The call went out to rugmakers across Berlin, because Herr Schickelgruber had been gnawing his carpets in rage.  It was alright for him to attack another country; HOW DARE THEY ATTACK BACK!

     Hmmmm a curious parallel with something at the back of my mind ...

     Thus began 'The Blitz' as the British population described it, where the Luftwaffe would send over fleets of bombers to attack cities, ports, docks, marshalling yards, factories, refineries and anything else deemed important.  The attacks came at night, because the RAF was far too dangerous during daytime.  Art!

This reminds me of something contemporary, too.

     The Teutons were hampered by several points.  First of all, the Luftwaffe was not a strategic bombing force, it was more akin to aerial artillery that supported the Wehrmacht; it's aircraft carried only limited bombloads.  For all the technical gimmicks that the Luftwaffe came up with to direct bombers to targets, the British immediately came up with an electronic counter-measure.   Hmmm ingenuity and improvisation, that also reminds me of a national characteristic ...  Then again, the supposed 'strategy' of attacking British industry was woefully organised and poorly-planned.  Art!

Colourise it and it could be -

     London also came in for the lion's share of attacks.  Another 'However' - the British learned to adapt to the raids and could get things back to normal within ten days on average.

     Most importantly of all, which certainly has a curious parallel with today's world events, British morale was not crushed by The Blitz, despite at least 90,000 casualties at a rate of almost 10,000 per month.  Of which 99% were civilians.  Did they march on Westminster and demand an armistice be negotiated?  Did voters petition their MPs to surrender?  Did industrial production slump?

     None of that happened.  Instead, being bloody-minded and indomitable, the British determined that 1)  They were going to stick it out and 2) They were going to deliver their abuse back at the abusers, ten times over.

     Another curious parallel!  And at no point did I mention U

     Somewhat worryingly for these parallels, the Teuton High Command responsible for the above were put on trial for war crimes.

Nuremberg then, The Hague today

I've Figured It Out!

The First Bus 409 service from Ashton to Rochdale, which I've been catching to work of late.  On Thursday, as I alighted from the Chav Chariot, it was overtaken by another 409, and a minute later along came -

HELIOS THE GREEK SUN GOD!

     No, actually he didn't.  Don't be daft!  He travels the 83 route into Manchester.

     It was yet a third 409.

     So, the buses are supposed to turn up to my stop at 07:08, 07:18 and 07:28.  Your Humble Scribe has worked out that the first is running 20 minutes late, the second is running 10 minutes late and the third is on time.

     Not major news.  I just like to keep you informed.

Lord Peter's Crossword - Again

Don't fret too much, these items are fairly short and we've already covered all the Across so-called 'clues'.  Today's is: "Quietly, quietly, 'twixt edge and edge, Do this unto the thin end of the wedge. (6)"

     Well well Michael Aspel, I actually solved this one.  The solution is INSERT.  How clever am I?  See, Dot, you don't get it all your own way.

Very Patchy

As you should surely recall, Conrad went yarking on about the South Canadian B-25 'Mitchell' medium bomber a few days ago.  It was a forgiving aircraft that handled well, whilst also being verrrrry robust.

     The Wiki article I brought up mentioned one B--25C dubbed 'Patches', because all the holes made in it's body and wings were repaired using a bright yellow primer.  By war's end it had over 400 such patches.  Can I find a photograph?  No I cannot!  Not even using The Wayback Machine and USAF.com.  So have this picture of a Mitchell so badly damaged it's a wonder it stayed in the air, let alone landed safely.  Art!

     Yup, most of the starboard wing gone, engine badly damaged and the tail also missing. Note that there's no crash damage to this beast; the pilot managed to do a proper landing.

"The Sea Of Sand"

We now bounce back and forth between bio-vores on Homeworld and those who have arrived on an unsuspecting Earth.

‘Is it true?  Most assuredly it is!  Did I not see it with my own eyes! Did I not hear it with my own ears!  Our time is coming, Farmer.  Only remember that, our time is coming.’

 

“Bio-morphic Spawning” read Assault Leader Icono in a previously-ignored section of his manual.  “Segregation of bio-vores liable to undergo bifurcation is advised in order to avoid cross-contamination of biomorphic inheritance.”

          This made novel reading to him.  To him, and to all bio-vores from the past eight thousand years.  For all that time, there had been no new bio-vores created because there simply did not exist the energy resources to sustain any population growth.

          ‘Locate an area of this site that can be easily guarded,’ he ordered.  ‘Then allocate to it all  Warriors liable to produce energy-reliant offspring.’

          The idea was to corral all the problems in one area and thus deal with them altogether.

          In the meantime there was much to cope with.  The alien prisoners had provided them with much-needed energy, though that would require topping-up soon.  The wounded Warriors also provided energy, part of the harsh Darwinian survivalist approach of Icono and his bio-vore legions.  The leader felt somewhat puzzled at the demise of several of his garrison, killed by mysterious missiles that were propelled kinetically.  A liquid that operated on an extreme exothermic reaction principle was involved.

     Ah, unwanted tourists unfamiliar with the locals!

Finally -.

Conrad has discovered some of his emergency money (securely kept in a tea-caddy) is actually in old £20 notes, which aren't legal tender any more, so I'm off into Babylon-lite ("Oldham" if we're being formal) to get them exchanged.  Chin-chin, pip pip and what ho!