Actually Yesteryon Not Today*
One of the most significant military campaigns in modern history was coming to a close. We, in This Sceptred Isle, know and revere it as "The Battle Of Britain", and yesteryon is known as 'Battle Of Britain Day'. There are libraries of books out there about it, and doubtless wall-to-wall internet pages, too, so I shall but briefly sum up that the Luftwaffe got a right shoeing. They failed to destroy the Brylcreem Boys or even significantly reduce the number of RAF fighter planes (pilots were another, rather more stretched, resource). After that day it was bombing by night for the Lufties, going for cities not RAF squadrons, since cities were much larger and didn't move about. Art!
A flight of Spitfires, one of the most glorious set of curves ever to grace the air. To hear some aviation enthusiasts talk, you'd think they were talking about Marilyn Monroe in a sh
ANYWAY the imminent prospect of invasion had receded, yet was definitely still threatened, because Herr Schickelgruber imagined that he could bully the British into an armistice or ceasefire or abject surrender.
Things in Perfidious Albion were, in understated wartime parlance, 'a bit sticky', which is usually translated into Continental as 'HELP HELP DISASTER CATASTROPHE!!' Yes, with two exclamation marks.
Why so? Well, because although the British army had been evacuated from Dunkirk and Le Havre, it had left behind most of it's heavy equipment. If you had been taken off the mole at Dunkirk, the most you could carry were the small arms you were issued with. Art!
That picture shows just a fraction of the equipment that had been abandoned in France. Thus, everything bigger than a bicycle was in short supply, and the home-front factories would have to work non-stop 24/7 for months to make up the deficiencies.
So, what does the military establishment of This Sceptred Isle do? Why, they come up with a line of <ahem> military vehicles that one wargames range dubbed 'British Impoverished', being hastily adapted or outright bodged-up. The idea was that one mobile pillbox made out of concrete now was worth half a dozen proper armoured personnel carriers in 1941. Art!
A Bison
For your information, the crew got in through a large hole in the underside.
Now, one class of vehicle indispensable in modern warfare is the armoured car NOTE CORRECT SPELLING SOUTH CANADIAN HEATHENS which took over the role performed by cavalry in the past. To wit: sneaking about and finding out where the enemy were, or where they weren't; providing escorts and protection for convoys; stopping the enemy's armoured cars from carrying out their own scouting role; harassing and making life miserable for the opposition.
To this end, Perfidious Albion created and fielded the mighty 'Beaverette' armoured car. Art!
It's rather difficult to find pictures of the Mk I Beaverette from the rear, presumably because the censor didn't want people to realise that it was completely open on top and to the back. One way to encourage their crews not to run away, I suppose. Altogether 2,800 of these were produced, and the Mk II and Mk III were considerable improvements, having all-round cover and even a turret mounting twin machine guns. The basic model had armour of 1/2 inch thickness, being backed by 3 inches of wood, wouldn't yew believe it. Art!
Quiver in fear, Panzerwaffe!
You may be wondering why Conrad is re-hashing an item that he has covered in the past. Well, wonder no longer. You see, I came across a picture on Twitter that evoked memories. Art!
This, gentle reader, is a Ruffian <ahem> armoured pick-up vehicle serving on their front lines near Kremmina. Further evidence, were it needed, that they are the second-best army in Ukraine. All they need now to complete the set are mobile concrete pillboxes ...
Ah. Yes. Quite.
"The Manson Murders" By Vince Bugliosi And Curt Gentry
Just a head-up from YHS on this work. I am now 300 pages in and the trial has just begun. What concerned Ol' Vin when he was assigned to the case was the sheer amount of legal leg- and paper-work involved thanks to having seven murder victims (that they knew of) and the dozens of members of Manson's 'Family', amongst whom were the suspects. There were dozens and dozens of interviews to be conducted with witnesses, forensic investigations to be carried out, suspects extradited from other states in South Canada, location of the murder weapons to be searched, and - not least of all - the varying police jurisdictions to be reconciled. Art!
Ol' Vinnie when he was Relatively Young Vinnie
It's worth noting that, at page 300, Vin is intent on prosecuting Manson under the 'vicarious liability' rule, which means all parties to a conspiracy are equally responsible, whether they actually pulled the trigger, robbed the bank, stole the car or not, if they partook in furthering the conspiracy's ends.
Of course - obviously! - I know how this ends, but the journey there will be interesting.
Sorry, I Couldn't Resist
I saw this on the annoying feeds that come up when opening a new window in the browser. Art!
This is hard to credit when you consider how much oil Ruffia produces, especially now that half of it isn't going to the old Western customers. It seems that the southern oblasts have been hit the hardest, with petrol stations running out of fuel before they can get a re-supply. Crimea is allegedly down to just four days fuel supply - and that warning came four days ago.
Priceless.
Tell me, Dimya, how does this fit in with your frighteningly clever master plan?
"City In The Sky"
Ace, as curious as a concatenation of cats, is getting a slight case of info-dump from an un-named yet important stranger who arrived specifically for her.
‘You’ll be Ace,’ he said, making it a
statement not a question. He carried on
at her nod of acknowledgement. ‘Doctor
Smith asked if you and I can make our way over to
‘Did he say why?’
‘No. Just that there’s a meeting
of Founders families and heads of townships.’
The other mechanics looked impressed at this.
‘Must be important!’ exclaimed Alex.
‘They’ve not done that for ages.’
‘Not since we agreed to take on part of the UN’s survivors,’ agreed the
head mechanic. He pointed across the
patchwork heavens. ‘That’s
He didn’t seem particularly inclined to chat along the way, merely
nodding a greeting back at any of the night shift workers they came
across. Ace realised why the long skeins
of pathlights in the heavens had random gaps – their filaments had died and not
been replaced. Those remaining still
gave off enough light to see where she put her feet, and the head mechanic
never faltered in his progress – he could probably walk the path in his sleep.
‘Do you have a name?’ she asked.
‘
‘What happened to the UN sphere?’ she asked after a brief pause. This time he did turn and look at her,
surprise showing on his big bland face for a moment.
That's Dorothy for you. Endlessly curious.
The Bosun's Chair
Forgive me for introducing an element of nautical terminology. This apparatus is nothing like a Sedan chair or a wing chair or even less a deckchair. Art!
Here you see it being used to transfer a squishy meat-bag from one ocean-going vessel to another, in relative safety and comfort. The lines between the ships, if you are curious, are often initially established with a pneumatic gun, firing the initial light line across, which is attached to the more sturdy version. The projectile is usually made safe with a big cork stuck over the end of the bolt being fired; don't want to impale anyone!
We shall come back to the curious word 'Bosun' tomorrow, for I need to tie this blog up and go watch 26 hours of "Game Of Thrones".
Chin Chin!
* Only 1/365th out, which isn't bad
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