I Know, I Know
"Bo Marc" sounds like the lantern-jawed protagonist of a cheesy Seventies action flick, done as a tax dodge by a conglomerate put together by a hedge fund,
ANYWAY it's nothing of the kind. The word BOMARC is in fact an acronym, standing for "BOeing Michigan Aeronautical Research Centre", because what we're talking about here is Lo! another nuclear missile. Art!
This missile was more formally known under the designation CIM-10A/CIM-10B and was a project funded and guided by the South Canadian Air Force. Who were, of course - obviously! - in competition with the South Canadian Army, because the competition, spite, hate, politicking and sheer venom spilled by two military entities such as these is consistent, predictable and prosecuted with far more vim and vigour than the supposed enemy. If the Sinisters didn't have their own grudge-match turf wars they'd have been laughing and pointing. Art!
The idea of the BOMARC was that it would launch under remote control from the ground, until it got within 10 miles of target, at which point it would go into a radar-seeking mode and home in on the Sinister bombers that were heading for mainland South Canada. It was no slouch in the air, either, being clocked at Mach 2.8 when it levelled out to intercept. Art!
Those would have been the targets: Sinister bomber formations. Ol' Bo was accurate enough to intercept and hit an individual bomber, but thanks to physics it didn't have to. Thanks, physics! The reason it didn't need to be accurate? Why, because it carried a 10 kiloton nuclear warhead. With an aerial blast of that size, nothing within half a mile is going to avoid being turned into flying confetti.
Remember that rivalry I mentioned between the flyboys and the grunts? Well, it informed the development and deployment of BOMARC, which was a lot slower than intended. By the late Fifties, when it finally got rolled out onto airbases, it was, not to put too fine a point upon it, obsolete. Art!
Each of those bijou cottages is in fact a BOMARC semi-hardened shelter, housing a missile. You don't think the South Canadian Air Force is going to admit things had gone wrong in front of the South Canadian Army, do you? O no Sebastian Coe. They built sixteen bases rather than admit they had bodged it and that the Army's more capable Nike Hercules made a better fist of atomic air-defence than their missile. Art!
I say by crikey, it's a Nike!
The launch sequence for a BOMARC was interesting and may have given Gerry Anderson ideas. Yes yes yes, we've covered this before, years ago, once again whose blog is it? Art!
The 'coffin', unopened The coffin, opened Ol' Bo is erected NO SNIGGERING AT THE BACK The moment of launch
One problem for the crews maintaining, servicing and repairing the CIM-10A was that it used hypergolic fuels for the rocket engine, which means two liquids that combusted spontaneously when they came into contact with each other. This simplifies the design as no ignition source is needed, BUT it is very obviously a dangerous combination, especially when the fuels were nitric acid and the much more dangerous hydrazine. You really don't want to make mistakes with a fuelling system like that. After all, what would happen if they accidentally combusted whilst the missile was still in it's coffin?
You had to ask. Watch this space.
Perfidious Albion Is - Perfidious
Conrad is now well into Volume II of "History Of The Great War: Military Operations: Egypt And Palestine" and things are under way before the Third Battle Of Gaza. To fool the Turkish defenders, the treacherously sly British faked up a complete HQ on Cyprus, which was supposed to co-ordinate an amphibious landing west of Gaza, with lots of admin and staff work to back it up.
It didn't really work, as the Turks had a nosy at it early on and decided nothing doing.
Then a Turkish cavalry patrol chased and wounded a British officer, who dropped his satchel. Which was found to have all sorts of interesting things in it that ought never to have been carried into the front lines. Including plans and orders for the forthcoming attack on Gaza. Art!
This helped to convince the Turkish command to move forces away from Beersheba, which is just what the British wanted as, obviously - of course! - the satchel had been a completely fictional plant.
Here's where things get a tad convoluted. The OH states that the officer who carried out this Boy's Own Thrilling Wonder Story deed requested anonymity, which they honoured, whilst also stating that he was well know in the army.
Then along comes a Colonel Meinertzhagen, who claims to have been the one to have thought up the idea and carried it out. His character even gets a scene in "The Lighthorsemen". Art!
Meiny is the fop at port
This is disputed. Indeed, another officer complained in the Thirties that he was the one responsible, to no avail. Meiny ain't in the OH, if that's any indication. He was also exposed a score of years after his death to have been a thief of birds and a plagiarist, so his claim to fame is looking a bit dodgy. Conrad may look into this a further, if the feeling takes him. No promises. O and "The Lighthorsemen" didn't come out until 1987, when Meiny's lustre had not yet been dimmed.
Scambling Back In The News Again
Yes it's true, big Baloo. You recall BOOJUM!s sense of schadenfreude when VFX and all it's hundreds of subsidiaries went toes-up, and Sam Bankman Fried proved how very stupid he was? You see, all the other guilty parties ratted him out in plea deals and when he pled Not Guilty, there was an avalanche of evidence proving he was, in fact, Extremely Very Extra-Guilty Indeed. Art!
"It's not that bad."
O yes it is!
He has now been found guilty and is now awaiting his sentence. Which, in extremis, could total 110 years, making him ineligible for parole until he is 82. Bring on the popcorn!
"City In The Sky"
The Doctor is well aware that he's painted a target on his back by snooping around New Eucla, and intends to go snooping further afield.
He walked away with a parting rude gesture to Mike, who returned it.
‘Cheeky young larrakin,’ he muttered.
‘You’d think an Assistant Deputy Mayor’d get more respect.’ Curiosity got the better of him. ‘What was Billy pointing out? There’s nothing but outback that way.’
‘Forrest,’ stated the Doctor.
‘I’d like to visit, and for that I’ll need a horse.’
Mike couldn’t see any reason to travel twenty miles across a barren
landscape to poke around a charcoal boneyard when he, Don and a dozen others
had already been there. Yes, he
added. The flames had been visible from
New Eucla. He and the fire brigade had
ridden across the bare lands to find Forrest already beyond help, most of the
buildings already collapsed into cinders and ash, not a single soul surviving,
and a strange, red-hot metallic craft burnt out at the edge of the
brushfires. The rescue party became a
funeral one, digging a communal grave for the sad remnants of Forrest’s
inhabitants. Mike wondered briefly why
the little man’s eyes glinted with a touch of frost at the mention of the
bodies. Frost and a hint of fire, too,
and Mike decided as the flesh on his back crawled and tingled that the strange
little man wasn’t someone you wanted to cross.
‘A worthy job, Mike. Not a
pleasant one. Still, I would like to see
the arcology’s Dart and what happened to it.’
I mean, it's not as if anything can go wrong, is it?
Conrad Has Taken The Plunge
I have now Subscribed to the Slovak channel "Popradska Okruzna", because why not? Art!
Now with added English! There seem to be a lot of other vlogs about modernisation and industrial architecture. Wish me luck, or 'Vela Stastia" as they say over there.
Finally -
That's enough typing, I need to go box up the Tuesday Stew. Yes, Tuesday.
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