Since I'm making it up as I go along I've no idea how long this Intro will be. Not only that, but this blog is for Saturday and I'm typing it up at 23:55 on Thursday. Nothing like a little advanced prep work.
Now, were I to say "Camels" to you, in conjunction with "The First Unpleasantness", I'm sure your minds would immediately spring to thoughts of Biggles and his daring aerial exploits on the Western Front, because - Art!
 |
| A Camel. The two-winged version |
You might be forgiven for thinking this, as the Sopwith Camel is firmly associated with the skies over France and Flanders, and was a formidable 'scout', as fighter aircraft were known then. They, too, were making it up as they went along. They acquired the name 'Camel' because their twin Vickers guns were mounted under a humped housing, wh
ANYWAY you might not, mayhaps, associate the actual Dromedary beast with the First Unpleasantness, unless you'd seen "Lawrence Of Arabia", a film well worth a watch, and an absolutely hellish experience for cast and crew. Art!
 |
| A Camel. Four-footed variety. |
Conrad cannot speak for the Mesopotamian front - I'll get round to reading those volumes at some point - but there were plenty of camels on strength in the British army in Egypt and Palestine. Why, there was even an 'Imperial Camel Brigade' as a combat arm. There were an even larger number of horses as the British and the ANZACs had whole divisions of 'em in their cavalry divisions, but camels formed a significant percentage of the mounted and transport forces.
Why so? Why have 'ships of the desert' alongside horses, for surely this is a case of redundancy and logistical complication? Art!
 |
| Camels. Just to be clear. |
Well, camels are better suited to desert warfare. They can go further on less for longer than horses can and notably require less water; many are the times that the Official History mentions horses needing rest, fodder and above all, water. Camels can carry more cargo than a horse but are far less comely, have a temper and are known to spit.
ANYWAY this is quite beside the point, because what this Intro concerns for real is a factor in the Third Battle Of Gaza, what you might term formally as 'Naval Gunfire Support'. Art!
 |
| HMS Raglan |
NGS had been very much a thing at Gallipolli, which operation had ended at the start of 1916, so it was coming back after almost two years absence. It was important at 3rd Gaza because the scale of artillery used in Palestine fell far below that on the Western Front. Not only did both sides have far less, their ordnance also lacked the heavy and super-heavy guns that were ten-a-penny in France and Flanders.
This is where both the British and French navies came in. They were using old and obsolete vessels that had no obvious use in the Atlantic or elsewhere in the Med. To list them: The Royal Navy brought in: HMS Raglan, the monitors M15, M29, M31. M32, HMS Grafton, the Ladybird, Aphis and destroyers HMS Staunch and Comet. The French provided the Requin and another 5 destroyers. Art!
 |
| Le Requin |
What is the significance of having these ships just off-shore of the desert (reaching a bit, I know, but needs must), on the western flank of the battle? O I thought you'd never ask!
The defences around Gaza, you see, were quite formidable, being well-dug trenches with barbed wire, and lots and lots of cacti. To batter these down and also hammer the Turkish guns you needed heavy artillery, which these ships provided. The Raglan, as an example, mounted a 14" gun, the 'M' monitors carried 9.2" guns, the Requin had 10.8" guns and the shells fired from this large ordnance would weigh hundreds of pounds. Plus nearly all of these ships had a secondary armament of 4" guns, that would have counted as medium artillery in a field piece on land. Art!
As you can see from this, the Raglan had 14 other guns mounted, and this was just one of the ships present. The bombardment was so heavy that some ships ran out of ammunition and tootled back to the Nile Delta to re-arm.
This ain't the last you're going to hear about 'Ships of the desert', pilgrims.
Conrad: Old And Curious
Given my vintage, it is only to be expected that I may not be quite up to speed on various elements of pop culture, especially if it concerns sport, reality television or that hideous musical farrago, rap music. Likewise computer games. I understand things have moved on a little from "X-Com Enemy Unknown" <five pages of soggy nostalgia deleted by Mister Hand> what on earth is this? Art!
The what of the whom to the where and which?
Answers in the Comments please.
More Kitchen Kitsch Or Kludge
Just to be clear, not everything on this list, as compiled by I've no idea whom, is a piece of expensive tat, or even cheap tat, and I will jib at their descriptions if I feel it necessary, because that's how fair-minded I am*. Art!
O dear. Well, from memory they had up an ice-cream maker as a piece of utterly un-necessary kitchen kit and recommended you merely go out and buy a tub of ice cream instead.
NO! WRONG! ART!
Your Humble Artisan has tried to make ice cream without a machine before, and it was a complete pain in the bottom. To prevent ice crystals building up, you have to take it out of the freezer every twenty minutes to stir it FOR EIGHT HOURS. An ICM with built-in paddle does this for you in the space of ten minutes.
I doubt that list will come back up again, which is okay as I've already been through it once and can remember what needs to be critiqued or lauded.
Circling Again
Here we have a refreshing change from walls of text, thanks to the BBC's photographic competition on the theme of 'Circles'. Art!
 |
| Courtesy Lester Cunningham |
This peculiar feature is 'Gwennap Pit' in Cornwall, a natural circular depression that has been turned into an amphitheatre. For theatre in the <ahem> round?
"City In The Sky"
The Doctor is going a-snooping again.
‘Thanks for the warning,’ replied the Doctor, drily. He hadn’t ridden for several decades, but
once learnt, never forgotten, and he swung up onto the worn leather saddle like
a practiced rider. The mare didn’t need
any spurring, ambling off into New Eucla and out onto a track to the north that
led past a cricket ground, a football pitch and the town’s cemetery. A few dusty children were playing football
with ferocious concentration and missed him passing-by completely.
Most of the graves were marked with either simple wooden crosses, or low
headstones, running in neat ranks by the hundred. A smaller enclosure in the far corner caught
his eye: it’s internal fence separated it from the bigger cemetery proper, and
had only a few markers. One in
particular struck him as unusual: in addition to a normal inscription it had a
small, colourful metal plate attached to the crossbar. The incongruous design might not have caught
the eye of anyone else; to the Doctor, it spoke libraries.
‘One moment,’ he told the mare, dismounting and tethering her to the
boundary fence.
The reason for a separate enclosure became clear when he read aloud
inscriptions on the crosses.
‘ “Known only to god: drowned in the Great Storm of 2120”.’
‘ “A sailor from other shores: drowned at sea 2105”.’
‘ “A sailor from other shores:drowned at sea 2112”.’
‘ “Known only to god; buried with his badge of rank: drowned in the
Great Storm of 2120”.’ – this, the grave with the colourful metal badge affixed
to it’s cross.
Ooooh I wonder what it is?
Finally -
I have a couple of Themes waiting in the background, one of which would involve digging through hundreds of copies of "2000AD" to find a particular story. Conrad unsure if he can face all that climbing up and down the ladders.
* THIS IS A LIE! <the horrid truth courtesy Mister Hand>
No comments:
Post a Comment