World War 2

Nothing to see here, move on

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Nothing to see here, move on, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.

Police horses are cool. This one, and several others, is on Market Street waiting for the fascists to show themselves.

The comic adventures of one of Britain’s great heroes- translated from French

This entry was posted in Biggles Comics Nostalgia Planes World War 2 on by

I just read Biggles Vol.1: Spitfire Parade, a comic adaptation of one of W.E. Johns’ tales of his pilot hero, adapted and drawn by a leading proponent of aviation comics.

This is the first of Cinebook’s reprints of Bergèse’s Biggles comics. Their next release will be 666 Fighter Squadron, but there are also some copies still available on Amazon of earlier Red Fox translations- Biggles and the Battle of Britain and Biggles: Flying Detective. Biggles and the Pirates of the South Pole is currently unavailable as are Biggles: Le cygne jaune, Biggles: Le dernier Zeppelin and Biggles De Vlucht Van De Wallenstein. This page gives a list of some of the other comic book incarnations of James Bigglesworth. None of which I knew of before now.

The comic is large format and printed on quality paper with highly detailed ligne claire artwork complemented by fine colouring. I did find, as you can with this style, the figures occasionally lack animation- appearing to be holding uncomfortable “running” poses rather than expressing the motion- but there is no such problem with the machinery. It helps that Biggles and his squadron are flying one of the most beautiful machines ever built, but it’s not just the Spitfires that swoop around the panels.

Thankfully the translation is good, or Cinebook went back to the original novel for the dialogue. Either way, this comic is lacking the poor English that afflicts some other translated strips. It still reads as slightly stiff, but in the way you’d expect lines from a different era to.

I want to dig out my old Biggles books (handed down from my father), but I think I may have finally said goodbye to them a couple of years ago and sent them off to a charity shop. I want to read the Red Fox editions of the comics, but I also know that Cinebook should be supported in bringing them back to market so I should wait for their version. Blimey, I’m just a little frustrated chaps.

Maunsell Towers

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From the Steam Geek archives-

The Maunsell Towers were set up to provide anti aircraft defence in the Thames Estuary during World War Two. Each “fort” comprised of one Bofors tower, a control tower, four gun towers and a searchlight tower. Three forts were built Nore Army Fort, the Red Sands Army Fort and the Shivering Sands Army Fort, of which the latter two still stand, more or less.

Wikipedia on Maunsell Forts.

Project Red Sands.

Sealand, most famous of the offshore forts, with plans

via BoingBoing

La Resistance

This entry was posted in Steam Geek World War 2 on by

From the Steam Geek archives-

Not about technology, but interesting. The Covert Side of Reconstructing History.

This work will allow the novice re-enactor of Resistance and Special Operations Executive agents to select clothing and accoutrements appropriately — with historical accuracy. The portrayal of civilians — whether clandestine operatives or real civilians — in World War II reenactment circles has been the topic of hot debate, as some reenactors in the past have been, shall we say, less than exemplary in their chosen impression. We intend to change that. The organisation which sponsors this work reveres historical accuracy. The best way to achieve accuracy is through thorough and often cumbersome research, from which conclusions are drawn and standards adopted. Since this method has been followed, therefore, all the following conclusions may be considered accurate. By no means does this imply that the following are dogma, never to be gainsaid. If new information and research is brought to our attention, we shall at once join the queue to peruse it. If we, after the normal course of debate, find our earlier conclusions to be faulty, we will change them. We (especially Bob, who can barely read) do not pretend to be PhD-level experts on WWII-era fashion, textiles, and such; we just follow the pictures.

In a similar vein- the Churnet Valley Railway 1940s weekend.

Stalingrad 1942 diorama

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Stalingrad 1942, originally uploaded by sspz101.

Check out the pictures from an incredibly detailed diorama depicting combat during the siege of Stalingrad.

European Union = Fourth Reich?

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At least, that’s what you’re supposed to conclude from this article. The war profiteering of German industry should have been more harshly punished, and there are a lot of wrongs committed in the Second World War that will never be righted. But using them for some specious argument against the EU is a bit much.

USS Intrepid returns to Manhattan a year and a bit too late

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The floating museum that is the World War 2 aircraft carrier USS Intrepid has returned to its berth in the Hudson river off Manhattan. After Harry told me about it I really wanted to go and check it out when I was over there last year, so Skippy and I headed off in search of it and were disappointed to find it wasn’t there. We did get a few interesting pictures and drink some nice beers though, so it wasn’t a complete loss.

For Harry- the Flying Duck

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I promised Harry I’d dig out the old post about a DUKW fitted with hydrofoils, and here it is.

A DUKW amphibian fitted with hydrofoils to boost its speed on water from 5 knots to 30.

Larger picture. A page detailing other hydrofoil developments of the same period.

Also-

One man’s memories of the shipbuilders who made the Flying DUKW and other hydrofoils. The International Hydrofoil Society. The White Hawk Jet Hydrofoil.

Roald Dahl- super spy and “one of the biggest cocksmen in America”

This entry was posted in Roald Dahl USA World War 2 on by

The children’s author was sent to Washington in 1943 to work undercover gathering intelligence and influencing support for Britain. In the finest Bond manner, there was a lot of leeway, indeed “A certain amount of hank-panky was condoned, especially when it was for a good cause.”

Unearthing Maisy battery

This entry was posted in Archaeology World War 2 on by

A millionaire book salesman from Stockport has found the true location of the gun battery that caused so much carnage on Omaha Beach on D-Day. After finding a map in a pair of army trousers he bought at a militaria fair he went to Normandy and purchased land marked as an Area of High Resistance. Excavation of the land uncovered the gun emplacement and research tracked down the Rangers who took it, who had their own Kelly’s Heroes story of millions of dollars of booty in Francs which they purloined.