Occasionally world events bring to the forefront remarkable people who write their experience large upon our own. World War Two, for example, brought out many who may have otherwise lived in obscurity. Poet and Spitfire pilot John Gillespie Magee Jr. was such a man. Born in China to missionaries, his father an American and his … More High Flight, by John Gillespie Magee Jr.
“Attention every station and all the ships at sea. The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor by air. This is not a drill.” How many movies have centered around the events of Dec. 7th 1941? They all seem to start out with sailors, usually officers and their wives and girlfriends at a dance. Suddenly there is … More The 1941 Pearl Harbor Day Experience
Some men just have to serve the country. We learn during this interview of Gordon Fullerton he went to extraordinary lengths to join the service shortly after Pearl Harbor was bombed, then found opportunities, and a whole lot of luck. Once on the path he served not just in World War II, but also Korea, … More Gordon Fullerton. Veteran.
The release of the film Dunkirk this summer recalls the summer of 1940, when Western Civilization itself was held in the balance. Caught in a narrowing perimeter by the Nazi Blitzkrieg, protected by their British rear guard, their French comrades and the RAF, over 300,000 mostly British, but also French, Belgian and even a few … More The Speech After Dunkirk: “We Shall Fight on the Beaches”
As a child we played “war” a lot. And why wouldn’t we? It was on television and in movie theaters. I was also given books about World War II. Somehow the Battle of Britain managed to be among the most talked about event. Perhaps it is our closeness to our mother country that brought their experience … More The Supermarine Spitfire: To Be, Or Not to Be?
Conflict is a constant. Here is a 20th century exhibit. At the end of the Munich Crisis in 1938, a last ditch effort to avoid the Second World War, after all the other concessions had been made in favor of Germany, Neville Chamberlain asked Adolf Hitler to sign a pledge not to go to war … More I have here, from Herr Hitler, a piece of paper.
Winston Churchill – then Prime Minister for less than a month, then gave a taste of his courageous leadership in the House of Commons, June 4th, 1940, following the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk: We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas … More Fight on the Beaches
Like Alexander Fleming stumbling upon penicillin it appears Samsung has mass marketed a new weapon of mass destruction, the Galaxy Note 7 smart phone. Apparently the batteries explode, catch fire, or both. The message from the company advises the machine should be immediately powered down and surrendered to a retailer at the strip mall where … More New Weapon: The Samsung Galaxy Note 7
These words turned out to be wrong when uttered by Stanley Baldwin, as he was referring to the bomber that flies over a city intent on killing, maiming and terrorizing the civilian population. Today we have a different kind of bomber, the bomber who walks through a city, intent on killing, maiming and terrorizing the civilian population. … More “The Bomber Will Always Get Through” British Parliament, 1932
Democracy’s arm late. Much later than regimes run by strongmen. Because the rate of development of new war fighting aircraft in the 1930’s was a lot like the development of software in the last few decades; pre-war Britain saw lots of entrants to the market, few successes and a whole lot of loss due to … More Albatross of the Battle of Britain
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