Subject: more history
From: Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Date: Sat Jun 16 2001 - 13:47:03 GMT
Ringo,
I had in mind more the technique of fire storm which
was certainly first visited on Hamburg by Bomber Command
on the night of July 27/28 1943 (‘’the first firestorm
of the Second World War’’ - David Irving: The Destruction
of Dresden.) It was repeated at Dresden in February 1945
- when, you’re quite right, the Ist Air Division of the USAF
extended during day the destruction that had been started
by the RAF at night.
The neutrality of Ireland was a very particular kind of neutrality.
The rate of unemployment then was such that rather more
men volunteered (even per head of population) for the British
forces than came from Northern Ireland - which was technically
at war with Germany alongwith the rest of the United Kingdom
but where conscription did not operate. The use of the southern
ports were certainly denied to the Royal & US Navies;
but Allied pilots, for example, who crashed in Ireland were
surreptitiously returned to England whilst (the rather greater number
of) Luftwaffe chaps who were shot down on Irish territory were kept
safely locked up in the Curragh Internment camp. It’s true that
from time to time rumours ran round that the Americans were
about to invade southwards & preparations made to repel them;
but I’ve just been reading the war diaries of Alanbrooke the British
CIGS in which he details the friendly, confidential & mutually
admiring discussions he had been enjoying with his oppo,
the Chief of Staff of the Irish Army.
I lived in Ireland as a wide awake young adolescent in those days
& Zazie’s characterisation of my Irish friends as Nazi sympathisers
struck me as deeply uninformed & more than a little presumptuous.
With its faults, most objective commentators would regard India
as a very real functioning democracy - which its founders, in their
generosity, always accepted as a legacy of the Raj. And, of couse,
it stands up rather well - as do even Pakistan & Bangladesh - against
the comparison of China (for so long a child of the American
imperium.) There were many, many diners at the Middle Eastern
table. I don’t think the Brits can be made to carry that particular
can unassisted.
On another tack, I should like to align myself unreservedly with
your own, less mystical, view of characters who enjoy pawing
their juniors. Pity about The Obvious. The damned wings keep
falling off & that mystical gaze can be so easily mistaken by
the unreverential for cross eyes.
And yes, you bastid, you beat me to it - NAVSP. I thought of it
all right, but OK, it’s a fair cop.
Scottie B.
-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Tue Jul 24 2001 - 09:20:44 GMT