How is that gun amnesty working for you?

source: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/rp99/rp99-056.pdf

Now go listen to these newsreels
1961 newsreel
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=42638
1968 newsreel
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=45147

Old planes

An interesting blog with pictures of old planes languishing in fields and backyards. the above is the BAC Electric Lightning.

Another day, another firefight

Us armchair types can talk all we want, but the end of the day it is the job of the Infantry to take ground. It’s up to the politicians in Afghanistan and the West to hold it for the long term. It’s called “will to win”. the soldiers have it, do the politicians?

Sea Fort

Ugh! I can’t imagine this would be an enjoyable stint on these forts, the fact that men went squirrely is no surprise, same thing happened on this coast where some men posted to the coastal fort on Yorke Island went nuts or “Yorkie” as it was called.

Madness Under Water

Living conditions on the artificial islands were extreme, with each of the seven-tower fortresses housing up to 265 men at a time. The isolation and close quarters were hard to bear, especially in the concrete legs of the naval sea forts. While the officers' sleeping quarters were in the upper part of the cylinders, where there was adequate light and oil heating, it was intolerable for the crews, who spent their nights below the surface of the water.

To distract themselves when there was nothing to do, the men were convinced to take up hobbies. Psychologists recommended painting, knitting or building models. The men remained on board for six weeks at a time, spending 10 days on land in between deployments. Many required psychiatric treatment, and the soldiers soon came up with their own name for the manmade platforms: "Fort Madness."

At the end of the war, the crews had chalked up an impressive list of successes. Some 22 aircraft and 30 V-1 flying bombs where shot down from the Thames forts, and one was involved in the sinking of a German speedboat. But the use of the forts in the Mersey estuary had proved to be difficult. Because of their location on a constantly shifting sandbar, the structures on stilts repeatedly sank into the ocean floor. In 1948, the Admiralty had them dismantled because they posed a danger to shipping.
More
I would love to spend sometime exploring the old forts in the UK, if you are into old forts and such, check out these sites here and here.

Some more pictures

A visit to Yorke Island

The Guardian of good taste?

The Guardian is a large very, very Liberal newspaper in the UK, where at least they admit to which way they lean in regards to politics. It has always been rather hostile to the military and military actions. Now in this article on the “missing” Ninth Legion of the Roman army, the Guardian maintains it’s policy of being snobbish to military folks in general and totally ignorant of what it takes (and in this case what it took) to maintain a modern army in the field.
Now a Roman Legion is not modern by our standards, but they were without equal for a very long time and that was due to their organization and their logistics. But for Rome keeping a legion in the field and in far flung corners of the empire was expensive and they were expected to source a lot of their supplies locally, far more than an army of today. Roman legions had engineers not only to build defence works, but also roads, civil structures and the means to support themselves.
So the Guardian firmly plants it left foot into it’s mouth with their snide comments that the legion spent a great deal of time supporting itself rather than fighting. Had they bothered to crack open a history book they might have already known that the Legions did not spend 24/7 fighting.

Now for the right foot into the mouth, the whole crux of the story now seems to be that archaeological evidence shows that the Roman Legion actually wore……..wait for it……..wait….., yes the Guardian is shocked and dismayed that the legion wore SOCKS with sandals! No doubt the Guardian readers will hound the Italian Embassy with protests over this unfashionable folly, as the paper blames the odd tradition of wearing socks with sandals on the Romans, rather than perhaps the weather and mad Englishman. No doubt Galloway will lend his orator skills to the fray and claim it’s all a plot by Bush’s ancestors.

Now for more interesting news for readers that think. Seems the current drought in the UK is letting archaeologists look for clues to ancient ruins that would otherwise be hidden by growing crops. Over 60 new sites were discovered in one day, including a Roman march fort, which they built when resting during a march. Very cool stuff. As a kid I remember standing on Hadrian’s wall and imaging myself as a Roman soldier staring down the Picts.