This was posted at www.ww2f.com by E. Campbell. Here's what he had to say:
This 30 minute film was created by Doug Harvey as a tribute to his father, Sam Harvey and the crew of Lancaster A2-C. Flying from an airfield at Waterbeach, England this aircraft made its last flight on the night of July 28, 1944. Much of the narrative and technical advice was provided by the pilot, my father, Alex Campbell. Working with a tiny budget, Doug has created a wonderful tribute and an important historical document.
It unfortunately has rather a long load/buffer time, but just let it sit and sort itself out. It's worth watching!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
Air Show Videos
I've finally uploaded some (unfortunately short) videos from Flyfest 2009 at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum (CWH). This annual event coincided with a celebration of Canada's 100th anniversary of powered aviation! Exciting stuff. Apologies for the brevity and poor quality of the videos. My memory card isn't too big.
Avro Lancaster Mk. X
With new blades courtesy of...uh, some people on the East Coast. Although it flew over my head in the parking lot as I arrived, its second flyby was cancelled; once the pilot got up there, there was some kind of problem and in the interest of safety, he returned to the ground. Booo.
P-51D Mustang
Flyby: North American B-25j Bomber / Fairey Firefly / Westland Lysander Mk. III
Note: This was the second (public) flight of the Lysander after a 22 year period of refurbishment!
Impromptu Flyby: B25j Bomber
As I was getting into my car, it flew over. I also saw it circling over the city when I got home--a very strange sight indeed. I'm used to traffic planes, emerg helicopters, etc... but a bomber?! That was definitely a surreal experience and a strange end to the day.
That's all for now. If you're in Ontario, I'd highly recommend exploring the CWH. Unlike many aviation museums, the CWH is a flying museum. Obviously there are lots of static displays as well, but many of the planes living there (i.e. Avro Lancaster) are flyable. The latter is one of only two flyable Lancasters in the world. Crazy!
Visit www.warplane.com for more info.
Avro Lancaster Mk. X
With new blades courtesy of...uh, some people on the East Coast. Although it flew over my head in the parking lot as I arrived, its second flyby was cancelled; once the pilot got up there, there was some kind of problem and in the interest of safety, he returned to the ground. Booo.
P-51D Mustang
Flyby: North American B-25j Bomber / Fairey Firefly / Westland Lysander Mk. III
Note: This was the second (public) flight of the Lysander after a 22 year period of refurbishment!
Impromptu Flyby: B25j Bomber
As I was getting into my car, it flew over. I also saw it circling over the city when I got home--a very strange sight indeed. I'm used to traffic planes, emerg helicopters, etc... but a bomber?! That was definitely a surreal experience and a strange end to the day.
That's all for now. If you're in Ontario, I'd highly recommend exploring the CWH. Unlike many aviation museums, the CWH is a flying museum. Obviously there are lots of static displays as well, but many of the planes living there (i.e. Avro Lancaster) are flyable. The latter is one of only two flyable Lancasters in the world. Crazy!
Visit www.warplane.com for more info.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Suggested Reading Pt. 3
Pursuant to 'Suggested Reading pt. 2' (re: need books on queers during ww2), here are some things I've finally come across.
The first is a good book, but it's been almost entirely unhelpful to the research I'm doing... so let's get that out of the way first:
Queer London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis, 1918-1957 by Matt Houlbrook.
While, as I've said, it's a fantastic book on its own, it is entirely about men, which is interesting academically but not what I'm looking for, unless this thing I'm writing eventually encompasses more male characters. Nevertheless, I highly recommend reading it if you're interested in queer history, etc.--the depth of research and details is really astonishing. I can't imagine how exhausting it would be to write something like this.
Next up--and this is much more helpful to what I'm doing--is A Lesbian History of Britain: Love and Sex Between Women Since 1500 by Rebecca Jennings. She is also the author of Tomboys and Bachelor Girls, which focuses on post-war lesbian culture in Britain (as far as I can gather--I haven't read it yet).
Anyway, despite a truly alarming book jacket, A Lesbian History of Britain is a phenomenal read. Although I'm interested mainly in the interwar years and ww2 of course, I've found myself being sucked into the earlier chapters, too. Jennings' style is very readable--I find academic books to be largely pretentious and dry (I'm not known for having a long attention span), but was delighted to find A Lesbian History...to be neither pedantic nor condescending despite tackling some largely academic issues when it comes to lesbian history (i.e. essentialist vs constructionist theories of lesbian identification throughout history). Like many areas of history, queer studies seem also to be male-dominated; again, without any mind-numbing, abstract blither-blather, Jennings' narratives and analyses are straight-forward and easy to understand even to idiots like me. Um... I guess you can gather by now that aside from having little patience, I am far from an academic frame of mind. How many times have I said 'academic' in this post? This is getting silly and redundant. Point: Read this book! Right now!
Moving on, here are some more relevant authors/titles I haven't read yet (obviously I can't speak for these yet, but they seem topical!):
It's Not Unusual: A History of Lesbian and Gay Britain in the Twentieth Century
by Alkarim Jivani.
The Lesbian History Sourcebook: Love and Sex between Women in Britain from 1870 to 1970 by Alison Oram
Oram has also penned Her Husband was a Woman!: Women's gender-crossing and twentieth century British popular culture
Another suggested author, and one whose work I'm anxious to investigate, is Laura Doan, who is a prof at Manchester U. Here's a list of her work.
I guess that's all I can remember at the moment. Happy reading!
The first is a good book, but it's been almost entirely unhelpful to the research I'm doing... so let's get that out of the way first:
Queer London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis, 1918-1957 by Matt Houlbrook.
While, as I've said, it's a fantastic book on its own, it is entirely about men, which is interesting academically but not what I'm looking for, unless this thing I'm writing eventually encompasses more male characters. Nevertheless, I highly recommend reading it if you're interested in queer history, etc.--the depth of research and details is really astonishing. I can't imagine how exhausting it would be to write something like this.
Next up--and this is much more helpful to what I'm doing--is A Lesbian History of Britain: Love and Sex Between Women Since 1500 by Rebecca Jennings. She is also the author of Tomboys and Bachelor Girls, which focuses on post-war lesbian culture in Britain (as far as I can gather--I haven't read it yet).
Anyway, despite a truly alarming book jacket, A Lesbian History of Britain is a phenomenal read. Although I'm interested mainly in the interwar years and ww2 of course, I've found myself being sucked into the earlier chapters, too. Jennings' style is very readable--I find academic books to be largely pretentious and dry (I'm not known for having a long attention span), but was delighted to find A Lesbian History...to be neither pedantic nor condescending despite tackling some largely academic issues when it comes to lesbian history (i.e. essentialist vs constructionist theories of lesbian identification throughout history). Like many areas of history, queer studies seem also to be male-dominated; again, without any mind-numbing, abstract blither-blather, Jennings' narratives and analyses are straight-forward and easy to understand even to idiots like me. Um... I guess you can gather by now that aside from having little patience, I am far from an academic frame of mind. How many times have I said 'academic' in this post? This is getting silly and redundant. Point: Read this book! Right now!
Moving on, here are some more relevant authors/titles I haven't read yet (obviously I can't speak for these yet, but they seem topical!):
It's Not Unusual: A History of Lesbian and Gay Britain in the Twentieth Century
by Alkarim Jivani.
The Lesbian History Sourcebook: Love and Sex between Women in Britain from 1870 to 1970 by Alison Oram
Oram has also penned Her Husband was a Woman!: Women's gender-crossing and twentieth century British popular culture
Another suggested author, and one whose work I'm anxious to investigate, is Laura Doan, who is a prof at Manchester U. Here's a list of her work.
I guess that's all I can remember at the moment. Happy reading!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Danger UXB
Does anyone remember Danger UXB? It was a British series from the '70s following bomb disposal units in Britain during WW2. Although I remember watching it as a kid, I can't remember any specific episodes or storylines. Anyway, I'm trying to find copies of Danger UXB to rent (it's awfully expensive to buy, although I'm sure it would be worth it. Or almost worth it), and in the process have come across some interesting links.
ContaminatedLand.co.uk has a page about where some UXBs are buried, or suspected buried:
http://www.contaminatedland.co.uk/sere-dip/estd-uxb.htm
Even more interesting is the LCC Bomb (incl. Flying V) Damage Map from '39-'45:
http://www.locallocalhistory.co.uk/studies/bombingmap/index.htm
There have been a few related snippets in newspapers (and because I'm prematurely turning into an old lady I cut these things out) over the years that I can't find online, but at any rate here are two news items: UXB removed from IMW at Duxford.
And from the other side, British bombs diffused in Germany.
Well, that's pretty much it. Nothing terribly interesting, but it'll have to satisfy my UXB craving until I can find this series at an affordable price...
ContaminatedLand.co.uk has a page about where some UXBs are buried, or suspected buried:
http://www.contaminatedland.co.uk/sere-dip/estd-uxb.htm
Even more interesting is the LCC Bomb (incl. Flying V) Damage Map from '39-'45:
http://www.locallocalhistory.co.uk/studies/bombingmap/index.htm
There have been a few related snippets in newspapers (and because I'm prematurely turning into an old lady I cut these things out) over the years that I can't find online, but at any rate here are two news items: UXB removed from IMW at Duxford.
And from the other side, British bombs diffused in Germany.
Well, that's pretty much it. Nothing terribly interesting, but it'll have to satisfy my UXB craving until I can find this series at an affordable price...
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Suggested Reading Pt. 2
Among other things, I'm currently reading London At War, 1939-1945 by Phillip Ziegler. It is without question the funniest WW2 book I've come across (Ziegler humorously draws attention to the initial disorganization of Civil Defence, the characteristic pluck of Londoners, the arrival of American GIs, etc.) while still remaining articulate, informative and well organized.
Of course, it's not all funny, but it's one thing that stood out to me after reading so many World War Two books. If we go by South Park's rule that we're allowed to laugh at something after 22.3 years (I'm citing the episode Jared has Aides), we should definitely be able to appreciate the humour of events without any guilt. Or whatever. It's 1 am and I'm not making much sense, but that's just fine.
Anyway. At nearly 400 pages there is little that Ziegler has left out. One thing that really interests me during this period is racial and ethnic discrimination, which he also addresses. That said, I need to find some books about gays and lesbians in Britain at that time (if you have any suggestions, let me know). I'm excited to read the rest of London at War. So far it's proving to be a fantastic read.
Mr Ziegler has written many other books, including one on the plague. If he manages to point out the more ridiculous points of Second World War, I can't wait to find out what he says about the plague in his aptly titled Black Death.
Happy reading!
Delirious P.S. Maybe I should have called this the Blitz Blog? Or is that less funny and more cutesy-poo? Whatever. Goodnight, wherever you are...
Sunday, December 21, 2008
re: Camp Coffee
A while back I said that I couldn't remember the story about Camp Coffee having to change their label. While looking for something else I stumbled across a few related articles:
"UK Coffee Logo Stirs Racism Row" BBC News 1999 (BBC News)
"Camp Coffee forced to change label by PC brigade" (Daily Mail)
Interesting!
Old logo (or one of them):
New logo:
That's all!
"UK Coffee Logo Stirs Racism Row" BBC News 1999 (BBC News)
"Camp Coffee forced to change label by PC brigade" (Daily Mail)
Interesting!
Old logo (or one of them):
New logo:
Friday, December 12, 2008
Holly and Barbed Wire/Suggested Reading
Not much going on in the WW2 arena right now--I'm back to writing (in an experimental voice) but am still mainly researching. I keep getting caught up in related but basically irrelevant things--planes, dogfights, women in uniform and, of late, Canadians in the war. Fascinating as these things are they aren't exactly what I'm writing about. I toyed with the idea of having L's brother be a fighter pilot just to justify reading about it but it feels like it's straying too much out of the main cast, besides which I'm splitting energy into too many directions. So it's back to the Home Front, which is where my main interest and goals lie.
I'm going to end up having an enormous bibliography by the end of it, though unfortunately a lot of books have pretty much the same information. I've narrowed my searches a lot and have come up with some fascinating books (listed below). The real trouble I'm having is that there seems to be very limited information on the ARP (Air Raid Precautions), which was one of the many possible Civil Defence jobs. I'm trying to edge away from personal reminiscences--despite my want to stay up all night reading selections from Mass Observation, etc--because I don't want to unintentionally plagiarize anyone's real experiences; the story I'm writing isn't supposed to be far-fetched or amazing in terms of some kind of insane adventure bordering on the ridiculous (i.e. a spy story). It's supposed to be just something that could have been someone's life, and those everyday things make up most reminiscences.
Carol Harris and Mike Brown, whom I discovered individually, both have some fantastic books to their credit. Weirdly enough it turns out they are a (married?) couple who both write these WW2-related books (plus some other fringy things). I think they've collaborated on one or two, even. Amazing. I think, if I were in the market for dating (which I am NOT), an interest in the British Home Front would be a requirement. That, on the other hand, might require me moving TO Britain.
Anyway.
As it's approaching That Time of Year I've decided to force myself into the Xmas spirit a little by reading Christmas on the Home Front by Mike Brown (Thanks to LB for getting it out of the U of T Library for me. Us riff-raff don't have access to the stacks, sadly). Simply organized, it's written in chronological chapters, i.e. '1940: The Second Christmas' and so on. As many of these books do, it's thankfully full of pictures--adverts and private photos alike--plus recipes, stuff about evacuees, and some personal reminiscences. I can't wait to finish this one.
There's a similar, but very condensed, page on the BBC website enitled 'Christmas Under Fire' if you just want a summary. I'm wondering if it's derived from Mike Brown's book; some of it is word for word. Click here for the link.
The other Mike Brown book I've got out (thanks to LB as well for getting this one!) is Put That Light Out!: Britain's Civil Defence Services at War, 1939-1945. The overtly long title is pretty much self-explanatory. Again, lots of pictures of rescue teams and so on, it's well researched and presented and--the best thing--it's got a TON of ARP information that I've been craving so badly.
Next up is a Carol Harris book that, unfortunately, I had to return to the library before finishing it (I tend to put a million things on hold and they all come in at once, for some reason). Women at War: The Home Front, 1939-1945 is so full of information that it's almost difficult to read--well, difficult to absorb. There's a similar book, Women at War in Uniform: 1939-1945 that I'm interested in reading but probably won't for the above reasons.
I'm getting sleepy so I'm cutting the books short and moving onto some links before I hit the hay.
First--homepage of the 1940s Society: www.1940.co.uk
Loads of info that I haven't even delved into yet--links to meetings (again, I'm not IN England, unfortunately so I can't attend), articles, personal memories, etc. plus an online shop of absolutely awesome stuff (i.e. blank ration books to fill out yourself. What?!)
Finally, two videos from Quentin Reynolds, an American war correspondent/journalist in England. These types of things are so intentionally sentimental that I can't do anything but react in a really genuine way. These types of things that are done now seem cheesy in a whole different way, though I guess they really are the same thing. Maybe it's just my nostalgia for a time I have never known but these 10-minute shorts are both touching and terrifying.
The first is a Christmas Under Fire; the second is London Can Take it!, which is a slogan/title I keep coming across. Apparently they could and did take it but if I had been around then I think I might have resented that idea for some reason, though I'm not quite sure why. Maybe the attempt to tag what was going on in some succint, catchy phrase kind of cheapened the experience? I don't know. At any rate, here are the two videos.
Christmas Under Fire - 1941
London Can Take it! - 1940
I'm going to end up having an enormous bibliography by the end of it, though unfortunately a lot of books have pretty much the same information. I've narrowed my searches a lot and have come up with some fascinating books (listed below). The real trouble I'm having is that there seems to be very limited information on the ARP (Air Raid Precautions), which was one of the many possible Civil Defence jobs. I'm trying to edge away from personal reminiscences--despite my want to stay up all night reading selections from Mass Observation, etc--because I don't want to unintentionally plagiarize anyone's real experiences; the story I'm writing isn't supposed to be far-fetched or amazing in terms of some kind of insane adventure bordering on the ridiculous (i.e. a spy story). It's supposed to be just something that could have been someone's life, and those everyday things make up most reminiscences.
Carol Harris and Mike Brown, whom I discovered individually, both have some fantastic books to their credit. Weirdly enough it turns out they are a (married?) couple who both write these WW2-related books (plus some other fringy things). I think they've collaborated on one or two, even. Amazing. I think, if I were in the market for dating (which I am NOT), an interest in the British Home Front would be a requirement. That, on the other hand, might require me moving TO Britain.
Anyway.
As it's approaching That Time of Year I've decided to force myself into the Xmas spirit a little by reading Christmas on the Home Front by Mike Brown (Thanks to LB for getting it out of the U of T Library for me. Us riff-raff don't have access to the stacks, sadly). Simply organized, it's written in chronological chapters, i.e. '1940: The Second Christmas' and so on. As many of these books do, it's thankfully full of pictures--adverts and private photos alike--plus recipes, stuff about evacuees, and some personal reminiscences. I can't wait to finish this one.
There's a similar, but very condensed, page on the BBC website enitled 'Christmas Under Fire' if you just want a summary. I'm wondering if it's derived from Mike Brown's book; some of it is word for word. Click here for the link.
The other Mike Brown book I've got out (thanks to LB as well for getting this one!) is Put That Light Out!: Britain's Civil Defence Services at War, 1939-1945. The overtly long title is pretty much self-explanatory. Again, lots of pictures of rescue teams and so on, it's well researched and presented and--the best thing--it's got a TON of ARP information that I've been craving so badly.
Next up is a Carol Harris book that, unfortunately, I had to return to the library before finishing it (I tend to put a million things on hold and they all come in at once, for some reason). Women at War: The Home Front, 1939-1945 is so full of information that it's almost difficult to read--well, difficult to absorb. There's a similar book, Women at War in Uniform: 1939-1945 that I'm interested in reading but probably won't for the above reasons.
I'm getting sleepy so I'm cutting the books short and moving onto some links before I hit the hay.
First--homepage of the 1940s Society: www.1940.co.uk
Loads of info that I haven't even delved into yet--links to meetings (again, I'm not IN England, unfortunately so I can't attend), articles, personal memories, etc. plus an online shop of absolutely awesome stuff (i.e. blank ration books to fill out yourself. What?!)
Finally, two videos from Quentin Reynolds, an American war correspondent/journalist in England. These types of things are so intentionally sentimental that I can't do anything but react in a really genuine way. These types of things that are done now seem cheesy in a whole different way, though I guess they really are the same thing. Maybe it's just my nostalgia for a time I have never known but these 10-minute shorts are both touching and terrifying.
The first is a Christmas Under Fire; the second is London Can Take it!, which is a slogan/title I keep coming across. Apparently they could and did take it but if I had been around then I think I might have resented that idea for some reason, though I'm not quite sure why. Maybe the attempt to tag what was going on in some succint, catchy phrase kind of cheapened the experience? I don't know. At any rate, here are the two videos.
Christmas Under Fire - 1941
London Can Take it! - 1940
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