Month: December 2016

While we fret over whether we can get out of the EU in two years, in 1939 events moved a lot more swiftly. Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3rd September, honouring treaty obligations to Poland that had been invaded two days earlier. On 15th November, Grand-Admiral Erich Raeder, Commander-in -Chief of the… Continue reading Operation Sea Lion – Part Two

Walking in England over the years I have been struck by the number of pillboxes built to defend us from a German invasion in World War II. About 28,000 were built all over the country, of which some 6,500 survive. It would have been a dark hour if the ones I have seen along the… Continue reading Operation Sea Lion – Part One

Often there is unfinished business in these posts. In September there was mention of five families from Chios, in A Greek Island. The greatest of these families was Ralli. The Ralli brothers, five of them, were probably the most successful Greek merchant-traders in the 19th century.