There are some unfathomable mysteries in life. One is why John Betjeman called his teddy bear Archibald Ormsby-Gore. He took Archie with him to Oxford and Archie appears in Brideshead Revisited as Sebastian Flyte’s teddy, Aloysius.
Category: History
Cold War Curtain-Raiser
The Tartar Steppe
Suez and Brexit; Keep the Aspidistra Flying
As the Suez Crisis unfolded, as with the war we waged in Iraq, it became clear that there had been a pretty big bish. International opinion consigned Britain and France to the dog house; petrol was rationed; the Prime Minister went to recuperate at Goldeneye (Ian Fleming’s house in Jamaica). George Lyttleton expressed his feelings… Continue reading Suez and Brexit; Keep the Aspidistra Flying
Old Dog, New Tricks
Operation Sea Lion – Part Three
In the summer of 1940 Churchill and his Chiefs of Staff expected an airborne invasion and a seaborne one, most likely on the east coast where the beaches were flatter and the terrain likewise making it easier country for motorised troops. They thought it much less likely that there would be an invasion across the… Continue reading Operation Sea Lion – Part Three
Operation Sea Lion – Part Two
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
Operation Sea Lion – Part One
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