I love a good view from a hotel window or balcony, but I especially love interesting views where you can watch activity – on the street, in the harbour, on the ski slope, etc. This is a great view for a geek like me. It’s from our...
Here’s an interesting and puzzling piece of history that I stumbled across recently. It makes me think it might be time for a return visit to Malta! I came across the anecdote in Stuart R. Scott’s 1996 book: Battleaxe Blenheims – 105 squadron RAF at war 1940-1 *...
This audio detection set, now in the Swedish Army Museum in Stockholm, is billed as a Listening Device M/1928 manufactured by a British company, Barr & Stroud Ltd. Sweden bought a number of these ‘ear trumpet’ devices in the 1920s to detect and pinpoint aircraft. Barr &...
I had heard of the Japanese WW2 balloon bomb campaign, but until I was reading David Hambling’s new book, Swarm Troopers – How small drones will conquer the world *, I hadn’t been aware that there had been civilian casualties. In fact these were the only deaths...
There are a number* of popular and academic explanations for the invention of the “Jolly Roger” flag with its skull & crossed bones motif. However this isn’t usually included among them. The 14th century (originally) church of St. Nicholas in the parish of Deptford on the south...
The WW2 ‘Battle of Britain’ is etched deep in the collective memory of Brits, whether alive at the time or not. As everyone knows, it was an intense struggle between the RAF “few” and the massed aerial fleets of Germany’s Luftwaffe. What most people, including me, don’t...
This is a memorial I stumbled across outside a church in Nottinghamshire a year ago. There’s not a great deal of information on the memorial itself but thanks to the efforts of a number of people who have been diligently researching the loss of Lancaster W4270 with...
I’ve been trying to work out what this slightly rusty Self Propelled Gun (SPG) is, parked up at the back of the Musee de Blindes in Saumur, awaiting a little love and attention from their restoration teams. Now, thanks to TankNutDave.com, and some time I spent trawling...
These are pattern/template boots for the Swedish army. The one on the left was an approved design for a cavalry boot in the 1690s, when Sweden was still an autocracy, so the final approval comes from the king who puts his seal on it. The letters CRS...
The Fairburn steam crane, named after its designer William Fairbairn, is a masterpiece of engineering. It was built in Bristol docks in 1878 to lift heavy loads (up to 35 tons), which it did for 95 years. It has now been restored and is a Scheduled Ancient...
This Dreidecker (“triplane”) is a reproduction at the Luftwaffe Museum in Gatow. According to Wikipedia, 320 of these machines were built, but only three are thought to have survived WW1. Serial 528/17 was retained as a testbed by the Deutschen Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt (German Aviation Research Institute)...
BF110F-2 Werknummer 5052 is on display in the Deutsches Technikmuseum, Berlin. This aircraft served with 13./Zerstörergruppe JG5 at KemiJarvi, Finland during 1943. On January 11, it was damaged by train-mounted flak while flying a four plane mission against railway lines between Murmansk and Leningrad. Pilot Helmut Ziegenhagen...
75mm Airborne M1A1 Pack Howitzer (1942) designed to be dropped into battle with airborne troops. This one was used by 1st Airlanding Light Artillery Regiment, Royal Artillery, at Arnhem bridge September 1944 where it was damaged (see broken tow ring). It is now in the Royal Artillery...
Odd name. The Percival Pembroke was a British light transport aircraft built between 1953-1958 by the Percival Aircraft Company, which later became ‘Hunting Percival’. They are quite rare. Only 128 were built. This one, a C-54 variant built for the German Luftwaffe is at the Militärhistorisches Museum...
This is a niche blog about technically-minded travel. It reflects my own interests in the mechanical, technical, historical, engineering, transport and military world.
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