Just Finished Reading: Red Devils – The Trailblazers of the Paras in World War Two – An Authorised History of the Parachute Regiment by Mark Urban (FP: 2022) [280pp] 

You couldn’t help but be impressed by the German’s use of glider and parachute forces as the Blitzkrieg rolled across western Europe. With bridges secured and supposedly impregnable fortresses taken it would be hard not to be. The second inevitable thought was: why haven’t we got anything like that? So was born the idea and the seed of Britain’s elite Parachute Regiment. 

Prime Minister Winston Churchill was, of course, notoriously fond of special elite units like the Royal Marine Commandoes and the Special Air (and Boat) Service. So, he was delighted with the idea of dropping in troops from the skies to take and hold positions – and much else besides – where required. But the question was – where can they be used, and would they be of any use? Their first test came with a smash & grab operation in France early in 1942. The mission, Operation Biting, was a simple one – to grab German radar equipment that was giving the RAF a hard time so that countermeasures could be developed (more to come on this). It was both a successful mission and an ideal opportunity to learn valuable lessons before moving on to anything bigger. Naturally one of the consequences of ‘going large’ was that a purely volunteer force was no longer an option, so entire Infantry units were transferred over, and parachute (or glider) training was undertaken.  

The next opportunity/learning experience was in North Africa where more limitations were exposed for all to see – specially the lack of heavy anti-tank equipment – which cost the Regiment dearly. But it was also the place where they got the famous ‘nickname’ of the Red Devils, given to them by the opposing German forces before of their fighting prowess. Not surprisingly, the name was adopted with pride. Moving on to Sicily more painful lessons along with more encounters with their opposite numbers, the German parachutists, helped harden the Regiment for its toughest and most important mission yet – the invasion of Continental Europe: D Day. The deployments of paratroopers and glider forces (including the famous taking of Pegasus Bridge) before and around D-Day was a huge success and paved the way for the successful landings that day and in the following ones. Losses were high but still significantly less than expected or feared. The new doctrine had more than lived up to expectations. 

Not surprisingly, after such a success the temptation was to go even larger. Hubris, it must be said, played a significant role in the idea and planning of Operation Market Garden which hoped to shorten the war by leapfrogging through the Low Countries and end with pointing a dagger at the heart of the Rhineland. It was, as we now know with hindsight ‘a bridge too far’ as the attempted capture of the crossing at Arnhem failed spectacularly. From the authors notes it does seem that the idea was both rushed in the planning stage and in its application. Cooler heads should have seen that the operation was simply too risky and relied with everything going exactly right. Having many year's experience at this point the planners should have been well aware that NO plan survives contact with the enemy. So, when the troops at Arnhem met a Panzer division at rest it was effectively game over – despite a truly heroic defence of their perimeter (more later!) which has since passed into legend.  

Although a little too exhaustive in places, this was often a fascinating look at – from the British standpoint at least – a new way of warfare. When used properly (certainly not always the case) it was devastatingly effective. When used improperly (when strengths and weaknesses were not understood by Infantry commanders) casualty lists ballooned. Even so, the Parachute Regiment always fought above its weight as befits an elite unit and has more than earned its place in history. An interesting read and, therefore, recommended. 

Looks like old computer graphics..., before they figured out how to do weather effects & grass blowing in the wind...!

Happy Birthday: Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He was a founder of Bauhaus in Weimar (1919). Gropius was also a leading architect of the International Style.

Just Finished Reading: Play the Red Queen by Juris Jurjevics (FP: 2020) [346pp] 

Saigon, 1963. It would’ve been nice to have been on the investigation from the start but since when has the Army done anything in a straightforward manner? So, with the third American officer shot dead in broad daylight on a busy street Staff Sergeant Ellsworth Miser and Sergeant Clovis Robeson of the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division are practically starting from scratch. Not that there’s much to go on. Each of the victims was a US military ‘advisor’ to the Army of South Vietnam, each was killed at fairly close range with a single shot from an automatic handgun with the killer apparently being a young girl who then escaped on the back of a motorbike. In a city of thousands of motorbikes and tens of thousands of pretty young girls riding on their backs that information was practically useless. So, where to start? There’s a basic rule in police work – if you can’t investigate the murderer then investigate the victims. The ‘random’ killings of American soldiers turned out to be nothing of the kind – they were linked, they knew each other or worked in the same department, the area of the Army responsible for the importation of American supplies into the South. It was an area awash with money. Were the officers on the take or had they refused to be corrupted? Was someone simply cleaning house prior to the much rumoured ‘coup’ that had been talked about in the local bars for months now? Was the hit-girl Viet Cong or someone closer to home? With regular in-fighting and powerplays between members of the South’s ruling ‘elite’ who could tell which death-squad was responsible for which execution or assassination? It was impossible to keep track. What made things worse, if they could get worse, was that the American ambassador was in town doing deals and making waves. His life had already been threatened and he might even be on the assassins ‘list’. Closing the case wasn’t going to be easy in a town full of refugees, undercover agents, factions and teenage killers. But orders are orders – find the girl and stop the killing... 

As usual I picked this up because both the blurb on the back and the distinctive cover looked ‘interesting’. I was most definitely not disappointed with my choice! This turned out to be one of my best reads of the year so far. The author writes beautifully and, having served in Vietnam for “fourteen months, nine days and two hours” knows his way around the city, the people and the culture of the region (like knowing NOT to pat a Vietnamese kid on the head!) which made the reading both highly entertaining and very informative. It was, honestly, like being there complete with the oppressive humidity, the constant sound of traffic (and distant gunfire), the regular random power cuts and knowledge that if you stayed there long enough you were going to open the wrong door, meet the wrong person or just start the wrong car and that would be that – Game Over. It’s a real shame that the author died not long after completing this novel – his third – so I can’t look forward to reading him in the years ahead. I’ll definitely be looking out for his other novel based in Vietnam though. If you’re interested in the very early phase of the Vietnam War – when the American’s were still in their ‘advisor’ phase before that started shipping in troops by the tens of thousands and carpet-bombing entire countries – including those not even involved in the war – this will intrigue you. If you just want a bloody good read and want to lose yourself in a faraway place and a very different time I can't recommend this book too highly. One thing I need to do, going forward, is to read up on the US Ambassador – Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. If he’s anything like his character in this novel, he deserves my attention! More to come on the region, the war and from this author.   

East meets West. Past meets Future. Youth meets Adult. Muddy Brown meets Pastel Shades.... 

Just Finished Reading: Red Summer – The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America by Cameron McWhirter (FP: 2011) [271pp] 

After their sacrifices on the battlefields of France they thought things would change on their return. With the words of President Wilson still ringing in their ears with talk of Democracy and Self Determination as the cornerstones of a new world order, with talk of peace, prosperity and progress for all they thought things would be different, that they’d be treated with more respect and that many would, at long last, be able to cast their votes without fear of the consequences. In 1919 they realised they were wrong. Nothing had really changed. Despite filling many of the jobs lost to soldiers fighting abroad and despite fighting and dying on European battlefields – when they were actually allowed to fight – they were treated exactly the same and were expected to take up their subservient roles again as if nothing had happened. Not surprisingly, many decided that things had indeed changed – maybe not in American society but within themselves. The feeling, most especially amongst returning veterans, was that they deserved better and that they would demand batter. So began the slow, painful and often bloody awakening of Black consciousness across America – from resistance to lynching, to fighting back in the cities (both North and South) when attacked, to the founding and growth of organisations designed to help black American’s gain access to legal remedies previously denied them as well as procuring professional legal representation in court cases where life and death hung in the balance.   

I’d come across various examples of this aspect of the American experience scattered through my reading of US history, but I lost count of the number of times I was honestly shocked at what went on and people's reaction to it. A few times I had to put the book down and go do something else for a while for my brain to function again. There’s only so much casual racism and targeted brutality I can cope with before my mind loses all comprehension. From 1919 into the early 1920’s I’m stunned at what black Americans had to put up with and I’m not surprised in the least that at least some of them decided that enough was enough. Some white commentators actually complained that the problem was caused by the French who had the audacity to treat black American soldiers like human beings which inevitably gave them ideas ‘above their station’. While American officers treated black soldiers who wanted to fight as simple labourers the French officers were more than willing to lead them into battle – and did so to great effect. The French could care less about their skin colour (having black soldiers themselves) but only cared if they were willing to kill the Boche.  

This detailed and very well written history was a real eye-opener for me. I kind of ‘knew’ how bad it could be being black in early 20th century America, but I had no real idea – until now. If you have a reasonably strong stomach and you can keep your anger and disgust in check this is a worthwhile if sobering read which helps to put a lot of black activism into a solid context. Black Lives Matter and its predecessors did not pop into existence out of thin air. It had LONG antecedents – even long before the focus of this book. I think that I am at least beginning to understand where some of the animosity and suspicion of American blacks comes from. This book was a real education. Highly recommended to anyone wanting to understand a still vital aspect of America. More to come from this author. 

Happy Birthday: Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford, DBE (11 May 1892 – 22 May 1972) was an English actress of stage, film and television.

She came to national attention following World War II in the film adaptations of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. She won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for her role as the Duchess of Brighton in The V.I.P.s (1963). In the early 1960s, she starred as Agatha Christie's character Miss Marple in a series of four George Pollock films. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1961 and a Dame Commander (DBE) in 1967.

That's a *really* good metaphor.... [lol]

Just Finished Reading: The Red Eagles by David Downing (FP: 2014) [232pp] 

Europe 1945. With the European war swiftly coming to an end Premier Joseph Stalin is looking to the future and he doesn’t like what he sees. It has become obvious that the USA will, with the inevitable defeat of the Axis Powers both in Europe and Asia, become the world’s dominant power for years if not decades to come. What is worse, if such a thing can be imagined, is that they will for most of that time be the world's only nuclear power. Knowing about the bomb's existence before the American President told him was a delicious moment but that fleeting moment didn’t count for much with a radioactive Sword of Damocles very publicly dangling over the head of the Soviet Union. Their own programme was advancing at pace. People, even scientists, work wonders when their families are threatened. But there was one element that even death threats cannot conjure out of thin air – enough Uranium 235 to build enough bombs to counter the Capitalist threat. If they couldn’t make enough fast enough there was only one real alternative – they would have to steal it from the Americans. Easily said but certainly possible – except for one thing, the Americans would both know it had been taken and how many bombs could be made from it. A deception plan would be needed, and a third party needed to be blamed. If there was time for the Germans to act before the Third Reich collapsed. 

This was, to say the least, an intriguing work of fiction! I’ve been watching a long running series of YouTube History videos on the end of the European war, so I had lots of background information sloshing around my brain cells which helped fill in some of the background details. The plot was very clever, and I really liked the inevitable problems that arose – no plan surviving contact with the enemy (AKA reality) - as well as to how they were believably handled. As always (broken record time!) good characterisation was key to my enjoyment and here we had that in spades with the Russians, Germans and Americans all being well drawn and, mostly, likable. The only character we were supposed to dislike – and I did – ended up satisfactorily dead which was good. The romance elements actually made sense (normally I skip over those bits) and I didn’t have a single eye-rolling moment which is a pleasant change. Pacing was good and despite being rather short gripped enough to feel longer – in a good way. I actually don’t think I can fault this in a single way, and I consequently enjoyed it a great deal. More from this author to come. A solid above average read. Recommended.  

Just Finished Reading: Divided – Why We’re Living in an Age of Walls by Tim Marshall (FP: 2018) [288pp] 

Walls, be they metaphorical, electronic or physical, seem to be THE topic presently. From the ‘Great Firewall of China’ to the ‘southern Border’ in the US, from the wall separating Israel from the Palestinians to the barriers between India and Pakistan, from the walls being erected on the borders of the European Union and calls for stricter interior controls and the rejection of the free movement of people by the UK in the Brexit vote, talk of walls – the need for more, bigger, wider, deeper – and protests against them has rarely been louder. But why? And why now? 

Walls have a LONG and chequered history. Normally they are built to keep people out, to restrict access to an area or country, to control who comes in. Sometimes they are the opposite – the Berlin Wall being the poster child for this sort of thing – and are designed to keep a population IN. All have failed to one degree or another – although the Berlin Wall was amongst the most successful certainly in modern times. Despite the catalogue of failure, the wall builders rarely give up and instead look for better walls full of gadgets, drones, cameras, and if you’re really serious of keeping people out, men with guns, mines and dogs trained to kill. Yet, people still come, people still get through – or escape. The problem with walls is that there’s often a wall around or through them – be it a ladder, a tunnel, a balloon or simply a bribe at the gate. Most rational wall builders know this. Walls will slow the movement of people, not stop it. Walls are an additional cost – monetary, psychological, emotional – to people looking to relocate. Often the additional cost is worth paying and the cost to be builders to prevent this can be eye-wateringly large. Is it even worth it? 

The issue here, as the author points out, is less practical than emotional. Walls might not make us safe, but they make us feel safer. Or at least that’s the idea. But living inside a wall also makes people feel besieged and under (at least potential) attack. They may feel (at least temporarily) safer but at the cost of increased anxiety. In many ways its completely understandable. We seem to be living in a particularly uncertain time. Ironically, it might have been the falling of one wall – in Berlin – that eventually led to so many of us either cowering behind our new walls or calling for them to be built. The Cold War – however potentially existential it was – provided at least the illusion of stability. Generally speaking, people knew what to expect from their own side and that of the ‘other’. The future, bleak though it might be, was a known quantity. Today we live in a much more complex multi-polar world where the future can be barely imagined (bleak though it is expected to be) much less planned for. The entirely natural instinct is to burrow in, hunker down and protect what you have – in other words, to start building walls or build existing walls all the higher. 

Taking a world tour of wall building – both existing and planned – the author shows (to a surprising extent I thought) the extent to wall building in regional hotspots and along contended and contentious border areas. Most of these walls I’d barely heard of as most talk, at least in the western media is about America’s southern border with Mexico. That is, sadly, not the only one, not the biggest or most expensive or most complex one. With global migration increasing due to conflict, climate pressure and other factors the numbers of people pressing up against walls across the world can only increase. The question for everyone, not just our politicians, is what we can, should, and will do about it. Bigger walls or a more managed and rational process. One way or another we’re going to find out. Definitely recommended, although it might depress you more than a little bit. Much more to come from this author. 

Happy Birthday: Audrey Kathleen Hepburn (née Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend from the Classical Hollywood cinema and was inducted into the International Best Dressed Hall of Fame List.

Born into an aristocratic family in Ixelles, Brussels, Hepburn spent parts of her childhood in Belgium, England and the Netherlands. She attended boarding school in Kent, England from 1936 to 1939. With the outbreak of World War II, she returned to the Netherlands. During the war, Hepburn studied ballet at the Arnhem Conservatory and by 1944, she performed ballet to raise money to support the Dutch resistance. Hepburn studied ballet with Sonia Gaskell in Amsterdam beginning in 1945 and with Marie Rambert in London from 1948. She began performing as a chorus girl in West End musical theatre productions and then had minor appearances in several films. Hepburn rose to stardom in the romantic comedy Roman Holiday (1953) alongside Gregory Peck, for which she was the first actress to win an Oscar, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award for a single performance. That year, she also won a Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play for her performance in Ondine.

Hepburn went on to star in a number of successful films such as Sabrina (1954), in which Humphrey Bogart and William Holden compete for her affection; Funny Face (1957), a musical in which she sang her own parts; the drama The Nun's Story (1959); the romantic comedy Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961); the thriller-romance Charade (1963), opposite Cary Grant; and the musical My Fair Lady (1964). In 1967, she starred in the thriller Wait Until Dark, receiving Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations. After that, Hepburn only occasionally appeared in films, one being Robin and Marian (1976) with Sean Connery. Her last recorded performances were in the 1990 documentary television series Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement – Informational Programming. In 1994, Hepburn's contributions to a spoken-word recording titled Audrey Hepburn's Enchanted Tales earned her a posthumous Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children. She stands as one of few entertainers who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy and Tony Awards.

Happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th be With You - Always....

I know we Brits do so like talking about the weather... But, JEEZE.... It's been raining, with a few short dry intervals - usually no longer that 2-3 days with the (very) occasional dry week - for about 12 MONTHS now. It's getting *silly*. The 2nd half of last year was the wettest since 1890... and its STILL raining.... I think we're LONGING for a bit of dry, even a drought would be a nice change at this point! 

Just Couldn’t Finish Reading: Biomimicry – Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine M Benyus (FP: 1997) [297pp] 

My first (and hopefully last!) DNF of the Year. This was really quite disappointing as I’d been looking forward to reading this for a while. Biomimicry – using lessons from nature to improve or even design from the ground up better machines or processes – is a great way to short-cut the design process. Afterall, nature has been perfecting its processes for a LONG time. So, I was expecting things on solar cells and stuff (which are actually pictured on the cover) and much else besides. It started out OK and I actually enjoyed (mostly) the first chapter on farming except for the nagging feeling that the ideas being discussed just wouldn’t work in the real world!  

But what really turned me off – or rather made me increasingly reluctant to pick this up and engage further – were two things. Firstly, I felt that the author stayed far too long in the weeds – even if that was quite appropriate in the farming section – rather than discussing the ideas and fundamental underpinning of the viewpoint. Second, I found that the age of the book – which to be honest isn’t that bad in the grand scheme of things – meant that her enthusiasm over a bit of technology was often redundant because it had either been shown to be a bad idea, had been superseded by something else or had been adopted as a standard and so had faded into the background.  

So, after 120 pages, I gave in and the DNF guillotine came down. Back in the day I’d give a book 50 pages before I’d DNF it (although sometimes it was a LOT less than that!). I think 120 pages is giving it a good go, so I’m not feeling guilty in any way, just disappointed. On to bigger and better things...