Dan Ellin

Colin Bell mid laugh on the sofa at the Beeb.

Colin Bell on BBC Breakfast on his 105th birthday this morning.
From about 08:19 on the iPlayer.

Ep 67 is out today. German historian Thomas Rost takes us through bomb disposal in wartime Hamburg, including the use of prisoners & concentration camp inmates for this horrific work. A fascinating but disturbing story.

www.buzzsprout.com/2327200/epis...

YouTube video by Barnthorn Publishing The Great Escapism by David McCormack

David McCormack's book 'The Great Escapism' contains the stories of POWs including Alfie Fripp, Peter Butterworth, and Cy Grant - as well as a fair bit of cross dressing. #History #WW2 #HistBookChat @barnthorn.bsky.social

Pencil drawing "Last night's air raid." Seven caricature figures, five men and two women in a room. Three men are conversing on the left in front of fireplace. A woman sits reading a newspaper on a chair and another woman stands in front of her with paper in hand. On the right two men in front of a window converse while both gesticulating. Dated '4.3.41' Entitled 'Last Night's Air Raid'. Captioned 'L to R. Mr Guyatt, David Iliffe, Mr Sunman, ?Joy Suter, Charlie Aslin, Nat Davy'. IBCC Digital Archive item #18151

Drawing by William Akrill (1922 - 1943) of folks discussing an air raid #OTD 4 March 1941. Seems like there's far too many people all over the world doing exactly the same thing this morning. #WW2 #History #bombing #war #WorldNews

Council bids to buy former Lincolnshire Dambusters RAF base The local council wants to transform RAF Scampton into an aviation testing centre.

Scampton first opened in 1916 and re-opened in 1936. It wasn't only home to 617 Squadron during the Second World War; 49, 83, 57, 83, 153, and 625 Squadrons flew from there, and it was part of both 5 Group and 1 Group. Concrete runways were laid in late 1943, and it finally closed in 2022.

An airman points rifle at another airman who is blindfolded and tied to fence post while another airman directs. On the reverse 'Easby gets "shot" at V.H.F. by Bob Varley. Woodford gives the fatal signal, 3.3.40'. IBCC Digital Archive item #41076

Don't point firearms at people folks.

I'm on a loop of Detectorists, Ghosts, and Small Prophets.

If you can get to the IBCC in Lincoln on Thursday folks get a ticket for this!
Jane really knows her Onions!

I think it's a skipping rope?
We've pics of a Halifax in the archive with a naked woman nose art that is later painted out...

Halifax 'E' and aircrew 51 Squadron aircraft 'E' after 100 Ops Description Side view of the front of a Halifax. On the nose a silhouette of a chorus girl with 'Expensive Babe'. Under the cockpit, four rows of 25 bomb symbols and one swastika. In front seven aircrew in flying suits and Mae Wests walking away from aircraft. On the reverse '1/45 A/C 100 OPS' and filing codes. IBCC Digital Archive item #9522

Expensive Babe, a 'ton-up' Halifax on 51 Squadron.
@lydiajane13.bsky.social #History #WW2 @nmtdambusters.bsky.social @ibccdigitalarchive.bsky.social

Virtually perhaps. I'm going to be in Canada later in the year.

a man in a blue shirt and tie is pointing at a bulletin board with a lot of papers on it . Alt: a man in a blue shirt and tie is pointing at a bulletin board with a lot of papers on it .

More for my trip to Canada booked. Flights, motorhome and car hire, hotels, and Niagara sightseeing: sorted - only got a last bit of accommodation and the flights home to sort out. Bit of maths first. $ £...

Some of it was... @jdkightly.bsky.social ?

Adrian Constable – Three Legendary Airline Characters of the 1930s
@jamesjhistory.bsky.social & @jdkightly.bsky.social – Fictional Facts: Where Fiction Tells the Truth – British Aerial Stories from Biggles to A Piece of Cake
Helen Doe – The Legend of Bob Stanford Tuck: An Analysis

There's still time to register and attend the final session folks!
Saturday 28 February | 6:30–8:30pm Brisbane
(Saturday 28 February | 8:30am London | 3:00am US East Coast)

Another wizard session this morning...
Alessandro Pesaro on Pippo the Phantom Aircraft: Aviation Lore in Second World War Italy
Ian Castle Will the Real von Buttlar Please Stand Up?
Dan Ellin The Legend of the Scarecrow Flare
Brett Holman When Was the Red Baron?

a group of men are posing for a picture in front of an airplane and one of them has the letters rnn on his chest Alt: Horrible Histories Battle of Britain song

A wizard start to Print the Legend @avculturesconf.bsky.social
Amanda Laugesen on Australian Aviation War Memoirs
Kristen Alexander on Clive Caldwell’s Photographic Archive
Guillaume de Syon on the “Real” Count von Zeppelin
Jeffrey Schultz on Reappraising Billy Mitchell

The Gremlins Rough Cut - The Gremlins Museum The Gremlins Rough Cut presents the film in its earliest form: longer and alternative takes, deleted plot points, larger character arcs, raw camera audio with animatronic puppet sounds, and a movie wh...

Three hours of Gremlins. What could possiblt gi wrumh?

New shiny exhibition refit at the BBMF Visitor Centre, RAF Coningsby.

Then there's my 'Penguins and Chop Girls: RAF Bomber Command ground personnel 1939-45' talk on Friday 27 February at the Grandstand on Saxilby Road, Lincoln from 6pm.

I’ll be talking about ‘Scarecrows’ at the @avculturesconf.bsky.social's online Print the Legend event 27-28 Feb. Talks by @jdkightly.bsky.social ly.bsky.social @jamesjhistory.bsky.social esjhistory.bsky.social @airminded.org d.org and @kristenauthor.bsky.social tenauthor.bsky.social too

an elderly woman in a blue jacket is holding a megaphone to her mouth . Alt: Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo Dorothy's mother in Golden Girls holding a megaphone to her mouth.

I'm giving two talks in one day - not quite Phill Collins and Live Aid but there you go...
Thread.

Eden Camp: Malton WW2 museum announces new owners after 40 years Eden Camp, a former prisoner of war site near Malton, was bought by Stan Johnson in 1985.

"It's our history, it's British history and it's important to keep it alive..." It's also Italian, German, and Polish history.

a white car with the number 14 on the back of it Alt: An old school mini spinning into a very tight parallel parking space between two other Minis.

Today I have mostly been sending and receiving emails about parking at the university. It's a bit more of a car crash than this though.

The raid footage is spectacular and horrifying.

www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

Captain Swales in uniform

Master Bomber Captain Edwin Swales (South African Air Force) won the VC posthumously on this operation. He held his damaged aircraft steady to enable his crew to escape but it crashed before he could bale out himself.
losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/227371/

Air-to-air view showing the silhouette of two heavy bombers towards the bottom centre, well below going towards the bottom. In the background smoke, bomb explosions and on the right, target indicators. IBCC Digital Archive item #2405

The reverse '18. R.A.F. Bombers over Pforzheim. Two of R.A.F. Bomber Command’s “heavies” silhouetted against dense clouds of smoke during the air assault on the night of 23/24.2.45 on the important industrial and transport centre of Pforzheim, South-east of Karlscuhe [sic]. This picture is an extract from a film made by the R.A.F. Film Production Unit during the attack. The white “cascade” is caused by glowing target indicators.

Pforzheim #OTD 23 Feb 1945. 380 aircraft dropped 1,825 tons of bombs in 22 minutes from 8,000 feet. 83% of the town was destroyed and over 17,000 people killed. 12 aircraft were lost with the loss of 42 airmen.
#History
@ibccdigitalarchive.bsky.social
@nmtdambusters.bsky.social

The scale of the Éperlecques bunker only registers when you spot a tiny me standing in front of it. A V-1 and V-2 are displayed nearby, dwarfed by the structure designed to store and launch them.

Album pages. 'No.4 Wing presents'. On the first page a flyer for the farce, 'Tons of Money' by kind permission of Air Commodore G B Dacre., CBE, DSO. The second page has six images of people, some in theatrical costume, labelled, 'The Hyde Concert Party', 'Baub and Roy', 'Muriel and Roy', 'Brooklands at Luton', 'Whisk and Muriel' and 'Maurice and Henry'. IBCC Digital Archive item #42874

Page from Corporal Henry Francis Howard's album. in the @ibccdigitalarchive.bsky.social He put on theatrical productions at RAF Halton and later RAF Waddington.
#History #OTD 20 Feb 1942

I guess for some folks in the audience I need to add a line about how much I respect everyone involved - and then get stuck into the grey areas of memory and the contested heritage.