My library just grew again 2017

[jcf]

Conspiracy theories always go down better than simple incompetence combined with
intransigence on the part of the involved parties.

[rickshaw]

Conspiracy theories always go down better than simple incompetence combined with
intransigence on the part of the involved parties.

As the old saying goes, "Never put down to conspiracy what stupidity, foolishness and inefficiency cannot explain..."   

[NARSES2]

Conspiracy theories always go down better than simple incompetence combined with
intransigence on the part of the involved parties.

As the old saying goes, "Never put down to conspiracy what stupidity, foolishness and inefficiency cannot explain..."   

True but none the less it is one I've heard many times, but admittedly more about B.O.A.C. than B.E.A. Similar theories could be heard in many U.K. Industries at the time and lots of times it was an easy excuse to use. Others however may well have been different.

Personally and at the risk of being stoned, I don't blame the powers that be at B.O.A.C. etc. They were in a very competitive market, against a lot of what was strictly unfair competition and they needed something they could trust to do the job and couldn't afford to take a risk on something that might have worked.

[Thorvic]

Its simpler than that to be Honest the US stuff was funded, developed and proven operationally so they could be effectively bought off the shelf, where as a British design they would be expected to participate in the development allow for the kinks to be ironed out and not benefit from the economies of scale which gives the US types a massive advantage in unit cost. For the airlines they had to compete with competitive pricing which meant buying the same stuff the US Airlines used.

[zenrat]

...at the risk of being stoned...

You may have hit upon the main reason a lot of conspiracy theories are spread...

[The Wooksta!]

Currently awaiting from ebay:

Hunting Hitler - Jerome Corsi
Canaris: The Life and Death of Hitler's Spymaster - Michael Mueller
The Origins of Nazi Genocide  - Henry Friedlander
Operation Damocles: Israel's Secret War Against Hitler's Scientists, 1951-1967 - Roger Howard
The Brutal Friendship: Mussolini, Hitler and the fall of Italian Fascism -  F W Deakin

[jcf]

Three from Roy Behrens on the way via Amazon:







Behrens has a blog as well:
http://camoupedia.blogspot.com

Collection of US dazzle design sheets:
http://dazzle.risd.edu

[Rheged]

The dazzle-camo book looks fascinating!!

[Gondor]

A couple of days ago I received from Amazon

The Luftwaffe Profile Series No.2      Messerschmitt BF109 G/K      by    Manfred Griehl

I have only flicked through it so far and think it looks quite good. I did buy it to replace a book a lent out/lost a while back but could not remember which book it was on the Bf 109 so if anyone can give decent suggestions on books detailing the F/G/K versions of the aircraft that would be great 

Gondor

[reddfoxx]

Just received Germany's First Ally, about the Slovaks in WW2.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1527154.Germany_s_First_Ally

[PR19_Kit]

Found the Airfix Model World printing on modelling the Mosquito in my local paper shop of all places. 

I should really have read the contents before I bought it as while there's a lot of info in there on Mosquitoes in general, only one of the five builds is in 1/72 scale. 

There's one in 1/48, two in 1/32 and one in 1/24, the latter being so huge I'm sure you could super-detail it from the inside AFTER you'd built the airframe.......

[NARSES2]

Cut through Smiths on my way to pub for rugby yesterday and picked up "Luftwaffe Secret Bombers of the Third Reich". One of the bookazines they do and for £6.99 excellent value 

Finally started to work my way through this. It's broken down into nice manageable chunks so you can pick it up for 15 mins or so over a cup of tea, it's also well written and easy to understand. It's a good read 

Also learning some things I wasn't aware of. Such as the fact that both Arado and Junkers were State owned.

[The Wooksta!]

I got that a while back.  Well worth the candle.

Currently awaiting from ebay:

The Templars - Piers Paul Read
17 Carnations: The Windsors, the Nazis and the Cover-Up - Andrew Morton
Himmler's Secret War: The Covert Peace Negotiations of Heinrich Himmler - Martin Allen
Secret Channel To Berlin: The Masson-Schellenberg Connection And Swiss Intelligence in WWII - Pierre TH. Braunschweig

The last two I'm really looking forward to reading.

[Nick]

Currently reading Riding The Retreat - From Mons to the Marne. In the summer of 1993 Richard Holmes (of War Walks fame) and his friends took four horses and rode the route the British Army took during the early weeks of the Great War.

I'm a quarter of the way in and they've only just got to France but Holmes has set the scene beautifully. He explains what the role of cavalry was supposed to be, what training they had, how they were recruited and meant to fight. He lays out the run-up to war very well and shows us the main characters in all their flaws - the British commander Sir John French who could barely speak French to his counterparts even after 5 years in France... 

War is ridiculous...
The four Russian officers who took horses from the Moscow racetrack to the battlefield, led the attack and found themselves alone in the German lines when they couldn't stop their chargers. Quite sportingly the Germans sent a message back to the Russian lines stating who had 'won the race, in what order and by what margin'! 

The British Army paid over the odds for damn near every horse in Ireland only to have to reject one in ten as unsuitable.

The worst behaved horse in one regiment was named Syphilis because nobody wanted to catch him! 

[KiwiZac]

Scored from our local eBay clone for NZ$1: Los Chicos de la Guerra by Daniel Kon, a series of interviews with Argentine conscripts who served in the Falklands/Malvinas. Fascinating and heartbreaking.