History, Politics And Current Affairs

It has been replaced, firstly by the TSR-2 in the heavy role and then by the Vickers Thunderbolt in the light. To expand: 1.) The DE Canberra was a "light medium" which entered service in the final years of the Second World War. It was a 1st generation jet bomber. As of the late 1970s, jet...

Anything from Malcolm Stoddard’s oeuvre will get a mention, as his stern, scrupulous style works well for Dark Earth, and I’ve liked him since The Campbells. Red Dwarf and Ace was a match that was meant to be, with the name of the boat/craft becoming obvious once the class name was “Red”. The ongoin...

Military Notes 1975-76 Naval 1975 January 4: Royal Navy nuclear attack submarines assigned to the Far East Fleet begin operations in a fourth general operational area in addition to the northern station covering the East China Sea, the central station in the South China Sea and the southern group o...

James1978 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2026 4:16 am Anybody notice what the Czech Army is lacking that other Warsaw Pact armies still have?

An artillery division or concentration under direct control of the High Command?

Absolutely, Mark. I recall that Stuart at some stage said words to the effect of 'only the USSR maintained a full sized army in the modern era', and, accounting for my memory, there is a great deal of substance to that. The 10 divisions (+ 5 mobilisation) is broadly analogous to their 1989 strength ...

Or rather, what has advanced more than others? On another place, I was discussing USN developments of the CRAW and generally similar predecessor programmes, such as the Countermeasure Anti-Torpedo Torpedo, with one of my oppos, and as I was writing, I drew back (figuratively) to consider the bigger ...

1.) There are large cities along the East Coast of Britain, and much, much closer together and much more heavily populated than the east coast of Australia. This would seem to suggest that any action can't be insulated from the people quite as much as it might be in Australia. Just Sydney to Britain...

As said, it blows it out of all proportion into a bad day in Bosnia/Beirut/insert city name starting with B. 1.) Australia isn't really keeping Indonesia down so much as focusing its limited (pre Canberra) manpower, money and resources in a far off minor theatre compared to others, such as Japan/Kor...

I’m going to try and phrase this properly, so as not to give a meaning contrary to my view: Is the East Coast Mine Battle really a battle? I think Mark’s story is, quite simply, outstanding. Action, pathos, detail. It is written in his style and voice, which is given to Great Deeds. It just doesn’t ...

It does indeed. If I had a few spare bucks, though, I wouldn't bet on this 'sea change' lasting very long after the current administration leaves office. This could be characterised as the marriage of strange bedfellows with very specific circumstances. The real time when something like this could h...

The pitchfork and torch wielding mobs from many a Hammer film don't seem that outlandish.

Well, stuff that didn't used to be legal. Goodness knows these days; it seems par for the course, based on the type of games which are frequently produced, both tabletop and on the electric computer.

I hadn’t heard of it before now, and as I know next to no one, the chances of playing any tabletop games whatsoever aren’t large. The premise seems novel, but I don’t go for any GRIMDARK properties at all, be they game or novels, so it wouldn’t be likely to play a significant role or even have a str...

Thank you very much, kind sir. The episode of Star Trek referenced here is the only one I’ve seen, and that was a few weeks ago. It’s not bad, and I like any ‘time slip to the 20th century’ concepts. This will be the only time we’ll ever see any reference to those wizards. The particular collectible...

Bernard, he was quite enterprising indeed, as the opportunity was quite fleeting; it is perhaps well that his Starfighter wasn't able to get closer to the object, as that may possibly have lead to some form of confusion, as if tomorrow were yesterday. He will have a son, and he is destined for great...

Pursuivant to Jotun’s mention of Germany, a few more notes courtesy of my inability to sleep: - The biggest difference for DE Germany of 1976 is that there isn’t a divided Germany, or at least not in the way we think of it, with the GDR being a strange and perhaps unnatural Stalinist flourish in Eas...

Whatever the origin, the idea is just brilliant and fab. It not only has my seal of approval, but can play into my future plans for a short story set in Germany. The Good Idea Fairy of course can be a real fairy (with a bit of a penchant for going a tad too hard on the black lotus), who has stuck ar...

An eminently sensible, rational and straightforward approach, which has much to commend it for the likes of our own world. On Dark Earth, there are more than enough hints and suspicions that threats may be more than simply natural asteroids, although one could hardly call the threat of an asteroid b...

October 1976 Sneaky Sneak Preview: October 1: TSR patents a new arcane animation process that converts high quality paintings and pictures to enchanted animated cartoons of exceptionally high quality. The follow-up to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons animated series now under production, itself f...

I don't give up hastily, and 21 years is hasty for me. Leaving some of the 'interim ground' open for future interpretation is a good strategy. If you had any broad brush lane ropes you wished to put in place, one way of doing them would be through snippets of a television programme or mini-extracts ...