History, Politics And Current Affairs

I think the answer to that is "probably". He never lied about verifiable things in his autobiography, but some aspects (particularly those he implied about working with the SAS are just a bit too good to be true and inherently a bit fishy.

Home now, so more capacity to expand. The entire flow of the event can work, but perhaps just with a bit of tweaking: - Having ASIO (note that it is not 'the ASIO' anymore than it would be 'the MI5') get a further lead on a potential threat from a sleeper cell - Emphasise very heavy security of the...

That’s a cool one. 1924 American LaFrance Speedster - https://www.handh.co.uk/auction/lot/93-1924-american-lafrance-speedster/?lot=57716&sd=1 We had a bunch of others including the oldest surviving Aston Martin (Green Pea) - the Aston in Aston Martin comes from the village I lived in which was ...

Had a very early New York fire engine racing in the village recently.

I've got a couple of issues with the logic of it, which will no doubt turn out to be a case of @ being stranger than fiction: SAMP/T, Patriot and NASAMS 1 really aren't comparable - 75 mile range for SAMP/T firing ASTER 30, 50-100 miles for Patriot depending on variant, and 16 miles for NASAMS 1. If...

Nope on my part - the V&A really isn't my sort of thing.

At the same time, a manager in the Ambulance Service in the UK managed to run a Teams call with a Nazi Flag and portrait of Adolf Hitler in the background - everyone just laughed it off as normal and when someone tried to object they had their career ruined.

I’m reminded of President JFK directing the USN to add some 5” guns to our missile cruisers. Of course, JFK did have some cred in that Now, politicians engaging in detailed technical requirements might sound odd HOWEVER That’s who authorizes programs and appropriates the money so…….. And the USN ha...

Oh good grief...

Honestly, I'm trying to think of a historical non-PC name for a missile. Closest I can get is Red Hebe, and even that's only problematic because of a tertiary meaning and was a terrible design which never entered service.

I have a theory. There were originally 1,000 Minuteman silos, of which 400 are currently in use. The most recent tranche of 50 silos were de-activated in 2015. I rather suspect that the plan was to do a shuffle whereby they refurbished 50 silos at a time and put new missiles in them before decommiss...

Was actually done with the Churchill pretty early on - they fitted a WW1 3" 20cwt AA gun (very similar performance to the later 17pdr) in a casemate since the biggest thing they could fit in a turret at the time was the 6pdr.

Nightwatch2 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 28, 2025 12:07 amwhy couldn't they use any radars?

Sea Slug was a first generation beam-riding SAM designed for use against Bear bombers in the North Atlantic. Dealing with terrain clutter was something that never came to it. And San Carlos had deliberately terrible sight lines…

Not convinced the 4.5" or the AS-12s would be very effective - the 4.5" shells are exactly what Belgrano 's armour scheme was designed to protect against, and AS-12s have a penetration of 20mm coupled to a very short effective range which puts the helicopters in AA range. The RN would try ...

Would be interesting. There's a decent missile throw weight in the RN force (2x Sea Slug launchers (24 missiles), 8x Exocet, 8x Sea Skua) - although their gun armament is badly outclassed. General Belgrano is probably alone here - Hipólito Bouchard and Piedra Buena were both barely-modernised Allen ...

Thanks James. I would point out that I’ve not excused any behaviour here based on Stu’s interpretations- please ask the Mods! I don't think the Mods have used that justification, but there has been an excessively light touch on some things and a few of the problem children have used the "well ...

Answer on why it wasn't used during WW2 - the expertise was at the Shorts factory in Rochester which was bombed in 1940, destroying the Stirling prototype which had been fitted with aerial refuelling gear. Afterwards it wasn't a priority so they never rebuilt it. Bit of a shame really because a refu...

You'll be complaining that policemen all look really young these days next

Seriously, it wasn't to your taste. Different people like different things, so go to a different type of exhibition in future.

kdahm wrote: ↑Wed Apr 16, 2025 2:01 am{Pedant mode activated}That's not a SEAL, that's a sealion. The locomotion on land is a giveway, since seals can't walk on their front flippers.{/Pedant}

But are you brave enough to refer to people who have passed the BUD/S course as Navy SEALions?



</me runs and hides>

Leander wrote: ↑Thu Apr 10, 2025 8:46 pmNo one would be brave enough to tell a real story of inner city urban knife crime.

It would also be relentlessly grim. Who wants to watch that?