Archive for the ‘History’ Category
The Battle of Britain (4): the hardest day
August 18th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
At the time, 18 August 1940 – 70 years ago today – was seen as the toughest day of the Battle of Britain and a turning point in the fortunes of the Royal Air Force. In reality, the intensity of air activity was greater on 15 and 16 August 1940 and the number of Fighter […]
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The Battle of Britain (3): Eagle Day
August 13th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
In retrospect, the Royal Air Force saw 1 July 1940 as the start of the Battle of Britain but, for the German Luftwaffe at the time, the Battle commenced on 13 August 1940 – 70 years ago today – which they designated Eagle Day.
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How the Danes saved their Jews
August 10th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just returned from a four-day break in Copenhagen with my sister Silvia which involved some very different sights and experiences. I’m very interested in the Second World War so I made a point of visiting the comprehensive Danish Resistance Museum. Also most of my closest friends are Jewish and I wanted to see the […]
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The 20th century: the century of violent death
July 26th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
I’m in the process of writing my 23rd short story [you can access all the previous stories here]. As background research for this particular story, I wanted some estimate of the scale of violent death in the 20th century. We all know that it was an unprecedented period of human history in terms of wars […]
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The Battle of Britain (2): the Americans
July 22nd, 2010 by Roger Darlington
“I think it is important in life to speak as it is and the fact is that we are a very effective partner of the US but we are the junior partner. We were the junior partner in 1940 when we were fighting the Nazis.” British Prime Minister David Cameron speaking to Sky television This […]
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The great city of London
July 20th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
My wife and I visited the Museum of London today. Amazingly she has never been there before and I wanted to go again because they have recently opened five new galleries on the period since 1666. In all, there are nine permanent galleries telling the story of this great city over two millennia. My favourite […]
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The truth about Communism
July 19th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
It’s two decades now since the collapse of the Communist regimes in Central & Eastern Europe but we sometimes need to remind ourselves of the terrible human cost of those repressive systems. Today saw the publication of the obituary by a friend of mine of one of the victims of Communist totalitarianism in what was […]
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The Darlington Spitfire
July 17th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
In 1985, William Kimber published “Night Hawk”, my biography of Flight Lieutenant Karel Kuttelwascher, the RAF’s greatest night intruder ace [for more information click here]. While doing picture research for this book at the Imperial War Museum in London, I came across a photograph of “The Darlington Spitfire”. Given my surname, I was naturally intrigued […]
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The Battle of Britain (1): the opening day
July 10th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Seventy years ago today, the Battle of Britain began: the struggle between the German Luftwaffe and the British Royal Air Force to control the skies over south-east England. The pilots of the time did not know that this period would be called the Battle of Britain; still less it they know that this day would […]
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The Don Pacifico affair
July 3rd, 2010 by Roger Darlington
I was at a dinner party this weekend and met a lovely couple. He was a management consultant and Greek, while she was a lecturer in modern history and Jewish. The odd way that my mind works put this information about them together and came up with a memory of a school history lesson that […]
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