Polish Air Force Memorial – 13th May 2023
I’d heard the Polish Air Force Memorial mentioned many times on traffic reports, but as I had to go to Ealing, I decided to visit.
This is the first paragraph in the Wikipedia entry.
The Polish Air Force Memorial is a war memorial in West London, England in memory of airmen from Poland who served in the Royal Air Force as part of the Polish contribution to World War II. Over 18,000 men and women served in the Polish squadrons of the RAF during the war, and over 2,000 died. The memorial marks the southern extremity of South Ruislip in the London Borough of Hillingdon, near RAF Northolt, where seven Polish-manned fighter squadrons were based at different times in the war.
I took these pictures.
Note.
- As you can see the traffic was bad.
- The small car park only had a couple of cars in it.
- I took an E7 bus from Ruislip Gardens to the memorial and then another E7 after my visit to Ealing Broadway station.
It’s not a difficult place to find by public transport.
It’s certainly a place to be visited. Especially for people like me who grew up in London just after the Second World War. Throughout my schooling, every class had a least one and sometimes as many as three Polish children in it.
Three Players Pursuing Floating Offshore Wind Opportunities At Barents Sea Oil Field
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Norwegian oil and gas company Vår Energi has entered into a collaboration with a consortium consisting of Odfjell Oceanwind and Source Galileo to explore opportunities for floating offshore wind through a pilot project at a field located in the Barents Sea off Norway.
The article mentions the Goliat oil field, which is located 85 kilometres (53 mi) northwest of Hammerfest.
This Google Map shows the location of Hammerfest.
Note.
- Hammerfest is marked by the red arrow.
- Hammerfest is the northernmost town in the world with more than 10,000 inhabitants.
- The furthest North, I’ve been in Europe is to Trondheim, which is in the South-West corner of the map.
- To the East of Hammerfest Norway and Russia have a common border and beyond that is the Russian port of Murmansk.
Many years ago, my first visits to Ipswich Town were courtesy of the Official Receiver for Ipswich; John Richardson, who was my parents’ next door neighbour in Felixstowe.
John was an interesting guy, who during the Second World War had been on the Arctic convoys to Murmansk and Archangel. The Wikipedia entry for Arctic Convoys Of World War Two, gives some details.
His descriptions of the weather in the area were horrendous and it makes me wonder why the Norwegians want to extract oil in those conditions. And now generate wind power.
This is the first sentence of the article.
Vår Energi disclosed the deal on Wednesday, 26 April 2023, explaining that the project, called GoliatVind, was a pilot project to demonstrate new, Norwegian offshore wind technology.
So is it all about new technology?
Belgians To Start Building World’s First Artificial Energy Island Next Year (VIDEO)
The title of this post, is the same as that, of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Belgian offshore construction companies Jan De Nul and DEME, through their consortium TM EDISON, have won the tender for the construction of the Princess Elisabeth Island in their home country and the first artificial energy island in the world.
And this first paragraph outlines the project.
The artificial island, which will be built some 45 kilometres off the Belgian coast and will occupy an area of approximately five hectares above the waterline, will serve as the link between the offshore wind farms in the country’s second, 3.5 GW Princess Elisabeth offshore wind zone and its onshore high-voltage grid.
Initial plans don’t seem to be putting any wind turbines or solar panels on the island.
The most impressive part of the article is the video, which shows how the island will be constructed.
To some people of my age, the construction of the island will seem familiar, as the island will be built in a similar way to the Mulberry harbours of World War II.
A few years ago, I went inside some of the giant Pheonix caissons in The Netherlands, where they were initially used to plug the dykes after the North Sea Flood of 1953. They are now a museum of the floods called the Watersnoodmuseum.
Engineering is repeating itself.
Bananas And Me
According to my mother, I didn’t see or taste a banana until I was seven.
That would have been 1954, which is when rationing ended.
The Wikipedia entry entitled Rationing In The UK is a valuable resource.
Bananas had been available since 1945, although they had not been imported during the war.
I had been born in 1947, with my sister born in 1950. As my paternal grandmother lived with us, we were a family of five.
So I suspect, that although they were available my mother didn’t buy them for some reason.
The Wikipedia entry has a section called Political Reaction, which talked about reaction to rationing after the war. This is said.
In the late 1940s, the Conservative Party utilised and encouraged growing public anger at rationing, scarcity, controls, austerity and government bureaucracy to rally middle-class supporters and build a political comeback that won the 1951 general election. Their appeal was especially effective to housewives, who faced more difficult shopping conditions after the war than during it.
My father had been politically active before World War II, but he was much more politically agnostic after the war, judging by some things he said to me. I can’t ever remember my mother saying anything political, although I can remember her saying something, which agreed with the last sentence of the Wikipedia extract.
I suspect she was under pressure from my grandmother, so perhaps she kept the shopping light because of rationing.
Anyway, I can remember her telling my wife that my face had been a picture when I saw and ate my first banana.
I’ve not stopped eating them since.
- I generally eat between one and three every day.
- I have problems with fruit that needs to be cut up because of my gammy left hand, so for pineapple, melon and mango, I usually buy them ready-cut in pots from Marks and Spencer.
- I also eat a lot of berries, when they are in season.
But, I never eat oranges, apples or pears, except in a processed form.
Bananas And My Family
As far, as I can check, I’m the only one of my family, who likes bananas and eats them regularly.
I have checked on two sons and my granddaughter and none seem to like them.
Could it be my mother’s denial of the fruit to me until rationing ended, gave me a love of the fruit?
Bananas And Coeliacs
This page on the Harvard University School of Public Health gives the nutrition facts about bananas.
This is the second paragraph.
The scientific name for banana is Musa, from the Musaceae family of flowering tropical plants, which distinctively showcases the banana fruit clustered at the top of the plant. The mild-tasting and disease-resistant Cavendish type is the main variety sold in the U.S. and Europe. Despite some negative attention, bananas are nutritious and may even carry the title of the first “superfood,” endorsed by the American Medical Association in the early 20th century as a health food for children and a treatment for celiac disease.
Now there’s a thing.
This page on the Gluten-Free Watchdog is entitled Early Dietary Treatment for Celiac Disease: The Banana Diet.
I’d never heard of this diet until yesterday.
Interestingly, a large banana contains 50 mg of vitamin B6 according to Dr. Google.
I take a B6 supplement and I wrote about the advice I received from a doctor at a respected medical university in Amsterdam in Vitamin B Complex for Coeliacs.
I
An Expedition To Muswell Hill To Get Some Lovely Liver
After my plea in Need To Regularly Eat A Large Plate Of Calves’ Liver, I got a recommendation to try The Cilicia at Muswell Hill.
It was delicious and just what my body wanted. The liver had been cooked in sage butter with tomatoes, mushrooms and potatoes.
I shall return!
The only problem is that Dalston and Muswell Hill is not the easiest journey to make by public transport.
My route was as follows.
- I took by taking a 141 bus from close to my house to Manor House station.
- I then got a Piccadilly Line train to Turnpike Lane station.
- From there it was a 144 bus to Muswell Hill Broadway.
It took about 45 minutes.
But it might be quicker to take a 102 bus from Bounds Green station.
Or go to the Angel Islington and get a 43 bus from there to Muswell Hill Broadway.
But my route could all have been so different.
This map shows the Muswell Hill branch which was closed by British Rail and has since been mainly built over.
The Muswell Hill branch would have been part of the comprehensive Northern Heights Plan.
- The Northern Line would have been extended from Edgware to Bushey Heath.
- The Mill Hill East branch would have been extended to Edgware.
- If you look at the maps in Wikipedia, the Northern Line would be very different through London.
- The Muswell Hill branch would have given better access to the magnificent Alexandra Palace.
But Austerity after World War II meant the extension never happened.
I can see a case could be made for some parts of the Northern Heights plan, but it is too late now, as viaducts have been demolished and routes have been built over.
My feeling is that if there was a need for the Northern Heights plan in the 1930s, then as London has expanded, that need will need to be fulfilled in the future.
So when Austerity hits as it did after World War II and as it is happening now due to Covid-19 and Vlad’s war in Ukraine, we should make sure we don’t compromise our plans for the future.
I believe that with a small amount of safeguarding in the 1960s, the Northern Line would now have a useful branch to Alexandra Palace and Muswell Hill.
Is Volodymyr Zelenskyy Planning A Mosquito Moment?
Just imagine the scene in Berlin on January 30th, 1943, which was the tenth anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power.
A celebration had been planned with speeches by Goering and Goebbels to the Nazi faithful, which would be broadcast over the radio.
But precisely as Goering started to speak, three RAF Mosquitos arrived over Berlin.
This article on The Smithsonian Magazine, which is entitled When the RAF Buzzed Over Germany to Drown Out Nazi Broadcasts, describes the interruption like this.
When the bombs and the British engines intruded on the broadcast of Goering’s speech, radio engineers cut his feed and scrambled for safety. A bewildered German public instead heard the cacophony of bombers, which was soon replaced on their radios with a crackly recording of marching band music. It was more than an hour before a furious Goering returned to the airwaves.
Hours later, three more Mosquitos, gave Goebbels a similar treatment.
Wikipedia gives this quote from Goering about the Mosquito.
In 1940 I could at least fly as far as Glasgow in most of my aircraft, but not now! It makes me furious when I see the Mosquito. I turn green and yellow with envy. The British, who can afford aluminium better than we can, knock together a beautiful wooden aircraft that every piano factory over there is building, and they give it a speed which they have now increased yet again. What do you make of that? There is nothing the British do not have. They have the geniuses and we have the nincompoops. After the war is over I’m going to buy a British radio set – then at least I’ll own something that has always worked.
He was lecturing a group of German aircraft manufacturers.
It has been reported that Vlad the Mad is planning a spectacular parade on Victory Day, which is May 9th, 2022.
I can imagine that Ukrainian planners are working on ways to interrupt any speeches.
A drone spraying blue and yellow paint would be intensely funny and totally within the expertise of high-quality special forces.
It’s Time We Used Cyber Dark Arts To Foil Putin
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times, which was written by Edward Lucas.
This is the first paragraph.
Breaking the Kremlin’s grip on the Russian people is the greatest national security priority of our lives. We cannot (or rather, will not) fight the Russian invaders in Ukraine. But we can fight inside Russia, using disruption and subversion to disable the war machine, ideally to the point that the country becomes ungovernable.
He suggests the following.
- Russian speakers could sow doubt about the regime’s lies and brutalities.
- Use the Russian diaspora to contact friends and relatives back home.
- Build and unleash a psychological warfare arsenal against Putin’s cocktail of crimes, lies and secrecy.
- Send condolences to family members for their losses in the war.
- Prepare Nuremberg for war crimes trials.
- Highlight the friendly treatment that Ukrainians give Russian deserters.
- Use wit as a weapon.
Edward Lucas then talks about the antics of Sefton Delmer in World War II. Wikipeda says this about him.
During the war, he led a black propaganda campaign against Hitler by radio from England. It was so successful that Delmer was named in the Nazis’ Black Book for immediate arrest after their planned invasion of Britain.
I suspect he was very good at his job. Two of his weapons were.
Aspidistra, which was a 500 kW radio station.
A daily “grey” German-language newspaper titled Nachrichten für die Truppe (“News for the Troops”). These leaflets were delivered by the USAF.
Edward Lucas says that we should all read Delmer’s autobiography, which is called Black Boomerang, which is now out of print and difficult to find.
Wikipedia gives this explanation of Black Boomerang.
When fighting entered Germany itself, black propaganda was used to create an impression of an anti-Nazi resistance movement.
At the end of the war in Europe, Delmer advised his colleagues not to publicise the work they had been involved in, lest unrepentant Nazis claim (as had been the case after the First World War), that they had been defeated by unconscionable methods, rather than on the battlefield. Consequently, former Nazis were able to claim, without contradiction, that they had assisted the fictitious resistance movement; Delmer described this unintended consequence as a “black boomerang”
Edward Lucas suggests reprinting Black Boomerang.
If someone has a good clear copy, I could possibly arrange it.
Demoralising The Russians
Edward Lucas believes, we can use similar techniques to Delmer to attack the Russians.
But instead of using a massive radio, he proposes using the Internet and its various messaging apps.
I suspect with a bit of arm-twisting Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft et al, could produce a very good list of Russian Internet users.
It might be against the law, but who cares? It’s a war out there, we’re not using the information to physically hurt anybody or steal anything of value.
News For The Troops
I believe we can go one better than Sefton Delmer.
We are dealing with Russians invading and occupying Ukrainian territory, where many of the inhabitants can certainly read Russian.
So could we develop a truthful leaflet, that is delivered across Ukraine to both Russian Troops and the Ukrainian population?
Delivery would be primarily by the Internet, but why not deliver it by drone?
Delivery from say 5000 feet would distribute the leaflets over a wide area.
Could We Go Candy Bombing?
Gail Halvorsen, who died recently was known as the Candy Bomber.
This is the introduction to his Wikipedia entry.
Gail Seymour Halvorsen (October 10, 1920 – February 16, 2022) was a senior officer and command pilot in the United States Air Force. He is best known as the “Berlin Candy Bomber” or “Uncle Wiggly Wings” and gained fame for dropping candy to German children during the Berlin Airlift from 1948 to 1949.
I think, his actions could be copied in Ukraine.
Consider.
- The Ukrainian people are starving in the occupied territories.
- The Russian soldiers aren’t doing much better.
- These days, we can supply nutrition bars instead of sweets.
- Automated drones could deliver them safely from 5000 feet.
- They could be flown on behalf of the Red Cross from over the border in Hungary, Moldova, Poland and Slovakia.
Organised properly, the Russians would have a problem.
- If they let the drones through, the siege will be broken in a small way.
- If they shoot them down, their soldiers won’t get the smallest snack and the Russians will be attacking the Red Cross.
We might lose a lot of drones, but eventually we’ll get the nutrition through, each wrapped in a large dollop of propaganda.
The Edmonton Incinerator
Although it is officially known these days as the Edmonton EcoPark, as a North Londoner, I will always know it as the Edmonton Incinerator.
I took these pictures with my drone.
These are a few facts from Wikipedia about the waste-to-energy plant.
- It was commissioned by the Greater London Council in 1971.
- It burns waste from the seven North-East London boroughs.
- It generates 55 MW of electricity.
It certainly dominates the landscape alongside the North Circular Road.
But.
It is probably not amongst the greenest of incinerators.
It is probably very much a design of the 1960s.
It is approaching fifty years old.
But it appears that things could be improving.
- There is a large composting and recycling facility being built on the site on the site.
- Plans exist to bring in the rubbish by barge.
This Google Map shows the site.
Note.
- The North Circular Road runs across the bottom of the map.
- All of the roads obliterated the famous Cooks Ferry Inn, where I saw the Animals play in the 1960s.
- The River Lee Navigation runs past the incinerator.
- Pymme’s Brook runs on the other side.
It looks from the map, that another reservoir is being built to the East of the canal.
The Guy Who Built The Edmonton Incinerator
I used to work with the guy, who was one of those in charge of the building of the incinerator, who when I met him, was head of the Greater London Council’s Construction Branch, who were using my project management software.
I can’t remember Mr. Samuels first name, even if I ever knew it.
- He was an Austrian Jew, who had trained as an engineer, who arrived in the UK sometime in the 1930s.
- He taught himself English in six weeks and got a job at Lucas.
- At the start of World War II, he volunteered and joined the Royal Engineers.
- He spent the whole war in bomb disposal.
- After the war he became an observer at the Nuremberg Trials.
After all he’d been through, he told me, the worst time of his life, was those years in the early seventies when I knew him, as his wife was dying of cancer.
But he taught me a lot about project management and the real horror of war.
He never told me, how many of his relatives survived the Nazis.
What Will Happen To The Edmonton Incinerator?
This year it will be fifty years since the Edmonton Incinerator was commissioned. It must be coming to the end of its life.
I can’t find any plans, but endless groups, who want it closed rather than rebuilt.
This article in the Hackney Gazette, which is entitled Campaigners Urge North London Incinerator Bidders To Pull Out, is typical.
I am very pro recycling, but then others aren’t as these pictures show.
So if some won’t recycle properly, it will all have to go to landfill.
An Odd Tale About Recycling
I applied to be a member of the Independent Monitoring Board of a prison near, where I used to live.
I had a very interesting tour of the prison, where I met several of the inmates.
One thing surprised me.
The prison had a very comprehensive internal recycling system, whereby everything was fully sorted.
One course of training, that was offered to prisoners was how to sort and process all of the rubbish. According to the guy running the course, it was one of the most popular in the prison.
Possibly, because I was told, it prepared prisoners for a job, where there were lots of vacancies.
I wonder if the new £100million recycling centre at Edmonton will use labour trained in the Prison Service?
Tips For American Servicemen In Britain During The Second World War
The title of this post, is the same as this page on the Imperial War Museum web site.
These are the first two introductory paragraphs.
In 1942, the first of over 1.5 million American servicemen arrived on British shores in preparation for the Allied offensives against Germany during the Second World War.
That year, the United States’ War Department published Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain to help soldiers, sailors and airmen – many of whom had never travelled abroad before – adjust to life in a new country.
The whole area of the web site is well-worth exploring.
The book, which is entitled Instructions For American Servicemen In Britain 1942 can be purchased from the museum.
Will There Be A Sports And Arts Bounceback As There Was After World War II?
This may be optimism, but after World War II, all sports had massive attendances, and I wonder if the same thing will happen, when we get a 100 % reliable vaccine against the covids?
There was even a great desire for fun during the war, as this news item on British Pathe, which is entitled Wartime Derby at Newmarket 1941 shows.
There are several horse racing videos of this period on YouTube.
Perhaps, the proximity of Newmarket to the major fighter base at Duxford, meant that the Luftwaffe didn’t feel safe to attack Newmarket in daylight? Or their intelligent was bad.
The Anonymous Widower 