6th June

Today was the beginning of the end of Hitler's 1000 year Reich in 1944 when thousands of British, Americans and even some Frenchmen waded ashore on the Normandy beaches as part of Operation Overlord. This was D-Day, deliverance day and after the shambles of similar operations in earlier wars (Napoleonic and First World, for instance) no one was sure it would actually work. Troops were driven into the shallows by amphibious vehicles known as Ducks and people should have had more faith in them. They appeared as early as 1200(ish) in Russell Crowe's Robin Hood (2010). Oh, ye of little faith!

Oh for heaven's sake, 7 Double You You, yes, I am joking. No, they didn't have them. No, I have no idea what accent Russell Crowe is attempting in the film.

In other news ...
1984 hit the bookshops today in 1949. George Orwell's pessimistic view of the future looked forward to a time when two of the worst television programmes in history would actually have a following - Room 101 and Big Brother.

Two little known facts for you now:

Firstly (and obviously when you think about it) Orwell simply reversed the date when he wrote the book and as he was writing in 1948, he called it 1984. If he had chosen the publication date instead, he would have called in 1994. So there was absolutely no clever predictions going on - nothing was going to happen in 1984 and by gum, nothing did.

Secondly, George Orwell was really Eric Blair, father of a future Prime Minister.

Who knew?

26th May

Today marks the last organized resistance in the American Civil War, back in 1865. Resistance elsewhere had finished three weeks earlier, but it wasn't until today that the forces west of the Mississippi finally surrendered. Even then, the Confederate navy still held Charleston. Wars are always like this, they end, not with a bang, but a rather drawn out and scrappy whimper. Even today, there are many people who don't know the extent of the Civil War, which left an estimated half a million dead and many more crippled for life. The films based on the conflict have often been rather frivolous - with some notable exceptions, of course. Do I have to mention Gone With the Wind again, as the worst film ever made?

Of course I do!

In other news ...
In 1940 on this day, the evacuation of the beaches of Dunkirk began with the sailing of the flotilla of 700 or so rather motley craft from the shores of England. As in the war above, this day is often quoted as the day of the Dunkirk evacuation, but it wasn't half as neat as that and you only have to think for a minute to realise that you are not going to get 400,000 men or thereabouts off a beach in five minutes. Even so, it was the most amazing undertaking and remarkably successful. It was just as well for morale that no one knew at the time that no Allied troops would land on French beaches again until D Day on 6th June 1944.