Silent Hunter UK

AP You see, South Sudan got most of the oil when it seceded last year...

Daily Telegraph story

Part 14 up. If you look through my blog, you'll be able to find the others, but I intend to post the full AAR in .pdf format when this is done.

I saw HMS St Albans (F83) moored alongside HMS Belfast (currently closed due to a walkway collapse) today.

BBC news story

It was 1985. Given the political climate of the era, it would be naive to think the West (read: US/NATO) wasn't wary of the new General Secretary. Just look at those who came before him and the Western perspective of them. Of course - one guy who spent most of his time ill, a former KGB chairman and Mr. Four Times Hero of the Soviet Union (he later lost the fourth one, IIRC, making Zhukov the only four time holder).

So I'm re-reading Red Storm Rising, the book that got me into Harpoon. I'll be posting some thoughts here. First one - am I right in thinking that people were initially wary of Mikhail Gorbachev when he become General Secretary of the CPSU? The GenSec in this novel is described as a former agriculture minister, which is what Gorby was.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

So, we could win the title by then. 6-7 is a bit long, isn't it?

When it arrives - who knows, West Ham might have won the Premier League by then.

For all its propagandaness, Triumph of the Will is actually considered a masterpiece of cinematography.

Carrier-capable version of LCA

BBC analysis of a possible attack

Torpedoes?

One might complain that the British shipbuilding industry has been run down by progressive governments and that Number 10 should be doing more to build it up.

Freshly? I'm sure they've been there a while like that.

The main shipbuilders' union isn't happy.

Navy Times

Not mentioned in that article is that William Leefe Robinson, who brought down the first Zeppelin over Britain flew out of what would later become RAF Hornchurch, which is in my local area and would be a famous Fighter Command base.

Parts Nine and Ten are now up.

Read this one about six years ago - I highly recommend it. I've mentioned this before, but Macmillian and Kennedy read this just before the Cuban Missile Crisis kicked off. Had to read her "The Zimmerman Telegram" in high school, finally got to this one late last year. Massive in detail, definitely NOT light reading: will require your fullest attention, but worth doing. The first chapter, with the crowned heads of Europe at King Edward VII's funeral, is alone worth the price of admission. The Eastern Front gets under-appreciated here; we focus on the Western Front (which killed more British Empire subjects than the entire Second World War) a bit too much without looking at some of the other stuff in that brutal war.

Argentina accuses UK of deploying SSBN to the region Yes, that's right, an SSBN. Like one would even need to go near the region...

Seems to be as much the fault of the Malays as Interpol - Interpol can't make arrests, they can only make requests to local law enforcement. Definitely bad though.

Rest In Peace.

Parts Seven and Eight are now up.