ARCHIVE - BUDDY READ - THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE: A SAGA OF CHURCHILL, FAMILY, AND DEFIANCE DURING THE BLITZ - DISCUSSION THREAD (No Spoilers, please)

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Bentley has added the entire Bibliography for our members in order for those folks interested in reading the other books that Eric Larson cited - with all of the proper citations (Bentley added every one).

Bentley also added the various links so that you could look up the material as you are reading and get more out of the experience. The url addresses were also checked to make sure that they were working.

Bentley hopes you enjoy the discussion, the book and want to read more about Winston Churchill and World War II. We look forward to continuing our discussion.

Bentley also added all of the Archives and Other Collections that Eric Larson cited as well as all Books, Periodicals and Websites.

Here is the link to the Glossary thread where all of the Bibliography entries have been cited:

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

This is this week's assignment:

Week Seventeen - September 14th - September 20th (pages 234 - 240)

Chapter 48 - Berlin (page 234)
Chapter 49 - Fear (page 236)
Chapter 50 - Hess (page 239)

[Marc]

probably with the technology they had at the time, the accuracy of the bombs weren't really there. no guided bombs, so it probably didn't matter where in london he was at. plus, with air raid sirens, you could safely stay above ground till the sirens, then go underground where only a lucky direct hit would take you out.

I think moving around would only make it worse to coordinate the war. it's not like it's just Churchill, we are talking about his staff, plus messengers to relay commands and statuses to a constantly moving Churchill would really only hamper British war efforts (where's he at now? can I get there before he moves to the next location whereever that is?) My guess is yes, Germany was targeting him in the hopes that, should you kill Churchill, his replacement might be more pliable and willing to talk peace so Germany could focus attention on just Russia.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Marc - the bombs appear to be as accurate as the muskets were in the revolutionary and civil war. I agree that they were interested in taking Churchill out.

[Marc]

uh, are we supposed to keep going? seems kinda quiet!

[Marc]

Well, I kinda moved on, hitting chapters 51 and 52. 51 had some interesting discussions about the Luftwaffe's use of 'parachute mines'... http://www.ww2airdroppedordnance.com/...
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/it...

[Marc]

and even more... https://www.forces.net/heritage/wwii/... (some illustrations, some actual pictures )
What is interesting about that URL is, it explains why the Nazi's used parachute mines. basically, in a nutshell, the British were able to de-gauss their ships (making them less magnetic), so the original use of these mines stopped being as effective, so they had stockpiles of basically not-very-useful mines, so why not use them on bombing London?

[Marc]

here's a pic of some damage from a parachute mine
http://ww2today.com/wp-content/upload...

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Marc - I was away (frequently have to travel) but yes, you can keep going according to the syllabus of course. No worries and thank you for the posts. I will get this up to date.

[Marc]

glad you are back!! was a bit worried, this being a pandemic...

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

As much as I would like to be on here 24 by 7 - life does not work that way (lol).

The pandemic is heating up again - I had hoped that things would be different by now but that does not appear to be the situation for many locations. Just be safe everyone.