• Phoebe’s Favourite Badass – Lt-Gen Adrian Carton de Wiart VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO

    I read ERs article on her favourite badass with interest. Theodore Roosevelt does seem to have been a leading man in the world of Politics and indeed his moves to re-vitalise the United States were ambitious and ground-breaking. He was definitely a man of the people, and perhaps worthy of the title. But, for me, having a military background, it only seems natural for me to turn my attention to an area that I feel I am close to, whilst choosing my favourite badass. War. But who to choose? So many worthy men to choose from. Doge Enrico Dandolo? Marcus Cassius Scaeva? Xiahou Dun? What did all these men have…

  • U-571

    U-571 was an exciting thriller made in 2000 about how an the crew of an American submarine attempting to steal an enigma machine from a German U-Boat.  Enigma machines were used by the Germans in World War II to create a very difficult code to send their messages.  It was based on the work of Polish mathematicians in 1932.  The code was nearly unbreakable for the first part of the war.  In the movie, U-571 is disabled from a destroyer attack and our heroes are dispatched to pretend to be the German rescue sub to pick up the remainder of the crew.  Their mission is to capture or kill the…

  • Adolf Hitler

    Hitler was born in Austria on the 20th April 1889, the fourth child of six; His older siblings, Gustav, Ida and Otto all died as infants. At the age of three, Hitler and his family moved to Munich, and then several more times, before settling in Lambach after his father’s bee-keeping business failed. Hitler was quite close to his younger brother Edmund who died in 1900 from Measles, leaving Adolf and his youngest sibling, his sister Paula. His death affected Adolf quite profoundly and he changed from a confident outgoing boy into a quiet sullen introverted child who rejected the strict discipline at his state school and argued often with…

  • Operation Frankton- Cockleshell Adventures

    France in 1942 was divided between the large Nazi occupied portions on the coast of the English Channel and the “Free” Vichy government. For all intents and purposes both were under Nazi control leaving England a lone island. Bordeaux in the Bay of Biscay was a busy port bustling with men and materials for the Nazi war effort. Ships were taking radar equipment to Nazi allies in Japan, and returning with raw materials to fuel the Blitzkrieg. The British cast their eyes south and decided something needed to be done. On December 7, a small unit of Royal Marines was launched from the submarine HMS Tuna 15 kilometers off the…

  • Eva Braun

    Eva Anna Paula Hitler nee Braun was born on February 6th 1912 in Munich. She was the middle daughter of three born to Friedrich Braun, a school teacher and Franziska Kronberger, a seamstress. She was educated at a Catholic School, and later attended a convent Business School for a year, where she showed herself to be an average student with a flair for sport. After leaving school in 1929, she began working as a sales assistant and junior clerk to Heinrich Hoffmann who was engaged as [...]