Living history

Seventy years ago this morning, at 04.45 Central European Time, the German warship, Schleswig Holstein fired the first shots in the European theatre of World War II, at point blank range, at a Polish fort on the Westerplatte peninsula. At the same time, the Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht crossed the border on three fronts.



The start of the war is generally held to be September 1, 1939, with the German invasion of Poland and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by most of the countries in the British Empire and Commonwealth, and by France. Many countries were already at war before this date, such as Nationalist China and Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and many who were not initially involved joined the war later, as a result of events such as the German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), and the attacks on Pearl Harbor and British and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia.


German soldiers remove a border barrier in Sopot, Poland, as the invasion began on September 1, 1939

Living history

Seventy years ago this morning, at 04.45 Central European Time, the German warship, Schleswig Holstein fired the first shots in the European theatre of World War II, at point blank range, at a Polish fort on the Westerplatte peninsula. At the same time, the Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht crossed the border on three fronts.



The start of the war is generally held to be September 1, 1939, with the German invasion of Poland and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by most of the countries in the British Empire and Commonwealth, and by France. Many countries were already at war before this date, such as Nationalist China and Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and many who were not initially involved joined the war later, as a result of events such as the German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), and the attacks on Pearl Harbor and British and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia.


German soldiers remove a border barrier in Sopot, Poland, as the invasion began on September 1, 1939

Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam: lovely spam!

This is bizarre, I get far less spam at home than I do in the office, yet I am restricted in what I can browse here, so dodgy sites are right out.

Left to my own devices, I am clearly more discerning in my web usage at home, where I can look at whatever I fancy, than I am at work, where I can’t. Tech, eh? Tch.

Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam: lovely spam!

This is bizarre, I get far less spam at home than I do in the office, yet I am restricted in what I can browse here, so dodgy sites are right out.

Left to my own devices, I am clearly more discerning in my web usage at home, where I can look at whatever I fancy, than I am at work, where I can’t. Tech, eh? Tch.

Writing

It has taken me ages to write a little over a page of the latest instalment of Dimpler Towers - Part VIII: The Defrocking of Chauncey Newage. I was gently reminded a while back that it is now over a year since Part VII was dropped onto just_writing, so I thought maybe I ought to crack to.

It's not as if I am short of material, it's more a case of not getting the voice of the piece right. I think it will be a slog and it's far from ready yet for public consumption. I want to have several pages ready this time when I post it up and I reckon that there will be much editing and re-editing before I get that far.

It's times like this that I remember why I am not a writer. It's too much like hard work for very little reward.

Still, a start has been made, so it's there to be worked on.

Writing

It has taken me ages to write a little over a page of the latest instalment of Dimpler Towers - Part VIII: The Defrocking of Chauncey Newage. I was gently reminded a while back that it is now over a year since Part VII was dropped onto just_writing, so I thought maybe I ought to crack to.

It's not as if I am short of material, it's more a case of not getting the voice of the piece right. I think it will be a slog and it's far from ready yet for public consumption. I want to have several pages ready this time when I post it up and I reckon that there will be much editing and re-editing before I get that far.

It's times like this that I remember why I am not a writer. It's too much like hard work for very little reward.

Still, a start has been made, so it's there to be worked on.