The Cromarty Lighthoose, lets hope this light works.
In 1914 Winston Churchill who was appointed as The first sea lord went to visit the fleet which was moored at Loch Ewe on the coast of Ross and Cromarty in northwest Scotland.
While aboard Admiral Jellicoe's flagship Iron Duke and drinking the Admiral's brandy Churchill convinced himself that the owner of a near-by hoose was signaling the Germans with a searchlight that was mounted on the roof.
The hoose was owned by a senile 75 year old former conservative member of parliament Sir Arthur Bignold and the light didn't even work.
The tipsy First lord got some pistols and with a Rear-Admiral, Vice-Admiral, the Director of Naval intelligence and two Commodores he held the senile old bugger and his butler at gunpoint while they investigated.
The raid was of course quite silly but the first World War had just started and they were in no doubt eager to kill some Huns, I know I always am.
Not a complete waste of time as one of the Commodores pointed out to Churchill the vulnerability of Bacchante class cruisers that had been on patrol since the start of the war, these ships because they were manned by cadets and young married reservists had been given the nickname "the Livebait Squadron" this horrified Churchill and he made changes the next day.
Later Churchill was to use the term Livebait in referring to Bacchante class cruisers and the next day 3 of them were easily sunk by German U-boats killing 1,459 men, the press made sure the Livebait comment would haunt him and tried to blame him for endangering the lives of the sailors.
While aboard Admiral Jellicoe's flagship Iron Duke and drinking the Admiral's brandy Churchill convinced himself that the owner of a near-by hoose was signaling the Germans with a searchlight that was mounted on the roof.
The hoose was owned by a senile 75 year old former conservative member of parliament Sir Arthur Bignold and the light didn't even work.
The tipsy First lord got some pistols and with a Rear-Admiral, Vice-Admiral, the Director of Naval intelligence and two Commodores he held the senile old bugger and his butler at gunpoint while they investigated.
The raid was of course quite silly but the first World War had just started and they were in no doubt eager to kill some Huns, I know I always am.
Not a complete waste of time as one of the Commodores pointed out to Churchill the vulnerability of Bacchante class cruisers that had been on patrol since the start of the war, these ships because they were manned by cadets and young married reservists had been given the nickname "the Livebait Squadron" this horrified Churchill and he made changes the next day.
Later Churchill was to use the term Livebait in referring to Bacchante class cruisers and the next day 3 of them were easily sunk by German U-boats killing 1,459 men, the press made sure the Livebait comment would haunt him and tried to blame him for endangering the lives of the sailors.
13 comments:
Cromarty, Jellicoe, Bignold.... You just make these names up, don't you?
This of course was in the days before i-pods&Mr Bean...........
Lionel Ritchie knows his Bacchante class cruisers that for sure.
Winston, he was a bricklayer or? You can't beat a good Churchill Cigar.
Hey, was he the fellow who flew over Dresdan the time 10,000 men weemen and childer went up in smoke?
PS: I hear 'Slaughterhouse Five' is a good read.
Speaking of Slaughterhouse Five, I just heard about Kurt Vonnegut.
Thanks for the lesson, Knudsen. I woke up especially early to catch up on your blog.
Mr Paddy
"Hey, was he the fellow who flew over Dresdan the time 10,000 men weemen and childer went up in smoke?"
Don't forget Cologne. Or the Blitz, which came first. Served them right. "Bomber" Harris shortened the war and is unjustly maligned. (We skate over the delicate question of Fenian complicity with the Nazis as being in poor taste these days.)
Men and their guns. Good ideas rarely come from that combo.
I believe Royal Caribbean has some Bacchante class cruisers in its fleet. Wasn't The Love Boat one? Oh wait, I'm thinking of The Live Bait - that was a whole other program. I think there was more frontal nudity in The Live Bait series so it got cancelled early on.
fat sparrow Cromarty is just outside of bumpounder, I don't make anything up here.
tony what did we do before them? thankgod for progress.
manuel oh what a feeling, the Zeebrugge ferry is turning over in its grave.
sassy sundry another one dead before his time, were you having those errotic dreams about me again?
paddy better there people than ours and I don't think the jews minded too much either.
Mr Warmington or the Belfast Blitz, nice of the Irish to have well lit cities for the German bombers to follow up the coast at night, but many Irish served bravely against the Nazis and didn't let their hatred of the English cloud their sense and firemen from the south went north to help Belfast. Yes Bomber harris did the right thing, it was war after all.
pickled olives could you imagine Blair doing that? not the same kind of man in office anymore.
sam problem-child-bride too much jail bait in the live bait show.
Churchill? Doesn't he sell insurance on the Racing Channel now?
Mr K
"many Irish served bravely against the Nazis"
Yes, I agree, and many were treated shamefully by Britain. Nevertheless, if it hadn't been for the RAF in 1940-1 the Germans would have invaded Britain and Ireland would have been overrun. Impossible to say what the US would have done about it all, but there's a pretty good chance we'd have ended up speaking German. Britain alone stood against the Nazis in 1941, and it makes my blood boil to think of the way British sacrifice has been squandered since. Against the firestorm of Dresden one must pitch the deliberate targetting of civilians, for the first time in the history of mechanized warfare, in the raid on Coventry in November 1940 -- an abominable atrocity by any standards.
You'll have no arguement here as i've posted something along the same lines in the past. From oct 1940 to may 1941 Britain did stand alone against the might of Germany. America as usual hesitated but did help with supplies under the table. The American people can never work out the big picture so it had to effect them directly in order for the government to go to war. I wouldn't put it past FDR to have set up pearl harbour as I wouldn't put it past Churchill to have set up the Lusitania in WW1 to draw the yanks into the war not that it worked, he was all for sacrificing pawns for the greater good the mark of a good leader. Dresden was another sacrifice he had to make, destroying the French navy and its men so the Germans wouldn't get it was another, Leslie Howard the actor turned spy was another.
I had a lively discussion recently about the US firebombing of Japan and as I said, "they did it first", we should remember our own people that died before we think about the enemy.
Never have so many owed so much to so few. Being ex Army I may slag off the other branches but God bless the RAF, a load of poofs but brave ones.
I use odour Cologne, and I like gettin' Blitzed meself. W'at, who, where. I haven't a clue what ewe's are on about. Anyway, wrong don't make right, it don't make no bleatin' difference.
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