Thursday, October 31, 2013

Obama and the Washington Redskins

Washington Redskins


Our sensitive and caring President took time out of his busy schedule during the recent government shutdown to inform us that the Washington Redskins should think about changing the name of their football team in order to avoid offending Native Americans....



According to a 2004 survey, 90% of Native Americans were not actually bothered by the term "Redskins" and many Native American schools use the name for their school teams (http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/10/08/how-many-native-americans-think-redskins-is-a-slur/).

But let's leave that aside, as clearly a minority within a minority is offended by the name "Redskins".

President Obama did not, however, go on to make positive suggestions for changing the name to something that would more accurately express the feelings of Americans towards Washington D.C. and all of our elected officials.  To remedy this oversight Commander Kelly had come up with a list of alternate team names that would address this dire problem facing the nation's capitol....

First, there are alliterative options such as...

Washington Weenies
Washington Weasels
Washington Wimps
Washington Wankers
Washington Weaklings
Washington Wusses
Washington Worms
Washington Werewolves
Washington Worthless
Washington Waiverers
Washington Witless
Washington Will O' the Wisps

Then there are more descriptive options...

Washington Drones
Washington Gridlockers
Washington Losers
Washington Leakers
Washington Sell-outs
Washington Scumbags
Washington Liars
Washington Blow-hards
Washington Bloviators
Washington Hypocrites
Washington Fence-Riders
Washington Deceivers
Washington Dunces
Washington Gutless
Washington Cro-Magnons
Washington Duds
Washington Poll-takers
Washington Num-nuts
Washington Spineless
Washington Nitwits
Washington Drunkards
Washington Sexters
Washington Teleprompters
Washington Un-named Sources
Washington Scumbag Millionaires (Bollywood combines political types and NFL felons)

PETA may object, but there are some choice animals names that remain unused by the NFL...

Washington Dinosaurs
Washington Dodo Birds
Washington Snakes
Washington Sloths
Washington Goats
Washington Horny Toads
Washington Vermin
Washington Rats
Washington Pigs
Washington Turkeys (Benjamin Franklin would surely have approved)
Washington Trough-Gobblers
Washington Monkeys
Washington Apes
Washington Invertebrates

If the franchise were to move to London and play at Wembley they would just require a small tweak...

Go London Redcoats!
Guards Museum, London
London Redcoats (Great Match-up when they play the New England Patriots!)

Finally, there his my own personal favorite...

Washington Zombies (Go Team Z!)


On second thought, perhaps they should just stick with "Washington Redskins" (about 80% of Americans actually agree on something -- see video below).  Go Redskins!

Commander Kelly invites you, dear reader, to come up with your own helpful suggestions for new and improved names for Washington's NFL franchise in the Comment field below.


You can order Commander Kelly's first book, America Invades here...www.americainvades.com or on Amazon...www.amzn.com/1940598427









Monday, October 28, 2013

Royal Marines Museum

Commander K. at the Royal Marines Museum, Portsmouth

Visit the Royal Marines Museum in Portsmouth and you will be able to explore the rich historical heritage of this fabled military unit (www.royalmarinesmuseum.co.uk).

Hannah Snell tending bar
Royal Marine Museum, Portsmouth
The Royal Marines were formed to serve aboard the Royal Navy's ships in 1664.  Their motto was and remains "Per Mare, Per Terram" ("By Land, By Sea").  Those who suppose that the issue of "women in combat" (http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/women-in-combat.html) are likely unacquainted with the story of Hannah Snell.  In 1747 Snell, dressed in men's clothes, served in the Royal Marines siege of French-occupied Pondicherry.  She was wounded 11 times and later awarded a pension by the royal Chelsea Hospital.

Royal Marines fire the "shot heard round the world" in 1775
In 1775 a detachment of Royal Marines under Major Pitcairn fired on American militia near Lexington -- it was the shot heard round the world.  Pitcairn would later be killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Royal Marine kit, HMS Victory
146 Royal Marines, commanded by Captain Adair fought aboard the HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.  Unlike Nelson's sailors, none of them were 'pressed men.  The Royal Marines are said to have swept the French infantry from the rigging of the French Redoutable with musket fire, avenging Nelson's death by killing his assassin (see post HMS Victory...http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/hms-victory.html).  2nd Lieutenant Thomas Wearing was the only Royal Marine to be present at both the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Napoleon Chair, Royal Marine Museum
Royal Marines aboard the HMS Bellerophon guarded Napoleon on his journey to his final exile on St. Helena.  The museum has a chair used by Napoleon.

Royal Marine Officer, Royal Marine Museum
The Royal Marines served throughout the British Empire in the 19th century.  Some even deployed in a Camel corps in the Sudan campaign of 1884.

Royal Marine Commando, WWII
Royal Marines served with British forces in both World Wars during the 20th century.  During World War II the Royal Marine Commandos were created.  On D-Day June 6, 1944, the largest amphibious invasion in history, over 17,500 Royal Marines participated; there were no US Marines at D-day due to their deployment in the Pacific theatre.

HMS Victory, Royal Marines Museum, Portsmouth
Royals Marines served in Iraq from 2003 to 2009 where they saw heavy fighting near Basra.  The Royal Marines have served in Afghanistan from 2002 to the present.

The most recent news about the Royals Marines was an unpleasant reminder about the eternal brutalities of war.  A few, less than brilliant, Royal Marines who filmed themselves killing an unarmed Afghan prisoner are facing prosecution http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2473171/Royal-Marine-murdered-injured-Afghan-national-captured-shooting-chest.html?ico=home%5Eheadlines.

Today there are about 6,500 Royals Marines around the world who represent about 15 percent of the Royal Naval Service.

Per Mare, Per Terram

Commander Kelly says, "Marines, Strike up the band!"


You can now find Commander Kelly's first book, America Invades,  here www.americainvades.com or on Amazon www.amzn.com/1940598427



Saturday, October 26, 2013

HMS Victory

Commander K., Victory and Portsmouth's finest
October 22, 2013

On October 21, 2013 the HMS Victory (http://www.hms-victory.com/), Lord Nelson's 104-gun flagship, marked the 208th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.  This is the only ship that remains from this decisive British victory over the Franco-Spanish Fleet.  Though Victory rests in a dry dock it continues to be a serving ship in the royal Navy.  Queen Elizabeth II had dinner in Nelson's cabin on the bicentennial of Trafalgar in 2005.

Admiral Nelson's Dining Cabin
HMS Victory, Portsmouth
Admiral Villeneuve and his Franco-Spanish fleet outnumbered Nelson's by 33 ships of the line to 27.   This did not deter Nelson from launching his fleet straight at the enemy as soon as the opportunity was presented itself.  The wooden ships of the Royal Navy were all that stood between Napoleon's Grande Armée
Grande Arm
camped at Boulogne and England which had a pitifully small army.

Commander K. aboard Victory
Nelson sent out the signal that "England expects every man to do his duty".  The two straight lines of Royal Navy ships sailed straight towards the Allied line taking fire particularly in the sails as the French tended to aim high in order to slow and dis-mast their opponents.  The British, on the other hand, preferred to aim low where they would kill the crews of their opponents.

Victory Crew included 22 Americans
22 Americans, many of them 'pressed men', did their duty on board the Victory that day.

Captain Lucas of the French ship Redoubtable had sent French infantry soldiers armed with muskets into the rigging of his ship to fire down on the English ships.  The Victory approached the Redoutable.

Here Nelson Fell
HMS Victory, Portsmouth
"On the quarterdeck of the Victory Nelson paced to and from.  He was wearing a blue coat decorated with gold epaulettes and his four orders of chivalry embroidered on his left great.  Although advised before the action to change ion a plain coat to avoid identification, he had refused, saying there was no time.  Probably he was sighted by one of Captain Lucas's snipers in the mizzen-top of the Redoubtable or perhaps it was a random shot, but at twenty-five minutes past one Nelson jerked, dropped to his knees and rolled on to his side, shot through the shoulder.  Hardy ordered him to be carried below, the admiral spreading his handkerchief over his face so that he should not be recognised,  He was laid in the cockpit on the orlop deck below the waterline, where the surgeon and his mates worked on the wounded, bandaging tying tourniquets and amputating arms and and legs.  As Hardy leaned over him, Nelson said 'Hardy , I believe they have done it at a last, my backbone is shot through' and when William Beatty, the surgeon began to cut away his clothing, said, 'You can be of no use to me, Beatty, go and attend those whose lives can be preserved.'  
Nelson's death
Guards Toy Soldier Centre, London
Nelson lay dying in the dim light of horn lanterns; as the concussion of broadsides shook the ship and this about him strained to hear his whispers a giants the thunder of the guns and the scream of the wounded, his words were remembered...Nelson muttered, 'Remember me to Lady Hamilton.  Remember me to Horatia (his daughter and only child...CK)...I have left  will and left Lady Hamilton and Horatia to my country...My sufferings are great but they will soon be over...yet one would like to have a little longer, too...How dear is life to all men... God be praised, I have done my duty.'"  (Source: The Terror Before Trafalgar, Tom Pocock, 2002, www.amzn.com/1909609676).

Nelson's Column, Trafalgar Square, London
Nelson's body, unlike most of those killed at Trafalgar, was not tossed over the side of the ship.  Instead his body was preserved for the voyage home in a wooden barrel of spirits.  Some allege that the barrel was nearly dry when the Victory returned to Britain.

Nelson's decisive victory at Trafalgar meant that Britain would rule the waves for more than a century.  Napoleon's invasion plans would be frustrated.  Sadly, the British government turned its back on Lady Hamilton and Horatia.  Lady Hamilton descended into alcoholism and died in penury in France.
Nelson's Blood
The best way to toast Nelson's memory is with a "Nelson's Blood" cocktail.  There are many variations on the theme of a "Nelson's Blood" cocktail.  Here is the one my friends and I tried at a pub in Portsmouth...it was delicious!

Cocktail Ingredients: Makes 1 Drink.

3 measures of (cloudy) traditional lemonade
1 Measure Spanish Port (Fortified Wine)
1 measure of French Brandy
1 measure of Lamb’s Dark ‘Navy’ Rum
1 measure fresh orange juice
Dash orange bitters

Directions: Pour the port, brandy, rum, and orange juice and orange bitters into a cocktail shaker with cracked ice and shake. Strain into a large, wide brandy (cognac) glass, with a few ice cubes in it. Pour in the lemonade carefully to top off, then garnish with a twist of orange peel and serve.

Source: http://recipewise.co.uk/nelson’s-blood.

For much more on Nelson see...http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/peace-making-horatio-nelson-style.html , http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/nelsons-dockyard-antigua.html , http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/lord-nelson-in-corsica.html and http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/horatio-nelson-champion-of-liberty.html

You can now purchase Commander Kelly's first book, America Invades here...www.americainvades.com or on Amazon...www.amzn.com/1940598427


Kelly's latest book, An Adventure in 1914, can be found here...www.anadventurein1914.com


Or on Amazon...www.amzn.com/B01LXD1KHQ




Friday, October 25, 2013

Mary Rose

Mary Rose Model
Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth

On July 19, 1545 the Mary Rose, pride of Henry VIII's fleet, sank in the waters near Portsmouth.  The King himself witnessed the catastrophe unfold from the shore.  Only about 30 out of the crew of around 500 were saved.  The exact cause of the tragedy remains somewhat mysterious.  According to one survivor's record, the Mary Rose, opposing a hostile French fleet, had fired her guns from one side and was turning to fire again when she dipped her open gun ports below the water and sank immediately.  Other accounts suggest that French gunfire may have been responsible.

Commander K. and Henry VIII, Mary Rose Museum
What is certain is that she settled to the bottom that afternoon and about half the ship was eventually covered with silt for over 400 years.  It was this silt that preserved half the ship's timbers from destruction.  An extraordinary archaeological project spanning many years located the ship in 1971 and recovered many items.  In 1982 half of the ship was brought to the surface for the fist time since its sinking in 1545.  Prince Charles himself dove to the Mary Rose shipwreck and watched when she was resurfaced on October 11, 1982.

Mary Rose 2013
From 1994 the ship has been spared with a water-soluble wax to strengthen the wooden hull.  Now the ships's timbers are being dried in a temperature controlled environment until 2017.

Mary Rose bronze canons
The Mary Rose served for 34 years as a warship in the Tudor Royal Navy.  She fought in two naval engagements: Brest in 1512 and the Battle of Solent in 1545.  She carried over 70 bronze guns that fired iron and hand-carved stone cannonballs.  She also had a complement of archers who fired their longbows from the Castle deck.

Bronze Canon, Mary Rose Museum
The new Mary Rose Museum (http://www.maryrose.org/) in Portsmouth opened in the May of 2013 and has now become one of the premiere tourist destinations in England.  Three floors offer visitors a comprehensive view of the ship.  Over 19,000 objects that were found from the ship are on display in the Museum.  There were, for example, 137 longbows and 3,500 wooden arrows. A visitor can gain a appreciation for many of the realities of everyday life in the Tudor period.

"Hatch" and Backgammon board
Even the skeleton of "Hatch" the dog is on display.  You can purchase "Mary Rose" beer in the Museum gift shop!


Britain is an island nation with a proud maritime and naval tradition.  The Royal Navy is the "Senior Service" in the British military.  The Mary Rose has thankfully been preserved so that future generations will be able to explore this rich history.

Lion detail, Mary Rose Museum


You can now purchase Commander Kelly's 
first book, America Invades here...www.americainvades.com or on Amazon...www.amzn.com/1940598427




Friday, October 18, 2013

Guards Chapel

Commander K. at Guards Chapel, London
The only part of the Chapel NOT destroyed on June 18, 1944

The Guards Chapel in London is easily visited today.  It is just across from St. James Park near the St James Park Tube station.  The Guards Museum which tells the full story of the five Guards regiments that guard the Royal family (http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/guards-museum-london.html) is just across the way.

I will allow Rick Atkinson to tell what happened to the Guards Chapel in World War II.  The Germans referred to London as "Target 42" at the time...

Guards Chapel, Floor Memorial
"Even on the sabbath morn, antiaircraft crews across Target 42 manned their guns and scanned the southeastern sky for the apparition soon called Doodlebug, Hell Hound, Buzz Bomb, Rocket Gun, Headless Horseman, or, simply, It.  Earlier in the week some gunners had crowed in jubilation at shooting down what they believed were German bombers but were now known to be pilotless bombs designed to fall from the sky.  This Sunday, June 18, was Waterloo day, and worshippers packed London churches to commemorate the British Army's victory over Napoleon in 1815, and to petition the divine for help again.


British Army Campaign Colours, Guards Chapel
In the Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks on Birdcage Walk, across front the former pig meadow and leper colony currently known as St. James's Park, a full-throated congregation belted out the "Te Deum" and prepared to take communion from the Bishop of Maidstone.  'To Thee all angels cry aloud,' they sang, 'the heavens and all the powers therein.'  At 11:10 a.m. an annoying growl from those same heavens grew louder.  Ernest Hemingway heard it in his Dorchester Hotel suite, where he was making pancakes with buckwheat flour and bourbon;  from the window he looked for the telltale 'white-hot bunghole' of a jet engine.  Pedestrians in Parliament square heard it whistle and fell flat, covering their head.  Clementine Churchill, the prime minister's wife, heard it in Hyde Park, where she was visiting the gun battery in which her daughter Mary volunteered.  The Guards Chapel congregation heard it and kept singing.

Then they heard nothing--that most terrifying of all sounds--as the engine quit, the bunghole winked out, and the black cruciform fell.  Through the Chapel's reinforced concrete roof it plummeted before detonating in a white blast that blew out walls, blew down support pillars, and stripped leaves from St James's plane trees.  A funnel o smoke curled fifteen hundred feet above the wrecked nave; rubble ten feet deep buried the pews even as six candles still guttered on the altar and the bishop stood unharmed.  One hundred and twenty-one others were dead and many more injured.  Two thousand memorial plaques accumulated by Guards regiments during eons of war lay pulverised, although a mosaic donated by Queen Victoria remained intact: 'Be thou faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life.'


Guards Band, Wellington Barracks, London
Clementine Churchill hastened home to alert the prime minister, who was still reviewing papers in bed at 10 Downing street.  'The Guards Chapel,' she told him, 'is destroyed.'  Among other, several musicians from the Coldstream Guards were found in a side gallery, still holding their instruments as if in a wax tableau, surely faithful unto death.  Churchill wept.

That afternoon he motored to Bushy Park and asked Eisenhower to redouble efforts against the flying bomb."  (Source: The Guns at Last Light, Rick Atkinson, 2013 www.amzn.com/0805062904).

Instant Classic
The V-1 Rocket that destroyed the Guards Chapel that day was a reliable and cheap weapon that cost about 150 pounds in 1944 values.

V-1 Rockets, Flying Heritage Collection (Everett, WA)
The late John Keegan pointed out that the V-1 might actually have been a war-winning weapon under certain circumstances.  He writes, "Had it been given priority, and been mass-produced in large numbers during 1943, there is little doubt that the flying bomb would have caused terrible damage to London and other southern British cities; it might even have so disrupted shipping in British southern ports as to have set back or even prevented the launching of the cross-Channle invasion in June 1944." (Source: Intelligence and War, John Keegan, 2002, www.amzn.com/0375700463).

A visitor to the Guards Chapel today can see why the Bishop of Maidstone survived as the apse of the Chapel (see photo at top) where he was standing, is the only part of the original structure of the Royal Military Chapel that remains from its dedication in 1838.

Travel notes: The Guards Chapel is a five minute walk from the St James Park Tube station on the District and Circle line.  The Chapel is open to the public for services every Sunday at 11:00am.  Here is their web site...http://www.army.mod.uk/chaplains/23369.aspx

Buckingham Arms, London
There are many attractive pubs in the neighbourhood.  The Buckingham Arms (http://www.youngs.co.uk/pubs/buckingham-arms) is a short walk from the Guards Chapel.



You can now purchase Commander Kelly's first book, America Invades here...www.americainvades.com or on Amazon...www.amzn.com/1940598427




Saturday, October 12, 2013

Stop the Madness!

Commander K. at ABMC cemetery Florence, IT
NOW CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC

Napoleon said, "The boundaries of a nation’s empire are marked by the graves of her soldiers."  The boundaries of America's Empire of Liberty* are demarcated by the graves of the American Battle Monuments Commission  www.abmc.gov.  The Commission has eleven sites in France with soldiers from both World Wars.  They lovingly tend the graves of those who died in the Mexican-American war (1846-1848) in Mexico City and those who perished in Operation Torch in Tunisia (1942).

They commemorate the sacrifice of those who died in the campaign to liberate Italy from fascism that began 70 years ago this year (http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-nearly-forgotten-dead-of-world-war.html).

Today a visitor will find this message on the ABMC site..."NOTICE TO ABMC VISITORS
Due to a lack of funding for ABMC operations (U.S. Government shutdown), ABMC cemeteries and memorials are temporarily closed. We are unable to respond to your inquiries or provide the services and products described in the “Services Available” section of this Web site. We regret any inconvenience these temporary actions may cause. ABMC will resume normal operations when a new funding measure is passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by the President of the United States."

All US overseas cemeteries are now closed.  The Normandy cemetery overlooking Omaha beach is shut.  Flanders Field in Belgium is closed. The This means that American family members hoping to visit the graves of loved ones, regardless of how long they may have travelled, are out of luck.   The Transatlantic scout troops, among others, are now not welcome to teach the lesson of sacrifice to a new generation across these monuments to our fallen heroes.

General Pershing said that "Time will not dim the glory of their deeds."  Our government, however, has managed to limit our access to their memory.

We note that American World War II vets, many of which are terminally ill, have had to storm the monuments in Washington D.C.  (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2440402/Veterans-storm-barricades-shuttered-World-War-II-Memorial-DC-defiance-government-shutdown.html)  Officious park employees have been directed by this administration to increase the pain levels for vets and the American people in order to score political points in the shutdown debate.

We note that legislators and the Administration have failed utterly to take care of the families of fallen American heroes, denying next of kin insurance payments.  http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/shutdown-leaves-kin-dead-soldiers-burial-funds-article-1.1480080.  Why should grieving military families become "collateral damage" of the political paralysis that plagues our nation?  Is this simply "gross incompetence" or is something more sinister at work?

We note that questions about what really happened in Benghazi, Libya in 2012 and the crude cover up that followed continue to go unanswered  (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/19/timmerman-the-real-questions-about-benghazi/?page=all).

Why does our government seem to exhibit a systematic disrespect for the veterans that have done so much over so many years for our country?

H.L. Mencken once wrote, "Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under."  Now, more than ever.
Commander K. at Florence Cemetery

"Requiem For A Soldier"

You never lived to see
What you gave to me
One shining dream of hope and love
Life and liberty

With a host of brave unknown soldiers
For your company, you will live forever
Here in our memory

In fields of sacrifice
Heroes paid the price
Young men who died for old men's wars
Gone to paradise

We are all one great band of brothers
And one day you'll see we can live together
When all the world is free

I wish you'd lived to see
All you gave to me
Your shining dream of hope and love
Life and liberty

We are all one great band of brothers
And one day you'll see - we can live together
When all the world is free





I love this video!





* In a 1780 letter written during the American Revolution, Jefferson wrote, “We shall form to the American union a barrier against the dangerous extension of the British Province of Canada and add to the Empire of liberty an extensive and fertile Country thereby converting dangerous Enemies into valuable friends.”


Friday, October 11, 2013

Spitfire 944

Spitfire, RAF Museum, Hendon

This is a short fifteen minute film that was entered into the Sundance film festival in 2007.  I found it fascinating.

God Bless John Blyth and all those who served with him.  It is so cool that he lives in Seattle too.

A love note to the spitfire.

For more on the RAF and Spitfire see...

http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/raf-museum-hendon.html

http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/raf-st-clement-danes-church.html

http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/raf-bomber-command-memorial-london.html

and, finally...

http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/duxford-andgeorge-carlin.html



Sunday, October 6, 2013

Fleet Air Arm Museum

Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton

The Fleet Air Arm Museum (http://www.fleetairarm.com/) located near the Royal Navy Air Station in Yeovilton, Somerset is a splendid place to explore Britain's proud naval aviation history.

Sopwith Pup (Replica), FAA Museum
The Royal Navy Air Arm was first launched with Air ship No. 1 in 1909.  The first plane launched from a ship (the battleship Africa equipped with a downward sloping ramp) took place in 1912.  The Ark royal was launched in 1914 as the world's first aircraft carrier.  During the First World War Naval aircraft performed reconnaissance missions and also bombed German submarine pens in occupied Belgium (see earlier post "The Millionaire's Unit"...http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/millionaires-unit.html).  The Battle of Jutland in 1916 was the only major sea battle in history featuring dreadnought battleships (see earlier post USS Texas...http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/uss-texas.html). At the conclusion of World War I in 1918, Britain was the only nation on earth with aircraft carriers.

Short S27, FAA Museum
The importance of aviation in warfare was increasingly recognized during the inter-war years.  Other nations such as Imperial Japan and the United States began developing carrier fleets.  Billy Mitchell in the US championed the power of naval aviation over the hidebound advocates of surface battleships.

Battle of Taranto
November 11, 1940
The extreme vulnerability of surface ships to naval aviation was exposed early on in World War II.  On November 11, 1940 a Royal Navy carrier group launched an attack on the Italian fleet at anchorage in Taranto.  "In less than an hour the British rendered half the Italian battle fleet hors de combat for about six month and shifted the balance of power in the Mediterranean."  (Source: At Dawn We Slept, Gordon W. Prange, 1981, www.amzn.com/0140157344).  The Japanese would make a careful study of the battle of Taranto as it became a blueprint for their own Pearl harbor attack plans.

Supermarine Seafire, FAA Museum
On May 26th 1941 the Royal Navy's Fairey Swordfish biplane's launched the torpedoes that crippled the Bismarck allowing the Prince of Wales and other surface ships to sink her the following day.  On December 10, 1941 The Prince of Wales and the Repulse were both sunk by Japanese Type 1 "Betty" torpedo bombers operating out of occupied Indochina.  Coming three days after the devastating attack on the American fleet at anchor at Pearl Harbor, the era of the surface battleship was over.

Commander K. and RN Corsair KD-431, 1944  FAA Museum
Aircraft carriers became the dominate ships of World War II.  They were needed to provide vital air support for amphibious invasions such as D-Day and Iwo Jima.  Lighter carriers were used to provide escort for the merchant shipping (see earlier post SS Jeremiah O'Brien...http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.it/2012/08/ss-jeremiah-obrien.html) that was ferrying troops, supplies and Lend Lease in the face of U-boat attacks.  Naval air was  absolutely critical to winning the battle of the Atlantic.

Ark Royal IV, FAA Museum
After World War II Aircraft carriers were used in support of the United Nations efforts on behalf of the Republic of Korea.  American carriers were used extensively during the Vietnam war.  British carriers were essential to Britain's victory over Argentina in the Falklands war of 1982.

Hawker Hunter T8M 1958, FAA Museum
The introduction of of jet aircraft increased the power of aircraft carriers to fulfil their mission of "projecting power ashore".  The American F-4 Phantom, a Cold War workhorse, was adapted for use  by the Royal Navy on their carriers.

RN F-4 "Phantom", FAA Museum
The Fleet Air Arm Museum features an "Aircraft Carrier Experience" that requires about 40 minutes and gives the visitor a real appreciation for life on board these awesome ships.  The larger nuclear-powered US Navy carriers are floating cities with over 5,000 crew members on board -- rumors that some even feature their own McDonald's on board are, however, false.

RN Carrier Pilots in the briefing room, FAA Museum
A certain pall hangs now over the Fleet Air Arm Museum as they note the fact that the last Royal Navy aircraft carrier was decommissioned in 2011.  The relative carrier strength of the Royal Navy has, therefore, gone from total in 1918 to zero in 2013.  Two 60,000-ton Queen Elizabeth Class carriers are on order but delivery is not anticipated until about 2016.  Still worse, the new carriers may lack aircraft as well.  The British, meanwhile, have an understanding with the French government and Navy that they could "borrow a carrier" if they get into a scrape over the Falklands or elsewhere in the world (See link with an excellent quote from historian Andrew Roberts...http://www.thetrumpet.com/article/7666.21623.130.0/britain/britain-buddies-with-france-what-could-possibly-go-wrong?preview).  What could possibly go wrong, indeed!

Stonehenge (Just a few miles from Yeovilton)
Commander Kelly Concludes
"Si vis pacem, para vellum," ("If you want peace, prepare for war") wrote Flavius Vegetius around 375 AD.  Britain would do well to heed the old Roman's advice rather than relying solely on the rocks of nearby Stonehenge to protect her island's freedom and preserve the peace.




Special thanks to Toby Pierson for driving us out to the Fleet Air Arm Museum.

You can now purchase Commander Kelly's first book, America Invades here...www.americainvades.com or on Amazon...www.amzn.com/1940598427