Tag: RAF

Did Winston Churchill Invent the Term “Wizard War”?

Did Winston Churchill Invent the Term “Wizard War”?

Q: Churchill’s creation?

I’d like to know if you can shed light on Churchill’s use of the word “wiz­ard” for radar sci­en­tists and engi­neers (as in Their Finest Hour, Book 2, Chap­ter 4 “The Wiz­ard War”)?  He first used the term in pub­li­ca­tion in that book in 1949; is there any indi­ca­tion of his use of the word, to describe what the RAF called “boffins”, dur­ing the ear­ly days of the war itself?

“Wiz­ard” is of course a grand old Mid­dle Eng­lish word, and Churchill would have pre­ferred that to the new­fan­gled “bof­fin.” …

Read More Read More

Nightmare Scenario by Norman Longmate

Nightmare Scenario by Norman Longmate

Nor­man Long­mate, If Britain Had Fall­en: The Real Nazi Occu­pa­tion Plans. Pub­lished 1972, reprint­ed 2012, avail­able from Ama­zon in hard­back, paper­back and Kin­dle editions. 

A recent ker­fuf­fle over drap­ing Nazi ban­ners on beloved British icons reminds me that this has been going on a long time and is per­fect­ly accept­able in exam­in­ing his­tor­i­cal pos­si­b­li­ties. Take the late Nor­man Long­mate, who offered a grip­ping pas­tiche about what might have hap­pened in 1940. As a result, we have a glimpse of a pos­si­ble alternative.

Longmate’s Yarn on the Worst Possibility

Lat­er that after­noon with the Ger­mans already in Trafal­gar Square and advanc­ing down White­hall to take their posi­tion in the rear, the ene­my unit advanc­ing across St.…

Read More Read More

RML Books

Richard Langworth’s Most Popular Books & eBooks

Links on this page may earn commissions.