BBC Breakfast (motto: 'have some stupid on your cornflakes') has just run a feature on the 'hidden' story of the Battle of Britain. Brace yourselves: it turns out that it wasn't just about fighters, there was a whole radar and reporting network too!
Apparently, 'hidden' in Beebland means you actually have to open the book, not just look at the nice picture of the Spitfire on the cover. Seriously, who is this guy, the one who knew all about the relative turning circle of the Hurricane vs the 109, but didn't know the fighters were being guided by radio rather than, say, using sniffer dogs tied to the fuselage?
Needless to say, the only thing 'hidden' in the report - and barely at that - was the BBC's agenda. See, the thing is that most of the radar operators, and plotters, were members of the non-reversing community. That was the whole point of it all: women played a role in the battle too - just like every history of the battle makes clear.
This is the other thing about the BBC's crappy reporting. Not only is the bias bad in and off itself, it also blinds them to actual points. It is genuinely interesting to hear from a - still lifey - 100 year old veteran plotter, and there is a serious point here about how the real difference wasn't Britain's technically meh radar, so much as that it integrated with a purpose-designed home defence system. But no: chicks fought too, that's all you need to know.
Apparently, 'hidden' in Beebland means you actually have to open the book, not just look at the nice picture of the Spitfire on the cover. Seriously, who is this guy, the one who knew all about the relative turning circle of the Hurricane vs the 109, but didn't know the fighters were being guided by radio rather than, say, using sniffer dogs tied to the fuselage?
Needless to say, the only thing 'hidden' in the report - and barely at that - was the BBC's agenda. See, the thing is that most of the radar operators, and plotters, were members of the non-reversing community. That was the whole point of it all: women played a role in the battle too - just like every history of the battle makes clear.
This is the other thing about the BBC's crappy reporting. Not only is the bias bad in and off itself, it also blinds them to actual points. It is genuinely interesting to hear from a - still lifey - 100 year old veteran plotter, and there is a serious point here about how the real difference wasn't Britain's technically meh radar, so much as that it integrated with a purpose-designed home defence system. But no: chicks fought too, that's all you need to know.
5 comments:
" That was the whole point of it all: women played a role in the battle too..."
Well I never! You don't get this sort of information in books and on the History Channel and on the Internet and from talking to your grandparents and...
...just why are we paying the tv tax again?
Years ago, back in the eighties, I met a German woman who spent about 3 hours telling me her life story whilst I planned her fitted kitchen.
An amazing story it was too. I still remember it till this day.
WWII wasn't all just endless parties and fun for the krauts. It turns out young women, like she was at the time, had to man the anti-aircraft guns.
See the Nazis were also feminists and beleived in wimminz rights as well.
Perhaps thats where we get the term "feminazi" from?
Someone should let the BBC know.
Typical BBC. They have failed to unearth any aspect of the war in which the female contribution has been covered up by eeevil menfolk, so they have to serve up a pretendy one.
The sterling efforts of women were depicted in pathe news clips, at the time, never mind since.
And 'Millions like us' was buried along with 'carve her name with pride' during the fifties. Oh no, it'd on Film Four regularly.
Women took mens jobs so as to let men go off and be killed.
Mostly - There were very few women in the D Day landings , Casino battle, or in Lancasters.
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