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grautbakken.bsky.social
Pretty useless unless told otherwise
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The occasional reminder HMS Dreadnought's significance lay in how rapidly she was constructed and brought into service demonstrating fiscal-industrial superiority to negate competitor programmes and expenditures. Her tech was pretty much off the shelf.

The British organized their air defence system through boring years of committee work while the Nazis thought their Knights of the Air shit would overcome all opposition. Guess which approach worked best (spoilers).

Many people have wondered how the Finns defend Finland today, so here's a very short introduction to modern Finnish defence policy - and a brief synopsis of how the Finnish military would probably fight if any hostile country decided to invade. 1/

An RN rating carries a young girl along a cluttered dock in Greenock, Scotland, March 1, 1945. This famous image, and the story behind it, epitomise naval purpose: protect the high seas; safeguard civilians. This is the story of the Sørøya Island rescue. #maritimehistory #navalhistory #WW2 🧵1/29

Want to know how these worked? How you would hit targets fourteen miles away before radar? Visit us here for your one stop introduction to naval gunnery. We put the ‘oooohhhh’ in salv…oooh. Does that work? Salvo? Meh. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s...

The news getting you down? I invite you to stare at this chart of solar and wind deployed capacity in China. They blew past their ambitious 2030 target... last July.

“On War holds a unique place in strategic studies because it’s not about strategy, it’s about defining war as a social phenomenon. It’s the part that nearly every other theorist just skips and moves right onto Violence + Reason = Victory.” A superb essay. open.substack.com/pub/bafriedm...

80 years ago: 24th December 1944. Between 5am and 6am, Heinkel 111s air-launched 45 V-1 flying bombs off the coast of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, with the intended target of Manchester. 14 crashed into the North Sea, leaving 31 to make landfall. 🧵1/7

I feel now is a good time to re-up this for my new followers.

To return to a point made yesterday by @duncanweldon.bsky.social: the fact that 2/3 of the UK’s food was imported in 1939 while Germany was mostly self-sufficient in food was a STRENGTH of the former and a weakness of the latter, not as myth suggests the other way found.

Aircraft vs Uboats B24 sunk 72 B17 sunk 11 Halifax sunk 3 Sunderland sunk 26 Catalina sunk 38 Swordfish 22 Wildcat 27 Avenger 35 Hudson 26 Mosquito 8 Wellington 27 Whitley 5 Ventura 7 Some of these would be assists where aircraft shared credit Pic shows U625 sunk by a Sunderland

A Brief History of Kids Today Have It Easy 🧵

Interested in Naval & Maritime history? Here are a bunch of wonderful accounts posting about it for you to follow. If you want to be added to the list, let me know :) go.bsky.app/4R4Awhv

A List of Things People Blamed on Flappers 🧵

Have fallen down the rabbit hole of how space suits got made and HOLY FUCK are there a lot of important women who've been largely left out of NASA's history there.

my favorite Kris Kristofferson story remains this one townhallmeeting.org/2021/01/18/h...

Since this is doing so well over there, now over here: The Venetian method for electing a Doge was literally insane, or genius

elon musk's daughter is amazing

Check out my review of Malcolm Gladwell's Bomber Mafia in the latest issue of The RCAF Journal. TL;DR: his analysis is shallow; the book makes no useful contribution to our understanding of the topic; it is best avoided by all. Read it here: publications.gc.ca/c...

For your reading pleasure on Confederate Surrender Day, here is The Liberator absolutely roasting Robert E. Lee with a damning bill of particulars shortly after the end of the Civil War. A man "not in the slightest degree penitent, either for his treachery, perjury, treason, falsehood, or cruelty."

Hear me talking about the immortal Fairey Swordfish if you can put up with my halting delivery. Includes the line 'my entire personality is basically defending aircraft that other people write off' which is the only epitaph I will ever need open.spotify.com/episode/1Lu9...