I September 1940

As September rolls in, the panic gripping the British may have begun to subside. The Germans, unable to knock out the British radar network, had switched to a campaign to drive the Royal Navy from the seas.

The problem? They were successful.


A shot of the war room.

Realizing that their ports may be safer than the open seas, the Royal Navy left the Luftwaffe scrounging around for coastal subs to sink. They managed to sink just one.

Worse, despite notching 4 aircraft kills and 2 aborts vs. only 2 aircraft aborts by the RAF, the Luftwaffe is increasingly frustrated by their inability to force the RAF into a decisive air battle. The turn itself was a draw with both the UK and Germany picking up 7 points each, but one can't help but to feel that the Germans may be losing the initiative.

The RAF managed to repair a number of their inoperative squadrons and received a very timely 6 squadrons of reinforcements, as well as pulling some units off factory duty in the north. Their strategy of avoiding battle with the Luftwaffe seems to have bought them some time.



Another worrisome development is that with the British not having to worry about spending equipment points on repairing factories and radar stations, they can divert them to re-equipping brigades depleted by the Dunkirk evacuation. The 2 infantry divisions sitting in Kent are a major concern to any potential invasion, especially as the Germans will only have enough shipping to send over a maximum of 6 unsupported divisions per turn in ideal conditions.

The British continue to send their night bombers after German shipping and port capacity, but increased German anti-aircraft makes this a low-return and sometimes hazardous venture at this point in the war. A possible change in strategy might be to send out smaller, but more numerous sorties.

The Germans may switch to strikes against the Royal Navy ships in port, which surely the RAF cannot ignore. Strikes against factories, given the decreased protection in the air, remain a possibility, but the Royal Navy remains a priority should the Germans commit to an invasion.

This raises the question of whether the Germans need to invade at all to achieve victory. True, England may look like a shell waiting to be cracked, with relatively weak ground forces in opposition, but the Germans lose 50 points per repulsed invasion attempt, so the strategy is high-risk, high-reward.

12 July 2011, Portmeirion

"Who are you?"
"I am the new number two."
"Who is Number One?"
"You are Number Six."
"I am not a number! I am a free man!"



If you're going to Portmeirion hoping to see Prisoner stuff, you will be disappointed. I was rarely disappointed by anything I saw in the UK, but this was one of those times. The Prisoner Shop is not in Number Six's quarters, as the guidebooks claim, and if it weren't for this modest place, you'd never know a cult TV program had been filmed there.



This is a good thing and a bad thing, I suppose. Based on its own merits, it's an attractive enough attraction, but I wouldn't make the trek unless you were a huge fan of Italianate architecture or had a Prisoner convention to attend.



If you want to go to Wales, go to Snowdonia, or some of the castles there, or the ruins of Tintern Abbey if you want to see something remote and not crowded by tourists.

II August 1940

Rather a chancy time for the Brits. Despite recovering somewhat from a disastrous first turn, the RAF and Royal Navy are stretched way thin as German forces assemble for a possible invasion. Can Old Blighty hang on?


The mounting number of inoperative UK air units is severely hindering the defense.

Germany continues its assault on the radar stations, but bad luck plagues the Luftwaffe, registering only 2 hits in 8 missions involving over 28 bomber groups and 14 escorts. So little damage was done that the RAF was able not only to repair the damage done this turn, but all damage done to date. The problem is that the stations are far easier to repair than to destroy, which prompted the real-life Luftwaffe to move on to airfields (and at about this time in history), which is something the German player is considering doing at this point.

Although the German losses in the air mounted during the last half of August 1940, so did the English. In total, UK losses were 1 kill and 10 aborts, while German losses were 6 aborts and 3 kills. The increase in German losses was due to a change in British strategy brought on by necessity; the widening disparity in numbers forced the UK to only contest a limited number of missions, and by doing so, achieving local superiority in some quadrants.


Here a number of Parachute regiments in Paris look over the English Channel to Kent.

Really, the only successful air mission over England was the first terror bombing of London, a nighttime mission that overwhelmed the pair of night fighters the UK threw up.

Germany's greatest success so far has come at sea. During these 2 weeks, the Luftwaffe scored major damage on the battleship HMS Nelson, and sunk both the battleship HMS Barham and the heavy cruiser USS Sussex. If it weren't for uncannily magnificent AA defense, the HMS Renown might have been lost as well.


11 Infantry Divisions stare over the North Sea at a possible invasion site.

The Royal Navy, which to this point has interposed itself between the Netherlands and East Anglia to oppose a possible invasion, will likely have to move to a different sea zone, or take to port as the German Navy has done. They've already vacated the Channel due to unrelenting attacks from Ju88A and Ju87R bombers, and the RAF is hard-pressed to escort the flotillas in addition to patrolling the skies over England.


Both the Royal Navy and Kriegsmarine avoid Deadly Sea Zone 13!

On the bright side, the British have committed to bombing the shipping and ports in Netherlands to kill an invasion in its infancy. They were able to destroy 4% of German shipping and a third of Amsterdam's port capacity. While this doesn't sound critical, it will force the Luftwaffe to transfer some of the Me109E's from Calais for protection, and perhaps alleviating some of the pressure on the homeland.


Sunk in the North Sea.

Right now, the Germans have 31 victory points while the UK has only 6, making this a German decisive victory...if the game ended now. Add 11 more for the damage to the HMS Repulse, HMS Nelson, HMS Southampton, and the HMS Renown.

Dark times, indeed.

The Globe, 7/11

This was a fabulous and eventful day. I turned 40(!), did some laundry, picked up the latest Executive Assistant:Iris, and--oh yeah!--went to see Much Ado About Nothing at The Globe.

So, you know, no big deal.



I saw Marlowe's Doctor Faustus as a groundling, but given that Much Ado was a evening performance and it was my birthday, I treated myself to a seat. For 4 pounds more, I could have sprung for a cushion, but elected not to.

The performance was sterling. First of all, it's one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, and I adore the characters of Beatrice and Benedick. But seeing it live, performed by seasoned actors, with a director who made the most out of the space and limited sets, was an eye-opener. I'll be directing Antigone this fall, and I was inspired to see how, exactly, we could reproduce some of the effects with an economy of means.



I love the Bard, and I consider myself reasonably knowledgeable and able interpretation-wise, but seeing the actors add to the words with their mannerisms and blocking made it come alive. For instance, the character of Claudio could be played rather dully, but in this production, I was reminded of Alan Rudyk's Wat from A Knight's Tale. Artistic license perhaps, but effective and entertaining. Even if you didn't follow all the language, it was easy to follow the sense of what was going on. That means a lot in live performance. Another great aspect was the interaction with the audience.



Fantastic.

Their Finest Hour, I August 1940

"Their Finest Hour" is a operational-level wargame recreating the military situation facing Germany and Britain in the summer and autumn of 1940. The maps cover all of the United Kingdom plus northern France and western Norway. It's part of the Europa series of WWII wargames.



The Germans had just defeated France, and the British Army was only just recovering from the loss of equipment they had suffered in their desperate evacuation from Dunkirk. Only the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force stood in their way.



For the Germans, if the Germans could gain air superiority over the RAF, they could shield the Wehrmacht's crossing of the Channel to force a decisive land battle.

Cleopatra's Needle, 7/10

Cleopatra's Needle is a must-see along the Thames River, but is rather tucked in and easy to miss if you're not specifically looking for it.

The obelisk wasn't Cleopatra's, but is very old. Cleopatra was the name of the steamship that carried it to England, a very perilous and costly venture.





From the Needle, it's not too far to the Parliament Building. About the building you'll see several nifty statues, including ones of Richard I, Thomas Cromwell, a Renoir, and the immortal Boudicca.



Find out more about one of England's favorite women here.

Museum of London, 7/9/11

Not too far from some currently bad spots of London, the Museum of London escorts a visitor through the different ages of London, from the Stone Age to the Millennium.



There are some cool displays of the different historical periods with a walk-through exhibit of a Victorian Age street and a stirring Blitz exhibit.

Near the Museum is the remains of the walls of Londinium when the Romans were in charge. Pretty cool, actually.

Beachy Head, 7/8/11

About 120 million years ago, the area of Beachy Head was a warm, tropical lake, and over the next 20 million years, the same forces that created the Alps created the chalk cliffs of England's second-most famous, if visually more impressive, white chalk cliffs.



The name dates back to the Norman Invasion, and derives from French. Beach comes from beau chef, or beautiful headland, and head means, well, head. William the Conqueror was more concerned about the castles on either side of Beachy Head, but clearly the Normans came this way, and the town of Battle, oddly the site of the 1066 battle of Hastings, is about six miles away.



The weather at the top of the cliffs is often harsh. I had to put down my umbrella at one point for fear of it being destroyed, and within a stretch of ten minutes the weather went from very hot to windy and rainy to mild again.

Famous area personalities included Charles Dodgson, an accomplished mathematician better known for being Lewis Carroll, and an unhappy Eastborne schoolboy named Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell.




Exploring Beachy Head requires you to be in decent shape, as the hills are steep and it is a calf-burning mile walk to get to the good stuff, the iconic Belle Tout lighthouse and the Seven Sisters. Dress in layers, because the weather changes abruptly.



The best way to explore the area may be by car to Birling Gap; this way, you could go east to Belle Tout lighthouse or west to the Seven Sisters. Either way, walking up and down steep hills is inevitable, and when I say steep, we're talking sometimes around 40 degrees. If you're going by train, take one of the many trains out of London Victoria station to Eastbourne, where you can take a bus out to Beachy Head. In order to see all of the Seven Sisters, go in the morning and expect to return late in the afternoon, but some pretty impressive scenery can be got for an afternoon excursion.

Whatever you do, take a moment to pause at the English Channel and think about all the history that has sailed through or flown over the waters.

Camden Town, 7/7/11

Does London have comic book stores? It does!

Best store? Forbidden Planet, of course, but second best has got to be MegaCity Comics. They had not one, but TWO copies of Executive Assistant: Iris on hand.

Camden Town is home to a lot of odd characters.



Camden Town has a long street that also serves as a market on weekends, and you can find a lot of different items, from vintage clothes to food to hard-to-find electronics.



Here's the Blues Kitchen--the last place Jimi Hendrix played before he died.



Camden is also home to Camden Locks, where you can get a close-up view of how a series of locks work.

The Bernard is Back

Pleased to be back in the US, and now that things are beginning to return to normal, I can turn my attention back on Ghosty: Trip No Further, the last book in the Ghosty trilogy. I've got 26,000 words so far, and a pretty decent first act. Now, the antagonist makes his move. I'm also adapting Antigone for stage.

I'm still processing the highs and lows of the trip, and I've compiled two preliminary lists, in no particular order:

What I most enjoyed about the U.K.
1. The museums, especially the British Museum and Tate Britain
2. The weather that was mild relative to the excruciating Indiana summer heat and humidity
3. The British Film Institute
4. Staffa Island
5. The Globe Theater

What I enjoyed least about the U.K.
1. Idiot pedestrians in London
2. Packing into a car on the Tube
3. Being away from my wife and family for 6 weeks
4. Hostel living
5. Hidden costs!

So, let's check out some new pictures. These are from Staffa Island.