Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Silly season

North Junior sends me this pic (left), illustrating what every well-dressed soldier might wear on the battlefield ... although he might be better equipped with a tracked mosque, as opposed to a church.

Given that is it silly season, though, I thought I would give it an airing, if for no other reason than to illustrate that truth is often stranger than fiction - or life mirrors art, if you prefer.

In my trawls looking for examples of German wartime radar equipment, I happened upon the example below, which I am reliably told is a FuMO 2 "Calais B" marine surveillance radar.

But you would be hard to notice the slender lattice as you streaked past in your Spitfire PRU or whatever. It is mounted on top of a structure which is described as an S 449 bunker (not that I am any great expert on bunker designs - check by looking at the link) - but with a difference.

If you look very carefully, you might notice a few non-standard additions, such as the dummy tiled roof to disguise the bunker and conceal the radar mast. And then there are the windows artfully painted on the walls of the solid, reinforced concrete, all set to help make the thing look like a des res perched on top of the cliff.


And yes, that's the best I can do for the moment ... I really could not bring myself to write a sensible piece, and in fact I'm too tired to try, having been reading into the wee small hours to prime the pump. I will give myself a good talking-to, and get down to a proper post in the morning.

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