Monty Python got some good alliterative mileage out of that term in their movie “And Now For Something Completely Different.” One sequence in the movie is a fake WWII British newsreel, in black and white, with suitably bombastic narration that includes the opening line “Yes, the war against the Hun continues – and as Britian’s brave boys battle against the Boche…” By the standards of genuine WWII newsreels, that’s actually not as over-the-top as it sounds to modern ears. And during a real WWII deception operation, the fake letter from General Nye to General Alexander which was the centrepiece of the “Mincemeat” disinformation scheme used such phrases as “We have had recent information that the Boche have been reinforcing and strengthening their defences in Greece and Crete…”
WWI Halifax Explosion Footage
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http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-30051013
World War One Halifax explosion: Unseen pictures revealedUnseen pictures from World War One have been released showing what was then the world’s largest explosion.
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Thank you for this topic. I have not heard of this event.
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I’ve been to Halifax a couple of times, and on one visit I picked up a locally-published book about the Halifax Explosion.
One nice footnote to the story (and a timely one, with the holidays approaching) is that it was the start of a tradition which continues to this day. After the explosion, the city of Boston sent to Halifax a trainload of relief supplies (medical things and so forth) which had been gathered by various charitable organizations. The following year, Halifax sent Boston a Christmas tree as a symbol of appreciation for Boston’s aid to the city in its hour of need. In 1971, the gesture was repeated and, from that point on, it became an annual tradition, with the tree serving as Boston’s official Christmas tree (located on Boston Common) every year.
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Right on CWO. Way cool read. I read of this in Forsythe’s “The Afgan”. It didn’t have many details though.
That was one major explosion. In recent times their was a ammo dump that went up in iraq. It was claimed no foul play but I’ve always wondered.
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