1363
A British victory at tragic cost, in which both sides had to learn a new way of fighting.
In February 1916, Germany launched an offensive at Verdun in Lorraine, near the German border with France. To relieve the French forces, the British tried to draw the Germans north to the River Somme in Picardy.
Picture: © Wernervc, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted May 31 2016
1364
A girl’s choice of words sees her turned out of hearth and home.
This distinctively English tale has a lot of Cinderella in it, but in some ways it is a richer story, framed by an Aesop-like moral and not cluttered by magic.
Picture: © Bill Nicholls, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted May 30 2016
1365
Hospitality and sympathy, but no help - the Byzantine Emperor learns a bitter lesson about western diplomacy.
Byzantium became the capital of the Roman Empire in 330, and was renamed Constantinople after the Emperor, Constantine. Its fall to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 was one of the great catastrophes of civilisation, yet England and the other powers of Europe stood and watched.
Picture: © MEH Bergmann, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted May 30 2016
1366
An enduringly popular poem by the author of ‘Treasure Island’.
Robert Louis Stevenson, better known today for ‘Treasure Island’ and ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, first published ‘A Child’s Garden of Verses’ in 1885. He uses simple rhymes and a ‘rum-ti-tum’ rhythm to create a sense of childhood innocence, though he does not by any means romanticise childhood, and many poems in the set are tinged with sorrow.
Picture: © Adam Ward, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted May 30 2016
1367
‘D-Day’ on 6th June, 1944, kicked off the Allied invasion of Europe and raised hopes of an end to the Second World War.
The Normandy Landings began with ‘D-Day’ set for 5th June, 1944, though unfavourable weather postponed it to the following day. The landings heralded the start of the Allied invasion of Europe and the end of the Second World War, though it was nearly a year before victory could be declared.
Picture: Photo by Capt J.L. Evans, No 5 Army Film and Photographic Unit, via the Imperial War Museums and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: public domain.. Source.
Posted May 28 2016
1368
The mayor and bishop of Zakynthos went to extraordinary lengths to protect the most vulnerable people of their island.
In February 1943, the Italians, who had captured the Greek island of Zakynthos two years earlier, threw the island’s bishop, Chrysostom, in an Athens jail. Ten months later he returned home to find the island now in the hands of the Nazis.
Picture: Photo by Maesi64, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 1.0 Universal public domain dedication.. Source.
Posted May 27 2016