19 Jan
1999
19 Jan
'99
2:38 a.m.
> A recent program on Stonehenge on the Discovery
channel said the RAF
wanted to
> level Stonehenge with explosives, but the person
who owned the land they
were
> on refused to let them. *boggle* Is it just me,
or does all this
suggest
> that in the 1930s and early 40s good maps were
much harder to come by
than
A lot of it was propaganda to the British public to convince them how
important the war was....
Of course there were maps. Ordnance Survey maps were originally produced
for military use (hence the name), but nowadays are available just about
anywhere in the UK (most bookshops keep at least the local ones). During
the war they were probably impossible to obtain, but before the war,
trivial.
And you can bet they had got them in Germany as well. After all, the
British certainly had German maps.
Yes, the Germans had good maps of Britain. At Bletchley I say on display a
German map of the UK 132kV electrical grid, as it was in 1938...
The other thing that worries me is that Stonehenge is
not the best
landmark in that area. Salisbury Cathedral's spire is probably a lot
easier to see from a distance.
Unique. But not so distinctive. Stonehenge is obviously Stonehenge.
Salisbury Cathedral is random_large_church_with_tall_spire. Seriously, if
I emerged from cloud somewhere in the South of England, and saw Stonehenge,
I'd know exactly where I was. If I emerged and saw Salisbury, I could
probably work it out, but it would be a lot harder.
But the original report - that Stonehenge was flattened - looks like a
clear case of local telling tall story to American tourist...
Philip.