Well, you live and learn. What a strange idea ... especially as there were plenty of long-range aircraft available - it was just that some silly bugger had them all bombing Hamburg instead of chasing U-Boats.



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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Oops! Correction noted. So that makes at least two "mad scientists" within the Pyke family... I wonder what the rest of them were like?

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"Some days I diet, other days they serve lasagne."

Mad Scientist from Sheffield Uni who does talking head stuff at techno games had flock of white air balloons pottering around the arena. Equipped with sensors so they don't (quite) bump into things. This is apparently some sort of experiment to do with how herd animals move, and replicating it with AI's.

Think I should like to meet Mad Scientist from Sheffield Uni. :-)



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

> I found some more info about "Habbakuk" in the web (by googling for "Habbakuk", of course...). Admittedly it seemed to be as part of someone's naval wargame campaign, but it looked as though they'd done their homework... If they were right then I got the size slightly wrong, it wasn't "1/2 mile long, or better" but (only :-) 2000 feet long... Still not exactly a small boat, though... Especially with a projected displacement of about 2 million tons! Its 11 (!) propellors, moving it at a rate of up to c. 10 knots, would have been turned by electric motors that were all linked to an onboard power-station.
> Oh, and a reply to JON's comment on this subject _ The Allied planes available at that time whose ranges/enduarances were adequate for reaching German cities such as Hamburg or Berlin, staying over there for just long enough to select actual targets & drop bombs (or, if American, just to drop bombs...) and then return still didn't have the range/endurance needed for reaching the sea areas in question, spending more than a few minutes (if even that long) looking for u-boats, and getting home again...

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"Some days I diet, other days they serve lasagne."

The other advantage of wassnames was that the drinks in the oficers mess would be at a perfect temperature.

Why don't they send some to the Gulf?

It reminds me of the time when some friends and I were in a pub talking about how to improve Stratford. Somebody suggested crazy golf, but we reckoned you wouldn't get planning permission. No problem, we reasoned - make it inflatable.

From this start we somehow got to demanding they freeze a patch of the river over so we could play a mix of ice hockey/crazy golf/bungee running/rugby (and much else besides). By the time we got to this point the entire pub had stopped to listen. I'm still proud.



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Techno games finished for year. Quite right to suggest that the football should be retitled as rugby. Those robots were shoving each other around like a lot of old ladies trying to get the best bargains at a jumble sale.

PSD _ Re your suggested game at Stratford _ A bit like the Nextian Earth's version of Croquet, perhaps?

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"Some days I diet, other days they serve lasagne."

Simon; re planes; what you say about ranges of Lancasters & Halifaxes is technically correct, but you have to remember they were carrying a large payload, which obviously cut the range down. Liberators and Flying Fortresses (at least) had enough range to fly the Atlantic; they were delivered to the UK that way.

However, the plane really needed (and eventually used) was the Short Sunderland flying boat of LIAGB fame, which had plenty range, being designed as a transatlantic airliner. However the Min of Aircraft Production, under RAF pressure, did not permit Shorts to build enough of them, insisting they build Stirlings instead (which was useless even as a bomber). The other factor was crew shortage; Coastal Command were chronically short of aircrew throughout 1941 and 1942. 50 planes more or less bombing Germany would have made no practical difference, but 50 Sunderlands chasing U-Boats would have been priceless.



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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty