Just watched the season finale of The New Look on Apple TV+
My review? Very good. 9/10.
Will cater to fans of modern fashion design as it covers Christian Dior + Coco Chanel, but also anyone that has an interest in World War II history and stories of Nazi occupation.
George MacDonald Fraser (1925–2008) – author, historian, journalist, screenwriter – was born #OTD, 2 April, 1925
“His dedication to strongly researched stories, built firmly on a bedrock of historical fact, but always with an eye to the humour of a situation, was the core of what appealed to me”
Historical novelist Michael Jecks discusses George MacDonald Fraser’s writing for the Royal Literary Fund:
Book review#15 for 2024 C. Raymond Calhoun's Tin Can Sailor: Life Aboard the USS Sterett, 1939-1945. The writer was an officer aboard the Sterett from its commissioning in 1939 until a combat wound required him to leave the ship in 1943. The emotional bond the crew had with one another is something that came out in the writing.
☕☕☕☕+ #navalhistory#ww2#memoir#books#bookreview@bookstodon@books
"Ok, sir. We have this weapon, it's a way for infantry to destroy tanks, but unless they're very, very careful, it will turn them into unwilling suicide bombers."
Mar 24, 1944: On this date, the poem The Life That I Have was issued by Special Operations Executive cryptographer Leo Marks to agent Violette Szabo. The poem was made famous by its inclusion in the 1958 movie about Szabo, Carve Her Name with Pride. (1/2)
Violette Szabό was executed at Ravensbrück at the age of 23, on or before 5 February 1945. She was posthumously awarded the George Cross, the highest award bestowed by the British government for non-operational gallantry or gallantry not in the presence of an enemy. She is one of only twelve George Crosses to be awarded to a woman. (2/2)
Mar 24, On this date in 1944, the real ‘Great Escape’ occurred when British Commonwealth POWs escaped from the German prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III. It was immortalized in the HIGHLY fictionalized 1963 film ‘The Great Escape’ (including among other inaccuracies, the role of Americans in the actual escape.) In the movie, Steve McQueen's character was based on Jerry Sage of the Office of Strategic Services.
A German guard once asked Maureen O'Sullivan what was in her suitcase. She laughed. “A wireless, of course!”.
Very early #OnThisDay, 23 Mar 1944 , Maureen 'Paddy' O'Sullivan parachutes into occupied France to be a radio operator for the British Special Operations Executive.
The SOE supported the French Resistance. Radio operators were at the greatest risk of capture as their position could be triangulated. O’Sullivan was never captured.
📝 I came across this whilst researching a little of Winston #Churchill's #speeches, and found it interesting and entertaining, so thought I'd share it here with fellow #Mastodon'ians
#OnThisDay, 21 Mar 1945, Hannie Schaft, an active member of the Dutch resistance known as "the girl with the red hair", is arrested at a German checkpoint in Haarlem.
She is later executed, allegedly saying "I shoot better" after the first attempt to shoot her missed.
The second project I supported on #kickstarter today is #theDarkestFiles by @paintbucket .
I'm not even 100% sure this will be a game I would have a lot of "fun" playing, but it seems to a kind of "serious game" about an important and interesting period in post-#ww2-history that I'm looking forward to learn more about via a game.
I also find it a project absolutely worth supporting, especially with what's happening politically around the world now.
The Man Who Used Nazi Propaganda to Help the Allies Win: An historical yet incredibly relevant discussion of BBC propagandist Sefton Delmer who turned Nazi messaging against them.
“I am a little man and this is a little town, but there must be a spark in little men that can burst into flame.”
~ Mayor Orden on the spark of resistance
In ‘The Moon is Down’
John Steinbeck, 1942
#Steinbeck wanted to support democracy and those fighting totalitarianism. So he wrote a short novel about a hypothetical small town in northern Europe.
Dans la nouvelle émission d'@arretsurimages, j'apprends l'existence du film hollywoodien "None Shall Escape" qui en 1944, avant la fin de la guerre, met en scène le procès d'un officier nazi qui doit répondre de ses crimes. C'est fou qu'un tel film existe et que je n'en ai jamais entendu parler ! #cinema#ww2
I'm not one for "New Year's resolutions", but I am one for overly ambitious projects.
For 2023, Project365 is "One New Game Per Day".
Given that I have 634 unplayed games in my Steam account and {mumble} unredeemed bundle Steam keys, there's a reason my unplayed collection is tagged "Pile of Shame".
I'll pin this to my profile, and give a brief summary here each day (or x, if I miss x days due to work or stuff).
I'll play 15-30 minutes of (at least) one new game I've never played before (or played less than 15 minutes of). I'll give every game at least 15 minutes, even if I hate every minute of it.
I'm also open to suggestions; if you reply to this thread with a game, I'll schedule it, or tell you what I thought of it.
One of the things that's come up is that I have a bunch of games that I've played once, and not touched again.
March 13, 2024 - Day 438 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 473
Game: Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter
Platform: Steam
Released: Dec 7, 2023
Installed: Mar 13, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 22m
Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter is the eighth game in the March Humble Choice Bundle. It's a first-person simulation of a WWII U-Boat destroyer.
It started out with a series of cutscenes with some of the most wooden voice acting I've experienced since I started the project.
I then ended up in the campaign, and managed to skip the tutorial option completely.
After several minutes of frustration, I quit out of the campaign, found the tutorial, which was just a series of tutorial videos, and after the series of tutorial videos I experienced a profound sense of loss at the 22 minutes of my life I'd spent on this game.
There's absolutely nothing that could have gotten me to start over on the campaign with the fresh knowledge I'd managed barely managed scrape out of the tutorial videos.
For a WWII wargame fan, Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter might scratch a very specific itch. Do I have that itch?