Michael Foedrowitz

This is an interesting book on these massive AA fortifications.
Before I had even heard of flak towers, I spent time in Beirut during the Civil War. The high-rise hotels became domineering strong points, and control was heavily contested. AA guns were among the heavy weapons manhandled into the hotels, but they were only used against ground troops. The Israelis launched frequent airstrikes, but only on refugee camps and residential neighborhoods.
I wonder how those buildings would have functioned as flak towers. I think using them as part of a flak trap would have been very effective initially, but they would have been destroyed in retaliatory strikes – after evacuation, hopefully.
If anybody has the opportunity to try this tactic, let me know how it works out.… (mehr)

In an otherwise anoraky (though beautifully produced) book of photographs of German fire engines, the author makes a very telling point: and an obvious one, though one that hadn't occurred to me before. The German fire service in the Third Reich was organised on political grounds, ultimately tracing its chain of command all the way up to Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler. This meant that in the synagogue burnings of 1938, the fire service was under a direct command not to attend. If there is any better illustration of the need to keep politicians away from the day-to-day running of public services, I've yet to see it.… (mehr)