When we think of wartime bombing raids and attacks on civilians, we often conjure up images of ruined public buildings and homes during the Blitz of the Second World War. After all, this has become ‘one of the country’s most cherished and resilient national narratives’.[1] With public memories of the Blitz blending into broader evocations […]
Author Archive | Michael Reeve
The ‘North Sea Incident’ of 1904 and the consequences for Anglo-German Relations
Though historians have begun to reassess the extent of anti-German feeling in Britain in the years preceding the outbreak of the First World War, it is nevertheless interesting to take note of an incident where a Russian naval blunder became the site of Anglo-German antagonism.[1] Taking place in the thick of the Russo-Japanese War, the […]
Transcending Space? Maritime Place Identity and Mass Mobilisation in Hull during the First World War
The city of Hull, East Yorkshire enjoyed the status of ‘third port’ with a booming, world-renowned fishing industry on the outbreak of war on 4 August 1914. This industry, employing many thousands of local men and women in trawling and peripheral works, was fundamentally altered by ‘total war’, as civilian fishing vessels and their men […]