Kit Kowol

Sometime historian, full time dog dad. My book 'Blue Jerusalem: British Conservatism, Winston Churchill, and the Second World War' is out on September 12 2024.

[Kit Kowol @KitKowol]

German POW numbers peak in the UK in September 1946 at around 400k when British “owned” POWs were shipped back from Canada and the US partly to support agriculture.

Every time I feel like I have a good handle on WWII facts like this turn up…

[Tom Kelsey @tom_kelsey_]

Delighted to receive my print copy of the latest Technology and Culture. My prize-winning essay on Concorde's critics appears in this volume, which tells a new story about the technological disillusionment of the late 1960s. You can also read it online: https://t.co/t8034HiuqY ✈️

[Kit Kowol @KitKowol]

Might anyone have a copy of John Childs' 'The Military Use of Land' that they might be able to share with me?

[Think Defence @thinkdefence]

Let's talk about...

The immediate post conflict operations at Port Stanley airport, 1982. Harrier and Hercules, the two essential aircraft

THREAD

[Kit Kowol @KitKowol]

Does anyone know what has happened to the website Secret Bases?

[Get History @GetHistory]

In 'Blue Jerusalem' @KitKowol has done an outstanding job of refuting the mythical foundations of our modern social state and of proving that the Conservative Party could be just as radical, just as idealistic, as their Labour counterparts.
https://t.co/GCpUblIc4e

[Kit Kowol @KitKowol]

@PhilipBrazier3 Amazing. I feel like I could write a whole book just about British Cold War afterlives let alone the conflict itself.

[Kit Kowol @KitKowol]

I love Cold War history. Did you know that RAF Greenham Common’s runway - among the longest in Europe - was broken up in the 90s to be used a fill for the new Newbury bypass? Wonder if Swampy knew…

[Kit Kowol @KitKowol]

@DanielCasey_CBR Against a much needed response to Soviet provocation or a “road to prosperity” 😉

[Kit Kowol @KitKowol]

@almurray @AllenLaneBooks Thanks. As well as being a piece of serious historical scholarship (obvs) I plan on it being very very mucky.

[Kit Kowol @KitKowol]

I am over the moon to announce that I have just inked the deal with @AllenLaneBooks for my next book, “Warrior Britain: A Nation in Arms, 1945-1960”.

It will be a social, cultural, and environmental history of Cold War British militarism.

[Kit Kowol @KitKowol]

It should be out in 2028, in time for the anniversary of the conclusion of Britain’s H-Bomb tests which, perhaps ironically, helped to precipitate the end of this remarkable chapter in British history.

[Kit Kowol @KitKowol]

It will argue that the UK after WWII was as much 'pre-war' as it was 'post-war' and act as a travelogue to a vanished Britain in which the armed forces suffused everyday life.

[Kit Kowol @KitKowol]

@blagden_david Lols in Anthony Eden

[David Blagden @blagden_david]

True, though a few corollaries…

- If you’re a Chinese/Russian planner, you already know this. So, you’d much rather face a US that’s burned years’ worth of missile production, and having had a chance to study their current AI-enabled operational art.

1/6

[David Blagden @blagden_david]

It’s entirely possible - some would say reasonable - to be pleased both that there’s a new obstacle to the UK’s pointlessly costly Chagos deal *and* that HM Govt is pointedly disentangling itself from yet another US war in the Middle East.

From last year: https://t.co/Ln8TEOf8Fv

[Kit Kowol @KitKowol]

@richardmarcj Have always thought that someone would do something similar for Cameron in about 30 years time.

[Kit Kowol @KitKowol]

@lepusoxoniensis I was once told that you were not a proper historian until you had an article rejected by P&P

[Kit Kowol @KitKowol]

But what happened to the German's at Westcott? Did they end up staying? What was there effect on village life?

That I am trying to figure out as part of a wider story about the all embracing impact of Cold War militarism on British life...

[Kit Kowol @KitKowol]

Doing some research into 'The Rocket Propulsion Establishment' in Westcott in Buckinghamshire where work on Britain's intermediate ballistic missile - Blue Streak - began.

Set up in 1946 what worried locals wasn't the possible accidents but potential German scientists...

[Kit Kowol @KitKowol]

Today, the Rocket Propulsion Establishment is no more. Turned into a light industrial estate. It at least is on OS maps (unlike in the Cold War). The intrepid can still look for traces of old Blue Streak works like these bits of the old test silo.