Oleg Penkovsky, six breaths and world destruction May 31, 2010
Posted by Beachcombing in : Contemporary
Beachcombing has never quite known what to make of Oleg Penkovsky, the most important double agent run by MI6, indeed by any power in the Cold War. Was he self-seeking? A traitor? A hero? These are puerile questions: he was probably all three. But now for a curiosity that is more amenable to interpretation. Beachcombing [...]
Tibetan soldiers in the Second World War May 31, 2010
Posted by Beachcombing in : Contemporary
Beachcombing has long been intrigued by the following account published in Tribune in October 1944 in Orwell’s As I Please. We know that Greenlanders fought the Germans, that Brazilians attempted to take Monte Cassino… but Tibetans in the Wehrmacht? The mind boggles. Is it genuine or a Second World War urban legend? Orwell is relying on [...]
Tyrkjaránið – Arab Pirates in Iceland May 30, 2010
Posted by Beachcombing in : Modern
Despite rumors of a polar bear in medieval northern Africa and well attested penetration by Rus Vikings into the Volga in the tenth century contacts between the Arab world and Scandinavia are few until (very) modern times. All the more reason then for Beachcombing to enjoy the Tyrkjaránið, the Norse/Icelandic word for the ‘Turkish Kidnappings’ in Iceland [...]
