This is the 9th instalment of #deanehistory. We remain in Aroostook County.

The County seat is the small town of Houlton. During the Second World War, before America had entered, the USA built an airbase at Houlton right on the border with Canada.
The USA flew planes into that base – careful not to enter Canadian airspace, as the Canadians were & are in the Commonwealth, fighting alongside us, whilst the USA was “neutral.”
Canadian farmers would then come along with their tractors & literally drag military aircraft over the border. The Canucks would close the highway, which became a temporary runway, and whoosh – off said planes went to London for the war effort.
I love lots about this. I love the letter of the law being respected, & the prompt way round it. I love the fact that it hinged on some local farmers doing their bit. I love the shared endeavour between our three countries in this tiny obscure corner of cold north Maine.
But there’s more. This operation had two casualties; they sadly died in a crash by the runway when taking a bomber to Britain. The pilot was a Kiwi– yet another nation in this band of friends. So far from home, an example of our shared effort in the most important cause.
RIP Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot, George Newall Harrison, & his radio operator, Royal Canadian Air Force Sergeant Henry Bordewick. Their Commonwealth War Graves are maintained in rural Maine to this day by the American Legion.
I want to thank @EmpireAttendant for a very helpful correction.

The *four* casualties of this accident were:-
RCAF Sergeant August Leroy BECKWALL,
RCAF Sergeant Henry BORDEWICK,
RCAF Sergeant Arthur Gordon Bartley GIBSON and
RNZAF Flying Officer George Newall HARRISON.
I think Beckwall & Gibson are buried in Canada. Hence my missing them. RIP.
Thanks to @CalumMercer, @MarkNewlands1, @LJ_Skipper for pointing to the reference to this in Darkest Hour:

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More from @ajcdeane

20 Jan
This is instalment 11 of #deanehistory. It’s one of my favourite stories from the 2nd World War, & one of the most unlikely.

Portugal’s neutrality was important to us. They permitted Allied activity from the Azores, vital in combating U-boats.
They also traded on favourable terms with Britain, with whom (then, as now) they shared the oldest continuous alliance in the world.

But there was a problem.
Portugal’s overseas possessions included Goa in India.

In 1942, SOE realised that coded messages were being sent to U-boats in the Indian Ocean with precision, allowing the sinking of huge amounts of Allied ships.

A Gestapo spy was detected in Goa.
Read 21 tweets
19 Jan
This is the 10th instalment of #deanehistory. We made it to double figures!

Today we take a look at Napoleon. But not the one you’re thinking about.
Louis-Napoleon was the son of Napoleon III, who was the nephew of Napoleon actual Napoleon Napoleon. (Napoleon II was Napoleon’s son & didn’t live long). All clear?
Napoleon III was the first President of France, & the last Emperor. That way round, too, rather than the reverse, which might seem more natural. He’d been elected, then couldn’t get re-elected, so seized power.
Read 15 tweets
17 Jan
Some anecdotes too short to make a proper #deanehistory instalment.

One such is LBC shortly after being sworn in as President on the plane. They land.

A green lieutenant says, “over there - that’s your helicopter, Mr President.”

LBJ: “son, they’re all my helicopters.”
Another, a favourite of @denvercunning.

LBJ & team are taking names for the polls from tombstones. It’s late. They’re tired. A junior aide skips a worn headstone that’s hard to read.

LBJ stops him.

“Son, that man’s got as much of a right to vote as anyone in this graveyard.”
A third. Trigger warning, profane.

LBJ to his press guy, of an opponent: “go out and say he “f*cks pigs.”

Aide: “but sir, he doesn’t f*ck pigs!”

LBJ: “well sure, son. But I want to hear the son of a b*tch deny it.”
Read 4 tweets
17 Jan
This is the 8th instalment of #deanehistory.

Aroostook County in Maine is massive. It’s the largest county east of the Mississippi & bigger than three states. But it could have been bigger.
The Treaty of Paris brought the American Revolutionary War to a close in 1783, but didn’t define the border between the USA & British North America precisely. This mattered in Maine (not yet a state).
In the War of 1812, which went rather well for us, much of Maine was occupied by the British. When the war was over, attempts to define the border more precisely were again unsuccessful.
Read 11 tweets
15 Jan
This is the 6th instalment of #deanehistory. I confess that beer brought me to it.

The Dutch island of Texel produces some very fine beer. It was also the site of one of the last, & most unusual, battles of the Second World War in Europe.
(I’m hardly the first Englishman to be interested in the chain of Frisian Islands to which Texel belongs; it’s the setting of German invasion plans in Erskin Childers’ “The Riddle of the Sands”.)
The Wehrmacht had a “Georgian Legion.” Some were Georgians who’d fled westwards after the Soviet invasion of their (beautiful) country & hated the Soviets. Rather more were captured Georgian soldiers.
Read 17 tweets
14 Jan
This is the 5th instalment of #deanehistory. It is a happy one, and then a sad one.
The little city state of Plataea asked Sparta for an alliance, as they feared the Thebans. Mischievously, Sparta told them to ally with Athens, enemy of Thebes; they were angry when that alliance was actually agreed. Careful what you joke about, Spartans.
Quite separately, King Darius of Persia’s army marched westwards. Their primary beef was with Athens, but it was plainly bad news for all Greeks. Led the great general Miltiades, the Athenians marched to face them – at Marathon.
Read 15 tweets

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