Intel's Ronler Acres Plant

Silicon Forest
If the type is too small, Ctrl+ is your friend

Midnight in Europe - Alan Furst

Midnight in Europe - Alan Furst
April 10, 2017

Visual aids to go with the book.

Our hero works for the first international law firm, Coudert Freres (Brothers), at their office in Paris. It was a real company, started in 1853 and just recently dissolved.

Jacques Lebaudy, son of the Sugar King of France, lunatic and
source of much legal work for our hero.
When our hero is  in New York he stays at The Gotham Hotel.
Lauren Bacall at the Gotham Hotel
Lauren Bacall wasn't in the story, but I couldn't find any good pictures of the Gotham Hotel, but I think her being there gives you some idea of just what kind of place it was. Besides, I like Lauren.
The St. Regis and Gotham Hotels in New York City, ca. 1905
One is one and the other is the other. You choose. I don't know.

The DuMont Building515 Madison AvenueNew York, New York
The Spanish Republic's arms buying office was located here.
Our hero flies to New York on a flying boat out of Lisbon, Portugal.


Yankee Clipper - First Transatlantic Flight

Passengers disembarking from a Boeing 314 Flying Boat
Horseback riding in the Bois de Boulange by Toulouse Lautrec
This painting predates our story by 50 years, but horses remain horses.
The Iroquois Hotel
New York, New York
Palace Hotel, Madrid
Someplace you don't want to be, not when there is a civil war going on.
Église Saint-Sulpice, Paris France
Our hero walks by here everyday on his way home from work.
The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron
Published in 1937, it's a new book in this story.
Amazon has it.
Lycee Charlemagne
Faculté de droit de Paris

The last arms deal in the story involves acquiring a bunch of Soviet anti-aircraft guns,

Soviet anti-aircraft gun at the Battle of Erbo


and transporting them via freighter across the Mediterranean Sea.

Tramp Steamer
Off the coast of Sicily they are harassed by an Italian patrol boat,

Italian MAS Patrol Boat
which fires at them with a light machine gun, which I take to mean a 30 caliber weapon. But they are big stinking ship made of thick plates of steel, and while a couple of rounds make their impact felt, most bounce off and fall into the sea.

Steel plate with bullet holes / dents
Straight on, a 30 caliber bullet could probably pierce an aging tramp steamer's hull, but bouncing around on the sea getting a straight-on shot would be difficult, and getting a straight-on shot at the hull isn't going to do you any good. After you run out of bullets the ship's carpenter will just walk around and hammer wooden plugs in the holes. The super-structure, where the people are, is the only place you could hope to have any effect. The steel there isn't as thick, but your shots are going to be pretty random, bouncing around on the waves like you are.

The Spanish Civil War was a political fight, and with politics you get propaganda, like posters:

I'm not quite sure what this one is saying. Fight and die for the cause, maybe?

The Soviet bear was were helping the Republicans against the Fascists

Get yourself a radio and listen to what's happening now!

No comments: