#australian imperial force

[thewondermentofillustration]

Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton (1867–1943) - Gas Alert, 1919, watercolour and gouache; The Ballarat Dump, St Gratien, 1918, watercolour; Mont St Quentin, Péronne, France, October 1918; watercolour; Camouflaged Siege Gun, Querrieu 1918, watercolour

In 1915, Streeton served as a private in the Australian Army Medical Corps. After three years, he was appointed an official war artist and painted the Western Front in France.

#Arthur Streeton #Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton #Australian artist #watercolour #watrerocolor #war artist #First World War #WWI #World War One #soldiers #Australian Imperial Force #ANZAC #war scene #war art #1919 #1910s

[intheshadowofwar]

19 June 2023

The Imperial Metropolis

London 19 June 2023

So I was just settling into bed tonight, thinking about what I needed to do tomorrow, when I had an inkling that I’d forgotten to do something. Something important. Now, I’d had my meds, so it wasn’t that, I’d eaten dinner, showered, all that good stuff, so what could it be?

Oh. Right. Log.

I woke up very early this morning to get the train from Edgware to Victoria, meeting the group at our hotel just before nine. We proceeded from there to Westminster Cathedral, briefly exploring that building and looking at the Martyr’s Memorial within, before carrying on to the somewhat more famous Westminster Abbey. After a brief interrogation of the statuary on Parliament Square, we went inside.

I highly doubt Westminster Abbey needs an introduction - it’s Britain’s most famous church, and dozens of kings and dignitaries are buried inside. To this day, Britain’s heroes are commemorated in these hallowed walls - Isaac Newton lies next to Stephen Hawking, and there’s Prime Ministers from Pitt to Wilson. It’s absolutely packed, of course, but I’d say it’s well worth a look. The main reason we visited, of course, was the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, the representative of all Britain’s (and previously the Empire’s) war dead. It is interesting, considering the secular nature of most WWI commemoration, just how Christian the tomb is - but I suppose it ought to be, given its place in an abbey. Still, one must remember that he ostensibly represents the Catholic and Jewish soldiers of Britain, not to mention the Hindus and Muslims of the Indian Army.

After the Abbey, we proceeded up Whitehall, looking at the Cenotaph, the Women’s Cenotaph for the Second World War, and the statue of Field Marshal Haig. We went through Horse Guards (Life Guards on duty today) and observed the memorial to the Foot Guards, and then carried on via the Royal Marines Memorial next to Admiralty Arch (a Boer War Memorial, as I can’t escape my thesis topic) to Trafalgar Square. We broke for lunch here, and I had mine in the crypt beneath St. Martin’s in the Field church. It was a nice little cafe, and only a few sandbags and posters away from looking like something right out of the Blitz. Maybe I shouldn’t give them ideas.

After lunch, we looked at the Edith Cavell Memorial. Cavell, for the uninitiated, was a British nurse in Belgium shot for supposed espionage on 12 October 1915 - the monument is tall and heroic, a real ‘King and Country’ sort of thing; the words are even emblazoned on it. This makes the addition of a quote from Cavell in the 1920s - “Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred in my heart for anybody.” - a rather curious juxtaposition. Still, it is well worth a look if one is at Trafalgar Square.

From St. Martin’s, we walked down to the Victoria Embankment Park, where a small memorial to the Imperial Camel Corps is situated. There was a brief discussion of Australian troops on leave in London, and then we carried on back up to the Strand and over to Australia House. Australia House, they say, is ‘our house’ in London; but security arrangements had fallen through, preventing us from going inside. Canada and New Zealand, we were told, are not so paranoid about security, and we would have had no problem going inside.

On the other side of the road was the St. Clement Danes Church, which served as a centre for Anzac and Armistice Day services for Australians in London during the interwar years. Today it’s the official church of the Royal Air Force. Statues of Air Marshals Dowding and ‘Bomber’ Harris stand sentinel outside, and the floor is marked with the crests of various RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF and affiliated squadrons. A panel lists the RAF’s VC and GC holders - notably Guy Gibson, commander of the Dams Raid in May 1943. Gibson’s been in the news lately - the conversion of RAF Scampton into a refugee torture chamb- I mean internment centre has placed his office and the grave of his dog under threat. Many people are very emotional about this grave - yet, in an absurdly farcical situation, they absolutely cannot mention it’s name. (The dog was black. The name rhymed with trigger. I’m sure you can put this one together.)

We broke up shortly after, and after a quick visit to Foyles and a brief rest at the hotel, I went with the professor and a few others to Skygarden. This is basically a garden and cafe on top of a skyscraper, and the views are spectacular. Best of all, entry is free. On the way home I fell down the stairs at Monument, and now there’s a big lump on my left arm. These things happen I suppose.

Tomorrow, we head to Green Park to interrogate the memorials there, before spending the lion’s share of the day at the Imperial War Museum. If it goes anything like today did, it’ll be a blast.

#first world war #british empire #british army #australia #australian imperial force #anzac #boer war #second world war #london #edith cavell #westminster abbey

[vintagepromotions]

‘How proud they’ll be to pass around your snaps’

Recruitment poster for the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) (1943).

#vintage poster #1940s #vintage recruitment poster #australia #australian imperial force #AIF #military #world war ii #ww2 #soldier #photograph

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“As Empire Forces Battled for Malaya,” Kingston Whig-Standard. March 25, 1942. Page 11.   ---- These photographs are among the first to arrive from Malaya to show how Australian Imperial forces battled against the Japanese invaders as the empire still fought to hold Malaya. The bottom photograph shows an Australian anti-tank gun in action dominating a road down which clanks a column of Jap tanks. A road block of felled trees delays the tanks long enough for the gun to pick them off like ducks in a shooting gallery.. At the top the tanks are shown —after having served as targets for the gunners. A dead Jap lies beside one of the shattered tanks.

#malayan campaign #british malaya #world war II #imperial japanese army #type 89 i-go #anti-tank gun #armoured warfare #invasion of malaya #pacific war #australian 8th division #second australian imperial force #australia in the british empire #british empire #imperial japan

[eirianerisdar]

hi! i'm really loving icarus, you're a wonderful writer! but i just had a quick question. i love the flock graphics, and they're super helpful! would it be possible for you to maybe list the species of birds for the main 'characters' of the story as well? you don't have to post example photos or anything crazy, but i think just a list like that would be helpful too. sometimes i forget who has what kind of wings, and i think having a list so i can google image the bird would be great.

if that's not something you want to do or don't have time to do or something, no worries!! i really appreciate you taking the time to write icarus in the first place <3

Oof I might as well do a general guide! I never thought a maxiel wingfic would spawn so many specific wing allocations but here's the general list:

Paddock wings in Icarus:

Current grid:

Daniel Ricciardo - Scarlet Macaw (colourful, nimble flyers)

Max Verstappen - Peregrine Falcon (raw speed, inherited from his mother)

Sergio Perez -Crested Caracara (a type of mexican bird of prey)

Lewis Hamilton - Greater Bird of Paradise (beautiful wing plumes, lovely singer)

George Russell - Blue swallow (beautiful metallic-blue feathers, scream like madmen when they fly)

Carlos Sainz - Spanish Imperial Eagle (white epaulets, very regal)

Charles Leclerc - White Dove (need I say more? Perfect white wings, exploited because they're pretty but so intelligent in pathfinding)

Lando Norris - Lucifer Hummingbird (Small, colourful, likes to hover in place)

Oscar Piastri - Little Lorikeet (One of the smaller types of Australian parrot. Very cute)

Yuki Tsunoda - Japanese Long-tailed tit (Photos should be self explanatory. They fly like ballistic missiles)

Alexander Albon - Crested Fireback (National bird of Thailand. Beautiful dark blue and fiery plumage)

Logan - Blue Jay (Commonly found in Florida. Blue, like Logan's current posting, and his eyes)

Pierre Gasly - Osprey (A bird of prey often found near coasts along the European shoreline, and Pierre is from Normandy)

Esteban Ocon - Black Stork (Tall, gangly, also migrates through France)

Fernando Alonso - Kestrel (a type of small bird of prey, hunts by biding their time and waiting then divebombing)

Lance Stroll - Snowy Owl (Lance is cuddly ok and I didn't want to make him a Canadian goose because that's his dad)

Valtteri Bottas - Bullfinch (Look it up. The picture is self-explanatory. The manliest of men)

Zhou Guanyu - Chinese Red-Crowned Crane (A crowned crane for the champion of the universe, as translates his name)

Kevin Magnussen - Raven (Viking. quoth the raven.)

Nico Hulkenberg - Crow (he keeps coming back. As wily as many of their bird counterparts but has a bad rep for being a bad omen)

Retired drivers or drivers not currently on the grid:

Sebastian Vettel - Swiftlet (Extremely good fliers, reaching up to 160km/h and pulls insane G-forces)

Mick Schumacher - European robin (Very cute. Universally liked. Same wings as his father)

Nico Rosberg - Eurasian Sparrowhawk (a bird of prey that hunts by ambushing before a high-speed, agile chase)

Jenson Button - Northern Harrier (hunts in a high-speed flight close to the ground, exceptionally good listeners)

Mark Webber - Cassowary (look up a photo. Just look at it.)

Kimi Raikkonen - Giant Albatross (King of gives no shits, flies very long distances without a care)

David Coulthard - Bush-Stone Curlew (White trousers!)

Romain Grosjean - Red-tailed Hawk (I chose the bird of prey that could best mesh with the phoenix metaphor)

Antonio Giovannazi - White-spotted Starling (Very pretty plumage)

Daniil Kyvat - Great Bustard (I honestly don't remember why. Distributes in Russia)

Nyck De Vries - Common European Sparrow (Small. Commonly found. Unfortunately often hunted)

Nikita Mazepin - Flamingo (Need I say more)

Sir Jackie Stewart - (Clipped) Merlin Wings (Extremely fast Scottish bird of prey. In-fic, Jackie was one of the generation of drivers that clipped their wings, permanently robbing them of flight)

Team Principals and people in the paddock:

Toto Wolff - Black Swan (self-explanatory)

Christian Horner - Golden Eagle (A bit pompous. Matches his hair)

James Vowles - Magpie (Utterly clever, not from any particular prestige)

Fred Vasseur - Partridge (Affable. Cuddly.)

Guenther Steiner - Shoebill (self-explanatory, look up a photo)

Cyril Abiteboul - Eagle Owl (something about his face is very Eagle Owl)

Micheal Italiano - Kookaburra (laughs when they shouldn't)

Zak Brown - Chicken (self-explanatory. Literally and metaphorically)

Andreas (mclaren) - Common Quail (short lifespan)

Mattia Binotto - Pigeon (wants to be as pretty and loved as Charles. Is a public nuisance instead)

Otmar sznafnauer - Peacock (Struts around, can't really fly)

Resident Bastard:

Jos Verstappen - Cuckoo (Cuckoos are brood parasites, and lay their eggs in nests of birds of other species'. The cuckoo parent therefore does nothing while other birds raise their young)

#I've probably missed a couple minor characters so if anyone has any questions feel free to drop a reply and I'll answer #f1 #f1 wingfic #f1 wing au #icarus #my post #writing #fanfic

[historia-vitae-magistras]

When you said Jack never came back from World War One, what did you mean? Do different countries have different ability to revive?

I mean it in a poetic way. A running theme in my writing is the facets of humanity lost and found across a life span. I think most people can put flowers on the grave of someone they used to be. Jack's is just somewhat literal.

The usual story is of Gallipoli as a birth of a country the beginning of a national identity. The baptism of blood and fire. There's this construction of a mythos around it for both Australians and New Zealanders. I... Kind of accidentally put that arse over the kettle because it's the place I killed him. There's a quote from Game of Thrones of all places "kill the boy and let the man be born." Anzac Cove, Lone Pine, Quin's Post. These are the places I took him and to a lesser extent Zee, apart.

There's something very sad in the enthusiasm with which the Australians in particular went to war. The western world went to war in 1914 in a storm of hysterical nationalist joy but it always read a bit— more earnest from the Australians. Maybe they were just less subdued than Canadians or Brits or New Zealanders, I don't know. It's a good part imperial delusion but it's not like all of these men were entranced with the imperial project. Men like William Sing and Caleb Shang were a part of the Australian expeditionary forces too.

Jack, as an individual, isn't raised on heroism. He knows what his father is, he knows what soldiers did in his own territory. But there was this glamour to it. This sense of bravery and decency have to exist somewhere and maybe it is on the battlefield. Certainly there are countless stories. They give out medals. In the American part of the anglosphere, courage and bravery are the terms most used but for the Commonwealth, it is gallantry we think of as deserving medals. In effect it means Bravery but also has this connotation of chivalry and decency. He has women in his life who have shaped him as much as the men and rough hewn but honest decency is something he thinks the world needs more of. He thinks war will make more of it. He thinks a kind and spirited boy will become a gallant but fair man.

Instead, his sister buries that boy on a spare bit of the cliff face.

The man who comes back isn't depraved, he's still funny and friendly. But his anger is darker and his optimism is tainted by fatalism. He stops trying on a lot of things. He protests constantly, refuses to play as a team or fight at all sometimes and becomes a bit hedonistic. And misanthropic. So misanthropic. He's always liked animals a bit more than people but oh it got so much worse after WW1.

#the ask box || probis pateo #jack || a land of summer skies

[redjaybathood]

It's killing me how pervasive russian propaganda is. Propals love to claim that the West is hypocrites bc they support Ukraine but not a variety of countries and people they, themselves being from the West more often than not, did not give a shit about before. They would rather blame anyone else: the government they voted for, the media they are reading, - than look into themselves.

This paradigm also ignores:

Massive anti-Ukrainian russian propaganda campaign that is running for ten years now. Chances are, all they heard about Ukraine before the full-scale invasion is Azov, Bandera, Nazis, and that's what they're running with it (especially leftists/tankies who think Greyzone is a reliable source of information). Despite chances are, there are more far-right in power in their country than there are far-right politicians in Ukraine. Despite the massive reform Azov underwent. Despite the voices of our Jewish citizens and academics, despite Muslim soldiers in Azov;

Massive support russia, russians, russian imperialism still gets. For one example (and there are numerous) Australian ABC TV station recently made a documentary based on the point of view of russian invading forces, and it treated everything they have heard from them or seen as a legitimate point of view. Bucha massacre denial, for example. This is not humanization, this is straight-up genocide denial. And I know that UK TV also showed this documentary, it's side by side on their website with the documentary about Ukrainian abducted children. The children - those of them who survived the deportation anyway - are being indoctrinated against Ukraine, right now, trained as soldiers. If you even care;

The obvious reality that after people realized that there's not going to be a WW3 or a nuclear war anytime soon, they stopped caring all that much, if they ever did. Look at tumblr: any Palestine or even Israel-related post gets 20+k notes easily. That's not something that we see nowadays with Ukraine, if ever. And there is more negativity about Ukraine here, or on other social media, than for Gazans. And this is even counting that Gaza is the base for legit terrorist organization that committed a massive terrorist attack against the civilian population and is currently holding hostages. Which is the justification Israel puts down for their attack, and for their massive infliction of civilian casualties - but it's also what happened. Whereas in Ukraine, what happened was a Revolution of Dignity, where the victims, the dead, were the people who protested against the corrupt government and won. They didn't attack civilians, they didn't kill russians, they didn't even ban a russian language. They just didn't want to live in a corrupt country, in a police state, where children can be beaten up by police forces and be sent to a hospital. That's how Euromaidan started, if you even care. And Euromaidan is exactly the justification russia put up for the invasion back in 2014. You get me? HAMAS terrorist attack spiked huge support for Gaza and the Palestinian cause even before there were 30K Palestinians murdered by Israel. Even before one such death. Ukraine's fight to protect its freedom was met with indifference if not hostility.

Nothing of the above means you should not care about Gaza and Palestine. But somehow, it means that people treat it as a morally superior position not to care about Ukraine, to blame their government, to blame their media, to blame schools and parents and corporations - and, of course, zionists. Which is their dog whistle for Jews.

It deserves another post, how quickly misinformation and antisemitism spreads on tumblr. Holy shit. You guys are fucked up.

#not tagging bc it's mostly a vent post #i'm exausted

[lazaefair]

Read up on the history of European imperialism and Zionism in World War I. I mean it. You have to get it clear in your head that Israel would not exist without Christian European (and later, American) imperialism. Here's a short 5 Facts article, with links to longer lectures (with full transcripts):

Jewish Zionists were just some guys, and would have remained just some guys if the European powers with imperial military might hadn't decided that Zionism conveniently dovetailed with their agenda of maintaining/expanding their colonial empires. That's why (some of) the Jewish Zionists were lobbying for British patronage in the first place.

Excerpt from this lecture (that's also linked in the above 5 Facts article and has a full transcript):

Beginning around the 31 minute mark:

"Now, the saga of 1917 had one final, important chapter. On November 2nd, as British and Australian forces were engaging the Ottomans at the third battle of Gaza, Britain made yet another advance booking for the political arrangement of the postwar Middle East. The Balfour Declaration, which promised Zionists that Britain would sponsor the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

Now the proximate origins of the Balfour Declaration traced back to the spring of 1917, when Lloyd George set Sykes the task of working for the addition of Palestine to the British area designated by the Sykes-Picot Accord. Sykes jumped at the chance to revise this accord, and by then Sykes had come to know about Zionism, an ideology at that time, barely 40 or 50 years old, which defined the Jews as a singular nation deserving of political sovereignty - the goal Zionists considered pressing given the incidents of anti-Semitism in the world, especially in the Russian Empire, where most European Jews lived.

In Zionism, Sykes saw an opportunity to nullify France's portion in an internationalized Palestine. He saw that a Jewish enclave in Palestine could function as a buffer protecting British, Egypt and the canal from imperial competitors. Sykes was encouraged when he learned that, for their part, the Zionists were interested in British patronage, without which they would be powerless to fulfill their dream.

But like the Hashemites, the Zionists didn't know anything about the Sykes-Picot Agreement. They had assumed that there would not be any type of conflict with any power.

There were, of course, other motives that prompted Sykes and British statesmen to support Zionism. One of these had to do with the belief among many British backing - who backed the Jewish territory, that the Jewish territorial nationalism might encourage Jews in the wavering countries of the United States and Russia to fully engage in the war until total victory. At the time, Russia was in a state of unrest and it wasn't certain to what extent the United States would sort of engage in the war.

There was this idea among the British that, you know, backing a Jewish homeland in Palestine would mobilize the power of Jewish financiers in the United States. But, of course, the idea that world Jewry acted as a bloc was an exaggeration of its unity and its ability to influence opinion. There are actually very few Zionists among the Jewish population in Europe or America.

Yet the idea of international Jewry was a common one, and it reflected the genteel and sometimes vociferous anti-Semitism that was current among the British upper class. But I must say that this was not an idea that the Zionists’ lobbyists in London made efforts to nullify. They saw that there is utility in this idea of a Jewish bloc, you know, heavily in favor of Zionism.

Yet another factor leading to British support for Zionism had to do with the visceral, romantic and religious sensibilities of these same British statesmen. Despite this defense advisory note that I was just talking about that dissuaded the media from religious pronouncements, men like Sykes, Lloyd George, Leo Emery and Foreign Secretary Balfour - whose name was appended to the declaration - shared with the people of Britain a pietistic instinct and were attracted to the idea of having a hand in the return of a people of the Bible to its ancestral homeland.

Lloyd George, the former chapel boy from North Wales, famously quipped that he knew the map of the Holy Land better than he did that of France. During his 1904 trip to Jerusalem, Sykes wrote, quote, 'Imagine how picturesque and interesting a walk in the city would be if the children of Israel retained their ancient and handsome dress.'

Sykes' mission to sabotage the Palestine portion of the French-British Agreement turned out to be rather simple and straightforward. During meetings in London, he convinced Zionism's leading lights Chaim Weizman and Nahum Sokolow to go directly to Georges-Picot and other French officials and argue their case. Sykes, in the meantime, would take care of the introductions and quietly reinforce the Zionist case at functions and over dinner drinks.

In the end, I think, due as much to Weizman and Sokolow's charm as to their arguments of justice and repatriation for the Jewish people, the French were won over agreeing that the plan for Palestine's internationalization should be rescinded. But then again, with no troops in the region, the French would have been powerless to make a contrary case. It's at this point that the Zionists got wind of the Sykes-Picot Agreement.

They got wind of this agreement in April 1917, just prior to the final dotting the I's and crossing of the T's. And they were shocked to see that Palestine, which they assumed was going to be theirs, was, according to the Sykes-Picot agreement, going to be internationalized. And thus they pressed Britain for the Balfour Declaration to make some sort of official pronouncement on the matter.

The declaration itself went through many revisions, every word in it was significant. The authors avoided the word 'state,' choosing the more ambiguous phrase 'national home.' Nor was the extent of this Jewish homeland made clear. It was to be somewhere in Palestine.

And although reference was made to the protection of the civil and religious rights of the indigenous native Arab population, the declaration said nothing about the Arabs’ political rights. In addition, the declaration promised that with the establishment of the homeland, no harm would come to Jews in any other country, meaning the Jews of Great Britain and other Western countries.

And here the intended target of this phrase were Jews belonging to the British establishment who were amongst the declaration's most vociferous opponents. Men like Edwin Montagu, a cabinet minister, feared that Zionism might lead some or even many within British society to call his and others’ patriotism into question, even accuse them of dual allegiance: are you loyal to the Crown or to the Jewish national home? And the declaration takes pains to make the point that this will not happen.

So in 1917 [...] Britain's conflicting agreements were finally exposed to the harsh lights."

#palestine #history #imperialism #world war i #wwi

[enigma-absolute]

Can I hear more about Maddox? What's his backstory like? Where does he fall on the timeline?

(if I'm sending too many asks, do forgive me!)

You’ve unleashed something in me and now I can’t shut up

To start us off, here’s my boy! This is his original character-defining spread in my sketchbook from early last year:

Here’s some more art of him, as a colour reference! And what’s this? MORE banger art of my boy????

And here’s a meme too!

Aside from this older character development challenge google doc providing a lot of his original foundations (including his original character submission sheet!), allow me. To expand on. The Lore.

I don’t think I can shut up greatly so I hope you’re ready for a big ol read under the cut!

So. Maddox is a rebel spy before and during the Rebel alliance in the Galaxy Far Far Away. Standard stuff for a 24-year-old right? WRONG

He’s actually an Australian, a Sunshine Coast local, from OUR earth in early 2023, swept up into something that took him back in time and far off into space (of course, a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away) to have adventures and stuff like that. Adventures and all are just it, right?

WRONG.

AMNESIA BLAST UPON THIS BOY. GET DUNKED ON.

Joking aside, to quote the backstory portion in his original RP submission form, and even the addition directly from the document:

Maddox genuinely has no clue how he got here.

As in, how in sweet Force he ended up a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far far away from his own. His retrograde amnesia from a recent-ish rebel spy mission (involving hijacking and detonating an Imperial ship before escaping) has receded away enough for him to remember his life on his home country of Australia on Earth (and a rough knowledge of OT canon and even rougher knowledge of PT canon from that time), but a lot of things are still fuzzy.

He’s grateful he can remember quite a lot, including: his name and age, his past life and home, muscle-memory for espionage, how to catch on to flying several starships if given enough time, and even some previous missions. But whatever his amnesia is hiding from him, he hopes that the Force can help reveal it again… and maybe help him find a way back home. In the meantime, his goals for this galaxy are to continue his sick espionage job, find a way home, make some close friends and maybe, hopefully, call the Emperor a bitch to his face before he carks it during the events of ROTJ. Not all in that order specifically, but he’ll work on that.

Maddox specifically landed in the year 9BBY, roughly before the events of Kenobi were about to happen. He was picked up by and later joined Bail Organa’s Rebel Cell, as the Alliance wouldn’t have existed yet.

His fateful mission, subsequent amnesia and initial recovery occur at the tailend of Kenobi, leading him to re-meet a young Leia Organa when recovered by Bail’s rebels. Leia sneaks in a word to her dad, and Maddox is sent away for a week or two for some ‘minding’ with help of the Force. He later recalls the word ‘therapy’ to better describe his situation and tells the therapist there (who is also initially annoyed about this whole situation happening) that ‘minding’ is a stupid term and the galaxy should really get behind ‘therapy.’

(He won’t know this till later, but his therapist Ben also gained hope and healing through it too.)

Due to Force *~shenanigans~* and the still unremembered way as to how he came to the GFFA time from 2023 on earth, Maddox doesn’t really have a way back home and is physically stuck aging at 24 years old. And despite obviously being from Earth and thus having no midichlorians of his own, he is Force-sensitive after having an encounter with it while in spy training. That being said, he has a unique relationship with it where he can feel it more ‘talking’ to him than not, and is able to use it with study, self-teaching and meditation. However, he will NOT take a kyber crystal of his own. He may be a light-sider, but he doesn’t feel he deserves the title of Jedi.

We’ll get back to that in a bit.

His amnesia is (of kriffing course) courtesy of the Empire, under a top-secret, but now defunct and destroyed experiment called Project Lethe. This experiment had been self-contained in the star destroyer Calledania, but when a Rebel spy mission to break its secrecy had gone awry, Maddox had enough time to help set charges to blow it up before his capture and subsequent retrograde memory wipe.

You can imagine the horror he’d be going through, waking up after falling out of a bacta tank and coughing it out of his lungs, knowing NOTHING about himself or what’s going on. Then only arming himself with a scalpel and maybe a doctor’s medical ID before running out onto the main bridge to see that he’s in space (he really shouldn’t be), everything is chaos and falling apart (is he in a spaceship?) and he’s certainly feeling everything falling into a nearby planet’s orbit (these stars are NOT his own).

Of course, he managed to escape and started to recover his memory with the Force, but you’d have to ask him for the fuller story. And that’s if you can convince him to tell you all the details.

In terms of timeline and character relations, aside from entering and joining the early stages of rebellion prior to Kenobi’s events in 9BBY, he’s become a cool older ‘cousin’ friend of a sort with Princess Leia, especially since she was the one who knew his later-therapist Ben (Maddox nicholasnames him ‘Benny’) first. Bail has also been a mentor figure for Maddox before and after his amnesia - in terms of the growing rebellion, high-class etiquette and manners (which mostly consist of keeping an eye on Leia at fancy guest parties and learning from her). Not to say there’s no personal platonic fondness between them, it’s just that the professionalism has been more important for Maddox to get a grasp on his new life.

He’s also grateful for meeting and befriending friendlier folks in the GFFA, such as freeman Clone Troopers Juggernaut and Jorts (OCs in the first RP server I ever entered him into), and in 7BBY, @moobrvoobl-moobmoob-oobmpoobroom’s Clone OC Strike and co-created OC Pins, a stormtrooper who ditched the Empire when the two rebels had their cell missions cross paths and escaped together after going after an asset. Maddox has quickly grown to befriend and fall in platonic love with Strike and Pins, the former particularly since she causes/caused flares in his memory of his mum.

Especially since, in his old earthen life, he was an Eshay, and a horrible person to his mother and sister.

Did I mention he’s a regretful older brother? And a regretful son?

For leaving his family behind? For not being the person he should’ve been? For being selfish and into stupid stuff when there are things in life worth more than stupid ‘friends’ and stupidity?

Good god he’s ashamed to admit it. But he has to admit it somehow.

It was the second memory recovery in the Force that he recalled how he used to be, getting so depressed he needed that therapy from Benny.

Okay here's a couple rapid-fire points about Maddox bc I don't have all the brainspace for backstories:

In the flight back to the base after his couple-weeks therapy from Benny, Maddox had a dream about talking to some fella named Anakin, infodumping to him about the fauna and flora of Australia the entire time. Anakin was in awe of earth's natural flora and flora.

Maddox didn't put two and two together on that 'Anakin' guy until after waking up. His memory got intact enough to connect those dots.

(He won't do the same for Benny for a long, long time).

His enamel pin is actually his sister's, and it's another Peter Pan reference with the star and text saying 'straight on till morning'. (I really hope I can defictionalise it into a real pin one day!)

The leather bag he carries was borrowed by his sister for some time before he took it with him to the GFFA, so he's got more of her belongings with him rather than his own.

He modded an iPod over quarantine days into having a new battery and 256GB SSD drive to fill with his own music, but of course - his sister got to it when he wasn't looking and filled it up with her own tastes before he could wipe it clear.

So now he has his sister's tastes in music, for the most part. Which is a good thing.

So as for Maddox right now in my personal timeline? Well, I just have fun tossing him in the years between 9BBY-4ABY, putting him in Situations and Events (mainly RPs) to see how he develops and how far his character goes. There's a couple alternate timelines and AUs he's in, including the Chrumblr RP in the big discord.

And that's not even getting into the stuff his sister gets into in AUs and timelines.

#enni answers #thefinaljediknight #Chris rambles #Maddox (GFFA) #HEY LOOK IT’S THE LORE POST #Star Wars #Star Wars OC #my creations

[theworldofwars]

Corporal Peter Olaf Anderson 1116. Unit: Headquarters Details, 37th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force. Death: 08 January 1917 Western Front.

#ww1 #wwi #great war #The Great War #The First World War #photography #historical photography #history #historical photos #British history #military history #canadian history #1918 #1917 #1916 #siberia

[thewondermentofillustration]

Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton (1867–1943) - The Tunnel Mouth, Bellicourt, the Hindenburg Line, December 1918, oil on canvas

#Arthur Streeton #Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton #Australian artist #war art #war artist #Bellicourt #the Hindenburg Line #France #St Quentin Tunnel #World War 1 #WWI #Australian Imperial Force #ANZACs #soldiers #1910s #1918 #oil painting #oil on canvas

[confusedbyinterface]

Reading the Official History of the Australian Imperial Force in Sinai and Palestine.

They hailed [Ahmed Djemal] as the "Saviour of Egypt," and Djemal himself, just before his train started, made this public declaration: "I shall not return to Constantinople until I have conquered Egypt." The whole performance seemed to me to be somewhat bombastic. Inevitably I called to mind the third member of another bloody triumvirate who, nearly two thousand years before, had left his native land to become the supreme dictator of the East, and Djemal had many characteristics in common with Mark Antony. Like his Roman predecessor, his private life was profligate; like Antony, he was an insatiate gambler, spending much of his leisure over the card-table at the Cercle d’0rient. Another trait which he had in common with the great Roman orator was his enormous vanity. The Turkish world seemed to be disintegrating in Djemal’s time, just as the Roman Republic was dissolving in the days of Antony. Djemal believed that he might himself become the heir of one or more of its provinces and possibly establish a dynasty.

Guy who's only heard of the Roman Empire before: "Getting a lot of Roman Empire vibes from this guy"

#Achmed Djemal #Djemal Pasha #WW1 #Military History #First World War Official Histories #Henry Somer Gullett

[thisismenow3]

I don’t get how people can conflate Hamas with all Palestinians

Unless they’re the same kind of dumb that writes off every citizen of the USA or Canada or UK etc for the often ultra conservative usually imperialist acts of those countries’ governments. There’s a weird skip of the record I usually see for the ones that’re usually deeper thinkers. Suddenly “Hamas brought this on Gaza, the blockade was also in retaliation to the last time they did something.” And I want to point out that they’re conflating a terrorist grouping with an entire people. But they’re also advocating for genocidal group punishment (blockade of Gaza). The next response is usually the false premise of “there are arab communities in Israel! Wouldn’t they be gone if Israel genocidal?” “Fam, do you think Native Americans don’t exist anymore? Do you think aboriginal Australians don’t exist anymore? Genocide doesn’t mean “we killed ‘em all, wasn’t a genocide til we finished the job.” (Nevermind that arab in this context is ignoring that to be Palestinian is to arab what English is to Germanic peoples). Genocide also is never persued in a way that will actually succeed in killing 100%. Cause that’s never the top goal of genocide. Genocide is the tool a group that is in power or favored by the powerful use to steal land and resources from another group. Land and homes and resources have been stolen from Palestinians nonstop since the founding of Israel. All genocides are for settler populations as part of a movement and/or imperialism. The definition of genocide even mentions that mass killings don’t even have to be happening if stealing land, killing culture, forcing people into camps or out of a country, etc are happening. Then it’s a genocide.

But if someone really thinks an American armed elite military curb stomping civilians “in order to get at some terrorists” is a “justified turn of events” then they either agree that American cops can racially profiled and kill on a whim by the same logic or fail to see the direct line. Modern subjugation is the same as it has been for hundreds of years. It’s always been “why are you hitting yourself?!?!?” type bullshit except nowadays there’s war crimes done with bladed person seeking rockets instead of muskets. The famines due to blockades are the exact same though

#Palestine #history #genocide had a meaning #“That’s not what genocide is!” Ain’t a vibe it’s definable and is happening in places with Palestinians Armenians and Ukrainians #It always sucks when you think here’s someone who seems cool #Then you see the settler colonialism->war on terror brain rot #Or some other such nonsense where someone never dig deep enough to see how mislead they are #Or never took to looking into if people they didn’t agree with were right in the first place #Too often we don’t say to ourselves #“Maybe that person is right but still kind of dumb and ignorant overall but they had the fortune to have the right circumstances #To be presented with the truth in a way that they can believe it #But they are an imperfect messenger for it #Dismiss racist sexist etc arguments #But if a person just sounds dumb to you but has a logical point #Why not explore that? #The reason is that record skip I think #If you don’t see yourself stepping over the parts of the sidewalk of your logic that include punishing an entire people for what a few did #Why would you look into if someone else’s knowledge of the facts is correct and yours incorrect? (How Israel is an Apartheid state)

[steve-rogers-new-york]

“Kilroy Was Here”

Want a cultural reference that Steve and Bucky would, 100% be familiar with? Kilroy is it — A long-nosed, bald figure, peeking over a wall accompanied by the words “Kilroy was here.”

This little doodle and quote is associated with World War II GIs, and over the course of the war could be found everywhere US soldiers passed through. Building walls, weaponry, bombed out ruins, barracks, canvases, vehicles and aircraft...any flat surface was fair game. To millions of military personal throughout the war, it was a legendary sight.

Why? 

In the simplest terms, it was cheap and easy entertainment in the face of war. It was a morale booster, an emblem of pride, a challenge, an Allied rally cry, and a mark of progress. “When you saw that ‘Kilroy was here’, then you knew the operation was bound to be a success.”

Precursors

This strange little calling card did not spring up fully formed from nothing, it in-fact had two key forerunners.

“Foo was here” During World War I, the First Australian Imperial Force (1st AIF) left “Foo was here” along with a familiar long-nosed figure peering over a wall, chalked on the side of railway carriages. “Foo” is assumed to have been an acronym for Forward Observation Officer (officer responsible for directing artillery and mortar ).

Mr Chad A similar doodle could be found through Britain from 1938, as a commentary on wartime rationing and shortages. Mr Chad would be accompanied by messages following the template of “Wot? No [blank]?” — “Wot? No Tea?” “Wot? No Bread?”. The figure itself was potentially based on the Greek Omega symbol, or a simplified impression of a circuit diagram.

I have no doubt that the boys, along with the Howling Commandos would have been familiar with the imagery. I personally love the headcanon of defrosted Steve or Post-WS Bucky absently doodling Kilroy on paperwork, napkins, or scrap-paper, the same way kids in the 90′s drew than dang “Cool S” on everything.

If you want more in the topic, my full research notes on all topics are available for all $3+ Patreon patrons!

Image Sources

Still from film “Kilroy Was Here”, 1947 | Source Kilroy Was Here Marker, Neilsville, Wisconsin, 1993 | Source Kilroy engraving on the National WWII Memorial, Washington, D.C. | Source Kilroy on aircraft, c.1944-45 | Source — Photographer: Dick Bastasch Brooklyn Daily Eagle Article, 3 Nov 1946, page 3 | Source

This post has been sponsored by my much loved and long-time Patreon supporter Joanna Daniels. She and I would like to dedicate the post to the loving memory of her mother Joan Daniels. She will be sorely missed.

[ Support SRNY through Patreon and Ko-Fi ] And join us on Discord for fun conversation! I also have an Etsy with up-cycled nerdy crafts

#Steve Rogers #Bucky Barnes #Howling Commandos #Kilroy #Kilroy was here #WWII #World War II #US Military #History #1940s #1930s #Wartime #captain america #Captain America: The First Avenger #CAPTAIN AMERICA REFERENCE #fanfiction #fanfic #fanfic writing #Fanfic references #fanfic research #writing #writing resources #writing reference #fan fic writing #historically accurate #historically accurate steve rogers #historically accurate bucky barnes #Allied Forces #ca:tfa #Marvel

[psychotrenny]

Also fuck Albanese. Like I wasn't expecting to hear anything different from an Imperial Core Left Lib (especially the one in charge of a pathetically loyal vassal state of the US) but still it was so fucking infuriating hearing him go on and on about how awful and terrible Hamas was and how we stand with Israel with not even a single mention (not even in an offhanded or downplaying way) of the fucking hideous Israeli atrocities that led to this situation. I'd say that this is a classic case of how Settler states have gotta stick together but as soon as he was done talking about Israel he went on to talk about the importance of this referendum for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

And like obviously recognising Indigenous Australians in the constitution and granting them some level of political representation is a good thing. It's not going to change all that much (definitely not undoing the violence at the very core of a settler state like Australia, nor will it make up for the long and ongoing history of both physically, culturally and environmentally genocidal policies or end their terrible poverty and discrimination overnight) but it's not a terrible half-step towards restoring some level of dignity and respect to Australian Aboriginals and possibly easing the path towards future improvements in their material conditions. At the very least it'll force people to recognise the immeasurable rift between the indigenous and the settler populations of this nation which appears to be where so much of the opposition to it is coming from; people from the "Vote No" campaign won't shut up about how this will divide the country but what they really mean is that they don't want to think about the divide that's existed for as long as European settlement.

And like there's something so infuriating to me about a politician calling for tepid reconciliation (although at this point it's arguably just appeasement and concession) with one group of indigenous peoples while essentially condoning the ongoing violence and impoverishment of another. I guess the difference here is that the Australian Aboriginals have to resist colonialism from a much weaker position then the Palestinians do; Australia's policies of dispossession and genocide have been going on for much longer and been much more "successful" than those of Israel. They're currently not a credible threat to state security and so don't have to be taken all that seriously, so certain concessions can be considered and even given without real risk of weakening the settler establishment. The sort of unrelenting violence as displayed by Israel just isn't all that necessary. Not to say that it isn't happening over here, but it's at a lower intensity and scale and many participants in mainstream politics are willing to condemn it and pursue measures to lessen it. Like if this referendum does pass then I'm sure various Left Lib* Aussies will go on and on about how it's a sign of how progressive we all are and how we can all come together and close "old wounds" together. But like I know for sure the Australian political establishment wouldn't be feeling so conciliatory if there was a real risk of Aboriginals mounting their own Intifada

(*as in Liberalism the ideology, which essentially describes all the major parties in Australian and really the rest of the Imperial core)

#stella speaks #genocide #genocide mention

[scrapironflotilla]

Just before the Australian divisions were sent from Egypt to France in 1916, General Archibald Murray, commander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, sent this letter to Wully Robertson, Chief of the Imperial General Staff. In it Murray is pretty scathing about the Australians, criticising their discipline, leadership, morals, and egotism.

To me it demonstrates the clear disdain British regulars had for the Australians as soldiers who may have been brave, but were ultimately unsoldierly. It also shows that this wasn't a universal view of all "colonial" troops, and in particular didn't apply to the other half of Anzac, the New Zealanders.

"In order to prevent any possible disappointment regarding the military value of the Australians when they arrive in France, I think I ought to write and tell you privately what my opinion of them, as a fighting force, is. You are of course, at liberty to communicate this to Haig for his personal information should you so desire it.

They are unquestionably from a physical point of view a magnificent body of men, and hard and fit as they can possibly be. The finest by far that I have ever seen. As regards discipline, I wish to make it clear that I have never seen any body of men in uniform with less idea of discipline. Drunkenness is extraordinarily prevalent, and many of the men seem to have no idea of ordinary decency or self control. The streets of Cairo, Ismailia, Alexandria and Port Said are difficult to keep free from drunken Australians. Of a total 8858 Venereal Disease cases treated in Egypt since the beginning of military operations, 5924 were Australians, 955 New Zealanders and 1979 British Troops. On the 21st February there were 1286 Australians being treated for Venereal Disease at the Dermatological Hospital. 1344 soldiers have been returned to Australia suffering from the same disease.

I am, of course, doing all I can to put matters right as regards discipline, but it is an uphill task because the Australian officers are, as a whole, unequal to the task and not, as a general rule, respected by their men, and among some of the higher commanders there has always apparently been an idea that the Australian is a person to be petted and allowed to have his own notions of discipline. I cannot help feeling depressed when I look at these magnificent men. They are a force which would have made incomparable soldiers if properly taken in hand by British officers when they arrived, and who have been nearly spoilt by neglect on the part of their commanders to instil into them even the rudiments of soldierly instincts. Matters have now been allowed to go on for so long that I fear it will not be easy to remedy the present state of affairs. As regards the general training of the Australians as distinct from trench warfare, practically nothing was possible from this point of view whilst they were on the Peninsula, and previous to their arrival there apparently they had only undergone very partial training. Everything possible has been done during the last two months to prepare them for warfare in France, but there is leeway to make up and of course their lack of discipline and the inefficiency of their officers are a very great handicap, as is their enormous conceit in themselves. It has been so long the custom in the newspapers to laud the Australians as the finest soldiers in existence that it is very difficult now to convince them that they know very little of warfare. Frankly, I am anxious when I think of what may happen when they get to France on the march and in the towns and villages where they are billeted. Their Staffs will have a heavy task should they have to organise an operation where prolonged march discipline, as well as other discipline, is essential. Of the magnificent bravery of the Australians, of course, there is no question, but if they have to take part in operations such as we have seen in France, their want of complete training, their lack of discipline and absence of soldierly, distinct from fighting, instinct may, I fear, involved them in unnecessarily heavy losses. My remarks chiefly apply to the Australians and not to the New Zealanders, who are in many respects superior to the Australians except in physique."

#my research #ww1 #british army #australian army #anzac