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We had a guy at boarding school called P. Balls. Some wag pinned a fake notice on the games board with a made-up cricket team using real kids' names - it started "Duncan, Lickiss, Balls, "and so on and it took the teachers ages to figure out the subliminal message hidden within.

I believe the 10th May 1941 was the last and worst night of the London Blitz, before the Germans turned on Russia. There is a lot of detail in the book "The Blitz-then and now" Vol.2, ed Gordon Ramsey, After the Battle Publications, 1988, it might be in the library?
It says that night, a full moon combined with a low tide led to the severe devastation. An account by fireman Cyril Demarne mentions the destruction in Southwark, but it is a bit long to quote here.
The book uses the contemporary Civil Defence reports for each day to describe the raids. I think the PRO refs. that they used are given somewhere, but it must be in one of the other 2 Vols, so I'll look them up tomorrow.
My Great uncle Hubert Dinwoodie was a Bomb Disposal Officer at the Air Ministry at the time so we've got quite a few books etc about the subject.
Fred
ps I think that night was also the night Rudolf Hess flew to Scotland while the raid on London was underway.

Hi, just to add a further comment concerning threshing machines,re Bee's post.
Sitting in the office on a wet afternoon, I've found gt grandad's Farmers' Pocketbook c1880. It says:
"No of people required with Steam threshing machine:1 to 3 men pitching sheaves onto the feeding board;2 women cutting the bands;1 man feeding;3 men and a boy to bunch the straw;1 man at the stack;2 men or women building the stack;1 woman to remove the chaff;1 man at the sacks;1 man to carry the corn to the granary; 1 boy to carry the water to the engine. Total;15 to 18. Average quantity thrashed per day:100 qrs oats or 60 of wheat (Horse machines 20-30 qrs.)A man with a flail can thrash 5 quarters."
The cost to the farmer was 1s8d per quarter- a labourer's wage was 3s per day.
The corn was cut either by hand or with a reaper, tied into bundles and stacked until the winter. The stacks were pulled down and thrashed when it was quieter in the winter, either by the farmer or travelling contractors.
The first horse-operated threshers came along in the early 1800s and led partly to the Swing riots of c1830- the labourers tried to burn the thresher factory near Fordingbridge Hants in 1830 because it was losing them work.
Most threshers were replaced by combines by the 1950s as one man could then do the whole job on his own.
Dad said the best bit of the job was catching the rats which ran from the stack as it was threshed. Somewhere we've got a photo of them all lined up by the Jack Russell terriers!
I hope that's of interest, Fred.

They spent 15 years and millions of quid to discover that being a monk tends not to be hereditary.
 I discovered a couple of weeks ago that GGGdad died in 1867when he fell from a haystack he was building and "landed on his wimble." (Old family saying- a wimble was actually a thatching tool .)
At the time I discovered this, I was baling hay in the meadows by the river Avon, so  it certainly concentrated my mind on being more careful with the machinery just in case history repeats itself. (He was actually 12 miles up the river from here at the time)
Funnily enough about the same time I discovered ggggdad's name was J Case- the same as my tractor. I've been looking for him for ages and he was right in front of me all along-" A product of J.I.Case " on a big sign just 18inchesfrom my nose on the cab- I thought of levering off the label and sticking it on my forehead!
Funny old world, isn't it?