Word: eastland
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...Ministry bulletin one day last week announced that relations were "very tense" between "Westland" (Great Britain) and "Eastland" (Germany). "It is rumored," citizens were warned, "that Eastland bombers are already taking up strategic positions for a sudden attack on Westland territory." Early that evening the first squadrons of 500 Eastland bombers swept in from the Channel and North Sea and made eleven mock raids in 40 minutes...
...inflated their tricky sausages and let them up 700 feet-far lower than would be needed to entangle a real enemy. Defending fighters signaled contact with the raiders by flashing lights, which were checked by staff observers. Effectiveness of the bombers and antiaircraft was recorded photographically. That night Eastland bombers made 100 raids, 500 in the three-day maneuvers, and the Air Ministry reported that, despite poor visibility, the spotters in every case gave defenders advance warning...
Climax of the maneuvers was an experimental blackout of all southeast England including London, prime objective of the Eastland raiders. As "Big Ben" struck 12:30, the lights that illuminate its face faded out. Most householders and shopkeepers had already voluntarily followed the Government's request by extinguishing outside lights, curtaining windows, painting over skylights. Angry crowds smashed the signs and windows of two nonconformist shops. Police in white raincoats and civilian air wardens halted cars, asked drivers to dim down to parking lights. Crowds out to see the fun bumped their shins on dark sidestreets and flocked into...
...conceivable air attack on Britain would come from the East, so when the air games were held by His Majesty's Royal Air Force last week the hypothetical enemy was significantly described as "Eastland." Britain sent requests to her eastern neighbors to keep their airliners out of the "war area" over the North Sea. The German air services meekly obeyed. But the proud Royal Dutch Airlines responded with a bristling reply to the British Air Ministry: THE NORTH SEA BELONGS TO NO NATION AND NOBODY IS EMPOWERED TO CLOSE IT TO INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC. IF ANY BRITISH FIGHTERS INTERCEPT...
Britain's Air Secretary, Sir Kingsley Wood, dapper, chubby and dynamic, witnessed some 900 bombers and fighters in the games. After three days of "war," Britishers were more skeptical than ever of their defenses. Aided by typical English fog and mist, "Eastland's" bombers jabbed through coastal defenses and rained white rockets, indicating hits, on interior manufacturing centres, including Norfolk, Suffolk and North London. Territorials, firing anti-aircraft rockets, were unable to prevent "Eastland" squads from roaring over London. As a crowning gesture, one "Eastland" squadron located the defenders' GHQ at Hornchurch, Essex, gleefully swooped down...