SHA Small Heath Alliance

Yeah, the back street garage owner sucking his breath in and going 'that's gonna cost you a Mego, at least, to sort that out mate, might even run to a Stega' 😁

Sheev Palpatine

I’m (mostly) messing about, but same here I think, not had cash on me in years

I never leave home without at least £50 on me, but I very rarely use cash. A lot of Asian owned businesses insist on cash only.

Yes have found this recently with a number of take aways in my local area setting up as new or longer established have gone cash only ! Makes them seem untrustworthy in this day & age IMO

bluearmyfaction

Britain though wasn’t interested in European domination and frankly should never have been involved in the War. Austria-Hungary thought they could squish the Serbs in a week and shut up the growing nationalist movements within, and it went all Putin in Ukraine. Hence the Germans doing something to distract the Russians. Had they gone through Maginot I doubt Britain would have cared. It was reports of atrocities in neutral Belgium which got the blood up.

Anfre Maginot was a person not a place.
Additionally the Maginot Line was built in the 1930s largely in Alsace and Lorraine which were part of Germany from 1871-1918. Though there were some fortifications on the Frane-Belgium border.

Plus the UK was an integral part of the Entente Cordiale from 1904 which tied it defensively to France and Russia. This was a direct consequence of the realisation that Imperial Germany intended to revisit the balance of power at some point in the future.
The UK would have jouned WW1 even if Germany had respected Belgian neutrality. It made it much easier to sell the war at home, but there is no evidence that Asquith and Sir Edward Grey seriously considered not joining France.

Sheep2

bluearmyfaction

Britain though wasn’t interested in European domination and frankly should never have been involved in the War. Austria-Hungary thought they could squish the Serbs in a week and shut up the growing nationalist movements within, and it went all Putin in Ukraine. Hence the Germans doing something to distract the Russians. Had they gone through Maginot I doubt Britain would have cared. It was reports of atrocities in neutral Belgium which got the blood up.

Anfre Maginot was a person not a place.
Additionally the Maginot Line was built in the 1930s largely in Alsace and Lorraine which were part of Germany from 1871-1918. Though there were some fortifications on the Frane-Belgium border.

Plus the UK was an integral part of the Entente Cordiale from 1904 which tied it defensively to France and Russia. This was a direct consequence of the realisation that Imperial Germany intended to revisit the balance of power at some point in the future.
The UK would have jouned WW1 even if Germany had respected Belgian neutrality. It made it much easier to sell the war at home, but there is no evidence that Asquith and Sir Edward Grey seriously considered not joining France.

Agreed, the UK (UK, not England) has never been interested in European domination but has always been concerned about the balance of power in Europe and hence repeatedly drawn into major conflicts.

I love history. I did loads of stuff about WW1 &2 as part of my degree.

Prior to WW1 Britain operated a two power policy with the navy. That is it should be able to take on and beat any two hostile powers.
The real disruptor was building dreadnought class ships from 1906. They were faster, and had longer range more powerful guns. Effectively HMS Dreadnought turmed every other ship into a floating target that could be destroyed without risk.
Although it was built by the UK it actually damaged UK naval supremacy as it was copied by the German Navy. Even though the UK built more dreadnought class ships the effect was potentially to reduce the gap between the Royal Navt and the Imperial Navy because new German ships could damage or destroy the older ships the Royal Navy was full of and couldn't replace.
Though in the event the there was only one naval battle in WW1 and it wasn't decisive.

The evidence is that Germany had decided to cause a major crisis in 1914. They had modenised their army and 1914 represented the pount of their greatest expected superiority, particularly v Russia which waa just starting a rearmament plan.
The German government gave Austria-Hungary a completely free hand to deal with Serbia in the expectation this would lead to a general European war,which they were confident of winning quickly.
They expected to repeat 1870 v France using the Schlieffen plan then crush Russia. The idea was to reeat the encirclement which led to the victory at Sedan. They realised Belgium was a weakpoint because it was neutral. French defences were clutered south of Belgium. In the event the French nartowly avoided encirclement, partly thanks to the BEF in Northern France.

So the Germans intended to start a major aggressive war. There is little doubt about thst. However they did not expect the war that happened. They thought they would win in a few months and could then reorder Europe and beyond in their favour.

Sheep2

bluearmyfaction

Britain though wasn’t interested in European domination and frankly should never have been involved in the War. Austria-Hungary thought they could squish the Serbs in a week and shut up the growing nationalist movements within, and it went all Putin in Ukraine. Hence the Germans doing something to distract the Russians. Had they gone through Maginot I doubt Britain would have cared. It was reports of atrocities in neutral Belgium which got the blood up.

Anfre Maginot was a person not a place.

Yeah, I was being metaphorical, I couldn’t remember what that bit was called in 1914.

Someone born in Strasbourg in 1870 and living to 1950 would have been living in France, Germany, France, Germany, and France. Without moving.

If you were born in what is now Vilnius in 1918
You could techically have lived in.

Russia
Lithuania
Poland
Lithuania
USSR
Lithuania
Reichskommisariat Ostland
Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic
Lithuania (from 1990)

Though at some point the Poles, Russians or Germans would probably have exiled or killed you.

Lemburg/Lwow/Lviv has also passed from country to country. Part of Austria until 1918. It was Ukrainian briefly, then Polish, then part of the General Government then Ukrainian from 1945.
The Russians tried to capture it in 1920 and the Lithuanians eyed it up around then.

Then there’s Eastern Ruthenia which was independent for about six hours in 1939.