A VIEW FROM "THE CITY & COUNTY"

As long term followers of the Herefordshire VBCW know only too well, the varied customers of the City & County Dining & Refreshment Rooms, situated hard by Herefordshire's famous Old House in High Town, are always first with the gossip. The fact that their whispered information is usually as reliable as a round thruppeny bit [note1] is neither here nor there....

An Edwardian view of the centre of Hereford. The famous Old House is in the centre of the picture. The even more famous (for the Herefordshire VBCW fan) City & County
Dining & Refreshment Rooms are to the left (white building without awning)

A coloured view of High Town, providing a longer shot of the Old House and the
City & County Refreshment Rooms to its left. There is some argument as to
whether this photograph is similarly Edwardian, or taken during the VBCW.
The absence of traffic and/or visible trade suggests (particularly at 1.30 in the afternoon
 - check the Butter Market clock on the left) that it may well have
been taken during yet another "De Braose/BUF internal security sweep"
of the City, some time in the early months of the VBCW, following
 its recapture by Government forces from the Anglican League.

What does "the City & County" make of recent events at Mortimer's Cross? Given the many Government informers amongst the aspidistra and fug of cigarette smoke, one has to be careful what one says, Deirdre, but I heard:

(1). there is general relief - particularly amongst the petit bourgeousie sipping their Earl Grey so carefully - that the seemingly endless advance of the ("now purified", i.e. blatant) Communist Front of Colonel Comrade Professor Winters across the north east of the County, all the way from breaching the siege lines of Kington to the outskirts of Mortimer's Cross itself, has seemingly been brought to an end;

(2). Senior Captain Maynard and his commander, Major (CRO) Everard, are obviously the social lions of the hour, receiving praise from all quarters for their military and diplomatic exploits. Senior Captain Maynard's regrettable defeat at the Battle of Shobdon (and destruction of Shobdon Court on military grounds) is now quite forgotten. On the sensitive issue of whether the Senior Captain should have co-operated quite so happily with Reichsmarshall Goering and his Fallschirmjager, opinion is predictably divided;

(3). Senior Captain Maynard has quietly "let it be known" that, quite by chance, the Reichsmarshall's Ju-52 crash landed next to the Spanish Blue Division, and the "decision was somewhat taken out of my hands". The Spaniards, of course, had greatly benefited from considerable German largesse in their own civil war, and were therefore wildly enthusiastic in their welcome. In the heat of battle, the Senior Captain therefore (it is whispered by Captain A.D.Mann, Press Officer to Lord de Braose, but wholly unofficially, you know) had little choice but to accept "the unlooked for assistance from the skies". Quite what the attitude would have been of other troops, such as Lord Scudamore's Loyal Legion, had they been the first to meet the Reichsmarshall, "can only be a matter for speculation"; [note2]

(4). be that as it may, Lord de Braose has now ensured "as a matter of courtesy to our distinguished visitor" that the Reichsmarshall and his immediate entourage are comfortably quartered at the Castle House Hotel in the centre of the City, with the remaining "German parashots" barracked together with their ideological friends, the BUF, within the City walls.

A modern shot of the Castle House Hotel, Castle Street, Hereford. It was here that Reichsmarshall Goering was comfortably quartered after his intervention at Mortimer's Cross.
 One of the many VBCW re-enactors now to be found locally
 (and his carefully restored "Command Car") is in the foreground.

(5). there is considerable excitement - certainly amongst the ladies - that one member of the Reichsmarshall's immediate entourage is said to be none other than the famous boxer, Max Schmeling. Heavyweight World Champion between 1930 and 1932, and famously the conqueror of the American Joe Louis in 1936. It is widely rumoured that Schmeling "jumped with the lead stick" of Fallschirmjager over Mortimers Cross, and has now been tasked as the Reichsmarshall's bodyguard within Herefordshire [note3]. Ladies of a certain type are more than looking forward to meeting "the hulking Hun", trilling already that "life hasn't been quite the same since dear, dear Stokkies Joubert got himself captured at Winforton...if you know what I mean....I do hope he's alright, but one so moves on, musn't one?"

Max Schmeling in his boxing heyday, and jumping from a Ju52 over Farmer Roo's fields at Mortimer's Cross. Although often reproduced, there has been some criticism as to the authenticity
 of Schmeling's "Mortimer's Cross photograph". Although there can, of course, be no doubt of Schmeling's participation in this famous Herefordshire battle, the better view is that
 the photograph itself was a "reconstruction" undertaken at a Government airfield some
days after the events of Mortimer's Cross (copyright - Capt. A.D. Mann Archive)

(6). it is unclear quite how long the Reichsmarshall will be staying at the Castle House Hotel. While the Foreign Office and the Wilhelmstrasse are said to be "working overtime to smooth things over", relations between King Edward VIII and the Fuhrer are said "to be somewhat strained", and the Fuhrer "absolutely furious" with his deputy and Luftwaffe C-in-C. On the issue of whether the Reichsmarshall had asked for his personal authority to intervene within the VBCW, the Fuhrer could not be more clear:

 
It may, therefore, be some time before Reichsmarshall Goering will be welcomed back to Berlin......

(7). amidst the customary swirl of lesser stories - the Anglicans are quiet, too quiet since Shobdon; Mr Churchill is leading an "Assault Column" into the County, I know it's been rumoured before, Deirdre, but I'm quite sure he's on his way; now that farmer, what's his name, again, Giles? Just "a landless Ronin", the Japanese Military Attache was telling me only the other day, apparently "bent on revenge". And the other one, you know the one with the strange name, Farmer Roo? Denounced as "No.1 Fat Kulak and Class Traitor" by the Presteigne FreePress, gosh, he'll be in for it if the Communists ever get him; don't you think the Lefties are going to split, they always do, dear, and Winters is just so hardline and - some more tea? - so in hock to the Comintern; the VBCW "Peace Envoy", Mr Chamberlain, is making absolutely no progress with his talks with "various parties", well, that's hardly a surprise; Captain Arrowsmith has moved to Rome and taken up with an Italian waiter called Guido, ditto; substantial BUF re-inforcements are already on their way from London to Herefordshire, yawn, how many times has that been said; dear Stokkies is now a dab hand at jam making, well, Deirdre, he's got a lot of time on his hands in Ludlow Gaol, poor man....Yet amidst all this gossip, a wholly new rumour is doing the rounds - "the Bristol Fleet".

(8). "The Bristol Fleet is being prepared". The words are on everybody's lips......

What is happening at Bristol Docks? What can be the use of "the Bristol Fleet" within landlocked Herefordshire? Does "the Bristol Fleet" even exist, or is it yet more Government propaganda? The answer to these and even more pressing VBCW questions can, in the usual way, only be discovered by participation in the Herefordshire VBCW Spring Big Game 2020 (coming to a Village Hall near you
in March 2020)!!!

Notes:

(1). ok, you have to be pre-decimal to get that reference;

(2). this appears to be the first recorded VBCW example, according to political historians, of the famed "reverse ferret" manoeuvre. Defined as "a phrase used predominantly within the British media to describe a sudden reversal in an organisation's editorial or political line on a certain issue. Generally, this will involve no acknowledgment of the previous position", the Herefordshire roots of the well known phrase (being a predominantly agricultural county) are obvious.

(3). you have to live in the alt-timeline (of reality) to mention the Louis-Schmeling fight in 1938, where Louis famously took a first-round revenge. In this timeline, Max Schmeling was clearly knocking around somewhere in Herefordshire in 1938, perhaps putting on exhibition bouts with some BUF bruisers to keep the local populace entertained. In both timelines, however, Schmeling enlisted in the Fallschirmjager.