I'm So Glad You Asked Me That Goes Fourth: IMSGYAMT, #4

By Robert Cubitt

Who knew there were so many questions in the World? Well, the author does now.

In this fourth edition of the highly acclaimed (by the author) book of answers to questions as diverse as "Was the first aerial bombardment from a dirigible?" to "From where does the phrase 'peter out' come?", this book is packed full of information that you never knew you wanted to know. But once you start reading, you can't put this book down. That's because the author has put glue all over the cover (joke (almost)). But it is surprisingly addictive - and you read it in commuter sized shucks, so its just right for the daily journey into the office (but not if you're driving yourself).

I'm So Glad You Asked Me That Goes Fourth picks up where Book 3 left off and ends where Book 5 will start. Just the thing to fill the Christmas stockings of people that you don't really like that much, but you have to buy them a present anyway because they bought you one last year.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Cubitt
• Release date: May 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223953241

Robert Cubitt

Robert (Bob) Cubitt has always been keen on writing and has tried his hand at various projects over the years, but the need to earn a crust had always interfered with his desire to be more creative. After serving for 23 years in the RAF, working as a logistics planner for Royal Mail and as a Civil Servant with the Ministry of Defence, Robert took up writing full time writing in 2012 and now has a large catalogue of work published. Bob likes to write in several different genres, whatever takes his fancy at the time. His current series are sci-fi and World War II history and genres don't come much more diverse than that.  In his spare time Bob enjoys playing golf, is a member of a pub skittles team and is an ardent Northampton Saints fan.

Book preview

Books by the same author:

Fiction

The Deputy Prime Minister

The Inconvenience Store

The Charity Thieves

Warriors Series

The Warriors: The Girl I Left Behind Me

The Warriors: Mirror Man

The Magi Series

The Magi

Genghis Kant (The Magi Book 2)

New Earth (The Magi Book 3)

Cloning Around (The Magi Book 4)

Timeslip (The Magi Book 5)

The Return Of Su Mali (The Magi Book 6)

Robinson Kohli (The Magi Book 7)

Parallel Lines (The Magi Book 8)

Carter’s Commandos Series

Operation Absalom (Carter’s Commandos Book 1)

Operation Tightrope (Carter’s Commandos Book 2)

Operation Dagger (Carter’s Commandos Book 3)

Operation Carthage (Carter’s Commandos Book 4)

Operation Leonardo (Carter’s Commandos (Book 5)

Operation Terminus (Carter’s Commandos Book 6)

Operation Pegasus (Carter’s Commandos Book 7)

Operation Banyan (Carter’s Commandos Book 8)

To be released in 2023 – Operation Banshee (Carter’s Commandos Book 9)

Non-Fiction

A Commando’s Story

I Want That Job

I'm So Glad You Asked Me That: A Book Of Answers

I’m So Glad You Asked Me That Again

I’m So Glad You Asked Me That The Third

INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK

As this is the fourth book in this series, you are probably sick and tired of reading this introduction, so if you have read it before please feel free to jump ahead to the first answer. If this is your first experience of these books however, please read on as it contains information that is essential for your safety.

In the event of an emergency there are emergency exits situated here , here , ⇨ here  and here  . Lights will come on to guide you to the nearest exit, unless you haven’t paid your electricity bill, in which case the lights won’t come on. In the unlikely event of a landing on water, you will find a life jacket under your seat (unless someone has nicked it again). Attached to the life jacket is a light and a whistle which are totally inadequate for attracting attention. Please now read the safety instructions on the card you will find in the seat pocket. We know you won’t, but if anything goes wrong and you die we’re covered so your relatives can’t sue us.

This is not a book that is designed to be read like a novel. However, readers may find that it takes about the same amount of time to read an answer as it does to travel between two stops on the London Underground, so it makes an ideal companion for the commuter as it doesn’t require the reader to re-familiarise themselves with the plot every time they look up to identify which station or bus stop they have arrived at. It’s also quite good for a quick read during a coffee break, while waiting to see the doctor or dentist, while making the kids their tea, while waiting for a bus ... well, you get the idea.

Since 1993 the Daily Mail has run a column called Answers to Correspondents’ Questions. Regardless of what you may think of that newspaper in terms of its editorial standards, this column is both entertaining and informative. It wasn’t the first time the title had been used, as Alfred and Harold Harmsworth had first used it as a title for a weekly magazine published in the Victorian age. The questions are many and varied in nature, just as they were in the days of the Harmsworth brothers, sometimes stemming from a desire to find out about some aspect of family history, sometimes just a matter of curiosity.

Almost from the beginning, in 1993, I have contributed to the answers to the questions that are published each weekday. Many of my answers have been published, but just as many have not. Sometimes the editor would edit my answers before publication, and sometimes they were used to augment the answers of others in order to make them more complete, while answers from other contributors were edited into mine to supplement them. These were common sense editorial decisions, of course, but it did mean that some of the material I worked so hard to compile wasn’t used, wasn’t complete or wasn’t even recognisable as being mine.

Regular readers of the Daily Mail will probably recognise my name, but as more of my contributions were published the editor took the decision to publish some of my answers under pseudonyms. So some of my work was printed under the name Dillon (my wife’s maiden name) or Sutherland (my mother’s maiden name). For a period my wife’s first name, Bernadette was used, also with the various last names. However, all the work printed here resulted from my own research.

This may be seen as something of a vanity project and I plead guilty as charged, but I wanted to bring all my contributions together under a single cover. That was three books ago and counting. The answering of these questions became something of a hobby, if not an obsession, and I am proud of what I produced. In 2013 I compiled my answers up to that point into a book called I’m So Glad You Asked Me That. However, the urge to carry on answering the questions was not diminished and since then I have written many, many more. That resulted in volume 2 of my answers, which covered the period up until the end of 2016, volume 3 took us to February 2020 and now this volume brings us up to December 2021.

(Getting bored yet? I know I am)

I must offer my thanks to the good people who run Wikipedia and those who contribute to their articles. This website is often maligned but I have found that it is usually my first port of call in answering a question and it is often the most complete source. Its reliability has been proven many times by cross referencing to other sources.

My second thank you goes to all the people who have written into the Daily Mail with their questions over the last 27 years. Without you there would be nothing for a geek like me to answer. I live in dread of the day when you all buy computers and discover the joys of surfing the internet and are able to research your own answers.

Friends have often asked me what inspired me to answer a particular question. Sometimes it was a half-remembered fact from childhood, or something I learnt along the way in later life. I am an avid reader and spent a lot of my life studying for my higher qualifications and when you do that you pick up a lot of extraneous information. Professional training over three different careers has also left its mark on my memory. Certainly, there was usually enough to form the basis of my answer, which was then supported and expanded upon by research on the internet. In many cases I was just interested enough in the question to want to find out the answer for myself.

There are answers which I thought I knew but which I found I was wrong about. For example, I thought that Duchies (or Dukedoms) were introduced into England by William the Conqueror. They weren’t. They didn’t appear until about 300 years later (see later answer). So, I’m always learning, which is great.

(If you think this is boring, you should try reading a Dan Brown novel)

I started my RAF career as an electronics fitter, specialising in communications, so I am naturally attracted to questions relating to that topic and there are several answers on that subject in this volume. I then went on to become an officer in the Supply Branch of the RAF, so Logistics is also an interest. Following a change of career, I then went to work for Royal Mail so questions related to postal services are bound to attract my attention.

I am particularly interested in the military and aviation history, as will be seen from the number of answers related to these topics, so any questions in those areas were bound to draw me in. This stems from my own 23 years of service with the RAF which followed on from my father’s 22 years in the army. My wife’s Irish ancestry has inspired me to research answers to questions related to her country of birth, which often get ignored by other regular correspondents. With an insatiable curiosity, a computer, a broadband connection and a little time it’s possible to answer most questions.

I am also asked if there are questions that I won’t try to answer. The answer to that is yes. I usually stay clear of science and mathematics based questions as there are people far better qualified than I am to answer. The same applies to music (pop or classical) and the arts, though I will sometimes have a bash at them if I have some clue as to the answer. While I love sports I’m not a sports geek, so I will only try and answer a sports question if there is a tie in to another area of interest, such as my fondness for golf and rugby.

I’m not a train spotter and don’t possess an anorak so I don’t answer questions about trains and I’m not too great on questions about cars either. Other than that I’m happy to fire up the computer, type a few words into the Google search bar (other search engines are available) and see what comes up.

Have I ever been beaten and not found an answer? Yes, several times. Sometimes there just isn’t much information available on a particular subject and my own knowledge isn’t adequate enough to formulate a meaningful answer. Just like a fisherman, I am often taunted by the one that got away. I’m happy to say, though, that those occasions are rare.

The dates shown for each answer reproduced in this book was the date on which I wrote the answer, which is not the same date as that on which it was published by the Daily Mail – if it was published at all. Answers are usually published about two weeks after the question is printed.

Keen observers will note that I sometimes answer several questions within a few days of each other, sometimes even two on the same day, while at other times there are lengthy gaps between answers. This is purely arbitrary and is dependent on the questions that are being sent in to the Daily Mail.

When I originally wrote my answers I didn’t include any personal opinions with regard to any of the things I discovered. It didn’t seem to be appropriate to do so and it may have resulted in my answer not being published if my opinion was contentious. However, in this book I’m not fettered by such considerations. Interspersed with the answers I have added a few opinions, anecdotes, musings and asides to break things up. If any of my opinions don’t meet with your approval then I’m unapologetic. I’m as entitled to my opinions as you are to yours. Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights applies, so please don’t e-mail me to tell me I’m wrong, unless I’m wrong about a point of fact rather than belief or opinion.

Now for a short health warning. Every effort was made to ensure that the answers to the questions were as accurate as possible at the time they were written. However, like all researchers, I’m at the mercy of both time and my sources. Wherever possible material was cross referred to other sources to ensure accuracy, but in some cases I was only able to find one source and so was unable to be as academically rigorous as I might have liked. So, if you intend using the contents of this book to settle pub disputes, to settle bets, or as the basis for school or college assignments then I accept no liability if it later turns out that my answer was either incomplete, incorrect or is now out of date. There is no substitute for doing one’s own research. Where possible I have provided updated information in my Author’s notes if I am aware of any changes since the original answer was published.

If you wish to submit your own questions as a challenge for me to answer then please e-mail them to this address: [e-mail]. I can’t promise I’ll come up with an answer, but will guarantee to reply to you and to do some initial research.

If you are a reader of the Daily Mail I hope you will enjoy future answers to correspondents’ questions, because I haven’t stopped submitting them yet. Finally, I hope that you find this book interesting and/or amusing. If you did, putting a review of it on Amazon will help to boost sales, which in turn will benefit Help For Heroes, so please feel free to do so. Negative reviews are not required.

14th February 2020

How many times did the Germans surrender at the end of World War II?

There were a number of different surrenders of German armed forces in different theatres of the war, on different dates, but as a nation Germany only surrendered once.

The general collapse of the German armed forces was started by the surrender of their armies in Italy on 29th April 1945, the day before Hitler committed suicide in Berlin. This was followed over a number of days by surrenders in Berlin (2nd May), Denmark, Netherlands, Norway and NW Germany (4th May), then in Bavaria later the same day.

German forces in Breslau (Wroklaw), Poland, surrendered on 6th May, followed almost immediately by the full surrender of all of Germany’s remaining armies in the west, announced by generals Jodl and Keitel.

The formal surrender of Germany by Admiral Karl Doenitz, the interim Chancellor following the death of Hitler, was at 23.01 Central European Time on 8th May, with German forces on the Channel Islands surrendering at the same time. In Russia, VE Day is celebrated on 9th May because the time of the surrender in Germany meant that it was after midnight in Moscow.

However, there were still pockets of resistance as some commanders continued to fight on. Most surrendered in the week following VE Day, but fighting continued until 25th May in Croatia. On the Norwegian island of Svalbard, the small garrison had lost radio contact in May and didn’t formally surrender until 25th September, when they were informed that the war was over by some Norwegian seal hunters. That was two days after Japan had surrendered. They were the last German soldiers to surrender.

* * *

Why are freight trains pulled by diesel locomotives on the electrified West Coast Mainline?

There are five companies that hold franchises to handle rail freight in the UK. These are Colas Rail, DB Cargo UK, Direct Rail Services, Freightliner and GB Railfreight.

Unlike passenger rail services, the rail freight companies aren’t restricted to one geographic area. Nor are they restricted to a single national route, as is the case with the east and west coast mainline franchises. The rail freight companies hold licences that allow them to operate anywhere in the UK where they can find customers. This means that all the trains operated by the freight franchises must be capable of operating on electrified lines, both those using third rail and overhead pickups, and also non-electrified lines.

Rail waggons that carry minerals are loaded from hoppers which the cars pass beneath to be filled, which means there can be no overhead cables to get in the way, which means the trains have to be pulled by diesel locomotives. The same applies to fuel tankers, which are also top filled. Electrical rail systems are banned in oil terminals because of the risk of explosions caused by sparks.

So, while a freight train may be seen using the West Coast Mainline, it may have started its journey at an oil refinery, or it might have started its journey at a quarry, both places where only diesel trains can be used. It is uneconomical to keep having to stop to change locomotives and to have to keep two types of locomotive in operation.

There is also a restriction for trains carrying containerised freight. The containers are lifted on and off the rolling stock using giant forklift trucks, specially designed for the task. If there were overhead power lines, the containers would risk touching them as they are lifted, which would be very dangerous. So the sidings where the containers are handled can’t use overhead power lines and diesel locomotives have to be used.

One of the main rail freight terminals in the UK is the Daventry International Freight Terminal (DIRFT) which is just outside Rugby, on the West Coast Mainline. It is called Daventry because it is situated just inside the boundaries for that district council, the town of Daventry being about 8 miles to the south. Some trains using the terminal do use electric locomotives and swap to a diesel shunter before entering the handling yard, but others don’t.

* * *

27th February 2020

Was the first aerial bombardment from a dirigible?

The first bombs dropped from any type of aircraft were from hot air balloons, during the Italian War of Independence, in 1849. Each balloon carried a single bomb, which was dropped over the side of the passenger basket by the balloonist.

The first bombs dropped by heavier than air aircraft (they were actually large grenades) was during the Italio-Turkish War. They were dropped by Italian pilot Guilio Gavotti on 1st November 1911. The same method was used in the First Balkan War in 1912, where their use was more widespread.

The first recognised bomber aircraft was the French Voisin III which had been designed before the start of World War I. It came into service with the French air force in 1914.

Dirigible is a generic term for airships. Zeppelins were the dirigible aircraft developed by the Germans and used against the British mainland and other targets. Work on them started well before the start of the war and they were first used for bombing on the night of 5th/6th August 1914 when one bombed Liege, in Belgium. This was the first actual bombing raid of the war carried out by either side. The first bombing raid on Britain was carried out on 24th December 1914 using a seaplane, but Zeppelin raids started on 10th January 1915. The first bombs to fall on London were dropped by a Zeppelin in May 1915.

The Zeppelin was designed by Graf (Count) Von Zeppelin, starting in 1891. His first aircraft flew on 2nd July 1900. The aim was to build a passenger aircraft, but the German military saw its potential and in 1908 purchased the fourth aircraft built, LZ4, in order to test it. In all, 21 aircraft were built before the outbreak of war and the German government bought all the surviving models when war broke out. In all, 51 bombing raids were carried out on the British mainland, dropping about 5,000 bombs, killing 557 people and injuring another 1,358. Although the impact of the bombing raids was small in comparison to what was happening on the Western Front, they created widespread alarm amongst the civilian population of the South East of England.

Because of their vulnerability to fire, as demonstrated by the fates of the British R101 (5th October 1930) and the German Hindenburg (6th May 1937) they were considered too vulnerable and air forces around the world concentrated their efforts on the development of heavier than air bombers.

* * *

27th February 2020

When, due to cowardice, someone fails to do something they should, why are they said to have ‘bottled it’?

This has its origins in Cockney rhyming slang.

When faced with danger, like most creatures, humans have their fight or flight instinct triggered. In other words, they have to choose between fighting for their life or running away. In order to enable their flight, creatures often evacuate their bowels in order to reduce their weight. They may also urinate involuntarily and vomit up their last meal.

Commentators have long been known to compare the smell of a battlefield to that of a latrine as fear takes control of soldier’s biological functions. The use of kilts and similar forms of dress for warriors, even though trousers were available, may also relate to this.

As with all Cockney rhyming slang, the true Cockney only uses the first part of the rhyming phrase. In this case the full phrase is bottle and glass. The glass part rhymes with the Old English word for the part of the body controlling defecation. When someone loses their bottle, it means that the person referred to has is so frightened they have lost control of their bowels. Bottled it is just a variation on the theme.

Author’s note: As may be imagined, it was quite difficult to phrase this answer in a way that was suitable for printing in a family newspaper.

* * *

16th March 2020

Was the Fairey Rotodyne gyroplane a better solution than HS2 for high-speed inter-city travel?

The Fairey Rotodyne was a gyrocopter designed and built in the 1950s.  It was designed to lift off under power, like a helicopter, then transition to forward motion which would keep the rotor blades turning while using less fuel than a helicopter. It was essentially a hybrid between a conventional aeroplane and a helicopter.

From 1917 onwards, the Fairey aviation company had produced many aircraft types both for military and commercial use. Their best-known aircraft was probably the Swordfish, a biplane torpedo bomber built for the Fleet Air Arm and used throughout World War II

The Rotodyne was Fairey’s attempt to enter the short haul mass passenger market. Design work on a gyrocopter started shortly after the war, capitalising on captured German designs for helicopters. One potential customer, British European Airways (now part of British Airways) produced their own specification for a suitable aircraft. With it they hope to offer an aerial bus or train type of service between major city centres.

The Ministry of Supply authorised the building of a single prototype of the Fairey Rotodyne, with a configuration capable of carrying 40 to 50 passengers at a speed of up to 150 mph. The aircraft made its maiden flight on 6th November 1957 from the Fairey works at White Waltham airfield near Maidenhead, but it wasn’t until April of the following year that it made its first successful transition from vertical flight to horizontal and then back to vertical again. It was this capability that fuelled the interest in the aircraft as a flying bus service. Future development plans included a version capable of carrying up to 75 passengers at 200 mph.

Political meddling in the aircraft industry, forcing firms to merge, resulted in many projects being cancelled in order to concentrate on a narrower range of aircraft. Previously well-known names in aviation disappeared or joined their names to those of other manufacturers. Fairey merged with the much larger De Havilland company, but their relationship wasn’t a happy one and this impacted on the development of the Rotodyne.

Problems with both the engines for the aircraft and environmental noise issues meant that the Rotodyne was becoming increasingly unattractive to build and operate. One test pilot stated that if the Rotodyne was operating anywhere within two miles, normal conversation would be impossible. This was because the tips of the rotor blades produced a continual sonic boom.

The project was cancelled in 1962.

As an aircraft there was never any prospect of the Fairey Rotodyne replacing rail services. It could never hope to compete on passenger capacity or cost. Its potential market was the business traveller whose company would be prepared to pay for the speedy transit of their employees between city centres, much the same business case as is being put forward for HS2. With modern technology, a lot of that sort of travel is becoming obsolescent. Ironically, Coronavirus is probably doing more to undermine the HS2 business case than the spiralling costs, as businesses are forced to think in terms of technological solutions in preference to travel.

The modern-day equivalent of the Rotodyne would be the Bell-Boeing V-22 Opsrey, which is in service with the US Navy, but there is no operator using it to offer scheduled city centre to city centre air travel, mainly because of noise and cost considerations.

* * *

19th March 2020

Why were trunk calls on the telephone so called?

The origin of the term goes back to at least 1905.

In the early days of telephones, calls were connected by a series of operators. The subscriber making the call would ring their local telephone exchange and the operator would connect them to the recipient via a series of other telephone exchanges. The major exchanges had several telephone lines connecting them, sometimes hundreds, in order to manage the level of telephone traffic using those routes. These were the trunks, the major telephone routes that connected cities together.

A local call didn’t need to use the trunk network, but to make a call of any distance did use that network and so became known as a trunk call. If one route was experiencing heavy traffic, the operator could route their call via a different exchange, using a different trunk. Because a local call didn’t need to use the trunk network it was charged at a lower rate than one that did.

The use of the word trunk to describe this sort of network may relate to trees. A tree has a trunk, which feeds a network of branches, twigs and leaves. In the same way a trunk telephone line would feed a number of smaller local telephone networks which connected towns and villages. My own village still has its local telephone exchange (now automated), which also serves neighbouring villages. That exchange connected north and south to larger towns, which in turn connected to the cities which were connected together by the trunks.

The first experimental automatic telephone exchange opened in Epsom on 1st May 1912 for the connection of local calls, but trunk calls still required the services of an operator. Over the next 60years the number of automated exchanges grew, but the telephone network wasn’t fully automated in England until 1975, when the Abingdon exchange in Oxfordshire became the last manual exchange to close down. The last manual exchange in the UK was the one at Portree, Isle of Skye, which became automated in 1979.

The term trunk migrated to the road network with The Trunk Roads Act of 1936 which designated thirty major roads connecting major cities as Trunk Roads and prioritised them for upgrading to carry more traffic. At that time they made up 4,500 miles of Britain’s road network. Additional roads were trunked over time; that is, they were upgraded to meet the standard required to meet the definition.

The Great North Road, which we now know as the A1, connecting London to Edinburgh, would be a typical trunk road, but a trunk road could be made up of several roads, such as the A6 which connects London to Carlisle, followed by the A74 to Glasgow. It is an obsolete term; now we refer to Motorways, A roads and B roads. There are also C roads, but they aren’t numbered.

Author’s note: This answer got me into major communications nerd mode.

* * *

20th March 2020

Is there a term to describe the phenomenon of seeing faces in ordinary items, such as in cappuccino foam?

Pareidolia is the brain’s tendency to try to identify patterns in random objects and convert them into something meaningful, very often a human face. There are many stories involving people seeing the face of Jesus or the Virgin Mary in slices of toast, pools of liquid or stains on surfaces. However, the brain is also trying to make sense out of something as random as the bubbles on the top of a cup of coffee.

As far back as the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians and Greeks, people studied the stars and joined the dots to create the constellations, which is no different from trying to identify faces in coffee foam. Another early version is seeing the Man in the Moon, that is interpreting the patterns of light and shadow on the surface of the moon as a human face. This is first recorded as far back as Ancient Rome when they considered the man in the moon to be a sheep thief who was banished there. Leonardo da Vinci claimed that some of his work was inspired by interpreting characters that he saw in the patterns on stone walls.

Why the human face and not some other object? This is probably because the face is one of the first things a baby learns to recognise. It may be a genetically programmed response triggered for