adjutant: (pg. 86) Military. A staff officer who serves as an administrative assistant to the commanding officer.
-Webster's New World Dictionary
batman: (pg. 91) The orderly of an officer in the British army.
-Webster's New World Dictionary
B.E.F.: (pg. 6) British Expeditionary Force(s): armed forces stationed outside Great Britain.-Funk & Wagnall's Dictionary
Belgian alcohol machine gun: (pg. 21) An automatic firearm which fires a continuous stream of bullets fed into it. It is usually mounted and has a cooling apparatus using water, air, or, in this case, alcohol.-Webster's New World Dictionary and Editors
billeting: (pg. 56) Lodging for soldiers in nonmilitary buildings.-Random House Dictionary
blockhouse: (pg. 129) Military. A small defensive structure of concrete.
-Webster's New World Dictionary
breech: (pg. 140) The part of a gun behind the barrel.- Webster's New World Dictionary
caisson: (pg. 13) A two-wheeled ammunition wagon, especially for the artillery. -Random House Dictionary
canteen: (pg. 87) (1) A place outside or inside a military camp where cooked food and liquids are dispensed. (pg. 123) (2) A small metal or plastic flask, usually encased in canvas, for carrying drinking water. -Webster's New World Dictionary
derni-cannon: (pg. 141) Demi-. Less than usual in size, power, etc. Cannon: A large, mounted piece of artillery. -Webster's New World Dictionary
dixie: (pg. 16) British Slang. A pot or pan for cooking, used in the field by a soldier. -Worid Book Dictionary
dog-robber: (pg. 87) Military Slang. An officer's orderly.-Webster's New World Dictionary
foxhole: (pg. 11) A small pit, usually for one or two soldiers, dug as a shelter in a battle area.-Random House Dictionary
G.H.Q.: (pg. 6) General Headquarters. Military. The headquarters of a commanding general in the field.-Funk & Wignall's Dictionary
haversack: (pg. 80) A canvas bag for carrying rations, etc., generally worn over one shoulder, as by soldiers or hikers. -Webster's New World Dictionary
impressed: (pg. 80) To press or force into public service, as sailors.
-Random House Dictionary
lanyard: (pg. 116) A cord with attached hook, for firing certain types of cannon. -Webster's New World Dictionary
leftenant: (pg. 14) British usage of lieutenant. -World Book Dictionary
Maginot Line: (Preface, Ist pg.) A system of heavy fortifications built by France before World War II on the border between France and Germany from Switzerland to Belgium.- Webster's New World Dictionary
rnorur: (pg. 17) A cannon very short in proportion to its bore, for throwing shells at high angles.-Random House Dictionary
noncoin: (Preface, 3rd pg.) Colloquy Clipped form of noncommissioned officer.
Noncommissioned officer. An enlisted person or any of various grades in the armed forces, as, in the US. Army, from corporal to sergeant major inclusive. -Webster's New World Dictionary
one-pounder: (pg. 60) pounder: A gun that discharges a missile of a specified weight in pounds (usually used in combination). -Webster's New World Dictionary
orderly: (pg. 86) Military. An enlisted man assigned to perform personal services for an officer or officers or to carry out a specific task.-Webster's New World. Dictionary
P.C.: (pg. 32) Post Command. -Random House Corp Dictionary and Editors
pillbox: (pg. 42) A low, enclosed gun emplacement of concrete and steel.
-Webster's New World Dictionary
pneunatics: (pg. 24) pneumatic gun: a gun using compressed air or gas as the propulsive force usually to throw dynamite or other high explosives. -Webster's Third International Dictionary
regulars: (pg. 142) Military, Designating or of the permanently constituted or standing army of a country. -Websier's New World Dictionary
rifling: (pg. 141) Military. The cutting of spiral grooves on the inside of a gun barrel to make the projectile spin when fired, thus giving it greater accuracy and distance. -Webster's New World Dictionary
rotor props: (pg. 192) Rotor. The system of rotating blades by which a helicopter is able to fly. prop: clipped form of propeller. -Webster's New World Dictionary
sortie:(Preface, 4th pg.) A rapid movement of troops from a besieged place to attack the besiegers; a body of troops involved in such a movement; to go on a sortie; sally forth.-Random House Dictionary
subaltern: (pg. 2) Any commissioned officer in the British army ranking below a captain.
-World Book Dictionary
three-pounder: (pg. 27) pounder. A gun that discharges a missile of a specified weight in pounds (usually in combination).
-Webster's New World Dictionary
trench mortar: (pg. 17) Any of various portable mortars for shooting projectiles at a high trajectory and short range. -Webster's New World Dictionary
Vickers Wellington bomber: (pg. 1) A twin-engine medium airplane that became the standard British Royal Air Force bomber. -Dictionary of Aviation "I am always happy to hear from my readers."
L. Ron Hubbard
These were the words of L. Ron Hubbard, who was always very interested in hearing from his friends and readers. He made a point of staying in communication with everyone he came in contact with over his fifty-year career as a professional writer, and he had thousands of fans and friends that he corresponded with allover the world.
The publishers of L. Ron Hubbard's literary works wish to continue this tradition and would very much welcome letters and comments from you, his readers, both old and new.
Any message addressed to the Author's Affairs Director at Bridge Publications will be given prompt and full attention.
BRIDGE PUBLICATION$, INC.
4751 Fountain Avenue Los Angeles, California 90029
IN I About the Author L. Ron Hubbard
Born in 1911, the son of a U.S. Naval officer, L. Ron Hubbard grew up in the great American West and was acquainted early with a rugged outdoor life before he took to sea. The cowboys, Indians and mountains of Montana were balanced with the temples and throngs of the Orient as he traveled the Far East while a teenager.
By the time he was nineteen, he had voyaged over a quarter of a million sea miles and many thousands on land recording his adventures and experiences in a series of diaries. These were mixed with story ideas as L. Ron Hubbard began to develop his unique writing career.
Returning to the United States, his insatiable curiosity and demand for excitement sent him into the sky as a barnstorming pilot where he quickly earned a reputation for skill and daring. He set new records in motorless flight, and a number of popular articles on aviation followed, before he turned his attention again to the sea.
This time it was four-masted schooners and voyages into the Caribbean. He was later awarded the prestigious Explorer's Club flag which he flew aboard vessels he used on numerous expeditions into Alaskan, Mediterranean and Atlantic waters.
L. Ron Hubbard mixed his early adventures with an education that was to serve him well at the typewriter. While his first articles were nonfiction and based upon his aviation experience, he soon began to draw from his travels to produce a wide variety of stories: adventure, mystery, aviation, Far East action, westerns, and fantasy.
By 1938, already established and recognized as one of the top-selling authors of the field, he was requested by the publishers of a newly acquired magazine, Astounding Science Fiction, to try his hand at science fiction. Though educated as an engineer, he protested that he did not write about machines, but that he wrote about people. "That's just what we want," he was told.
The result was a cornucopia of stories from L. Ron Hubbard that changed the face of modern science fiction and fantasy, and excited intense critical comparison-then as now-with the best of H. G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe.
His renowned classic Final Blackout was written during this period, electrifying the readership with its gripping premise of the agonies of a future nuclear war. The landmark w
ork not only attracted vast popularity but also swirled a gale of controversy in an era that struggled to deny the possibility of universal conflict. To this day, Final Blackout, revealing intimate understanding of frontline leadership and the harsh realities of war, not only remains a benchmark novel for the very best in speculative fiction, but serves as a timeless beacon warning of political exploitation and excess.
Shortly after completing this masterwork, L. Ron Hubbard, with his vast knowledge of command at sea was called to combat service as a United States Naval officer.
Before World War II ended, as he, himself, recovered from wounds, L. Ron Hubbard concentrated on the task of fully researching and understanding the human condition.
Over the next forty years millions of words of his nonfiction appeared detailing his remarkable researches and discoveries.
In 1980, to celebrate his golden anniversary as a professional writer, L.
Ron Hubbard returned to science fiction and created Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000. The epic, hailed as the biggest science fiction book ever written, quickly moved onto every national best-seller list in the U.S. and shortly thereafter was republished in fifty-three countries.
This singular feat was followed by an even more spectacular achievement, his New York Times best-selling magnum opus, the ten-volume Mission Earth series-not only a grand science fiction adventure in itself, but, in the best tradition of Jonathan Swift and Lewis Carroll, a rollicking, satirical romp through the foibles of our civilization.
L. Ron Hubbard's prodigious and creative output over more than a half century as a professional author has assumed the awesome proportions of a true publishing phenomenon. With more than two hundred novels, novelettes and a library of nonfiction books and published texts, and more than two hundred short stories culminating in almost a hundred million copies of his works sold in thirty-one languages worldwide-L. Ron Hubbard is without doubt one of this century's most important and influential authors.
Final Blackout: A Futuristic War Novel Page 16
