Dimitri > Recent Status Updates

I could see that the glowing ashes were the remains of the paper balls with which Parisians were reduced to heating their apartments. They were made from newspapers, board boxes and ... books whose literary value was considered inferior to their worth as fuel.

"I'm afraid you've made a bad bargain. She's certainly more valuable to the Germans than I am to the United States."
"The State department knows very well what you did. Suppose the British government, in the last war, had had a chance to exchange Edith Cavell. Don't you think they'd have jumped at it? And you are, after all, the Edith Cavell of this war. "

This raises the question whether, if Prussia had not launched its preemptive attack in 1756, France would have been willing to support the offensive war that 'the two empresses' were planning for the following spring.

As night fell over Oosterbeek, the 1st Airborne had survived its 6th day. The weather had prevented any resupply missions from being flown. Enduring bombardement & German attacks that had nibbled on all sides of the perimeter, the Red Devils hung on. Urquhart was hartened that the Polish Brigade had landed in Driel and pinned his hopes on the Poles getting over that night.

"Anyhow it was a characteristic Renaissance gesture, to sack and burn the city and palace but to save fine books from the flames"

"Iberian civil war follows, in recent centuries, a pattern. It is a war between constitutionalism and absolutism, liberty and tyranny, liberalism, often with a little Freemasonry thrown in, and clericalism, in brief, between Left and Right."

The late historian Fujiwara Akira asserted that a majority of Japanese military deaths during the Pacific war resulted from starvation, not hostile action. Put differently, army incompetence killed more Japanese soldiers than did the Allies.

In China, where Fujimara served, logistics was left to his infantry battailon rather than specialized transportation units.

A more recent % analysis concurs in general.

The classic short-term scénario to eliminate western bases in East Asia while occupying strategic points in the south "in turn would hasten the collapse of Chiang Kai-Shek's regime & end the China fighting. Japan would also cooperate with its Axis partners to compel Britain to surrender, which would shatter America's will to fight"

The army marched off to war with no means to defeat the US, much less a coalition.

With France defeated & Britain on the verge, Japan had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to isolate Chiang from western aid by severing his supply routes that ran through Indochina & [British] Burma. Improved ties with the Axis could prevent the US from interfering if the army moved south into those colonies.

The Wuhan* battles marked the limit of the Japanese Army's offensive capability to conduct large scale operations. By fall '38 it depended on Chinese puppets to control occupied zones, exploit the resources of the North & protect Japan's economic interests elsewhere in China.

*The city in Yangzi was the logistic cornerstone cum administrative base for Nationalist armies.

#3 To modernize and reequip the army to drive Caucasian influence from East Asia. Japan would maintain friendly relations with China until it defeated the USSR and then move south against the US.

#2 ...while at the same time the prime minister and the navy were seeking to expand into the southern regions. Neither the narrower military strategy nor the broader national policy resolved the competing and contradictory objectives of the services.

The "fundamental principles of national defense and national policy" prepared by Ishiwara Kanji, head of operations of the general staff, had been simple enough.

#1 In theory the August decisions melded imperial defence policy, the five ministers of the inner cabinet's own approved national policy, and the imperial foreign policy into a comprehensive and unified approach to resolve Japan's international issues. But the result was a series of flawed compromises that left the army and foreign ministry promoting efforts against the Soviet Union...

The technical board deemed bombers less effective than artillery for ground support & only approved 1 light bomber regiment. The others were aerial reconnaissance & fighter units. The army turned to civilian industry to produce its aircraft, promoting competition for their design & manufacture. The Nakajima, Kawasaki and Mistubishi corporations soon monopolised.

In the end, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had the misfortune of ruling over a place where faith regularly trumped fact, where delusion and reality fused.

Tanaka (head of the 1915-22 military research committee) believed that radically altered international situation with its interlocking system of alliances demanded a wholesale redefinition of national defence policy. His goal (excepting the naval treaty with Britain) was autarky, but to achieve this Japan had to have unlimited access to China's natural resources. His proposals anticipated a north AND south expansion.

(2)... rejoin the field armies near Mukden. The Russian commander, jowever, fought a series of skillful delaying actions in june/july to buy time for reinforcements to arrive fron European Russia. Port Arthur was left isolated & besieged.

Russian raiders continued to cruise the sea of Japan, picking off victims, spreading panic among coastal towns & provoking criticism of the military's competence.

(1) the "Manchurian Army" consisting of the First & Second armies, would advance along the South Manchurian railroad to LIAOYANG, where the First Army would envelop the enemy's right flank, destroy the Russian field army, open the way to Mukden for the decisive battle before Russia could mobilise its full military strength. Simultaneously the Third Army would attack Port Arthur and, after taking the fortress...

The August intervention & the events that preceeded it are unique in the history of military campaigns in that the future invader was able to simulate its attack on the territory of its future victim and what is more with the victim's consent.

Part of the underlying logic of the VARSITY airborne operation had been to help fix Armeegruppe B 's armored reserves and prevent them from being deployed elsewhere and it that the airborne operation was highly succesful.

As Stalingrad, or Ortana had demonstrated earlier.. urban warfare was not only an expensive business, but one in which the West's air suppremacy was an asset of limited value. Eisenhower saw no point in capturing an objective like Berlin at the estimated price of 100k casualties, only to later hand it over as part of the Soviet occupation zone as already defined at Yalta.

The years 1945-48 present a pivotal period. Foundations were laid for a new model of people's democracy which the USSR for pragmatic reasons allowed to exist within its sphere of influence, while the strongest party was the Communist party which openly regarded this as a temporary model on a journey towards Soviet socialism and absolute power.

For the moment the British right was secure, with the last veteran reserves now in the front line. The centre was under very great strain (after the fall of La Haye Sainte) with the best regiments destroyed and held by young, inexperienced Hanover & Nassau troops.

Guard artillery grapeshot weakened the centre, curassiers sabred, but a full combined attack by all 3 French arms didn't materialise.

Nevertheless the Duke had won the 1st round. Napoleons attack, intended to be decisive, had been soundingly defeated. The battle became a race against time in 3 locations. Could Napoleon break Wellington? Could Blücher get enough troops onto the battlefield to deliver against Napoleon's flank? And could Thielmann hold the Dyle bridges at Wavre to prevent Grouchy rolling up the Prussians on the march?

The truth? The Sovs can't play? You think that's the truth? You know what the worst thing is for our democratically elected Neanderthals? It's the implications against us. Moribund on the Sov side means moribund on our side. How do you peddle the arms race when the only asshole you have to race is yourself?

De spoorlijn Lokeren/Zelzate maakt deel uit v/d levensader voor Antwerpen omdat hierlangs materiaal van overzee via Zeebrugge & Oostende wordt vervoerd. Nu de Duitsers de lijn van Lokeren naar Gent hebben opgeblazen in de omgeving van Zeveneken, bestaat de vrees dat zulks ook kan gebeuren op dit traject; vooral het knooppunt Moerbeke is belangrijk.

De spoorwegcompanie van de vestinggenie posteert een pantsertrein.

Did Taiwan anchor Japan's southernmost defences, or was it a springboard for offensive expansion into points south? Should Japan passively defend Korea, or was it a base to move into Manchuria? The army had to confront new strategic realities, a proposition made more difficult because the Western powers now identified Japan as a serious competitor in northeast Asia.

This North or South legacy plagued for 50 years.

A peasant uprising in neutral Korea (1894) activates the so-far theoretical war plans to land Japanese divisions at Inchon pre-emptively against Chinese or Russian forces, with the Chinese Navy maybe capable to interdict the logistical lifeline to the home islands.

The face-slapping discipline, tied to the rigid tactical practice of Prussian-inspired drill, is another piece of 1930s foreshadowing...

The phased transition to a division structure is often regarded as evidence that Japan harbored continental aspirations & tailored its army for overseas deployment & agression. No doubt some high ranking officers dreamed... but not until 1900 did the general staff begin formal planning. In the meantime, they continued to emphasise coastal defence against a Russian attack.

The Plan requires 96 divisions; this includes 24 non-existent reserve divisions & would still be insufficient.

The Plan as derived from the 1906 Denkshrift would be impossible without the improved 77mm artillery matching the French 75's rate of fire.. which entered the field in 1908.

The single greatest advantage the Franks had held since the collapse of the Fatamid Empire in the 12thC. Had been naval supremacy along the Med coast with their large number of ports, into which fresh crusaders could arrive with every spring sailing from the West. In destroying Caesarea (5.3.1265), Baybars showed he had appreciated the lesson of history. He wanted to remove the possibility of crusading for good.