Dimitri > Recent Status Updates

For the record: this edition restarts numbering from page 1 for part 2, so any faulty page references are my own mistake.

Annihiliation or sucess on the first day of the Somme depended on how much effort you put into negating the German's tactical use of high ground, not just with massive schrapnel to cut wire, but also sapping attack trenches at right angles to the line for a close-quarter rapid exit and by mining to blow up strongpoints ...the difference between the northern & southern sector clearly shows the fundamental importance.

British appeasement towards the Indian Congress' demands growing from home rule (inspired by Ireland), dominion status or full indepence, were always a step behind from one world war to another. Neville Chamberlain, we're spying a pattern here...

as so often, a singular event in Western memory, here the "Indian Mutiny", was a patchy affair with support for both sides across all layers of society and long-term origins.

I still get the impression that the "conquest" by the East Indian Company was a case of divide & rule, albeit inconsistently.

Finshed part 1 "Hubris", ending with the remilitarisation of the Rheinland.

The Blitz as manifestation of a combined strategy of RAF attrition & an economiv stranglehold on Britain ? Intruiging.

the increased (but indirect) awareness of Kesselring about the vital importance of Fighter Command shows that Bungay doesn't need to resort to blunt phrases ex. "the Battle of Britain took the course it did because the major decision-makers in the Luftwaffe did not know or understand what was actually going on"

Some of the statements are dangerously Anglophile and warrant a closer look at German souces ex. p. 89 "Sealion was a bad plan. eagle, barely a plan at all, amounted to little more than flying over England, dropping bombs on various things and shooting down any fighters which came up as a result"

1933-1935: neighbour-denouncing Selbstgleichschaltung and admonishing one another "be silent or you end up in Auschwitz" are hip.... while Hitler exercices caution in foreign policy according to the time-honoured Enkreisung principle, even signing a 1934 pact with Poland (for 10 years!) to lessen the chance of an attack under French direction.

the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb: mere example of imperial overstretch or Indian equivalent to the longevity of Franz Joseph ?

Chapter I.10 relating the political backroom dealings in the final 3 years to Hitler's appointment as chancellor, damn to the last day, is razor-sharp but numbingly detailed. Read this on a good night's sleep with a Red Bull.

In an effort to dim the influence of the Left, the Weimar president engineers a crisis that allows him to rule by decree, largely bypassing the Reichstag. The irrepairable imago damage facilitates a leap forward for the NSDAP in the 1930 elections.

two aspects where Kershaw searches off the beaten path are Hitlers activity as a political army instructor right after the war, and the mavericks to rebuild the Party after his Landsberg imprisonment

as the 1770's close and the action moves to the Carolinas, the movie "The Patriot" is useful sometimes, if you link the events out of order to reality.

1500-1565 the Portugese and the Mughols have arrived on the scene. Indian history is entering my chartered waters.

chapters like the Eulenberg crisis and the Daily Mail interview advance the story none, revealing them as the storms in a glass of water that they are.

There is a reason most works on the genesis of WWI dont go deeply into British politics: Balfour, Asquith, Fisher and Grey vanish in a mist of lesser gods, elections and cabinet functions ...

Pearl Harbour, contary to popular image, did not force the US Navy to suddenly learn how to use carriers instead of battleships. The interwar doctrine required only tactical refinement.

After Russia, Napoleon's pool of talent & manpower swiftly dwindled. His surviving marshals were less apt at converging on the enemy; the new young recruits equally lacked training and experience to execute such tactics. the 7th Coalition had completed a learning curve, using with superior numbers in mobile warfare against Napoleon's blundering detatchments.

How can the WWI experience convince Italy that submarines would not pla an important role in the next war ?

After Wagram (1809) Napoleon's continental domination (and economic blockade system) proved untenable, in spite of a good relationship with the tsar and a dynastic marriage with the Austrian crown princess