Dimitri > Recent Status Updates

Essentially, the Iraqis went to war a month to early and thus had to do without the German assistance that they were depending upon.

Although tanker losses were not significant in the first 9 months of war, the need to convoy greatly increased the amount of time required to move tankers across the Atlantic. Instead of going directly from the Caribbean to Liverpool [as before] they now had to proceed to Halifax to form into convoys. Consequently delays reduced British monthly fuel imports by 25% in late 1940 - irrespective of German attacks.

One of biggest deficiencies was special distillate for the Kriegsmarine destroyers, which could only be produced in special evaporators at Kiel & Wilhelmshaven. Without this, the finicky high pressure boilers on the destroyers would quickly corrode & suffer breakdowns.


(On the other hand we see experimental but technologically sound development of amphibic tanks and bow-ramped landing craft 3 years before Normandy)

Churchill would continue to favour these peripheral operations for the rest of the war, all in an effort to evade the central truth; Britain lacked the resources to fight a major ground war in Europe on its own; [his] strategic formulations based upon 2 assumptions, that Hitler would make a serious strategic mistake that he could exploit [& the US entry]. Churchill's strategy was to pray for 2 miracles at once.

"French' general reserves [at Loos] comprised the Cavalry corps, which, under modern conditions, did not count except in the minds of cavalry-trained commanders..."

Hart in one sentence. Easy there, tank boy.

The Russian peasant under serfdom, the argument ran [in the 1820s already?!] was better off morally & physically than English factory worker, driven off the land & reduced to the depths of dehumanised misery by the brutality of predatory capitalists & the tyranny of the machine.

Moskou werd niet in de as gelegd door ordinaire rovers maar door mannen met een missie. Politieke terroristen zou men hen vandaag noemen.

Nee, Op De Beeck. "Franse ooggetuigen vertelden later hoe Russische commando's met fakkels de huizen in lichterlaaie zetten". Spreek jezelf niet tegen in 2 zinnen vlak na elkaar.

Het eeuwige type van de puberale ontevredene moest trouwen met de pipi langkous van de Habsburgers.

"I have to assume you want to keep this quiet. A dozen American warships and a swarm of aircraft surrounding the Galápagos Islands might be tipping your hand. The tortoises might think we're invading."

Orwell's description of the proles is the least persuasive element of 1974,it is hardly credible that a regime obsessed with absolute control would allow 85% of the population to lie beyond the reach of the Tought Police & telescreens, not that the proles would be immune to doublethink. You can't have totalitarianism without the masses. The world of the proles is a caricature of capitalism rather like [Huxley]

WW2 May have been responsible for the death of more people than any conflict in history, yet dead bodies of the right sort wrre surprisingly hard to find. People tended to be killed or to kill themselves in all the wrong ways.. The plan called for a fresh male body of military age with no obvious injuries or infirmities & cooperative next of kin who wouldn't object when the corpse of their loved one was whisked away.

If the Austrians held onto Schweidnitz over the winter they could make their winter quarters in Silesia for the first time in the war, and this fundamentally altered the strategic balance.

The crux of the matter: Neither Austria Britain nor Russia could imagine a honorable peace without territorial gain. France couldn't without recovering virtually all her losses. Frederick of Prussian despite the crushing defeats of 1759 & dismal prospects if the war continued still tought of restoration of status quo as a worst case scenario.

All the partners of the 1758 grand coalition became increasingly disenchanted with each other as the war progressed. Despite the best efforts of the monarchs involved, the allied war effort was never well coordinated and this proved to be one of the principal reasons why a more immediate defeat of Prussia eluded them.

But not only were Frederick's finances & troop strength in good order, his strategic position was better than it had been (in 1757) the French didn't pose anywhere the danger they had in the previous year, the Russians could be counted upon to slow in mounting an effective campaign & the Swedes were more nuisance than threat. The Austrians remained his most formidable enemy. If he could succeed in knocking them out..

To be sure to some extent Ashurnasirpal's grievances may have been clichés. Mesopotamian appeals to the gods often followed the unspoken rule that only the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

The energy released in a slow neutron reaction would heat up the uranium, possibly melting or even evaporating it long before it could explode. As the uranium heated up, more and more neutrons would escape the surface and eventually the chain reaction would grind to a halt.

What if?... A fast-neutron chain reaction in pure U-235. Insofar as the atomic bomb ever had a secret, Frish had just found it.

The Soviets at Kursk thus found themselves in the same position relative to the new German panzers as did the Allies in Normandy a year later with their 75mm armed M4 Sherman tank.

For 150 years the Islamic middle East had been too divided to unite in the face of the inexplicable irruption of the Franks. . The Ayyubids might've talked of jihad but it was theoretical rather than practical; the material benefits of long-distance trade with Europe had overriden any unified call to holy war. Rather the Crusader states had largely been absorbed into the pattern of alliances & conciliations in Syria.

Among the litany of oversights and falsehoods that underscored the German conception of Operation Barbarossa, the OKH's fixation with Moscow is perhaps the most conspicuous for the fact that is was simply an unattainable goal within the prevailing time frame.

One of the consequences of the Fall of Malaya was the complete cessation of supplies of quinine, which had been produced there. The only prophylactics (in Assam and Burma) were the mosquito net and a Kenyan pyrethrum based spray.

There were also men in the static divisions who had previously suffered mental problems as a result of being in combat, especially on the Eastern Front. My own cousin was such an example, he suffered a mental collapse after Kharkov. In the earlier part of the war such men would have been treated harshly for their symptoms, but by 1944 we were so short of manpower he was transferred to the Atlantikwall instead

If anything the Chechen operation was crueller still. Many observers remember that the NKVD used American made Studebakers, recently purchased through the Lend Lease Program and shipped over the border from Iran.

CONTRADICTORY VERDICT

[The mine at Petersburg] proved useless, became a death trap to its creators, yet.[..] To mine fortified works which cannot be breached or scaled has long been a common expedient in siege operations, but to attack an earthwork by such a method has never before been attempted & its ill success on this occasion will probably prevent its being quickly again essayed.

He was able to swing entirely around him & plant himself firmly across the path at Spottsylvania Court House, completely reversing the position of the two armies and bringing Richmond again under the wing of its ever watchful protector.

".Somewhat warmed by the heated comments showered upon us by the irate brigadier. His chief complaint was about the horses. But It's impossible to get the appearance customary in England.. The rebuke will filter down through the regiment, everyone damning the next person junior to him, so in the end the village cat will certainly get it in the neck as being entirely responsible for this deplorable state of affairs. "

They came from all directions. Some crawling, others limping on muskets.. Further there were the remains of blown-up ammunition waggons & powder carts. A multitude of half roasted gunners who were giving off an unpleasant smell of burning.. Around the whole battlefield ran wounded horses, with their intestines dragging along the ground or hopping about on three legs. (Prittwitz 2 days after Zorndorf, 27 August 1758)

"three things are necessary for making war: money, money and yet more money."
Frederik's most remarkable achievement as a wager of war was not so much surviving the struggle against most of Europe, with its immensely superior resources, as in emerging from the ordeal with a financial profit.