Waging Warfare

Apologies To All Of Those Who Are Squeamish
But then, ought you to be reading a blog that regularly features featured zombies the walking dead and atom bombs foofoodillies?  
     Well, I have to continue the Charm Offensive, for the time being at least.  This is because of snow.  I realise there is no logical connection between these two so I shall have to elaborate.  Firstly, the evidence:

There they are, the sinister swines

     There's the snow and the two now permanently-parked Anonymous White Vans.  Apparently the Czechs have now joined in, thanks to their expertise in winter warfare, so in addition to MI5, UNIT, the FSB, the CIA, GSG, GROM and the Deuxieme Bureau, I now have Vojenske Zpravodajstvi eavesdropping and probably practicing Close Quarter Battle on the roof when we in the Mansion are asleep.  Great.  The Czechs are what you'd get if you crossed the Russians with the Germans; Teutonic efficiency and an ability to drink vodka till it came out of your ears, and still dance.
     So -  Gaily gambolling guinea-pigs!  Gaily gambolling guinea-pigs!  Nothing horrid or controversial present on this blog! Uprimny*!

"The History Of The Pelopponesian War" By Thucydides
Ah yes, and here old Thuck is describing the career of Demosthenes, an Athenian general whose name means "Vigour of the People", in case you wondered.  Dem, to be familiar, got roundly and soundly defeated by the Aetolians when he tried to invade their territory, although only half of this was his own fault, as his native advisers were utterly wrong in their advice.  He didn't dare go home to Athens after this, as getting the blame for such a defeat might mean exile or getting executed or tortured to death; they could be pretty vindictive, those Athenians.

I looked up "ancient Greek torture"
So you get this instead. Hungry handheld hamster!  Hungry handheld hamster!

<excuse your gifted author as he is off to make a 3rd pot of tea for today and perhaps a swig of lemonade, too, as being creative is thirsty work>

Back again!
     Dem redeemed himself with a tremendous victory over the Pelopponesians at Metropolis, described by Thuck as one of the most severe defeats suffered by any city during the whole war.  He was then put in charge of a fleet that was forced to put in at Pylos, in Sparta, by storms at sea.  Without tools, engineers or sufficient troops, he undertook to build a fortress at this "desolate headland", after the other leaders of the fleet mocked him and declined to help.
     The Spartans took the threat at Pylos extremely seriously and instantly withdrew from Attica (homeland of Athens) where they had been having their annual Hooligan Holiday, laying waste the land.  So Dem knew a thing or two.
     More to come on this topic, oh yes indeed!

Showing where the attic is

"Bomber Offensive" By Sir Arthur Harris
A very diverting read, by the Commander In Chief of the RAF during the Second Unpleasantness's mid to end.  Interesting in the technical details of navigation, and how important weather was in planning or carrying out attacks on Germany, not to mention how puny the RAF was up until late 1942.  Sir Arthur frankly overstates the importance of the heavy bomber during wartime, and is not slow at mocking adherents of the battleship.  In fact he directs many venomous yet droll barbs against (in no particular order) the War Cabinet, RAF commanders senior to himself, the civil service, civil servants, little tin gods in all three services and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Nazi Germany.  He asserts that the Germans did not make small mistakes in the course of the Second Unpleasantness, instead going for great big enormous ones.  Invading Russia, anyone?

"Bombing-up" a Lancaster

     His post-script is rather surprising, too.  After lauding the heavy bomber for the whole book, he then describes it as obsolete thanks to the atom b - foofoodilly and the missile, which is quite prescient.  A bit premature, perhaps, given that we still have the B52 with us, but perceptive all the same.  He also, even more worryingly, postulates nuclear war by terror - and recall that this is 1947, only three years after Trinity - where a hostile power smuggles in the components for an atomic foofoodilly piece by piece, until they have assembled a weapon sufficient to destroy the city it's present in.
     Makes you think ...

Can't possibly have a picture of an atomic foofoodilly here, so -
Slowly sauntering squirrel! Slowly sauntering squirrel!

More Of War
Gaming, that is.  Allow me to present one of the archetypal English gentlemen, an actor much missed:

Peter Cushing, miniature-pushing

     Here is a quote from "Horror Express", which tickled me pink then and now:

Inspector Mirov: The two of you together. That's fine. But what if one of you is the monster?

Dr. Wells: Monster? We're British, you know.

    Okay, archetypal British gentleman.

Oh wow I am now a-swill with tea.  Bet I have weird dreams tonight ...

* "Honest" in Czech.