- that obscure cult series from the Sixties. You're thinking of the episode "All Our Yesterdays", which is not to be confused with either Shakespeare "And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death", from The Scottish Play, nor the television series "All Our Yesterdays" which was a newsreel archive compilation.
Where was I?
Oh, yes: All Our Yesterdays. In which our heroes (Kirk, Spock and McCoy) find themselves on the planet Sarpeidon, which is about to go pop! thanks to it's sun going supernova. There, in a vast library (suggested rather than displayed, Star Trek not having that big a budget) they encounter - Mister Atoz. Art?
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| Do you get it? |
Now, Conrad is ever the pedantic hair-splitter*, so he wonders if the Federation regards it as good practice for the Captain, senior science officer and primary medical officer to all beam down without sending a few scouts first. Onto a planet about to go pow! thanks to a supernova, with mere hours to go? What do you think the utterly expendable redshirts are for?
| He also packs a ferocious left hook |
I thought you'd never ask! It's a book, one I've just finished reading: "From Alamein To Zem Zem" by Keith Douglas. KD was a noted war poet of the Second Unpleasantness, killed in action during the invasion of Normandy in 1944. Here's a Wiki link for you:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Douglas
If you have any knowledge of the Second Unpleasantness then you are aware that both Alamein and Zem Zem are locations in North Africa, so - not really a spoiler - KD survived the campaigns there.
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| Well done that artist! |
You might not expect a poet to be martial or courageous but KD was both; he deserted his dull, safe role well behind the lines and, illegally, went to join a tank regiment just after the battle of El Alamein had ended. His descriptions of action are tactically astute; his regiment were used as a screen for the heavier regiments of Shermans and Grants, endeavouring to nosey around at point and see what was what.
One point he makes implicitly is of the Allied pursuit of Rommel's defeated army. In most descriptions of this, one is given the impression that the Germans leisurely turned to fend their enemy off, dealt out a few hard knocks and then retreated again at their own pace. KD makes it plain that these rearguards always suffered losses, especially if the Allied artillery spotters knew their stuff, and would hastily scurry off once shells started landing.
I shall probably come back to this.
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| "nooooo!" |
Meanwhile, Back In Tcherbevan ...
Here's the rest of the scenario I wrote up as a suggestion for Richard and his Crisis Point wargame weekend.
Why did the satellite crash so far off-course? Because it hit a secret Russian Antonov
freight plane on an undeclared course.
This plane is one of the “Operation Logging Train” secret non-military
support flights being sent to support the Assad regime in Syria, on randomised
schedules to prevent potential interception.
The crew only had time to report a single “Mayday” before going off-air.
Moscow doesn’t want it known, but the plane was carrying £250 millions
worth of official Syrian government notes, in addition to bulk supplies of gold
bullion and platinum bars. Normally
crewed by the bare minimum of 3, this flight also had a courier carrying an
armoured briefcase. It is not known if
any of the crew or the courier survived the crash.
Moscow wants back that briefcase, more so than the money and
bullion. Unfortunately, thanks to the
randomised schedule they don’t know where the plane went down. The crew and courier are number five on a
list of six in order of importance to be recovered.
It is worth mentioning that the Chinese government has a small team of
cultural attaches present in Tcherbevan, as part of the Cross-Continent
Cultural Convention being held at theMinistry of culture. Well, “small” if you count three attaches and
fifteen bodyguards as small.
Also surprisingly quick on the scene are a group of Americans
Canadians from – they say- Associated
Unidentified Flying Object Liaison (AUFOL), although rather than looking
pale-faced and geeky, these chaps have the hundred-metre stare down pat.
So!
That memory module, or the KH11 are worth big money. The big money in the crashed plane would also
turn whichever non-government faction that found it into a major player, and
doubtless NATO would also be interested in knowing what’s in that briefcase
that merits more attention than several billion roubles worth of bullion. If they found the crew, either alive or dead,
it would also be a propaganda coup: “Heroic NATO special forces i) nobly bury
their Russian comrades or ii) nobly
rescue their Russian comrades”
Thus you have the opportunity to mix
in all the usual Andreivian suspects: Government police, Army, Turkish Militia,
Armenian Militia; then to add Chinese spies, American Canadian spies,
Russian Spetnaz, Delta Force, plus the Hungarian Military Police Formation
Dancing Team (the Magyar contribution to the CCCC).
I don't know if anything like "Operation Logging Train" actually exists in real life, and wouldn't be surprised, except this is trespassing close to both Current Affairs and Politics and we can't have that!
| Downtown Tcherbevan, State Television building rising above all |
I was going to put up an item about Finnish light machine guns, except I think we've had enough military stuff for one day. Instead we shall have the -
Hang Drum
As mentioned by Sophie at work - yes, this Sophie. I'd mentioned the Ondes Martenot to her and she told me about this instrument by way of enlightenment:
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| Yes, I know, not very "drum-my" |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk3BvNLeNgw
Music. Soothing the savage breast since 10,000 BC
* Which he feels is one of his finer qualities
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