A Bit Of A Ruck - About Tobruk

Get Ready For A Dose Of Frothing Nitric Ire*!
 It doesn't take much, does it?  Your humble scribe can stoically withstand most of the slings and arrows that Fortune throws at him, bar the bus not turning up or the office IT dying on it's arse, yet one thing that is guaranteed to send him into a splenetic rage is people expounding drivel on subject matter dear to him.
     So it is with the siege of Tobruk, part of the Desert War in North Africa, and a subject that your humble scribe could bore for Planet Earth on, let alone England.  Some background first: Tobruk is a port on the Mediterranean coast of Libya, where were located Australian and British troops.  They formed the initial garrison when the Axis forces forced the Western Desert Force back across Libya and into Egypt.
     So.  Your modest artisan had recovered a DVD entitled "The Desert Rats".  Art?

Rats with guns

     What is this drivel on the back?  " - the fortress of Tobruk, which is manned only by a small Australian battalion."
     At this point I have to breath into a paper bag to avoid unconsciousness through apoplectic rage.  LIES!  ALL LIES!
     "Blimey, the old fart's really risking a heart-attack tonight, hope he's got some digitalis to hand," I hear you comment, and I bet you only knew about digitalis because of this afternoon's post.
     The Tobruk position was held by an entire Australian division, the 9th, composed of 9 battalions, backed up with British tank squadrons, artillery regiments, anti-aircraft guns and anti-tank units.  About 24,000 men, in other words.
     What else is this?  " - hopelessly outnumbered."  MORE LIES!  FILTHY LIES**!  The Axis forces at their height numbered about 36,000 men, which had to be spread across the entire length of the garrison's defences.  Convention has it that one needs a 3:1 advantage to mount a successful attack, so the "outnumbered" is wrong, again.

"I'm glad we're dug in.  Conrad's not taking any prisoners tonight."

     Next in the gunsight is "7 Of The Deadliest Sieges Of WW2", and they focus on Tobruk, except they get it wrong, again.  I'm not going to provide a link to their webpage as they do NOT deserve it -

<short pause to allow throbbing vein on Conrad's forehead to calm a little>

     - so here is their puling nonsense:

With no method of bringing supplies into the camp, the Allies gradually began to run out of food and water

     Oh really?  Oh no wait a minute that's utter nonsense!  Remember that point about Tobruk being a port?  The Royal Navy and Merchant Navy lost over 30 vessels running supplies, weapons and replacements into Tobruk during the siege, whilst evacuating the wounded and prisoners.  Water wasn't an issue since the RN had installed desalination and distillation plant in the port***.

A Desert Rat (not a Killer Kangaroo)

     Now that I've flayed the offending parties into weeping submission, we can proceed with  matters a little less martial.

"Thunder In Paradise"
Due to being restricted to devoted dogsitting duties for a couple of weeks, your talented typist was sat on the couch watching a lot of television, and has to say that to a diligent dogsitter, being responsible for Edna was pretty close to being tagged for a minor offence by the local magistrate's court.
     Which has nothing to do with the rest of this post.  Typical, eh?
     The title of this item refers to adverts for this programme on the television and as a series it seems to derive from a 1994 film of the same name.  Art?

They made 3 of these things?

The titular "Thunder" is a <ahem> hi-tec speedboat.  Hi-tec on a low budget, one has to say.  I believe most of the budget ($18.67) went on the boat, and since the producers wanted to get their money's-worth, we get the television series.  Which is also cursed by Flamepot, the cheap explosion effect of all $18.67 films.  Conrad also presumes there will be a lot of young ladies in bikinis wiggling and jiggling, because that always comes with programmes set in sunny climes on the beach.
     The other co-star was Chris Lemmon, who - I'm not sure how this works - claimed that casting directors no longer called him after this series.  Perhaps because it was a bit rubbish, Chris.
     Also, it's from 1994.  Why do they try to ply?

Finally
The subject of spite houses is heavily biased toward South Canadians, so it's a refreshing change to feature one from the Allotment of Eden.  Picture the scene:  an exclusive, very very expensive neighbourhood in the snooty, snobby district of Kensington in London. 
     Then there's this:

Then there's this -

     A bit of a - well, no, a LOT of an eye-opener.  Neighbours objected to the owner's plans for a rebuild, and they probably have to walk past wearing sunglasses whilst muttering about their frothing nitric ire.  Hopefully they have some digitalis to hand ...



*  I haven't used this expression for a while so it's nice to see it back.
** I'm quite enjoying this cathartic release of envenomed bitterness.
*** They blew it up before Rommel captured it in summer 1942, making him lose his temper.