Oh Goody!

Further Proof, Were It Needed - 
That Your Humble Scribe is a terrible person.  I did contemplate posting earlier today about how lacklustre the BBC's sports pages are now that the ballfoot season is over, and there are no frothing insanities of rage and venom appearing in Have Your Say.
     But wait!  What's this?  Why, something about ballfoot, by someone called Ronney - or it could have been Roony, I wasn't paying attention - and clearly some feathers have been ruffled, as there are over 400 comments already.  Tee Hee!  I shall come back to it later, as I'm busy baking at present.  The Moist Orange and Almond cake has gone in the oven already, whilst I wait for the dried fruit to soak in tea for the Irish Whisky Cake.

Two birds, one bullet.*

     Whisper who dares, the bottle of whisky I got from the Co-Op this afternoon is - as the spelling may have tipped you off already - Scottish, not Irish.  Well, what the heck, they're all Celts of one variety or another.
     
     <there was a long pause there, gentle readers.  I'm afraid I succumbed to temptation and - well, I went reading the ballfoot HYS.  I know you'll forgive me>

     Okay, motley, here's a baby bear cub for you to cherish and cuddle, excuse me whilst I get in the car again and leave you behind.  That roaring and smashing noise in the forest, coming closer and closer?  That'll be Junior's mother.  See you!


Guess What Happened Next?
No!  This is not one of those dire clickbaity Facebook posts where they add in "Number Six will shock you!" in a desperate attempt to convince you that their spammy drivel is actually interesting.

Patrick Mcgoohan is not amused.

     What I refer to is - what happened after D-Day went off successfully?  By now you ought to be aware of what happened on 6th June 1944.  What about D+1?  D+2?  and so on.
     I thought you'd never ask!
     Let us view things from the perspective of a loyal yet dim Nazi.  For years he's been told "The Allies will never manage to cross the Channel!", or "If they do cross the Channel they'll never manage to land successfully" or "Even if they do land successfully, they'll never manage to create a bridgehead" and finally "Okay, okay, we're preparing to drive them into the sea.  You wait and see.  Any day now.  Annnnnny day now."

Thank you British American website.

     In fact this last boast was underpinned by solid fact.  Could the Teutons build up their forces opposite the bridgehead faster than the Allies, allowing them to mount counter-attacks that would, indeed, push the Allies into the sea?  This really was the crux of the Normandy campaign.
     The book would normally tend to favour the defender here, since they were operating on what military anoraks call "interior lines of communication", meaning that they ought to have been able to send reinforcements to the threatened area faster than the Allies.  
     "Ought".  Ah, what a weight lies behind that word!
     Let's look at some of the reasons why "Ought" failed miserably.  Art?
                           
                              Giant flying mallet                                 Smaller flying mallet
     The Teuton position in Normandy was rather like a fortress without a roof.  The Allies had total control of the skies, with hundreds of aircraft stooging around, looking for something to strafe, quite beside the on-call squadrons who got informed about juicy targets loitering on the ground.  This meant the only safe time to move was at night, and since we are talking high summer here, that's only eight hours at best, so the Wehrmacht's strategic movement opportunity was instantly cut to one-third of it's potential.

Multiple flying mallets

     Nor was movement at night entirely safe, either, since Perfidious Albion's treacherous fliers would bomb crossroads and other choke points last thing in daylight, knowing that a great big traffic jam would result after darkness fell and all the traffic started up again.  They would come back in the small hours, dropping flares that illuminated said choke points, and bomb the living daylights out of the hapless Teuton traffic jammers.
     Then also we have to consider the Allies relentless air attacks on said choke points in daylight across Normandy; bridges, tunnels, marshalling yards, crossroads, cuttings, ammunition and fuel dumps, headquarters, anywhere that might inconvenience the opposition.

Ooops.

     To put this in perspective with an example, the 2nd SS Panzer Corps was at Chernopol in the Ukraine when Overlord struck.  They were ordered to make their way post haste to Normandy in order to mount a counter-attack.  Well and good, giving an order: it took them longer to travel from the French border to Normandy than crossing the entirety of Europe, because of all the traffic hang-ups and delays imposed by Allied control of the air.
     There you go, that's one reason "Ought" shrivelled up and died.  I think we'll come back to this theme, it's a winner!

Mallets, malleting.

     That's the Orange and Almond Cake out of the oven.  As it is gluten-free, I shall have to leave a tithe with Wonder Wifey in order to get the rest out of the house.  There is a Bake-Sale at work tomorrow, you see, and Your Humble Scribe hasn't baked in a while, so this is good practice.  I couldn't find the Rich Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake recipe I was really looking for, though, so the Irish/Scottish Fruit Cake will have to substitute.
     I know you were expecting a photograph - I left my camera in the kitchen.  Sorry about that.  I know you'll forgive me.

Here's some rhododendrons instead.

Finally - 
I finished binge-watching Season 4 of "Justified" last night.  We finally discovered who Drew Thompson really was, a case of hiding in plain sight, and Raylan and his ex-wife who is now pregnant with his baby - it's complicated, trust me - were threatened by hired killers, forcing him to -
     There hasn't been a drug of choice for this particular season, unless you count $$$ as a drug, which is pretty fair social commentary.  Patton Oswalt has been an absolute rock as the district constable; you underestimate Bob at your peril!

CAUTION!  Also handy with a knife

*  Updated for the 21st Century.  And you''re welcome.