Truck You

Or Me, Or, Indeed - The Other
For Yeah!  We are back onto the subject matter of logistics, which happens to be one of those weak points of that otherwise mighty state*, the Third Reich.  I forget where I read it, but one historical analyst did point out that Herr Schickelgruber et al relied upon railways to support and supply their armed forces.  This is fine and dandy, until the enemy's air forces <HELLO ROYAL AIR FORCE!> come along and destroy your rail network, and the locomotives that work upon it.
     Ooops, you might say.

This kinda thing

     Or, as in the trackless wastes of the Sinister Union or the baking desserts - NO! only joking, couldn't resist - baking deserts of North Africa, where there wasn't any rail network to begin with. 
     In such a situation the burden of supplying your army fell upon the humble truck, which is where the Wehrmacht immediately got into problems.  Because Herr Schickelgruber was fascinated by things that went BANG, he ignored or neglected things that went BRUMMM, meaning that the Teutons were always chronically short of motor transport.  They tried to get around this by using trucks stolen taken borrowed from conquered nations, which kind of ignored the problem and created anti-solutions of it's own.

Thus.  French truck with puny human for scale

     Because, Vulnavia, they then had to stock and transport and maintain a whole lot of new spare parts and train technicians in their use and - a whole new level of bother, don't you know?
     Now we come to the meat of the matter, which is "Snow And Steel", that work by Peter Caddick-Adams (not Roger, sorry) which is unusual in that it does refer to logistics.  Since matey was an officer in the British Army he seems to know what he's talking about.  On page 401 he states "It is the sheer quantity of military material, moved by the unseen logistical heroes, which makes victory in modern war possible".  Here he is talking about the South Canadian response to the Teuton attack in the Ardennes, which immediately resulted in 11,000 trucks shifting people and stuff to the theatre.  That's the kind of logistical support that does, indeed, win battles.  Those 11,000 were then followed by another 37,000 other trucks.  Art?

Upon such humble stuff ...

     It's doubtful as to whether the Wehrmacht had as many as 11,000 trucks ever.  48,000?  Their generals could only dream of that kind of transport, with their tongues hanging out.  Oh, and don't forget that the South Canadians were also putting the Sinister's Red Army on wheels, though once again the Sinisters will ignore or deny this or drink poison rather than admit it.

"Look away, Vanya, look away!  Don't contaminate your eyeballs!"

     Since it looks like rain, motley, here's an umbrella and a pair of galoshes.
"Hubbub" No, this word didn't pop up into my mind yesterday, it cropped up as a result of checking on the origins of "Brouhaha", which was self-referentially described as a bit of a tumult or a hubbub.      There is no concrete and defined origin for 'Hubbub', though both Brewers and teh interwebz think it to be Irish in origin.  Brewers thinks it comes from "Hoobboobes", which sounds much to rude to follow, whilst the internet thinks it may come from an Irish battle cry of "Ababu".

Hmmm.

     Conrad is unsure about that derivation.  It doesn't sound very martial, in my opinion, which is the one that counts.  Can you imagine a horde of ferocious Irishmen clad in plaid, foaming at the mouth, brandishing swords and shouting about very small children? **

"Come to diddums!"

Just To Keep You Up To Speed -
You might not know it, but the Toddbrook Reservoir dam has now been declared "stable", which is an improvement, but it still isn't safe and there is a very real risk of it collapsing, in which case goodbye Whaley Bridge, and those bafoons loitering therein will have seconds to get clear.  Art?

Toddbrook.  More a lake than a brook, one feels.

     I ought to point out that the water swept away 500 tons of overburden with absolutely no trouble whatsoever and that was with relatively low levels of water, so you can imagine what damage would result if the dam did burst and hundreds of tons of the wet stuff came rushing forth.  "I'll be okay, I'll be in the upstairs be -" makes for a rather soggy epitaph.

Whee Doggy
Which makes no sense and has absolutely no connection with what I wanted to talk about,
that being Public Service Broadcasting, musicians extraordinaire.  I did read one critic being nasty about "In Every Valley" but they'd probably sat on a tack and were having a bad hair day; it's the only explanation that makes sense.
     Anyway, the mighty PSB were performing at The Proms, doing stuff from "The Race For Space", in celebration of Apollo's 50th anniversary.  Art?

Wigglesworth, beating seven shades of shinola out of his kit

     Practical chap, Wigglesworth; he built the studio they recorded IEV in.

      There will now be a short pause as Your Modest Artisan goes off to heat up a pitta bread, prefatory to guzzling his lunch.

Well, I was going to go back over that wartime pamphlet, which would probably over-balance today's content in favour of martial ardour, so you've escaped that fate today.  Tomorrow is quite another matter, though.

I don't think this is real, but it is impressive, and I couldn't let you go without at least a little bit of TANK

Finally -
Your Humble Scribe went and ate that jar of "Goose and Cabbage" that Darling Daughter got me for Father's Day, though I did the cowardly thing and heated it up in the microwave before eating it.
     I'm typing this at work, so I can't load up the pictures I took of it, at least for the moment, but believe me you are going to experience Polish cuisine at close range.  O yes indeed.  Art?
           





*  They wish!
**  I can but then I am special <and we know just how "special" and in which way, don't we readers? - ghastly veracity courtesy Mister Hand> .