Still Complicated

 That's European History For You

Plus I cannot remove the extra line breaks that Blogger keeps adding in.  O the misery!

      Anyway, I wanted to address that thorny matter, the Thirty Years War, which as I said yesterday, was complicated.  Take a look at the participants: Bavaria, Bohemia, Brandenburg, Denmark, the Dutch, England, France, Hesse-Kassel, the Holy Roman Empire, the Palatinate, the Papal State, Poland, Russia, Saxony, Savoy, Spain, Sweden and Transylvania.  

Transylvania: a real place

     Not all of these countries were fighting at the same time, just to make things confusing.  You also get unintended consequences, caused by the exhaustion of some parties.  For once instance, the Thirty Years War ended the Eighty Years War - do keep up! which had begun as the Revolt of the Spanish Netherlands - and Spain had to accept Dutch independence.

The Dutch are revolting!  The Dutch are revolting!

     Spain also had to recognise an independent Portugal, so they were probably rather unhappy with how things turned out.

     Incidentally, the whole thing started in Bohemia, where those rascals the Czechs (as they would become) carried out the Defenestration of Prague, which you may have heard of previously, as in 1618 they threw the Holy Roman Emperor's representatives out of a window.  This was symbolic as well as painful, rejecting Ol' Emp's authority.

"Happy landings!"

     Hmmmm and we've not mentioned any battles yet, either.  O well, that will come, assuredly.

     Motley, we need a bit of a breeze in this stultifying heat.  Nip upstairs and open a window, will you?

About Tomorrow ...

Your Humble Scribe is back in the office next week, as my Still Coyly Anonymous employer is upping the number of staff physically working in the Dark Tower.  There is a one-way system in effect on Floor Seventeen, everything's been coated in a protective surface and we shall have to queue for the kitchen.  Art?

The only way in or out

     This above is a bit of a bind, since Conrad normally entered via the other entrance on the other side of the Arndale, and now has to walk all the way round.  We have been warned not to expect to turn up five minutes before work and get in on time, because there are going to be queues, and only two people in a lift at any one time.

     This will be my first time in Manchester since mid-March and it will be interesting to see how Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell has changed (if it has at all).  It also means having to walk dangerously close to Waterstones bookshop and Travelling Man, the comic shop, but I will be strong*.

     The attendance next week is because Conrad chose the week-in week-at-home model of working, as this means more efficient use of my electronic bus pass.  Pondering on that, I've saved over £300 in bus pass fares - and you know Conrad MORE MONEY FOR BOOKS! <ahem>**

     Finally on this subject, which is of interest because it concerns ME ME ME, I feel like baking a cake to take in for my compatriots.  Blueberry loaf?

Dark Tower doorway

From Blueberry To Mulberry

Ha!  Do you see what - O you do.  Yes, today I want to talk about Port Winston, in connection with D-Day and Ol' Pete (Professor Peter Caddick-Adams if we're being formal).  

     In case you're not up on your amphibious-invasion planning, one of the things you need to capture at the earliest possible opportunity is a functional port, since modern warfare requires enormous amounts of supplies to sustain it.  Thus the Teutons expected an attack on French coastal ports and had them very strongly defended.  Art?

A rather battered port of Cherbourg

     This is where Allied lateral thinking, not to mention resources and industry, comes in.  They would bring their own modular ports with them, assemble them off the Normandy coast and use them until they captured a major port.  These were "Mulberries" A and B.  Art?

Mulberry B

     Mulberry A was destroyed in the storm of 19/06/44 and not reassembled; Mulberry B went on to <pinches stats from "Sand And Steel"> land 40% of all British (and Canuckistanian) supplies there till 31/08/44.  By late October, when Cherbourg was in operation, it had landed 25% of all supplies, 20% of all personnel and 15% of all vehicles.  It could manage between 6,000 tons and 10,000 tons daily.

     One presumes the Teutons got occasional reconnaissance photos of Port Winston (they had a jet bomber able to do photo-reconnaissance), and their collective jaws must have dropped when they realised what the Allies had done***.

Catmouflage

NO THAT IS NOT A TYPO IT IS A WITTY PUN A WITTY PUN I TELL YOU. 

     <exhales>

     As you may be aware, our Cyborg Sentry Jenny, also known as a "cat", simply lives to escape from the kitchen where we so cruelly imprison her.  It is not uncommon  for the door to my Sekrit Layr to be gently pushed open, at which point I know it's Jenny, as Edna Wunderhund barges it open like a bulldozer.

     Yesterday she took partial refuge beneath the bed, because that way neither Edna nor interfering humans can get hold of her.  Art?

     She had, of course - obviously! - neglected to take into account Conrad's enormous feet and utter clumsiness, for her tail was trodden upon (sheer accident I assure you) and she recoiled completely under the furniture.

Finally -

Darling Daughter did warn me that she'd sent a birthday present, rather early, as it's not until 17/08/2020, when I will hit the dizzy heights of 59.  Just think, next year I'll be 60 and shall have to start behaving sensibly <sad face>.  Art?

          It had a big dent in the cardboard, thank you so much Royal Mail.  I have resisted opening it so far.  If, when I do, it's broken, then there will be repercussions.

     And with that we are done!  So very done!

*  Perhaps

**  Not looking forward to a 06:00 rising to get in for 08:00

***  Take that, Max!