I Did Ponder What This Intro Was Going To Be About
During my Thinking Time with Edna this morning I pondered whilst wandering, or perhaps wondered during pandering, and was going over thermonuclear warhead design. This is perhaps too much of a niche area to truly appeal to readers, however just typing it out gives me carte blanche to use an impressive explosion. Art!
Smoke trails for measurement purposes
O for the carefree days of above-ground nuclear testing, when you could generate really impressive explosions.
ANYWAY I then recalled that yesteryon we'd done an analysis of why South Canada came late to the First Unpleasantness, with mention that we might well look at why they were late to the Second Unpleasantness, too. So that's what we'll do.
A little background first. The Second Unpleasantness began when the Teutons invaded Poland in September 1939, which immediately brought Britain and France into the war against Germany. A couple of weeks later the Sinisters also invaded Poland in concert with their best mate Herr Schickelgruber. They hated to be reminded of this after the war and would lie and change the subject whenever possible t
ANYWAY there was very little stomach in South Canada for getting involved in an inter-European squabble. Art!
The above committee was the most prominent isolationist group, bedevilled throughout it's existence by pro-fascist and anti-Semitic leaders and speakers. The Teutons themselves financed pro-German organisations like the German-American Bund.
Politically, the South Canadians had passed several Neutrality Acts, which sought to distance themselves from any conflict in Europe, actual or potential. Yes yes yes, I mentioned 'Politics' but this is historical so it's okay. They were partially repealed in the later Thirties, allowing Britain and France to buy weapons and munitions - as long as they paid cash and used their own shipping. Gotta love a dollar!
Roosevelt, canny chap that he was, foresaw that South Canada was going to get embroiled in war, willingly or not, and that the nation needed to get ready for conflict. He had a Sisyphusian task to manage this.
Here an aside. Hey, I waited! Roosevelt was advised on how Perfidious Albion was doing in North Africa and the Middle East by his liaison officer, Colonel Bonner Fellers, who arrived there in 1940. Art!
There was a slight problem with this appointment, since Fellers hated the British with an incandescent passion and he never overlooked an opportunity to put them down: so why ould Roosevelt back the side that were losing? Fellers and Admiral King would have gotten on splendidly.
So there was, to put it mildly, considerable reluctance on behalf of the South Canadian public to forces with Britain and France, especially when it became just Britain, and it looked like a Teuton invasion was going to take place. That never came to pass. Meanwhile, the South Canadian navy was getting more and more belligerent with Teuton attempts to strangle shipping to Britain -
And then this. Art!
December 7th 1941: Pearl Harbour
All of a sudden the decision had been made for them and they were at war. At least with Japan. Roosevelt's government would have had to perform some exceedingly fancy footwork to also declare war on -
Ooops. Hitler declared war against the South Canadians on 11th December 1941. Quite why he did this has never been adequately explained, because it made absolutely no sense. The Teutons were already at war with the world's biggest empire and the world's largest army, and now they were taking on the world's biggest economy?
Let that fine wordsmith Winston Churchill have the last word: "No American will think it wrong of me if I proclaim that to have the United States on our side was to me the greatest joy. I could not foretell the course of events. I do not pretend to have measured accurately the martial might of Japan, but now at this very moment I knew the United States was in the war, up to the neck and in to the death. So we had won after all!”
Dated 8th December 1941, and yes, I copied another answer of mine from Quora*.
"Hotel Del Luna"
Well, this splendidly entertaining series has come to an end. The hotel has been emptied of it's ghost guests; Kim, Choe and Hyeung have all moved on to the afterlife and Jang and Gu have inevitably ended up as romantic partners. In fact Hotel Del Luna has closed it's doors for good and in it's place is the "Blue Moon Hotel". Art!
The series was made in 2019 and was a huge success in Korea, becoming one of the most successful streamed shows ever. Conrad is gratified that it's not been followed by a sequel, since it doesn't need one. Also that we've not had an inferior Westernised version**.
Conrad now has to find another Korean genre series to watch. There's no shortage of them, the Sorks put out an enormous amount of television drama.
"The Sea Of Sand"
Sarah J. Smith and the few surviving British soldiers of the Mersa Martuba garrison are now prisoners of the Italians, who are now beginning to realise that something is extremely rotten in the state of Denmark.
Then, as if all this was not enough, one of the scouts sent word to him that there was a strange light in the sky off to the south-east. The Tenente left his scout car with bad grace, cursing a look-out who didn't know one desert phenomena from another. He needed to climb a ladder that led to the upper reaches of one of the mud huts that gave this dismal place it's name. Once up there the silent sentry pointed out over the desert.
Many kilometres away, in the unlit, unoccupied depths of the desert, a pale light shone into the sky. Pearly, diffuse and unvarying in intensity, it had the quality of a city's lights seen after dark.
"There's no town out there, is there, sir?" asked the worried sentry.
Dominione paused before answering.
"Of course not! Merely a trick of the light. A mirage or static discharge."
He hoped that his voice didn't mirror the alarm and confusion he felt.
Damn! That madwoman Smith claimed the killer infernal devices came from the direction of those lights. She simply could not be right.
Feeling only slightly foolish, the Tenente gave orders for three of the big desert cars to patrol around Mersa Martuba. His orders were to maintain strict radio silence at all times; under no circumstances was he to call Tenth Army HQ, unless he came across General Wavell and captured him! A reconnaissance flight would confirm that the Camionistas had taken the site by noon the next day.
Somebody's getting twitchy.
Barking Up The Wrong Scree
I came across this item yesteryon, whilst pontificating about South Canadian rifles and how you can tell the troops are South Canadian, even if they have British-issue kit. Art!
This is the emblem of the Royal Danish Navy's "Sirius Dog Sled Patrol", surely one of the most unique special forces units ever. Their brief is to patrol northern and eastern Greenland, in pairs, using dog sleds. This is partly to ensure the continuity of Danish sovereignty over Greenland, and to police the enormous National Park there. Art!
They are armed with the South Canadian M1917 rifle, yes, that one from the First Unpleasantness, because it operates reliably at sub-zero temperatures, and with an armour-piercing bullet you can stop a charging polar bear or musk ox.
They engaged the Teutons during the Second Unpleasantness, specifically U-Boat crews setting up automatic weather stations.
Their recruits have to have already completed national service and they go through an extensive training regime:
- Survival course in Greenland (five weeks)
- Shooting course
- Demolition course
- Engine and mechanics course
- Reconnaissance course
- Firefighter course
- Radio and communications course
- First aid course
- Extended first aid course
- Sewing course
- Truck course
Hmmm despite having sewing in there as a skill, no females have ever applied for SDSP. You can understand why for one reason; if you're on your four-month patrol in winter, two of those months will be entirely without sunlight. Art!
Finally -
I've transcribed the recipe for Korean Chicken Burgers, which requires one to fry chicken thighs in oil an inch deep, drain them, cool them then re-fry until they're crisp. Your Humble Scribe thus wonders if they can be done in the air-fryer instead? because you can with home-made chips.
* Sue me. Once again, whose blog is it?
** Yet.
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