No! We're Not Talking About Drills Here
Although some people on the wrong side of the Dnipro might appreciate a few, in order to get hold of potable water. More on that later.
What I am going to bore you about at length here is 'Logistics', which my Collins Concise defines as: "The science of the movement and maintenance of military forces" or supplies, in simpler terms. Beans, boots and bullets as the old South Canadian phrase goes, to which you can add an infinite number of things that a modern army needs. Art!
As with many other topics, this one is well-illustrated by recourse to the Second Unpleasantness. Picture the Axis forces in North Africa in the late summer of 1942, at their high point, just before the battle of Alam Halfa. Rommel - because exactly nobody was interested in who led the Italians - found himself in a very sticky position, to wit; stuck in front of the British (and Commonwealth and various odds and sods) with an incredibly long logistics tail that led all the way back to Tripoli in Libya. Art!
Tripoli was the only working port capable of taking supplies, because the harbour at Benghazi was choked with sunken ships that would have needed months of engineering work to clear. So, too, was Tobruk out of order, and besides which the perfidious British had blown up their desalination and refrigeration plant, which particularly enraged Rommel. By the time he reached and was stopped at Alam Halfa, all his captured British motor transport had broken down; no spare parts to keep them running, you see.
The battle of Alam Halfa was the Axis' last chance to break through the British lines and advance on the Nile Delta. This would have been a catastrophe for the British as they had spent years building up their huge logistical base there. This attitude was a country mile from that of the Teutons, thanks to a different background in warfare. Art!
Perfidious Albion had centuries of experience in fighting campaigns abroad and judged that a sound logistical base was the first thing one created; after that boring quintessential you could then wheel in the flashy stuff like lancer regiments and the Guards.
The Teutons, on the other hand, were used to fighting on the Continent, where their splendidly large and efficient rail network transported everything everywhere all at once. Before the age of rail, they had what are called 'interior lines of communication', meaning they could move armies faster within Germany (or Prussia) than their opponents could manoeuvre externally. Consequently, logistics was waaaaaay down the list of subjects studied by their General Staff. Art!
Rommel has a rest
Where did this leave Ol' Erwin? Up a river of excrement in a barbed wire canoe with tennis racket paddles. His trucks had a 1,250 mile trip to make from Tripoli to the front lines, using up eight gallons of fuel for every one they delivered, with the Brylcreem Boys and the Senior Service making aviation or marine transport costly and untenable. The British, au contraire, were a few hours away from the fleshpots of Cairo. And their supply dumps. Ol' Erwin thus had no choice but to risk it all with a final all-out attack at Alam Halfa. Art!
Monty, plotting on how to annoy people even more
Time was not on his side, because the British (etcetera) would simply out-supply him and get stronger every day he waited to stockpile supplies. Also, that chap above had taken over. Monty could probably have written "How To Alienate And Offend Everybody" but he was a very astute commander, and the Axis attack to break through went completely awry.
Suddenly it was no longer 'Cairo in forty eight hours!' but - er - 'a reconnaissance in force' 'that was totally not a failure' and 'it was all going according to plan'. Yeah right. Sounds suspiciously like - I'll let you join the dots.
What was the most precious resource in the desert war? No, not fuel: water. You can manage for a fortnight without food but two days in North Africa without water would render you - what's that word I'm looking for? O yes - dead. The Ruffians in Kherson, which has a miniature desert within the oblast, aren't being supplied with drinking water as they're not expected to live long enough to suffer from thirst. So they are drinking from puddles or streams and consequently suffering from cholera and typhus. Diseases that armies coped with, yes, back in medieval times.
Logistics! Art?
No, not the terrain at Alam Halfa. This is Oleshky Sands in Kherson.
"City In The Sky"
If you've been following this tale, then you'll know it's coming to a conclusion.
Within the baseship, the gigantic impact ran down it’s interior,
smashing down or buckling internal walls and partitions, destroying fitments,
creating short circuits and arcs of sparks.
Bad though this might have been, worse was to follow: every storage
device, space, restraint or bottle in Biology smashed, including those flasks
holding the hideous viral concoction that Nilkan 34 had dubbed “Armageddon
Cocktails”. The seals that would have
kept the disease agent confined to a single laboratory storage zone were
rendered useless when the very walls had split open. Nilkan had scant seconds to realise that he’d
doomed the entire ship before he began to split apart in a welter of
haemorraghing cells and glands oozing virus-laden pus.
Cracking the store cupboard door open a fraction, the Doctor peered
across the deserted corridor and wondered what that slightly-higher pitched
noise now blasting across the ship meant.
He and Orskan had contorted themselves into the cupboard and across it’s
shelves to avoid being caught by the incredibly slow Lithoi search party. Escaping inept searchers wasn’t a problem,
but waiting till they moved on took ages.
O noes! Anyway -
Pretty As A Picture
This is more a theme than any specific spaceship, and these aren't robotic probes, either, since they come with a human crew. The title is "Warp", and the designs are definitely from the 'Star Trek' universe. Art!
Not sure if this is the same ship from the stern or not. Judging by the stars streaking by, it can move pretty smartish. Art!
Early sketch work getting the outlay of the 'Enterprise' firmed up. Note the sketch at bottom has it inverted as opposed to the final version. Art!
I really like this design, even if it makes no sense. Nor does it seem to be anything to do with the other designs. There's a story here if one but knew where to look, as - per usual - there's no exposition. Thank you "Interstellar Research Centre".
Horrifying!
I am re-watching "Planet Terror" and was rather gobsmacked to see that it dates from 2007. Surely not? I mused. But the numbers do not lie. Seventeen years ago. Conrad is also aghast at the BBC's coverage of "Shaun Of The Dead", which, if Art will put down his bowl of coal -
It would incense Conrad, too, and it's unwise to incense a man with a Remote Nuclear Detonator at his fingertips. The really scary part is how old this film is - twenty years this 2024. Good lord aloft, where did the time go?
The DVD Mountain Increases
Conrad has been looking for "The Great War" which he got years ago via e-Bay. 17 disks as I recall. It's been put away so safely and securely that I cannot now find it, much like my Postal Vote. ANYWAY there I was, poking through my collection of CDs and what do I find? A pirate set of "Thunderbirds" and "Captain Scarlet", that's what. It won't do any harm to just watch them once before binning them, will it? Art!
Bleak and violent. Right up my street!
Finally -
I dug up a recipe for 'Zharkoe', which is Ukrainian beef and potato stew. Now for the Co-Op and more potatoes!
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