Good Morning!
I thought I'd better get that insistent instruction - not an 'order', never an 'order' - in first, because what I'm about to get into here is a subject so dull that it once sent me to sleep whilst I was reading it in the office at lunchtime.
Your Humble Scribe is referring, of course - obviously! - to military logistics, that niche area of warfare that is, nevertheless, of vital importance. Art!
The supply stalwart
I was pondering a tad upon the logistics of the Trojan encampment versus the Rutulian besiegers in "The Aeneid Book 9" whilst having a bit of Thinking Time walking Edna yesterday. The Trojans, having been at sea for some time, will probably have been busily collecting anything edible near their encampment, not to mention acquiring water to store in barrels. I would expect Aeneas' subordinate commanders to be carrying this out as a matter of good practice. O and perhaps also hunting any wild game nearby. Possibly trading with any locals for food. Art!
The Rutulians, when they arrive, will thus find a landscape rather denuded of foodstuffs, making their need to forage much further a necessity. Also, not having expected a siege, their own food supplies will be insufficient; they can, as they are on the outside, still source from locals. Then there's the matter of their horses - Art!
They came equipped with plenty of cavalry and chariots, meaning horses. There's no mention of draught animals, which might have equally been horses or oxen. Regardless, they all need water and fodder, and lots of both. Being on the outside, the Rutulians are able to go searching for streams and ponds - but this means dispersing their animals with parties to escort them, thus weakening the siege lines.
I hope this gives you an insight into the logistics of ancient warfare. I would imagine that the Greeks, for one, being logical and practical, had extensive rules written down for this.
Now let us change tack entirely, and jump forward in time from 750BC to November 1942 AD, to the Second Unpleasantness and the conflict in North Africa. The Axis had been given a terminal shoeing at El Alamein and were running away as fast as they could manage whilst trying to delay the British (and Commonwealth and Free French and the Greek Sacred Squadron and so on). Art!
Relevant bit snipped for clarity.
Because Perfidious Albion had centuries of experience in mounting overseas campaigns, they had done their homework on setting up what was called the 'Base Area' in the Nile Delta over the previous 2 years. Glamourous: no. Essential: yes. Here's a list of what had been achieved: ports and railways improved and extended; inland water transport created; airfields built; workshops, camps and depots built; signals infrastructure increased; very large amounts of fuel and ammunition stored, and stored securely. For one metric, the amount of ammunition in storage as of October 1942 was 272,000 tons. Art!
A long pursuit of the fleeing Axis across North Africa would be affected by the state of the railways, ports, the coastal road and water sources left in their wake. Of prime importance was the desert railway, which had been extended to about 7 miles of the harbour at Tobruk, running all the way from the Nile Delta. Art!
A remarkable-looking train at El Alamein railway station. Don't ask me what variety it is, I've got no idea.
The railway could handle 2,500 tons per day - once all the mines and booby traps had been removed - and the British planned to have railheads at El Alamein, El Daba, Matruh, Capuzzo and Tobruk. From these railheads motor transport (henceforth 'MT') would carry it forward. Art!
This ought to give you an idea of the distances involved. Note that these maps are from 1941, because the railway line only extends to Matruh.
Water becomes an issue at this point, because the locomotives being used relied upon good-quality water being supplied to them. By good fortune the British government had ordered South Canadian locomotives in 1941, which turned up in October 1942, and this matters because these state-of-the-art chuffers used very little water.
That's enough logistics for one Intro. You can have too much of a good thing, or even a bad thing.
Marvel-lous
More hard data. You are probably aware of the jolly family comedy "Deadpool And Wolverine" being out at the cinemas, and various pundits are warbling about how successful it's been.
Well, let's qualify that success a smidgeon, shall we? Art!
One supposes that it's success lies partly in being gleefully un-PC, which makes a pleasant change from the usual Marvel drivel about being in touch with your inner petunia and how everyone is wonderful even the villains.
But I digress. Let us look at cold hard numbers.
So, going by the 50% going back to the studio rule, that means it's made $412 million on a $200 million budget. Subtract $100 million from that total for Promotion and Advertising and they've made about $100 million so far, which is admittedly far better than most Marvel films of the last few years.
The Pedantic Hair-splitter Returns!
You know you love it really. Conrad has been vaguely aware of a pop culture entity knocking around for the past decade or longer, which entitles itself "Return To The Forbidden Planet".
We all know Conrad would desperately recite his 5,000 word monograph on FP were he allowed, so he has an investment here. Art!
It claims to be a musical, which is all the more reason for me to hate it and no, I don't need to hear a single chord to hate it. CONRAD: HATES ALL MUSICALS as true now as when the blog started.
Why am I making waves about this? Art!
That glaring incandescent glob is Altair IV going up in plasma as the 9,200 Krell reactors at the planet's core simultaneously detonate.
I think you see my point. THERE IS NO 'FORBIDDEN PLANET' LEFT. So you can't return there.
This has been a public service pedantry broadcast.
More Mystery MacGuffins
Yes, we are back to point mockingly at "The Daily Beast" and their sidebars of cheap tat with no obvious purpose. Today it's the turn of this mystery artefact. Art!
So they hint that it's used in the garden. Is it a modernised version of the old Swiss Worm-Calling Horn? Or do you use it to grind down lumps and bumps on your otherwise immaculate lawn?
Let's cheat and click on the link. Art!
It seems to be a very heavy-duty rotary weed-shredder, used on a handle with a motor. There are several bewildered Comments from purchasers who didn't realise they needed the rest of a strimmer to get this working. Suckers!
Let's Finish With Roy
Also known as 'Cross The Boss', him being the regular Airfix artist in residence, responsible for arresting attention and prising wallets open. Art!
This is a Gloster Meteor Mk. III, a British jet that went into service towards the fag-end of the Second Unpleasantness, and here you see it delivering good news to Teuton troops on the ground. Despite the fond hopes of their RAF pilots, the Teutons never sent their own jet aircraft up to intercept. The colour scheme of the Meteor above was later substituted by an all-white one, as there had been cases of Allied anti-aircraft units opening up on Meteors, thinking they were Teuton Me262s. Art!
Finally -
Right, time for my tea. There may be pizza involved.
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