There Is A Connection
But of course there is, no matter how tenuous, because Your Humble Scribe goes out of his way to track it down, for 'Diligent' is my middle name. Not in reality; I have two middle names that I'm not telling you about, so you'll just have to make do with Conrad.
ANYWAY let us put up an illo of a bridge. Art!
This, lest ye be unaware, is one of the bridges constructed under the aegis of Julius Caesar, across the Rhine, allowing him to campaign into Germania, as the called the land of the Teutons then. It's a very impressive feat of military engineering, utilising timber and rope as building materials, and the salient point about it is that it is made from wood.
What was one of the Roman's rather excessive tactics when campaigning across a river barrier? To ensure their army had to conquer or die, generals would burn their own bridges behind them, meaning it was march forward and win, or else. No retreat! Art?
I'm afraid that's the best the AI Art Generator can come up with, so I'm not going to enlarge it.
Yes yes yes, I know what you're thinking: how would a Roman legion manage for supplies without any ability to bring them across the now unbridged river, their logistics not running to helicopter delivery. Art!
That's probably from Trajan's Column. It shows legionaries out foraging for food supplies, also known as 'stealing', in the time-honoured fashion of armies before magazines of supplies were established in the Enlightenment. They would go collecting firewood, water and forage for their draught animals as well.
We seem to have gotten slightly off topic. Sorry for boring with logistics again. One supposes that the Roman command staff's intention was to bring their enemy to battle, crush them and then rebuild the bridge, job done.
That's Ancient Rome in today's title accounted for. Clint Eastwood? Art!
Here we see Oddball, Kelly and Big Joe, from that modern fable "Kelly's Heroes", and those lyrics are sung by the Mike Curb Congregation over the end credits. The song title is - and you may be ahead of me here - 'Burning Bridges'. The film is notable for the amount of authentic military kit on display, thanks to the Yugoslavian Army policy of NEVER throwing anything away. The three 'Tiger' tanks are actually T-34 hulls mocked up to look like the real thing, and to the casual observer they do just fine*.
I bet you're wondering where The Screaming Ab-Dabs come in? Yes, that was one of Pink Floyd's more flippant names before Syd Barrett came up with the colour-coded one. Art!
How are we doing for Word Count? Okay, I'll chuck in a bit of their lyrics.
A golden band
Well, that was rather anti-climactic. Yes, they mention flames and fire and burning, but never once a pier or truss or span, not even a fibula.
Conrad is now in a bit of a bind. I was going to use the above as the Intro intro to a completely different subject, but we're over 600 words in and completing the Intro would turn it into 1,200 words on that alone.
<thinks>
<thinks further>
Aha! I have it. Art!
 |
| "A Bridge Too Far" |
There you go, a bridge not only burning but exploding, too. All the property damage you can imagine. Art!
Here the actual fabric of the Arnhem Bridge itself has been set alight by a misguided burst from a paratroop flamethrower. Boy, how the British hated that bridge!
I have a couple of other burning bridges that I shall keep in reserve, as one needs a bit of digging around to ferret out the details. I bet you can hardly wait.
Watch Your Fingers
Conrad has a feeling that he's mentioned this before, but I was once again goggling at a short advert on Youtube that featured the Husqvarna 'Automower', which is a species of robotic mower. Art! prove I am not raving,
To port is the mower at it's charging station, because these things are so devilishly clever that they know when they're running low on charge, so they return to get juiced-up. Wisely, the station comes with overhead cover to keep the rain off. To starboard you can see this infernal device in action. They need a perimeter wire to define the boundaries of where to trim the grass, and locate themselves on the planet's surface via GPS.
What do I think of this?
DO YOU WANT SKYNET?
BECAUSE THIS IS HOW YOU GET SKYNET!
More prosaically, one wonders how these devices cope with debris in the grass, because I have read anecdotes of mowers flinging rocks aside with enough force to break glass and shatter wood. Many decades ago, whilst mowing with a petrol-powered machine, I cut a 2p coin in half.
As I cautioned: count your fingers.
How Eeyore Became A Fashion Icon
Even if only in my fervid imagination. Another item generated by a Youtube advert, if you must know. Eeyore, a role model for the ages, is the dour and pessimistic, or sanguine and realistic, take your pick, donkey from 'Winnie The Pooh'. Art!
Art!
Conrad Weighs In
India and Pakistan are now slinging as much invective as they are missiles, aircraft and drones. Be very wary of any claims either side makes as they tend to be a bit liberal with the truth: Pakistan has already claimed to have shot down 5 Indian aircraft, taking it's information model from that of Mordorvia. Art!
Because neither were able to fully occupy it in 1947, is why, and because neither is willing to negotiate about it's status, both believing it ought to be theirs.
Last year Conrad got a taxi ride home from a driver who was a Kashmiri. Things had been kicking off there - again! - and we discussed them on the ride. Somewhat surprisingly, he completely dismissed the British being responsible for matters being so tense when I offered that we might have a bearing on it. On the other hand, he cursed both India and Pakistan equally and would have far preferred an independent state.
Watch this space.
"The War Illustrated Edition 207 29th May 1945"
Still a couple of pictures to go from this edition. Note that I have been omitting all the pictures celebrating the Sinisters' triumphant march across Germany, tee hee! Art?
This is a reminder that the Second Unpleasantness was still in full sway out East, where the Sinisters had done sweet fanny adams for years.
ANYWAY that's the Ava Bridge at Sagaing, near Mandalay. It crosses the Irrawaddy, and is a mighty structure indeed, which it has to be as the river is enormous here. Here it has been recaptured by the British (and Indians) as of March 17th 1945. That damaged span was demolished, not by the Japanese mere days before, but by the retreating British in 1942, in order to prevent the Japanese from being able to follow. The 20th century equivalent of burning a bridge. The perilous catwalk in Picture 2 is the only way to cross the river, proof that the demolition did indeed prevent a hot pursuit by the Imperial Japanese Army, who didn't bother to repair it. In Picture 3 a 25-pounder delivers good news to the enemy on the receiving end, and in Picture 4 Rajput troops are boarding a landing craft to traverse the river.
Finally -
Okayyyyyy this is Friday's blog, completed on Wednesday, what a busy boy I am.
Tot siens!
* There is a rumour that a real Tiger tank was taken out of mothballs for their Civil War and used for real.
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