Back To The Zukunft

Which Is Teuton 

Nor am I going to translate it, tee hee. Now you know how annoyed I get when reading a memoir written by a British officer about their experiences in the First Unpleasantness, where they quote in French, or, more usually, in Latin, or Greek, and don't bother translating as they fondly imagine the readers of a century hence will have gone through the public school system and have those foreign languages beaten into them.  Art!

Romans fighting Greeks in a two-fer

     ANYWAY we are back to BOVINGTON TANK MUSEUM once more, and this time we have moved past the inter-war designs and into the early years of the Second Unpleasantness, which may give you a clue about exactly what 'Zukunft' is.  Art!

With puny Hom. Sap. for scale

     Meet the French Char 1 Bis, a real metal mastodon that, if judged by thickness of armour and firepower alone, was the best tank in any army during the Battle  of France.  However - that word again! - there is more to tank design than a big gun and heavier skin.  Yes, it had a 47 mm anti-tank gun in the turret, a 75 mm howitzer in the hull and armour up to 60 mm thick BUT there were serious weaknesses beside that.  For one thing, the turret was a one-man job in which the commander not only had to direct the crew, but also load, aim and fire the gun, which was a job for two if not three crew.  The engine and power train was novel, complex and thus unreliable, leading to breakdowns in action, whilst also being a gas-hog.  Thus many of them had to be abandoned intact when they ran out of fuel, French logistics being - er - pretty rubbish.  Art!

     Despite that, the Teutons found them a right handful when they were operated well, that is to say if the crews had been training with them for more than a few days.  Art!

     This diminutive little rascal is a Panzer II, one of the Teuton mainstays during the Battle of France.  Col was impressed by the engineering finish on the frontal armour, which is typical Teuton over-engineering and design-creep.  It had pretty minimal anti-tank capability, as it was only armed with a 20 mm cannon, but this period in 1940 was when Teuton tank doctrine was to have tanks attack everything except other tanks.  The other invisible attribute was radio control.  Not that it could be driven remotely, rather that it was outfitted with radio as a matter of course, meaning Teuton operations were much more efficiently managed at all levels.  Especially if you're up against the French, who used flags.  Art!

     Even more diminutive, this is the Vickers Mk VI light tank, which had even less anti-tank heft than the Panzer II, being armed with only two machine guns, even if one was a 0.50 calibre one firing armour-piercing ammunition.  It's role, though, was to act as a scout akin to cavalry, and you might well imagine it as an armoured car on tracks.  They fought in France, Greece, North Africa and on a small scale in the Far East, before being retired from service in 1942.  Given their small size and thin armour, they were not intended to slug it out with other tanks or anti-tank guns, and relied on a top speed of 35 mph to get out of water before it got hot.  Art!

     Welcome to the Cruiser, A13 Mk IV, as used by the British in France and North Africa.  They are usually seen in the Caunter desert camouflage scheme; this one sports European camo for service in France.  The rhino symbol means that this vehicle is from 1st Armoured Division.  Note the large Christie road wheels; this thing is built for speed, which was the design ethos behind cruisers - whiz around the battlefield, get around the opposition, outflank them, generally cause havoc and confusion.  

     That concludes the Battle of France section.  To flesh out the background a bit, the Allies in 1940 had more tanks than did the Teutons, and they were often better designed with bigger guns and thicker armour.  What mitigated against the British and French was that most of their tanks lacked radio, whereas the Teutons equipped all of theirs with radio.  Then, too, the Teutons concentrated their armour in divisional-sized formations instead of distributing them all across the front, as did the Allies.  Art!

     These are Teuton tanks of their 7th Panzer Division, and there's a tale to the leading tanks here.  Which I won't go into here.  Tee hee.

Fire The Sub-Editor!

You should be aware by now that Conrad is not merely a Spelling Nazi, but also  a Grammar Fascist, too - my best qualities! and is constitutionally incapable of ignoring any such mistakes.  Art!

Living proof that Slut-Pop has a short shelf-life

     " - she has accused him of attacking him."

     Mark my words, when I take over this sort of thing will be severely punished.  The Remote Nuclear Tormentor ought to be coming off the production lines by then.

More Mordorvian Misery

There is actually a 'Mordovia' oblast in Ruffia, lest ye be unaware.

    Joe Blogs, economics analyst extraordinaire, recently did a vlog that will have the orcses wailing, weeping and gnashing their teeth.  He looked at the fortunes of about 8 Ruffian companies and - it's not good.  Rather than bombard you with all of the data all at once, I shall split them up over several days.  I bet you can hardly wait.  Art!

     I always assert that the cheerier Joe is at the start of his vlog, the grimmer the subject matter will be.  

     Overall the Ruffian economy is split into two parts: the civilian and the military-industrial complex.  The MIC is a tale all of it's own; the civilian sector is not doing very well.  It has contracted by over 5% this year and GDP has dropped to a 1% increase.  Interest rates are still cripplingly high, as is inflation.

Art!

A car

AVTOVAZ: Most notable for producing the Lada marque.  Total number of employees = 40,000.  As of 29th September 2025 they have gone to a 4-day working week thanks to a collapse in consumer demand*.  Ooops.  That's not going to change with interest rates and inflation being so high.  Avtovaz is still overly reliant on imported components, which are so, so sanctioned. Dealership activity has fallen off a cliff.  There was a possibility of electric vehicles turning the business around until the state dropped any kind of interest or investment in this, especially as it would compete with the Chinese EV market, and Mordorvia is essentially a vassal state of The Populous Dictatorship.  Mustn't annoy your Asiatic overlords.

I Like To Keep You Informed

For several weeks now I have been tackling a 1,000 piece jigsaw, which I always have to fight the compulsion to describe as a 'crossword'.  Technically a 996 piece jigsaw as four pieces are missing and Wonder Wifey had the charity to mark them on the illustration.  Art!

     We're a little further along than this, and the sharp-eyed amongst you will have noticed that I've not managed to find one of the edge pieces yet.  Patience, gentle reader, it's time will come.

I'm Shocked!  Shocked I Tell You! Well, Not Very Shocked

It transpires that Putinpot was a tad bothered about the Orange Land Whale perhaps permitting the sale of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, although Billy Bonespurs is probably confusing them with - Art!

     Putinpot did the usual flattery that BOOH accepts is only his due, polishing his Zeppelin-sized ego with offers of a meeting in Budapest for DJ Tango to attempt to sell Ukraine down the river again, and telling BOOH not to sell the Tomahawks.  DJT promptly obeyed.  

     Surprise!  Now the Tomahawks are off the table, no need to pander to the senile incontinent and the meeting is now being cancelled.  Poor old Grumpy Trumpy, he was so looking forward to being treated as if he was important.

*  And not having the political clout to be able to sack people.