paxromana

Indeed, Rommel repeatedly disobeyed orders to not attempt to attack Egypt and to not outrun the abysmally poor supply lines ... but he suffered from 'victory disease' and even infected Hitler to a degree.

The DAK was in North Africa because the Italians invaded Egypt ... and were trounced by the Brits. The Italians invaded because they were at war with the Allies and wanted some glory they hadn't gained in their faffed invasion of souithern France ... and, of course, because they wanted to retain their colony of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) which could only be accessed through the Suez Cabal or the Straits of Gibraltar (and the latter even Musso probably figured wasn't a realistic aim). It had nothing to do with oil. The DAK was committed so Italy wouldn't be defeated ... so rthe Vicy colonies in NA wouldn't be threatened, secondarily. Nothing to do with oil.

The Sinai Peninsula & the Negev Desert ... which have no oil in the period. Palestine, full of those pesky Haganah and Irgun guys who know exactly what to expect from the Germans? And no oil. Syria. Yep, some oil. But the Italians have. effectlvely, no Oil Tankers ... they lost almost all of the few they had when they foolishly declared war in 1940 and the bulk of them were in allied ports. As it was, they had to ship oil to the DAK largely in ordinary merchantmen in 44 gallon drums! And what is the chance that the Oil terminals in allied occupied Syria would be taken intact? (and, no, even if they then managed to take the Iraqi oilfields, well, the chances of the Iraq-Syria pipeline being taken intact? Ni! The chances of the Iraqi oilfields being taken intact? Nil. Even if theyu did ... there is no rail link between Iraq and Turkey (the Berlin-Baghdad RR was torn up in Iraq after WW1. And the Turkish RR capacity was known to be inadequate even for their own internal use ... and the Deutsche Reichsbahn had inadequate oil tanker cars even for supplying, oh, the East Front. As for the Caucasus the single German Oil Unit managed to restore, IIRC, exactly one well in the Caucasus and extract something like 200 bbl per day. Even if they managed more they didn't have enough POL Tank Cars to transport a significant quantity back to Germany by rail! Across the Black Sea? Limited Soviet BS Port capacity (and no specialist oil terminals, IIRC) and effectly no German or Romanian or Bulgrian tanker capacity on the BS. Worse, IIRC it was only in 1944 that the Germans actually emplaced a pipeline head of limited capacity way upstream on the Danube, and the extant tank barge capacity on the river was, in any case, inadequate. So, no oil from the Middle East/Syria or the Caucasus even if they managed to capture them, not in even the medium term.

There was no oil in North Africa in WW2. The tech to drill the Libyan oilwells didn't exist at the time and I am not even sure the existence of oil in Libya was suspected.

Russians 2022-23 = German Army 1939-45. And that was a Western Army.

Yep, Aussie Officer ranks command different levels than US Officers ... a Regiment (Battalion) is commanded by a Lt (Leftenant) Colonel rather than a Colonel as I understand is US practise.

In Australia a Major Commands a Company ...

Only in Putin's Ruzzian Cloud Cuckoo Land ...

Probably not so much. Realistically, what could the Ruzzians do? They don't have the trainers left to do more than a cursory level of prep for a new wave of mobiks ... they don't have the gear to do more than equip them as Light Infantry ... it would probably make the situation at the front even worse than it is now with a lot more, basically untrained, poorly equipped, and likely close to useless troops for the already strained Ruzzian logistics system to try and supply ... and they're not doing all that well in that respect even for the depleted forces they actually have in the field. They'll end up like that idiot general in Dr Zhivago!

Apropos of nothing much at all except the unsexiness of support types in armies ... a long time ago (1973-74) when I was in the CMF (Citizen Military Forces - now Army Reserve) here in Sydney one of the other nearby CMF units was, I kid you not, a Mobile Bathing Unit! That is, proper Showers and the like ... rather than the makeshift ones we used in the field. Actually quite important for the maintenance of hygiene and health in the field ... but as unsexy as all hell. Dunno what happened to it ... lots of stuff got drawn down post Vietnam ... like the single 105mm Light Gun 'Battery' that was near the school where I taught for many years just a couple of suburbs away.

Actually, there have been a large number of studies that show that the majority of people aren't 'selfish & brutal' and are altruistic in many ways ... perhaps most ways ... sure, there will always be sociopaths, psycopaths, malignant narcissists and others with anti-social personality disorders, but they are in a minority. The problem is when such people gain control over the levers of power ... they can do a heck of a lot of damage. Putin in Russia, the Kims in Korea, Xi in China are all good (bad?) examples ...

AIUI from somewhere I read long ago Barrage Ballon units required some pretty specialised skills for the personnel ... in WW2 there were presumably still guys from WW1 who could pass them on and the specialised infrastructure for Balloons still existed at least in Western Europe ... who would train such units these days and where would the specialised infrastructure come from? Heck, where would the designs come from. Then, of course, there's the problem of size. Sure, they don't require Graf Zeppelin or Hindenberg size sheds to build in and they don't have internal framework, but sewing/welding such large gas bags would require some fairly specialised facilities ... I mean, how many Blimps can Goodyear build per year for example?

There's also Second Front available on Steam. the reviews indicate it is very similar to ASL. I have it on my wishlist but haven't bought it ... yet ...

Solovyov may have been arrested ... he has disappeared from his channel and replaced by some nobodynik who is claiming he is 'on vacation' according to Russian Media Monitor.

'Safety Inspections' on all Russian Ships (or ships whose cargoes are heading fior or hwich have come from Russian Ports) transiting the Straits of Gibraltar ('Freedom of Navigation' rules shouldn't apply to Russia as long as they ignore them for others), the Kattegat and Skagerrak, or the Suez Canal (or maybe just ratchet up the transit fees to all Russian ships (or those carrying cargoes to or from Russian Ports)? Find them in violation of all sorts of regs and impound them until they are 'repaired' ... which they neverwill be, not satisfactorily.

But would they have the resources to maintain them ... a lot of the warheads are evidently close to their 'use by' date and even Russi as is is having problems maintaining them according to come sources. Assuming, always, that the 'warheads' under those tarpaulins aren't just warhead shaped piles of crushed Coke Cans!

Or a Cask of Amontillado as Fortunato did ....

Sounds reasonable - it was the fire which ruined the steel that did in the rail sections last time.

Better protected? More closely watched? Anti-'torpedo' netting?

Sure. That's what official sources say ... and Russians never ever lie ... so what is the real situation? Gotta be a lot worse.

Playing Deck Chairs on the Titanic ...

Australia, Canada and South America might dispute the monopoly part.

Casualty figures. NOT KIA figures. And evidently the 100,000+ was the result of someone simply doubling the original 50,000+ and some journo then made 'casualties' into 'dead' (per Downfall by Frank, well worth reading). Would it have been the nastiest campaign the US would have fought - yes - but there's no need to overestimate it.

"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets, inflamed with wild notions." Plato (420s-340s BC) I often had arguments with my fellow High School teachers before I retired - the often lamented 'the youth of today' and their alleged laziness and lack of motivation, poor behaviour, etc ... and had fun pointing out that if they thought back to their own youth they would find their younger selves exhibited the same sorts of behaviour and to pretty much the same degree,

Well, I don't think anyone has ever accused any of them of being terribly bright ...