Vengeance.

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From WIZARD through Harry at Sharkhunters:

More problems with the British Royal Navy Astute class of submarine?

Most complicated thing made by man but seemingly the entire class of vessel jinxed?

"jinxed - - 2. A condition or period of bad luck that appears to have been caused by a specific person or thing."

"Are Royal Navy submarines appear to be blind… first HMS ASTUTE, touted as the world’s the most sophisticated submarine, ran aground. A short time later, her sister ship HMS AMBUSH surfaced right under a mammoth tanker and now we note that there are online photos of HMS VENGEANCE returning to her base in Scotland from her latest three-month deployment with ‘considerable damage’. The report states that some 30% of her sonar panels were shed at some point during her mission."

THE MODERN SUBMARINE RUNNING "BLIND" UNDERWATER RELIANT ALMOST TOTALLY 100 % ON WHAT CAN BE "HEARD" VIA SONAR, PASSIVE AND  ACTIVE. NO SONAR NO CAN SEE, NO CAN DO MISSION!

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Gatwick.

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From a recent edition of the DEBKAfile news letter some particulars of interest, the drone attack on the Gatwick airport [England], consider the Israeli connection:

"Israeli-made Drone Dome posted at Gatwick airport"

22 December.

"The anti-drone Drone Dome system developed by Israel was deployed at Gatwick airport to halt the disruption by rogue drones which forced the cancellation of 1,400 flights in 36 hours. Drone Dome was deployed at Gatwick because of its capacity to jam an intruding drone’s broadcasts and in effect cut communications between the drone and its operator . . . The British army acquired the system with its communication jamming elements and electro-optical identification component - but without its hard-kill laser."

Perpetrators of the Gatwick drone incident caught. Allegedly amateur radio-control hobby aircraft enthusiasts. Foolish people being foolish but in manner as causing a lot of ECONOMIC disruption and more importantly DANGER to human life? Perpetrators run to ground and seemingly this not a matter of terrorism.

BRITISH MILITARY FORCES  NONETHELESS DEPLOYED AND IN ACTION USING ELECTRONIC-COUNTER-MEASURES [ECM] GEAR OF ISRAELI MANUFACTURE!!

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Licking.

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"A good licking"!!

Indeed!

"Royal Mail ripped for D-Day stamp depicting the wrong event"

The Royal Mail got a good licking for planning to release a stamp marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day by using an image of US forces landing about 8,500 miles from Normandy Beach, according to a report.

The stamp in question. We all make mistakes from time to time. Some more permanent than others. NOT Normandy. NOT D-Day. Close does not count either in this case?

Captioned “Allied soldiers and medics wade ashore,” the stamp was meant to depict the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944, in France — but was actually taken in Dutch New Guinea in what is modern-day Indonesia

See also this image from the Democratic national convention of 2004. A tribute to the American military and American veterans with Russian naval warships as shown inadvertently. Personally I have often thought the incorporation of Russian vessels rather than American was some sort of sick insider joke. I do have my doubts.

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Woolf.

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Here begins a series of blog entries, topics of which are relevant to the Great War [WW1]. All posts done without regard to any sort of chronological order or importance.

Extracts with my commentary from the original articles as seen at the excellent Internet web site isegoria.net .

Stanford! Honors seminar! 

From the Chronicle of Higher Education.

"Our First View of the End of the World"

"In Our First View of the End of the World, Stanford professor Terry Castle explains the frustrations of teaching:"

"What does it mean to remember the First World War? Over the past few years I have been trying to get my students — mostly 19- or 20-year-old Stanford English majors — to learn about, think about, reckon with, remember the Great War. I have been spectacularly unsuccessful. My latest failure came just this spring, in an honors seminar on Virginia Woolf. We were reading Jacob’s Room, the hero of which dies on the Western Front, and I suspected — correctly — that my students knew little about the war or its repercussions. (Make of it what you will, but all of the students except one were female.)"

DAMNED AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENTS AT THE MOST ELITE INSTITUTIONS THEIR MINDS STUPEFIED AND FULL OF MUSH! SCHOLARS [?] OF THE HIGHEST CALIBER TOTALLY IGNORANT OF MAJOR HISTORICAL EVENTS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WHICH SEEMS TO  ESCAPE THEM ABSOLUTELY ALMOST IRREDEEMABLY SO!!

Perhaps some current Stanford undergraduate will read this blog entry and be ashamed of themselves? For some reason I doubt it.

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Outcome.

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From the latest edition of the BBC HISTORY Magazine:

"Was it worth it?"

"Did the outcome of the first World War justify the enormous loss of life? We ask two leading historians . . . to put the case, both for and against."

Yes.

Professor Gary Sheffield.       

"Imperfect as the world undoubtedly was in 1918, a scenario in which Germany was victorious would have been much worse."

In the nutshell Germany victory would have meant:

1. "France a vassal state."

2. "Belgium a de facto German colony."

3. "Liberal democracy in Europe gone."           

No.

Professor Richard Evans.

1. "The war destroyed Europe's economy for a generation. it did not recover until the 1950's."

2. "Politically, the war ended the slow and uneven progress the world had made towards greater democracy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries."

3. "Within a few years, in any case, burgeoning democracies had been replaced by brutal and corrupt dictatorships."

Nazi Germany. Fascist Italy and Spain. Communist Soviet Union all of them foremost!

FROM MY OWN PERSPECTIVE, BY 1918 EVERYONE HAD MORE OR LESS FORGOTTEN WHY THEY WERE FIGHTING THE WAR IN THE FIRST PLACE. 1914, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA AND ALL THAT WAY IN THE PAST.

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Robertshaw.

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From the Daily Mail courtesy the tip from Freeper.

This is the sort of thing the English are very fond of! The old ways!

"All quiet on the Western Front garden! WWI expert turns his yard into trench system to show what life was really like on the front line"

ENGLISHMAN WITH HIS OWN GREAT WAR [WW1] BATTLEFIELD!

Surely this cannot be code? Perhaps Mr. Robertshaw got a special waiver before he began construction? Click on image to see an enlarged view.

"Surrounded by barbed wire, sandbags and mud, this 60ft [twenty meters] trench is barely distinguishable from those occupied by British soldiers fighting in the First World War a century ago."

. . .

"First World War historian Andrew Robertshaw and 30 volunteers - including a detachment of troops returning from Afghanistan - spent a month shifting 200 tons of earth to build the enormous three-room trench, which he hopes will teach people more about the horrific living conditions endured by British troops during the Great War."

TWO HUNDRED TONS OF EARTH AS MOVED BY MACHINE AND NOT BY HAND!!

Mr. Robertshaw [sergeant] enjoys a meagre repast. Poor form lad! Your weapon at all times no greater than an arm's distance away! Disciplinary measures will have to be taken!!

See my previous photo-essay blog entry the Great War, Rockford, Illinois, USA!

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Gamekeeper.

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War! What is it good for?

Good for the birds? At least during war-time in England it has been.

We have to be perfectly clear what we are talking about here.

Shooting of ground-dwelling game birds in England a popular sport. Was one hundred years ago and is now.

Introduced species such as pheasant released in vast numbers on a yearly basis. A prey in-the-sights-of during season by zealous shot-gun wielding hunting enthusiasts. Native grouse also a popular target for the wild-game crowd. Oddball species such as the woodcock also a popular bird highly prized for the table.

Large landed estates of the English upper-class gentry and specified game preserves during peace time employing a small army of game keepers. The game keeper their mission to ward off out-of-season poachers AND SHOOT RAPTORS.

Raptors those birds-of-prey their quarry to include the game birds so highly prized by the hunting set.

Raptors [eagles, falcons, harriers, hawks] shot on sight, no warning given. Raptors seen as A PEST TO BE ELIMINATED.

Indeed, prior to the Great War [WW1] some species of raptors in England having gone extinct in the wild, such large  numbers of the birds shot dead, again, ON-SIGHT no mercy ever given or thought to conservation or preservation. Game birds YES, raptors NEVER!

From the book "The Meaning of Birds" by Barnes. "War is often good for wildlife. Humans concentrate more on killing each other than on killing birds. So the two world ware were good news for British birds of prey. There were fewer gamekeepers on the ground because many were called up, and the whole country had other priorities - - and better uses for ammunition than sport."

Makes sense. Game keepers either volunteering or conscripted for the military their numbers greatly reduced on the "landed estates" and "game preserves", raptors for a period of years allowed to increase and multiply their kind. Human decimation of various species radically reduced. A more sound, sustainable and healthy environment the result.

Thank you war?

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Sumatra.

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The Burma Railway I had heard of. The Sumatra Railway I had not heard of. Both often referred to as the Railway of Death. As it was in Burma so was it too in Sumatra.

From that era of the Second World War. Allied prisoner of war [POW] and Asian impressed labor [Javanese] forced to build a railway to expedite cross-island [Sumatra] Japanese military movement.

That loss of life during construction of the railway horrific in the extreme. Allied POW and impressed labor basically succumbing to harsh working conditions, cruel and barbaric treatment, disease, malnutrition, etc. What else you might ask!

Thanks to the tip from the BBC History magazine and the original article by Dr Lizzie Oliver.

"The Sumatra Railway, also referred to as the Pekanbaru Death Railway, was a railway project of the Imperial Japanese army in Sumatra during the Second World War. It was designed to connect Pekanbaru to Muaro in an effort to strengthen the military and logistical infrastructure for coal and troop shipments . . . They used forced labour and prisoners of war. 6,500 Dutch, mostly Indo-Europeans, 1000 British prisoners of war along with 300 POWs from America, Australia and New Zealand. This number of POWs was dwarfed however by the over 120,000 Indonesian, mostly Javanese, forced workers called Romusha which were put to work by the Japanese army. By the time the work was completed in August 1945 almost a third of the European POWs had died and only around 16,000 of the 120,000 Indonesian Romusha had survived."

"The railway was completed on VJ Day, 15 August 1945. It was only USED ONCE and then quickly became overgrown by the jungle."

SURVIVORS ALLIED POW AND JAVANESE IMPRESSED LABOR BOTH FORTUNATE THE WAR ENDED ABRUPTLY AND IN THE MANNER AS WHICH IT DID. LAST-LEGGERS [A person who is . . . very tired or near to death] THEIR LIFE EXPECTANCY TO BE MEASURED IN WEEKS IF NOT DAYS! ASSISTANCE AND REMEDIAL CARE ARRIVING FORTUNATELY AND ABLE TO AVERT FURTHER CATASTROPHE!

Being a captive of the Japanese during WW2 not a pleasant experience fully understood and for which no further elaboration required!!

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Monitors.

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You are being watched!

From the Russian media outlet Russian Times [RT] and as originally reported by other sources.

More on the combined effort to track ship movements vicinity North Korea. Observe and report actual and possible embargo violations.

"US sets up coalition to track foreign ships delivering fuel to North Korea – report"

"A US Navy ship will reportedly host military personnel from the Five Eyes countries plus Japan and South Korea to monitor foreign vessels delivering fuel to the North in violation of UN sanctions.:

"The coalition will include the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada – America’s partners within the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance – as well as Japan and South Korea, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an American military official. This is apparently the first US-led effort to track fuel deliveries to North Korea."

See previous blog entries as germane:

http://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2018/09/ran-korea.html

http://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2018/09/kayforce-ii.html

Ships! Planes! Personnel! All this a demonstration of solidarity and resolve. Kim take note!

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Sir Michael.

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 "Whenever I [Caine] killed someone there was no guilt, no remorse - it didn't feel real. It was during the Korean War and I was just trying to stay alive. It was self-defense. It was always done at night and we never had any idea who we had killed. I didn't even think about it - we had machine guns and we just did it. I never did anything close up or hand-to-hand. It didn't give me nightmares, because the Army brutalizes you. It was like the World War I trenches - half a mile apart - and we were just firing backwards and forwards, so we never knew who any of our victims were as individuals. You never saw the whites of a man's eyes when you killed him."

BEFORE THERE WAS THE MOVIE "ZULU" MICHAEL CAINE LIVED IT!!

See this outstanding video courtesy You Tube. The war experience of Sir Michael. The man fought in a war he did not understand for a people he did not know. But did his bit and is obviously proud of his service. 

See also this Internet web site, the comportment of the Royal Fusiliers in Korea most commendable. Exemplary even. "THE 1ST.BATTALION ROYAL FUSILIERS(THE CITY OF LONDON REGIMENT)".

"Honi soit qui mal y pense".

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Scallops.

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There hasn't been anything like this in over forty years!

Back to the olden times. The French and English at odds with one another. Military confrontation of some in the works as a possible? NATO versus NATO. EU member versus EU member. I thought that sort of thing was all in the past. Guess not!

Thanks to the tip from Sputnik and the original article © REUTERS / France 3 Caen Europe.

1. "France Ready to Deploy Warships in Scallop Wars With UK – Reports"

"UK and France are reportedly expected to hold talks over the scallop fishing dispute and to find a solution that might prevent further clashes between fishermen."

THIS IS AN EEZ [ECONOMIC EXCLUSION ZONE] TYPE OF EVENT? ENGLISH TRAWLERS FISHING FOR SCALLOPS IN AN AREA TRADITIONALLY RESERVED FOR FRENCH FISHING VESSELS?

FRENCH WARSHIPS THEIR MISSION TO THWART FURTHER VIOLENCE AND BRING A SEMBLANCE OF ORDER TO A TENSE SITUATION?

As it is now in 2018 so it was it in 1976 but with different protagonists.

THE COD WARS!

2. Cod Wars.

"The Cod Wars . . . were a series of confrontations between the United Kingdom and Iceland on fishing rights in the North Atlantic. Each of the disputes ended with an Icelandic victory. The Third Cod War concluded in 1976, with a highly favourable agreement for Iceland; the United Kingdom conceded to a 200-nautical-mile (370-kilometre) Icelandic exclusive fishery zone after threats that Iceland would withdraw from NATO"

English fishing trawlers during the Cod Wars seen as poaching in traditional Icelandic waters. Confrontation resulting the Royal Navy at that time having to provide escort, a cost prohibitive measure.

Negotiation and amicably agreed upon settlement the only solution to these matters!

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Graves.

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Thanks to a Hot Mail from Sharkhunters and as reported by WIZARD:

"GHOULS AND GRAVE ROBBERS –" 

"The former head of the Royal Navy accused Ministry of Defence civil servants of being ‘pathetic’ for ignoring vital information about the looting of sunken war graves (ships) in the Far East. His source had learned of the wide scale plundering of the wrecks off the coast of Malaysia in May 2017, and contacted Lord West with details of the ships and the companies pillaging them for scrap metal. They include the battleship PRINCE OF WALES which was sunk with the loss of 327 men; the battle cruiser HMS REPULSE which sank with the loss of 508 lives; and the heavy cruiser HMS EXETER which went down with the loss of 40 of her crew."

Warships sunk from the era of the Second World War [WW2] and for decades now laying on the bottom at depth but now being cut up for scrap? This seems to be preposterous and yet I have no doubt it is occurring.

Plenty of scrap metal on the international market I might assume already available. And the cost of salvage and selling recovered steel from an underwater vessel not economically worth while? Those sunken warships as stated war graves. Normally beyond touching or even visiting unless with permission.

From the English Guardian read an entire article devoted to the issue of salvaging steel from these warships. Seems the steel as salvaged from these warships is one of the last sources in the world of very valuable “low background steel” as it is deemed. Recovery of metal possible if the sunken warships are at a depth of less than eighty meters [about 240 feet].

There you have it. There is a definite value to the salvaged steel. You learn something new every day and you are the better for it too!

coolbert.