Quotulatiousness

November 29, 2020

Winter is here? The Germans can see Moscow – WW2 – 118 – November 28, 1941

Filed under: Africa, Britain, Europe, Germany, History, Italy, Japan, Military, Russia, USA, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 28 Nov 2020

The German advance has pushed within artillery range of Moscow, but can they reach it — and take it — before the Red Army and the murderously cold weather halt them? Meanwhile in North Africa, both Erwin Rommel and Claude Auchinleck make daring and brilliant moves that save the fight for their sides. A mighty Japanese fleet is now secretly heading for Hawaii to make a surprise attack on American territory while the US worries where in Southeast Asia the Japanese are planning to attack.

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Written and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson, Bodo Rittenauer
Creative Producer: Maria Kyhle
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Miki Cackowski
Sound design: Marek Kamiński
Map animations: Eastory (https://www.youtube.com/c/eastory)

Colorizations by:
Julius Jääskeläinen – https://www.facebook.com/JJcolorization/
Daniel Weiss
Norman Stewart – https://oldtimesincolor.blogspot.com/
Dememorabilia – https://www.instagram.com/dememorabilia/
Klimbim https://www.flickr.com/photos/2215569…
Mikołaj Uchman
Spartacus Olsson

Sources:
Bundesarchiv
IWM E 6661, WPN 298, E 446
Bletchley Park Trust
Mil.ru
RIA Novosti #303890, #2551
Yad Vashem 4562/3
Picture of Cordell Hull, courtesy of National Portrait Gallery

Soundtracks from the Epidemic Sound:
Rannar Sillard – “March Of The Brave 10”
Johan Hynynen – “Dark Beginning”
Hakan Eriksson – “Epic Adventure Theme 3”
Johannes Bornlof – “Death And Glory 2”
Jo Wandrini – “To War!”
Fabien Tell – “Weapon of Choice”
Fabien Tell – “Last Point of Safe Return”
Johannes Bornlof – “The Inspector 4”
Andreas Jamsheree – “Guilty Shadows 4”
Philip Ayers – “Trapped in a Maze”

Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

From the comments:

World War Two
2 days ago (edited)
– IMPORTANT NOTICE –
Since we’re all busy working on our minute-by-minute coverage of Pearl Harbor, which is edging ever closer, it has been an especially challenging task to follow Operation Crusader in all its complexity. This has resulted in an error on the animated map about which we want to be transparent and honest.

The current map suggests that the 2nd New Zealand Division links up with the Tobruk garrison from the south-east. In reality, it does so from the Via Balba running along the coast, along which it has advanced during the past days. Another thing to note is the position of the Allied 30th Corps, which has withdrawn further south after the Battle of Sidi Rezegh than the map shows. They are positioned near Gabr Saleh as the New Zealanders link up with Tobruk.

We apologize for this inaccuracy and are working to fix this error as soon as possible.

———-

It’s getting closer … 9 days from now is December 7th, and we will cover the Japanese attacks of that day right here in real time for FIVE HOURS. Pearl Harbor minute by minute will be the most exciting documentary series you’ve ever seen. https://youtu.be/5D8c7YvLBUc

And in addition to our weekly coverage of the war right here, we also do daily coverage of it over on our instagram. Check that out at: https://www.instagram.com/world_war_two_realtime/

An unusually sympathetic biography of George III

Filed under: Books, Britain, History, USA — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

Andrew Roberts reviews a new biography of King George III for The Critic:

King George III in his coronation robes.
Portrait by Allan Ramsay (1713-1784), original in the Art Gallery of South Australia via Wikimedia Commons.

Over the past six years, Penguin have been publishing their excellent Monarchs series in which a leading historian writes a 30,000-word book on a king or queen from Athelstan to Elizabeth II. There are now 45 of them (including David Horspool on Oliver Cromwell, who sneaks in despite the monarchical rubric, and Jonathan Keates who reasonably enough lumped William III and Queen Mary together). These extended essays are attractively produced, can be read in a couple of hours, and many are true gems, from historians such as Tom Holland, John Guy, Tim Blanning, Norman Davies, Roger Knight, Jane Ridley, Richard Davenport-Hines, David Cannadine — you get the idea.

Now Professor Jeremy Black gives us a full-throated defence of the monarch who is only really generally known as the king who went insane and who lost the American colonies, and who now prances around in the camp-yet-sinister show-stopping song in Hamilton: The Musical. “When considering George III’s mistakes,” Black argues, persuasively, “it is important to assess the parameters of the possible and to consider comparisons.” With his expertise in eighteenth-century European history, Black is able to place George III in the wider context of contemporary monarchs such as Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great, Louis XVI and Napoleon.

“In contradiction to the Whig and American image of George as a tyrant, or at least a would-be tyrant,” Black states, “he had a strong conviction of the value of limited monarchy and was a willing student of the lessons of the Glorious Revolution and the subsequent Revolution Settlement.”

Black brilliantly demolishes the paranoiac Whig view of George as trying to accrete powers to himself unconstitutionally. The George who emerges is a far more attractive figure than the Whig historians depicted, let alone Thomas Jefferson with his 28 histrionic and inaccurate accusations against George in the Declaration of Independence, and especially Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hilarious but profoundly historically incorrect caricature.

Instead, Black portrays a monarch with “a strong religious faith, a passion for hunting and an interest in art, architecture, music, astronomy and exploration”. He was a Renaissance man with an Enlightenment viewpoint, although Black also lists his failings, which were obstinacy, self-righteousness and a certain amount of priggishness when young. Black calls him a “fogey”. These were hardly cardinal sins, and a world away from the lust for dictatorship of which he has been accused.

Jeremy Black — who is fast becoming a national treasure in his own right, having written well over 100 books — takes a refreshingly unmodish stance towards George (as you might have guessed from listing hunting amongst the king’s attributes). “His qualities are easier to understand for those who prize commitment, duty, and integrity,” he concludes, “than in a modern age when scorn and satire, even hatred of the nation’s history, are often prominent.”

What is Concrete?

Filed under: Technology — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Practical Engineering
Published 27 Mar 2018

What’s the difference between concrete and cement?

Concrete is the most important construction material on earth and foundation of our modern society. At first glance it seems rudimentary, but there is a tremendous amount of complexity involved in every part of designing and placing concrete. This video is meant to be a bare-bones introduction to the topic, with a cool demonstration of concrete strength using a hydraulic press.

-Patreon: http://patreon.com/PracticalEngineering
-Website: http://practical.engineering

“Marxist Arrow” by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBlLC…

“Tonic and Energy” by Elexive is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6fBP…

QotD: The succession problem of totalitarian leadership

Filed under: Business, Economics, History, Quotations, Russia — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

Back in the Cold War, prudent Kremlinologists had to take the marked decline in the Politburo’s collective intelligence very seriously indeed (the old adage “never attribute to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity” is terrifying when the potentially malicious dumbasses have nuclear missiles).

There were two main reasons for the decline, both structural. The first, of course, is Communism itself. A totally ideologized society is a society totally committed to make-believe. You could fill a good-sized book listing the catastrophes make-believe caused the USSR. Just to take the most obvious: Hitler did everything but send the Goodyear Blimp over Moscow, towing a banner announcing his invasion plans. But since everyone who accurately reported the goings-on in Poland ended up in the Gulag, the Wehrmacht walked right on in.

The second has to do with the nature of totalitarian leadership. Obviously sharing power is out of the question, so every Boss who finally claws his way to the top ruthlessly purges everyone who could conceivably challenge him. The purged are replaced by yes-men and toadies, who immediately enact mini-purges of their own inside their new departments. It doesn’t take more than a few rounds of this for smarter functionaries to learn to dig themselves in very, very deep, disguising themselves in a kind of protective stupidity. A few more rounds, and “protective stupidity” drops the modifier, as anyone with anything on the ball has decamped for the safer — and, not coincidentally, very soon much more profitable — havens of technical management.

It doesn’t take long before your “leadership” is nothing but ideology-addled dimbulbs. Sound familiar?

Severian, “How Dumb Are Liberals?”, Rotten Chestnuts, 2020-07-31.

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