How effective was the German defense of Germany in WW2?

The German Army was designed around a mobile attack strategy that used flank counterattack as a defensive strategy. They never considered a fighting withdrawal or static defense line and were often surprised to find themselves on the defensive in Russia. What made the German Army so effective was that every soldier was expected to think, not just follow orders, and take effective independent action to achieve a goal. The Russian Army was exactly the opposite. The Russian soldier was expected to do nothing more than follow orders, even to his detriment and was punished severely for independent thinking. As a result, the Germans were able to accomplish astounding feats, because everyone was thinking, not just the commander who might have limited situational awareness. In addition, German commanders were unique in that they lead from the front. They saw what the men saw, and were able to make instant, good decisions without the lag of communication and analysis. No other army had the casualty rate of senior officers, even Generals, that the Germans experienced. This would hurt them more and more as the war went on and experienced leaders (especially sergeants) were killed or wounded.

The Germans never could have won a protracted war and were never geared up to wage such a war. They didn't go to 24 hour shifts at their industrial plants til well into the war; they never were more than a few weeks from running out of fuel; they never were as mechanized as people believe. They didn't even have a 4-wheel drive truck as a main piece of equipment. As for numbers, the US manufactured 800,000 2 1/2 ton trucks to 100,000 of the German equivalent truck. And the Germans never made a heavy bomber that could attack Russian industrial centers far from the front.

On the plus side, the German Army was centered around the MG34 and MG42 machine guns, the most advanced machine gun in the world, so powerful it could cut a man in half. It was lightweight, barrels changed fast and as defensive operations became more important, it used a specialized lafette that made it effective at long ranges. The entire German unit was designed to support this machine gun and everyone was required to carry extra ammunition for it. You will often see photos of German soldiers with a belt of machine gun ammunition around their necks. The Russians would charge this machine gun with abandon, and it so sickened many German machine gunners that they would vomit after the battle, having killed hundreds of Russians before they got close. (In the photo below is an MG42 machine gun and lafette. The lafette was light enough to be man-carried and contained a sight and could even be operated by a crank. Short bursts were ideal, but in heavy combat, constant shooting was possible, but the barrel would eventually melt. Asbestos gloves were part of the standard kit, along with two spare barrels.)





On the other hand, the Germans were carrying the KAR98 five shot rifle, the absolute best rifle in the world - in 1905. Every other army had a better standard rifle than the Germans. The American M1 so empowered the American infantry that the Germans copied it by creating the Gewehr 43, a similar self-loading long arm, however, by the time it was perfected it was too late for the Germans, though in defensive operations, it, along with the Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle did make up for lost manpower somewhat. The Germans didn't even possess a powerful infantry mortar, using instead a man-portable 56mm mortar. However, they captured so many bigger mortars from the Russians on such a regular basis that they were able to distribute them throughout the various fronts and simply manufacture ammunition. (In the top photo below is the Granatwerfer 36, the main German infantry mortar. It was easily man portable and the only mortar ever made to use a trigger. However, it was very short ranged and the rounds were not powerful enough to destroy even lightly armored vehicles so as the war progressed it migrated more to the Volkssturm as the Germans turned to captured Russian mortars more and more often. The second photo is the Gewehr 43, an auto-loading rifle greatly influenced by the American M1 Garand but with various improvements. It had a removable box magazine that could hold more ammo than the M1, was lighter because it used the KAR98 cartridge and was organically able to fire on automatic as well as semi-automatic. American GIs often converted the M1 to full auto in the field, but because of the size of the 30-06 cartridge (selected by Douglas MacArthur over the .30 cal because the US had so much left over from WW1), the cycle rate was very, very slow. It took the Germans over 18 months to perfect their version and the soldiers hated it at first, so by the time it was a good weapon, it was too late to make a difference. The third photo is of the Sturmgewehr 44, the first "assault rifle", coined so by Hitler. This gun was revolutionary. What made it special was the "kurz cartridge", a cross between a pistol and rifle bullet still used in assualt weapons today. The banana magazine was also new. This gun gave the Germans superior, reliable firepower for any situation but by the time it came out Germany was already on the ropes. Captured copies were not appreciated by the Americans because of the sloppy workmanship, but this weapon influenced every single assault rifle since then)

Roaratorio

Underground Nuclear Explosions

They called for more structure . . .

They called for more structure, then, so we brought in some big hairy four-by-fours from the back shed and nailed them into place with railroad spikes. This new city, they said, was going to be just jim-dandy, would make architects stutter, would make Chambers of Commerce burst into flame. We would have our own witch doctors, and strange gods aplenty, and site-specific sins, and humuhumunukunukuapuaa in the public fishbowls. We workers listened with our mouths agape. We had never heard anything like it. But we trusted our instincts and our paychecks, so we pressed on, bringing in color-coated steel from the back shed and anodized aluminum from the shed behind that. Oh radiant city! we said to ourselves, how we want you to be built! Workplace democracy was practiced on the job, and the clerk-of-the-works (who had known Wiwi Lönn in Finland) wore a little cap with a little feather, very jaunty. There was never any question of hanging back (although we noticed that our ID cards were of a color different from their ID cards); the exercise of our skills, and the promise of the city, were enough. By the light of the moon we counted our chisels and told stories of other building feats we have been involved in: Babel, Chandigarh, Brasilia,Taliesin.

At dawn each day, an eight-mile run, to condition ourselves for the implausible exploits ahead.

The enormous pumping station, clad in red Lego, at the point where the new river will be activated . . .

Areas of the city, they told us, had been designed to rot, fall into desuetude, return, in time, to open space. Perhaps, they said, fawns would one day romp there, on the crumbling brick. We were slightly skeptical about this part of the plan, but it was, after all, a plan, the ferocious integrity of the detailing impressed us all, and standing by the pens containing the fawns who would father the fawns who might someday romp on the crumbling brick, one could not help but notice one's chest bursting with anticipatory pride.

High in the air, working on a setback faced with alternating bands of gray and rose stone capped with grids of gray glass, we moistened our brows with the tails of our shirts, which had been dipped into a pleasing brine, lit new cigars, and saw the new city spread out beneath us, in the shape of the word FASTIGIUM. Not the name of the city, they told us, simply a set of letters selected for the elegance of the script. The little girl dead behind the rosebushes came back to life, and the passionate construction continued.

D. Barthelme

Earth–Moon–Earth (Moonlight Sonata Reflected from the Surface of the Moon)

http://www.katiepaterson.org/eme/

Earth-Moon-Earth (E.M.E) is a form of radio transmission whereby messages are sent in Morse code from earth, reflected from the surface of the moon, and then received back on earth. The moon reflects only part of the information back – some is absorbed in its shadows, ‘lost’ in its craters.

For this work Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata was translated into morse code and sent to the moon via E.M.E. Returning to earth fragmented by the moon's surface, it has been re-translated into a new score, the gaps and absences becoming intervals and rests. In the exhibition space the new 'moon–altered' score plays on a self-playing grand piano.

The Fox Periodical 1975 - 1976

Pope

Like Steel

Wu Zetian

Year of the Ovicaprid

More about Wake in Fright

Since its theatrical release, Wake in Fright occasionally screened late at night on Australia television during the 1980s and early 1990s, presented by Bill Collins, and there was a limited release of Outback on videocassette in the US in the ’80s. However, by the late ’90s, though some 16mm and 35mm prints of the film still existed, they were in extremely poor condition for screening and the original negatives seemed to have disappeared without a trace.

In 1996, Anthony Buckley, the editor of Wake in Fright, started searching for the original materials. In 1998, he located the negatives in London at a bonded warehouse, only to find on arrival that the film had been shipped to the United States the week before.

The search continued for another four years until, in 2002, the original film materials were finally located in a Pittsburgh vault marked for destruction and imminent disposal. There were protracted negotiations with CBS (who owned the North American rights to the film and the materials) and finally, with the assistance of Ausfilm in Los Angeles, an agreement was struck with CBS to export materials to the Australia to be held at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA).

In 2003, the eagerly awaited first batch of Wake in Fright materials arrived in Australia. Upon close inspection it was quickly apparent that the two pallets of material were mainly beaten up, cut-down TV versions of the film, and of little use. This was a great disappointment for all concerned as CBS stated that they had delivered all the material known to be held.

Despite this setback Buckley persisted and — with the assistance of Megs Worthy, then of Ausfilm — continued to liaise with CBS in Los Angeles. CBS recommended contacting Iron Mountain Vaults directly, where a long-time vaults manager suggested that if there was anything more to be found, the 'dump bins’ would need to be searched. And it was in these bins that the complete original negatives of Wake in Fright (Outback) were finally found!

In two separate shipments, 263 cans of film from the US containing original film elements necessary to reconstruct and preserve the film, arrived at the NFSA in September 2004. An initial inspection confirmed that virtually the complete set of images and sound negatives were there and reasonably intact. The NFSA Adetermined how best to preserve the film and to choose appropriate image and materials in good enough condition to use.

The NFSA, together with Atlab and with Tony Buckley’s creative oversight, commenced preservation work using traditional photochemical techniques for the image and archival matching of the negative components.

Due to poor condition and the onset of vinegar syndrome on key components, however, the sound required specific care and transfer techniques to produce a quality transfer. A large number of sound components were transferred and auditioned for audio quality and completeness by NFSA technicians. Eventually, components were selected for use in a new final mix. These components included a combination of dialogue tracks, music and effects tracks and optical soundtracks from both film and television versions. These parts were then pieced together digitally by Soundfirm with the guidance of NFSA staff to create a restored and complete mix ready for Atlab/Deluxe to re-master to Dolby Digital.

Meanwhile, it was soon apparent that traditional photochemical preservation would not be sufficient to preserve the film and produce prints that match how the film was released originally. Significant colour fade and emulsion scratching were too severe to rejuvenate it via photochemical means. Testing using digital restoration techniques were employed to see what improvements could be made using these methods over photochemical.

Digital restoration testing proved very positive and a partnership was agreed to between the NFSA and Atlab to do a full digital restoration. Anthos Simon, General Manager, Atlab/Deluxe explained, 'Atlab/Deluxe scanned the original film elements for Wake in Fright at the highest possible resolution (4K or 4096×3112) on a pin registered scanner to ensure we got the best image quality available. We kept the entire digital image in film log space (DPX files) so there was no colour compression at all. We then proceeded to digitally restore each reel by carefully removing dirt marks, fixing scratches, creating a colour LUT to repair the emulsions, and splice repair. We used both standard and inhouse digital tools that we developed specifically for this project. It was also handy to have some inhouse research and development. All this careful and delicate restoration was done frame by frame and took over a year to complete. The sound was also remastered to a new Dolby digital sound negative from a combination of the original final mix, dialogue, music and effects elements. We then proceeded to make brand new prints and a safety inter-positive master.’

By February 2009, Wake in Fright was digitally restored to pristine condition by Atlab/Deluxe and the NFSA –- ready for rediscovery by audiences.

Rumi

Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi was a 13th century Persian poet, an Islamic dervish and a Sufi mystic. He is regarded as one of the greatest spiritual masters and poetical intellects. Born in 1207 AD, he belonged to a family of learned theologians. He made use of everyday life’s circumstances to describe the spiritual world. Rumi’s poems have acquired immense popularity, especially among the Persian speakers of Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan. Numerous poems written by the great poet have been translated to different languages.

Childhood

Jalaluddin Rumi was born on September 30, 1207, in Balkh (in present-day Afghanistan). His father, Bahaduddin Walad, was a theologian, jurist and a mystic, while his mother was Mumina Khatun. When Mongols invaded Central Asia, between 1215 and 1220, Rumi left Balkh with his family and a group of disciples. The migrating caravan traveled extensively in Muslim lands, including Baghdad, Damascus, Malatya, Erzincan, Sivas, Kayseri and Nigde. After performing pilgrimage in Mecca, they eventually settled in Konya, located in the present-day western Turkey. At that time, Rumi’s father was an Islamic theologian, a teacher and a preacher.

Career

Rumi was a disciple of Sayyed Burhan ud-Din Muhaqqiq Termazi, one of his father’s students. Under the guidance of Sayyed Termazi, he practiced Sufism and acquired a lot of knowledge about spiritual matters and secrets of the spirit world. After the demise of Bahaduddin, in 1231 AD, Rumi inherited his father’s position and became a prominent religious teacher. He preached in the mosques of Konya. By the time Rumi reached the age of 24, he had proven himself as a well-informed scholar in the field of religious science.

Turning Point Of Rumi’s Life

Rumi was already a teacher and a theologian, when in 1244 AD he came across a wandering dervish named Shamsuddin of Tabriz. The meeting proved to be a turning point in his life. Shamsuddin and Rumi became very close friends. Shams went to Damascus, were he was allegedly killed by the students of Rumi who were resentful of their close relationship. Rumi expressed his love for Shamsuddin and grief at his death, through music, dance and poems.

For nearly ten years after meeting Shamsuddin, Rumi devoted himself in writing ghazals. He made a compilation of ghazals and named it Diwan-e-Kabir or Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi. Thereafter, Rumi encountered a goldsmith - Salaud-Din-e Zarkub - whom he made his companion. When Salaud-Din-e Zarkub died, Rumi befriended one of his favorite disciples named Hussam-e Chalabi. Rumi spent most of the later years of his life in Anatolia, where he finished six volumes of his masterwork, the Masnavi.

Popular Works

Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi: Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi (or Diwan-e-Kabir) is one of the masterpieces of Rumi. It is a collection of ghazals named in the honor of dervish Shamsuddin, who was Rumi’s great friend and inspiration. It also contains an assortment of poems arranged according to the rhyming scheme. Diwan-e-Kabir has been written in ‘Dari’ dialect. It is regarded as one of the greatest works of Persian literature.

Mathnawi: Mathnawi is a compilation of six volumes of poetry, written in a didactic style. The poems are intended to inform, instruct as well as entertain the reader. It is believed that Rumi started the work of Mathnawi at the suggestion of his then companion, Husam al-Din Chalabin. Mathnawi attempts to explain the various facets of spiritual life.

Legacy

Rumi’s popularity has gone beyond national and ethnic borders. He is considered to be one of the classical poets, by the speakers of Persian language in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. For many years, he had a great influence on Turkish literature. The popularity of his works inspired many artists, including Mohammad Reza Shajarian (Iran), Shahram Nazeri (Iran), Davood Azad (Iran) and Ustad Mohammad Hashem Cheshti (Afghanistan), to give classical interpretation for his poems. Rumi’s works have been translated to many languages across the world, including Russian, German, Urdu, Turkish, Arabic, French, Italian and Spanish.

Death

Rumi departed from the world on 17th December 1273 AD, in Konya, within the Seljuk Empire's territory (currently it's within Turkey). He was buried beside his father in Konya. A tomb named Mevlana mausoleum was built in Konya, commemorating the great Sufi poet. It consists of a mosque, dervish living quarters and a dance hall. The sacred site is visited by his admirers coming from different parts of the world.

Hartlepool | Scarborough | Whitby | 16 Dec 1914

Norman Collins

Norman Collins lived in Hartlepool in 1914, a 17-year-old apprentice at one of the marine engineering firms in the town. He’d attempted to join the Army on the 4th of August, but his father had found out and got him withdrawn for being under-age. The bombardment was a vital factor in hardening his resolve to try again as soon as possible, which he’ll eventually do on his 18th birthday, when his parents can no longer stop him. His extensive recollections of the war were published some time ago, and I’ll be following him about to see how he gets on.

Walking towards town was one of the silliest things I have ever done, as I was walking into a battlefield, walking among the shells that were exploding. Yet I had no feeling of panic whatsoever. Just as I turned the corner into Lumley Street, I saw the body of Sammy Woods, aged nineteen, a school and Sunday School friend of mine; he was lying half in and half out of his doorway, dead of course. He had been caught by a shell that had fallen to my left into the rectory that belonged to St Hilda’s Church. A shell had burst just as he stepped out and a second before I turned the corner.
…
Later that morning I went and collected pieces of shell. There was debris everywhere. Shell fragments, some weighing several pounds, were being collected as souvenirs and I still have several which came through the roof of our house. They bristle with jagged edges and the mortar is still lodged in the steel. Elsewhere I found a dead donkey that had been grazing in the friarage field, the home ground of the Hartlepool Rovers Rugby Football Club, and I have the piece of shell that killed it.

Collins’s sang-froid in wandering about a town under fire (and then going souvenir-hunting!) is rather remarkable. According to him, it was so unexpected that it didn’t seem real, and so he couldn’t be scared by what was going on. He also speaks very perceptively of noticing German shells landing in the streets and failing to explode. They’ve been designed for use against heavily-armoured targets at relatively high angles. In the town they’re falling on brick and concrete at a relatively low angle, and so a healthy number of them aren’t detonating.
Meanwhile, at sea

Quick recap. The Admiralty knows of the raid from some captured German transmissions, and intends to respond in what they believe will be overwhelming force. What they don’t know is that the entire High Seas Fleet is waiting for them; enough capital ships are at risk to change the balance of naval power if they should be sunk.

And the story of the action at sea is one of cock-up upon calamity. In the early morning, the High Seas Fleet, some 85 ships strong including 22 battleships, discovered the interceptors (four battlecruisers, six dreadnoughts). However, it’s vital to remember here that the fog of war is well and truly in play. Influenced strongly by standing orders to protect his fleet, Admiral Ingenohl decides to withdraw. If they’re committing that amount of firepower, it’s very possible that the Grand Fleet has come with it and is just waiting for him to give battle with the vanguard…

The hand of fate descends once more an hour later, as the British force’s destroyers discover a scouting High Seas Fleet cruiser. Communications break down between the British admirals, and they do not pursue. Had they done so, this may well have provoked the encounter that the Germans have just tried to avoid. By this time, news has reached the British force of the raids, and they attempt a pursuit of the raiders. Further miscommunication comprehensively ties British shoelaces together, and the raiders escape without being forced to give battle.

The British remain unaware that the High Seas Fleet has been at sea until the evening. They mistake their “we’re coming home” signals for “we’re going out” signals, and the Grand Fleet caps the day’s events off by setting sail in search of a glorious battle with nothing. Fog of war, don’t you love it?

KADEBOSTANY - Walking with a Ghost

THERE WAS EARTH INSIDE THEM

There was earth inside them, and
they dug.

They dug and dug, and so
their day went past, their night. And they did not praise God,
who, so they heard, wanted all this,
who, so they heard, witnessed all this.

They dug and heard nothing more;
they did not grow wise, invented no song,
devised for themselves no sort of language.
They dug.

There came a stillness then, came also storm,
all of the oceans came.
I dig, you dig, and it, the worm, digs too,
and the singing there says: They dig.

O one, O none, O no one, O you:
Where did it go, then, making for nowhere?
O you dig and I dig, and I dig through to you,
and the ring on our finger awakens.

Paul Celan (1959)

1P3qL86MeacRJyb4cMHvWddVZ1tysabJFp

TISM

The Playmander

The Playmander was a form of electoral malapportionment in the Australian state of South Australia, in place from 1936 to 1968. It consisted of rural districts enjoying a 2-to-1 advantage in the state parliament, even though they contained less than half of the population, as well as a change from multiple member to single member electorates, and the number of MPs in the lower house was reduced from 46 to 39.

More equitable boundaries were subsequently put in place: in 1968, 1975, and 1989. More seats were introduced, and seats are required to be proportionate, as well as having a unique fairness clause which directs the Electoral Commission of South Australia to strategically re-draw boundaries in attempts to ensure as much as possible that the party which wins the majority of the two-party preferred vote wins government.

The word Playmander is a portmanteau derived from the name of Premier Sir Thomas Playford and the political term gerrymander, though the system did not originate with Playford (it was introduced under his predecessor Richard Layton Butler) and was not technically a gerrymander (the latter does not imply malapportionment). Playford was its primary beneficiary, however, as his Liberal and Country League (LCL) party was able to stay in power for three decades even while losing several elections in terms of vote numbers.

Everyday Klingon Phrases

http://www.kli.org/tlh/phrases.html


Yes. (answer to yes/no question)

HIja' or HISlaH


No. (answer to yes/no question)

ghobe'


Yes, OK, I'll do it.

lu' or luq


No, don't, I won't.

Qo'


Hello. (Roughly, "What do you want?")

nuqneH


What's happening?

qaStaH nuq?


Huh?

nuqjatlh?


I understand.

jIyaj


I don't understand.

jIyajbe'


Good! (expression of satisfaction)

maj


Well done!

majQa'


Where is the bathroom?

nuqDaq 'oH puchpa''e'


Come in

yI'el (to more than one person: pe'el)


Come here.

HIghoS


Go away.

naDevvo' yIghoS (to more than one person: naDevvo' peghoS)


Open the door!

lojmIt yIpoSmoH! (See note if you think something is missing here.)


Don't be silly.

yIDoghQo' (to more than one person: peDoghQo')


Your mother has a smooth forehead!

Hab SoSlI' Quch! (Note: this is a powerful insult; don't say it to friends.)


Today is a good day to die.

Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam


We are Klingons!

tlhIngan maH!


Happy birthday.

qoSlIj DatIvjaj (to more than one person: qoSraj botIvjaj)


What time is it?

'arlogh Qoylu'pu'? (Literally, "How many times has it [presumably some traditional hour alarm] been heard?")


Shut up!

bIjatlh 'e' yImev (to more than one person: Sujatlh 'e' yImev)


That's great news!

buy' ngop (Literally, "The plates are full")

T-72

The Dish

So long, Andrew

Copacabana

M.O.D.O.K

Mechanical Organism Designed Only for Killing

Errantry

There was a merry passenger,

A messenger a mariner:

He built a gilded gondola

To wander in and had in her

A load of yellow oranges

And porridge for his provender;

He perfumed her with marjoram,

And cardamom and lavender.




He called the winds of Argosies,

With cargoes in to carry him,

Across the rivers seventeen,

That lay between to tarry him.

He landed all in loneliness,

Where stonily the pebbles on

The running river Derrilyn,

Goes merrily for ever on.

He journeyed then through meadow-lands,

To shadow-land that dreary lay,

And under hill and over hill,

Went roving still a weary way.




He sat and sang a melody,

His errantry a tarrying,

He begged a pretty butterfly,

That fluttered by to marry him.

She scorned him and she scoffed at him,

She laughed at him unpitying,

So long he studied wizardry,

And sigaldry and smithying.




He wove a tissue airy thin,

To snare her in; to follow her,

He made him beetle-leatherwing,

And feather wing of swallow hair.




He caught her in bewilderment,

With filament of spider-thread.

He made her soft pavilions,

Of lilies and a bridal bed,

Of flowers and of thistle-down,

To nestle down and rest her in,

And silken webs of filmy white,

And silver light he dressed her in.




He threaded gems and necklaces,

But recklessly she squandered them,

And fell to bitter quarrelling,

Then sorrowing he wandered on,

And there he left her withering

As shivering he fled away;

With windy weather following,

On swallow-wing he sped away.




He passed the achipelagoes,

Where yellow grows the marigold,

With countless silver fountains are,

And mountains are of fairy-gold.

He took to war and foraying,

A-harrying beyond the sea,

And roaming over Belmary,

And Thellamie and Fantasie.




He made a shield and morion,

Of coral and of ivory.

A sword he made of emerald,

And terrible his rivalry,

With elven knights of Aerie

And Faerie, with paladins

That golden-haired, and shining-eyed

Came riding by, and challenged him.




Of crystal was his habergeon,

His scabbard of chalcedony,

With silver tipped and plenilune,

His spear was hewn of ebony.

His javelins were of malachite

And stalactite - he brandished them,

And went and fought the dragon flies,

Of Paradise, and vanquished them.




He battled with the Dumbledors,

The Hummerhorns, and Honeybees,

And won the Golden Honeycomb,

And running home on sunny seas,

In ship of leaves and gossamer,

With blossom for a canopy,

He sat and sang, and furbished up,

And burnished up his panoply.




He tarried for a little while,

In little isles that lonely lay,

And found their naught but blowing grass.

And so at last, the only way he took, and turned,

And coming home with honeycomb,

To memory his message came,

And errand too!

In derring-do and glamoury,

He had forgot them,

Journeying and tourneying, a wanderer.




So now he must depart again,

And start again his gondola,

For ever still a messenger a passenger, a tarrier,

A roving as a feather does,

A weather-driven mariner.

Black Sea