Redbeard

The Soviet copies (I believe they had a license) of the Ford AA(A) trucks made up a main part of Soviet logistic capacity, at least in early WWII. From a first glance they look archaic, but from a second thought they ought to be quite cheap to produce and easy to keep running. Ground clearance would also appear quite good -does anyone know how they performed in terrain/on bad roads? I doubt they had a differential-lock, the GAZ was already simplified from the Ford, but I imagine with one on the powered axle(s) it could be quite good in terrain. Can anyone enlighten me?

Yeah, people already say to their executed relatives elsewhere: "Lucky you, in NK you would have been shot with an AA gun!"

This is a taste of things to come, until there are enough tests (antibodies, specifically) to detect and isolate infected people on the fly, there will be more waves of the virus. Which is also why they are right now increasing the daily number of tests, IIRC to 10.000.

There is an end to all this, today the number of people hospitalised with Corona symptoms dropped for the first time here in Denmark. This is actually as predicted, just some days early and appear to confirm the overall strategy of slowing the spread by social distancing and we have not yet been near the limit of what hospitals can offer in intensive care/respirators. Hope it holds, but so far the expectation is that restrictions will be slowly eased after Easter.

I'm sure you could find numerous examples of dicks - if you look for them. The first would appear soon and if you carry on zealously you have many more and they would soon block your view of the countless good guys. My point is the way the US Army tried to explain the British to the GIs - the US Army IMHO did a good job and at the end of the day probably had the good guys stand in front of the dicks. I even think we today could learn from these movies.

Found this through google, can it help? https://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm3-05-213.pdf

Sorry I don't, but I can tell you a definition of horse drawn artillery I was told by an older colleague many years ago: "Early in the morning you hear clogs on cobbles, heavy doors open and close, next for many hours you hear a lot of noise from the building and then at noon, the heavy doors open again and out comes a hell lot of horses and four smal cannons". I guess pack horse units would be similar.

I love it. I'm not British, I'm not American, but I'm getting old and sentimental - a lump in my throat and slightly wet eyes, when I see those old films sincerely trying to understand and respect a brother!

Found this on Youtube, actually find it quite touching in how the film try to explain and understand the British - even if there here and there is a little brotherly sting. Of course it is propaganda, even worse, it is wartime propaganda - but it is good. Hope you'll find the good tone across the Atlantic again. The world may depend on it again.

Perhaps it would have been much better if the ships hadn't worked or at least had appeared like not working - then perhaps Britain wouldn't have been pushed into alliance with France and Russia. Even calling it "High Seas Fleet" is part of the problem. Imperial Germany of course needed some kind of naval force - to protect her relatively short coastlines and keep the other bullies out of the Baltic. But for that a Jeune Ecole coastal force would have been much more useful and it would first of all not have alienated the British. The High Seas fleet was not well suited for defending Germany but in the numbers it was approaching in the first decade of 20th century excellent for a take on breaking British naval supremacy - and the better they worked the worse it became.

Yes, the Swedish tax reforms helped a lot in tying down the "loose welfare cannon on the deck", but in combination with costs of uncontrolled immigration from the greater ME for decades it has reinforced a feeling among many Swedes that the welfare state is not for them any longer but most is spent by immigrants. The earlier so strong Socialdemocratic Party of Sweden really hasn't realised that yet and pretend everything is stil like in Olof Palmes days when Sweden pretended to be a moral super power and invited the entire world to live in Sweden. I wouldn't be surprised if we see some very drastic political changes in Sweden inside the next ten years and that it will be after the "ketchup effect principle". We can only hope the mess up is only ketchup. In Denmark a lot already has changed politically as the Socialdemocrats now try to take a lead in the anti-immigration race and in general something like 80% of the parliament is openly anti-immigrant, so the political ketchup is already out and under control. But the welfare state is not under control however and the political majority incl. the Socialdemocrats have no clue. That is a problem, not only because very high taxes to pay for welfare put severe restriction on wealth in general, but also because we can't keep our own high level welfare state inside an EU with free movement of labour and outside we can't pay for welfare, as most wealth in Denmark is paid for by trade with EU countries. And BTW, there really isn't that "free health care" in Denmark Sanders speak about. Everybody with a decent job as an extra health insurance included in the contract or paid for privately because you in general will have to wait for long times for treatment in the taxpaid (nothing is free) health care system. That is not because the taxpaid system is ineffective, it is actually very effective, but because the number of potential treatments and their cost has risen explosively. In that context you could of course call us socialists as we distribute the scarse goods by having people wait in line like in the Soviet Union (and have those who can pay for a shorter line), but fundamentally we are as much a market economy as USA. In many ways I think private companies are less regulated in Denmark than in USA.

Was has happened in the Democratic party? Back in the 80s a socialist sect calling themselves Trotskists tried to take over various Labour/Socialdemocratic parties from within. They failed in Germany, Sweden and Denmark but their descendants eventually took over the British Labour Party and the Swedish (and to a degree the German) is now caught in its own outdated multikulti set-up. Has there been a similar process in the Democratic Party or are there really by itself that many Democratic party members who think you can actually get what Sanders promises them?

In cost effectiveness strategic bombing probably was the most expensive way to hurt the enemy. but if you won't have your screwdriver in a couple og years yet even an overpriced hammer is better than nothing. In other words - for years the wallies really didn't have any other option than keep hammering with their absurdly expensive heavy bombers - to at least do something! And here their way too big confidence in the effects of strategic bombing probably was most helpful - as it kept the wallies from doing something much more stupid - like invading in France before they had the overwhelming force to do so. So perhaps Bomber Harris was a big hero after all? He just had no clue why...

Exactly! Dresden was utilised for decades by Soviet propaganda to inflict som guilt on the western powers and cover up their own crimes. As usual the left-wing populists played along with Soviet propaganda as long as the target was the hated western powers. Now right wing populists are utilising the Dresden bombing for their purposes and the "truth" about Dresden needs to be changed. Truth indeed is a very relative thing. When all that is said however I find it 100% legitimate for the Germans to feel sad about the fate of Dresden and proud about its rebirth. Very impressive! I even welcome my German brothers and sisters going to football games painted in black-red-yellow. Consensus about being proud of Germany is probably the best defence against right wing populism. Denying a people their identity is fuel on any right wing populism.

You're welcome anytime