Recent content by Cymraeg

Vicious, you mean about Stalin. The man wasn’t thick and gooey. Sorry to go all spelling police.

Sorry, but I have severe issues with the myth that the Germans regarded Patton as 'the USA's best field commander'. Yes, they did regard him a talented armour commander, but the way that he got badly bogged down at Metz and Nancy did not impress them. They did not follow his every move with...

I know that it's unlikely that Mikhail Tukhachevsky could have survived to 1941 (Stalin never forgave him for daring to point out that it was Stalin's screwups in Poland in the Soviet-Polish war that led to disaster at the Battle of Warsaw) but it would have been fascinating to see a Red Army...

No, sorry, the punch was utterly unprovoked and Clarkson has admitted that. He was drunk and punched a production assistant for the fact that the hotel had closed its restaurant. He was a boorish moron.

That sounds normal for that generation. My Grandfather must had the most amazing stories about the war, from the Retreat to Dunkirk, to becoming an officer, to landing on Gold at D+2 and having to find a) paper for the daily 2nd Army newsletter and b) Calvados for a VIP who came to his HQ once...

The annoying thing about Jeremy bloody Clarkson is that when he can control himself and not be a ranting maniac who punches people and says stupid things, he can be a bloody good journalist who can tell a great historical tale. Unfortunately he's better known for being a childish twit.

You mean George MacDonald Fraser in his memoirs about Burma, Quartered Safe Out Here. Great book, asides from the snark about the European Union on one page that jarred with me quite badly.

Let us also not forget that 1848 was the last dying gasp of the Congress of Europe system - in other words major powers not wanting to upset the applecart in any way and disturb the balance of power. They also wanted to curb any possibility of a return to the revolutionary period. So Russia was...

Wow. Two GS on any kind of fixed defences would ruin anyone's day. "I'm sure there was a bunker complex here somewhere."

*Astonished silence* ASB. Nope, ASB in spades.

I think that the impact on the the UK will be... interesting. My initial thought that Blair is toast, Brown as well, ITTL, but I'm not so sure now. The Tory leader until the May 2005 UK General election was Michael Howard, who took over from Iain Duncan Smith, both of who would have tied...

Bravo. Depressing, horrific, everything I could have imagined a war like this, started by complete idiots like Dubya, Cheney and Rumsfeld, with a death toll of horrifying proportions. At least Bush is stepping down in this TL, horrified by what he had unleashed.

*Baffled silence* Germany had two industrial powerhouses, the Ruhr and Silesia. Both had good transport access, local natural resources, population, power, etc. The Ruhr's power needs were the main reason behind the Dambusters Raid, to take out a chunk of the region's hydroelectric power. I...

Based on almost ideal conditions for the Japanese - strategic and tactical surprise, astonished, half-asleep officers & crewmen, ammunition lockers locked (many were smashed open), some guns covered, no-one ready - the number of Japanese planes shot down wasn't bad. The Japanese in the second...

What would be the point of departure? No Dolittle raid? Yamamoto was pressing hard for the Midway operation, I'm just wondering why he'd junk it suddenly before Coral Sea? The IJN was fixated on its great decisive battle obsession (do not get me started, I will rant on that) so is FS an attempt...