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Milestones

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There are a lot of good Generals and Admirals. Bill Slim in Burma and Harwood in at the River Plate for example.
Some others were promoted beyond their competence, yes and all made mistakes.
Admiral Sir Bertram Home Ramsay was a genius who had been forced into retirement before ww2 and was put into Dover command in 1939 and thus was in position to command the Dunkirk evacuation. Without him it would have been a much greater disaster.
It is impossible to completely say one general is better then another. Consider Manstein he was considered by other German generals to be the best of them.
Very Good Point. It's like choosing the sexiest Cruxgirl, a minefield with no one answer.

I mentioned Nelson's quote. At the time, the Admiralty's policy was, after a battle, to court martial and cashier the least performing Captain as an example to the the others. Nelson, before the Battle of the Nile, hosted his Captain's for dinner and made the statement. He said he would resign his commission before allowing any of his "Band of Brothers" who performed to that level, to be punished.
 
There are a lot of good Generals and Admirals. Bill Slim in Burma and Harwood in at the River Plate for example.
Some others were promoted beyond their competence, yes and all made mistakes.
Admiral Sir Bertram Home Ramsay was a genius who had been forced into retirement before ww2 and was put into Dover command in 1939 and thus was in position to command the Dunkirk evacuation. Without him it would have been a much greater disaster.
It is impossible to completely say one general is better then another. Consider Manstein he was considered by other German generals to be the best of them.

There is a chapter in Anthony Beevor's book on Stalingrad entitled "Der Manstein kommt". Even he couldn't save the situation with a counterattack. The Red Army commander at Stalingrad was Vasily Chuikhov, who when asked by Kruschev and Malenkov whether he understood his orders said "We will save the city or die in the attempt". He certainly did what he was supposed to do, regardless of his performance elsewhere. He also wrote a lot of memoir after the war, and apparently it didn't pull punches. I've never gotten to read any of it, though.

My apologies to General Slim (and to Admiral Ramsay). Slim was probably one of the best generals, in a forgotten theater starved of resources. He beat out "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell (who had an impossible job but wasn't plodding or mechanical). If I remember, at one point they wanted to recall the truly innovative Slim.
Then there is Percy Hobart. He came up with all kinds of innovative contraptions to counter mines and enhance the capabilities of tanks ("Hobart's Funnies").
Churchill:
"I am not at all impressed by the prejudice against him in certain quarters. Such prejudices attach frequently to persons of strong personality and original view....We are now at war, fighting for our lives, and we cannot afford to confine Army appointments to officers who have excited no hostile comment in their careers."
Politics and career-building are common in war (MacArthur is a prime example). There is supposedly a saying in the US Army: "the best colonels never make general".
 
Today's Great Milestone is of course the arrival of the Great North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un in Vladivostok, for talks with President Xyulo - wanted by criminal international court in The Hague.

There was just a glitch when the Eternal Genius's train missed the red carpet on the station platform.


Well, it happened before, when two great world leaders met :

 
A tip of the hat to a remarkable woman, St. Catherine of Siena, whose feast day is celebrated today on the anniversary of her death in 1380. Philosopher, theologian, and diplomat, Pope Paul VI declared her a doctor of the church in 1970. There are only 36 persons thus honored, a title reserved for those deemed to have had a particularly significant influence on theology and doctrine. She is thus recognized as a peer with such revered names as Augustine, Jerome, Aquinas, and Anselm. A lot to accomplish in a life of only 33 years.

Sorry, I found no sexual or crucify references, thought she did emphasize mystical participation on the suffering of Christ.
 
Indeed, although she wasn't martyred by mere human torturers,
she was severely tormented by demons, and experienced some
very physical, even erotic, sensations as she participated
in the sufferings of Christ and consummated her mystic marriage with Him.

Lesser_Poland_St._Catherine_of_Siena.jpg 220px-Giovanni_Battista_Tiepolo_096.jpg
 
One Hundred and Fifty years ago on May 10, 1869, in a remote section of Utah, near Promontory Point, an event occured that bound the United States together, East and West. The sesquicentennial of the Transcontinental Railroad
Original photo
110445-780x495.jpg
The Wine bottles held by the firemen are often airbrushed out
Reenactment
IMGP0528.jpg
 
One Hundred and Fifty years ago on May 10, 1869, in a remote section of Utah, near Promontory Point, an event occur that bound the United States together, East and West. The sesquicentennial of the Transcontinental Railroad
Original photo

Not a woman in sight. Where are all the female slaves that did the real work? Airbrushed out?
 
I would guess that any "ladies" in that region at that time would have been fully occupied attending to the "needs" of any railroad builders who could tear themselves away from all the pomp and circumstance shit.

They could all be found over at Messaline’s Saloon and Bordello :devil:
 
One Hundred and Fifty years ago on May 10, 1869, in a remote section of Utah, near Promontory Point, an event occured that bound the United States together, East and West. The sesquicentennial of the Transcontinental Railroad
Original photo
View attachment 704964
The Wine bottles held by the firemen are often airbrushed out
Reenactment
View attachment 704965
As Windar says, the part from California through the Sierra was built by the Chinese--the eastern part mostly by Irish workers. The Chinese had to cut through the mountains, so they didn't get as far as the group building through the Plains going west from the Mississippi River. The eastern group was followed by a cavalry regiment and locomotives hauling both materials AND supplies, which included assorted gamblers and prostitutes, a tent city of "vice" to serve a captive audience. This conveyance is supposedly the origin of the term "Hell on Wheels". The story goes that the famous picture was not as straightforward to shoot as it seems. The Chinese laborers were placing the last rail for the nailing of the "golden spike", and someone told the cameraman to "shoot". The Chinese knew what that meant--they dropped the rail and ran for it. This is the scene depicted on the reverse of the Utah state quarter. Brigham Young of the Mormons lobbied hard to have the railroad come through Utah. (In addition to the three-volume history of the "Federal Cavalry in the Civil War", I also read about half of the three-volume history of the Union Pacific Railroad once. I am younger than that now. As a history PhD once said of the backers and the builders of the railroad, "if you name any corrupt political or commercial practice you can think of, they did it". President Lincoln signed the original authorizing legislation.)
 
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