good morning jack

  

CITY ON THE HILL

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War Lord

  

 

N A T I O N A L     S U R V I V A L

Blitzkrieg has vulnerable flanks.

It's a long neck.  Cut off the head.

Very quickly your tank attack runs out of gas

and ammo.  Without supply your armored punch

becomes state of the art junk.  Useless.

British and French forces had the chance

for such a successful counterattack but their

lack of organization squandered the opportunity. 

Germans are believers in big surprises.

They head fake the Royal Navy outside Norway

and now French forces feel like they are shooting

at targets in a fun house mirror.  The threat

in front of you has suddenly become the threat

 to your rear.  The result is catastrophic.

 

  Party over.

 

   

Arsenal of Democracy

How does Britain defeat Hitler?

"I shall drag the United States in"  says Churchill.

The US Army is minuscule in size but Uncle Sam 

is truly the industrial giant Daddy Warbucks.

Already across the Atlantic shipyards are awakening

and factories expanding.  Soon the workers used

to assembling Chevys will instead build tanks,

planes, trucks and other implements of war.

Marx provides Stalin his strategy.

 "A war is on between two groups of capitalist countries.

Hitler, without understanding it or desiring it, is shaking

and undermining the capitalist system.  We can 

maneuver, pit one side against the other to set them

fighting with each other as fiercely as possible."

Stalin to his aids prior to Poland.

FDR runs for third term.

   

Roosevelt knows war will one day come to America.

The voters want nothing to do with the war in Europe.

The war to end all wars ended just twenty year ago

and now... here we are again.  Foolishness.

I can't get ahead of the voters, Franklin says.

You'll just have to wait, Winston.

* * * * * 

©  Tom Taylor

OVER EASY

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good morning jessicca

  

 ©  Tom Taylor

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Industry

  

Economics provide the foundation for a modern military.

Stalin saw industrialization, mass production, as 

the decisive factor to winning the war with Germany.

A successful war economy made huge numbers of

battlefield necessities because combat wear and 

tear quickly used up all the trucks, tanks, planes,

and ammo on hand.  

Germany had few strategic resources of its own.

A six month supply of critical materials such as 

steel and oil was all that Hitler could count on to

win the war.  Everything Germany needed to be

strong militarily was imported, scarce and often

not reliably available.  

The strategy for war had to take this into account.

Success over your enemy had to be quick, decisive.

The Allies base their strategy on defense.

The strategy of Britain and France was to play defense.

Prolonging the war worked to their favor because of

Germany's material disadvantage.  The German

military could be crippled by denying this elite force

it's 20th century underpinnings.

Germany bets on an armored punch with speed.

Blitzkrieg was the tactic German strategists wanted

because it offered the potential for quick victory.

This meant a very selective, pinpoint offense of

armor, artillery and air support.  Concentrated firepower 

would overwhelm your opponent's defense, creating

a breach that would enable tanks to speed behind

enemy lines - disrupting supplies, capturing

command centers and causing confusion.

Surprise is an essential component of victory.

Your enemy's most vulnerable point is where your 

main attack is least expected.  

France believed the Ardennes region along its

northern border was too mountainous to 

support an advancing panzer force.

French defense along the Meuse River was

infantry, mostly older reservists lightly armed. 

They hadn't trained for confronting an army 

of tanks.

The Luftwaffe controlled the skies over Ardennes.

The German force headed for the Meuse

was backed up over a hundred miles of 

narrow, winding mountain roads.

The French were right.  This was not tank country.

Meanwhile, the Allies thought they were fighting

the main German attack in Belgium.  Everything

was going as planned.  Britain and France rushed

their troops forward into battle.  They had matters

well in hand.  So they thought.  

Turns out they were just chasing the bait.  

* * * * * 

©  Tom Taylor

OVER EASY

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good morning jeremy

  

CINCO de MAYO

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Big Picture

  

First Lord of the Admiralty 

Churchill's fingerprints were all over the Norwegian 

campaign.  It wouldn't take much to capture Narvik

and cut Germany off from its iron ore.  This one small

victory could have a decisive effect in the course of the

war over the long term.  It was worth the gamble.

The iron fields at Gallivare are the real objective.

Germany can get the ore it needs from the harbor at 

Lulea once the ice melts in April.  The port of Narvik

is no longer of importance.  Britain must take Sweden's

iron ore fields if the Allies are to keep this metal from Hitler.

The Royal Navy zigged when they should have zagged.

The Glowworm's sinking by the Admiral Hipper

confirmed to the Admiralty at Scapa Flow that 

Germany's warships were making a break for the 

British shipping lanes of the Atlantic.  The Home Fleet

made a dash to prevent the Reich's battleships and

cruisers from destroying its ocean lifelines.

Turns out the Royal Navy was actually headed 

away from the ships they hoped to intercept.

The enemy rarely gives you the battle you want.

The Royal Navy wanted a showdown with the German

Kriegsmarine because such a conflict plays to the 

Home Fleet's strength.  Certainly Germany's 

Admiral Raeder knew his navy wasn't prepared for 

such a head on confrontation.  The idea is to come

up with something unexpected.

Germany captured Norway's ports, mostly unopposed.

Surprise.  Your ports have all been captured by your enemy.

Your militia was sleeping and the British were off chasing

a phantom fleet out to sea.

British battleship sinks flotilla of ten German destroyers.

The Kriegsmarine was pretty much swept from the board

by the Royal Navy in the days that followed.

Admiral Raeder's credibility with Hitler had dropped 

to near nothing.  U-boats had the proven strategy

and that was the province of Admiral Donitz, 

Raeder's rival.

Hitler was about to upend the entire Allied defense.

Norway was a distraction that was easily handled.

In a matter of days British troops abandon their 

outpost in Narvik because the entire Scandinavian

campaign had just become irrelevant.

Everyone's attention had suddenly turned to 

a small French town in the Ardennes named

Sedan.

* * * * * 

©  Tom Taylor

OVER EASY

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good morning justin

  

DATELINE 

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