Folks,

MG:

That sounds powerful indeed. Enjoy it to its fullest. If that book is anything like Alls Quiet on the Western Front it should be a real treat. I remember first reading AQOTWF when I was in hospital as a young teenager. It will be a treat to immerse yourself in a good book about WW1 and then crawl into the cockpit of a biplane and relive the adventure from the air.

We have repeatedly asked Dux to add to what has become known as "The Olga Sagas". Now and then as he has just now he gives us a taste of his fertile imagination. It is never enough.

I am unable to rise to his impossibly high standards of course, however the following might help entice him into sharing more of his anti-heroine's exciting adventures.

A Sweet Surprise

UberUberStrumbanfuhrer Otto Strudelgrabber shifted his corpulent body in his comfortable VonBismark brand leather chair and scrutinized the enlarged photo on the desk before him. The photo was the only existing record of the Soviet’s most effective secret operative, master of disguise, ace pilot and elite marks-woman known only as Olga from Minsk.

It was a poor photo at best taken under extreme conditions for only seconds after shooting the photograph, the photographer himself was shot right through the head.

Yes, Otto smoothed what was left of his greasy, black hair with one hand and held the photo up with the other as he imagined he could actually see the bullet leaving the barrel of the Soviet assassin’s Mosin-Nagant Model 1891/30 sniper’s rifle; it was indeed taken under most extreme and dangerous conditions. He wondered what mischief she might be up to now. What ever it might be it had recently become his job to stop her.

At that moment the door to his office opened and in stepped his busty new aide Hilda Von Bustenhalter. She placed a large plate of pastries before him and began to expertly massage the stiff muscles of his neck.

As Otto tasted the sweetness of the first pastry he felt himself begin to relax. “Take that you obese swinehund”, were the last words he ever heard as his trusted aide slit his throat with a rusty letter opener that had been a gift from Himmler and put a bullet through his brain with his own Walther service pistol.

Before Otto’s eyes had time to set, both the incriminating photo and Olga were gone.

Gentlemen,

McG, quite the impressive set-up you have there, I am envious but pleased for you. It will be difficult for you to find time for reading with so many sim possibilities. Or vice versa for that matter. Personally I have had to delegate reading to my third lifetime since the first 2 are booked up. "Im Westen nichts Neues" is of course a masterpiece, so "Bury Him Among Kings" could be great reading. This could put a complete new dimension to the immerson of ROF. I would love to sqeeze that onto my computer, but alas, my old rig would probably capitulate. I will however be satisfied with flying BoB missions and reading the "Olga Sagas".

Very fine JRT, very fine. It appears that Otto grabbed one too many strudels. Keep your eyes on your aide's hands I always say, only grab her goodies if her back is turned.

Dux, what sayest thou? what tale of abject grief breweth within thy fertile imagination?

Folks,

C51:

Yes, that man 'otto' been more careful.

You are too kind. Dux's Olga does the heavy lifting, all I have to do is to type. And having typed, when I re-read it the sobering truth is that I must always admit that what I have typed falls far short of anything Dux might have written on the same subject.

Apparently his nibs is otherwise occupied at the moment. He will soon turn up foul-breathed, bleary-eyed, belching loudly and staggering about, and we all know why. Quite right, this is what happens when one eats far too much good, garlicky Italian food.

Gallant men and true...

Squawks are problems left on paper by RAF pilots for maintenance crews who fill in replies:

Pilot: 'Autopilot in altitude hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.'

GC Reply: 'Unable to reproduce problem on ground.'

Duuuur.... my bwain hurts...

Folks,

Dux:

We knew you were lurking about just out of sight. It is relatively safe, Olga has taken three of the new chaps under her wing and they have wandered off into the bushes for some...er... field training. By now, the boys have already learned at least one good lesson. The screams have mostly stopped and the whimpering as well so Olga will be resting for at least another 30 minutes.

LOL. Excellent. Perhaps we should start a thread titled "Squawks"?

Here are 4 of my favorite squawks, I'm sure everyone has at least one:

Problem: "Test flight OK, except auto-landing was very rough."
Solution: "Auto-land is not installed on this aircraft."

Problem: "Evidence of hydraulic leak on right main landing gear."
Solution: "Evidence removed."

Problem: "Number three engine missing."
Solution: "Engine found on right wing after brief search."

Problem: "Bad smell in cockpit."
Solution: "Eat less beans."

Gents,

A book which serves to clarify Hitler's intentions and makes a refreshing change to history with hindsight: Fuhrer Conferences on Naval Affairs 1939-1945. Jak P. Mallmann Showell. 480pp.
His strength of commitment and purpose re the invasion of Britain can be judged from the pages covering Operation Sealion.

Folks,

Dux:

That sounds interesting. What new facts have you uncovered? This is a prolific author, I believe I have read one of his books titled "Hitler's Navy". I've seen the book you mention but for some reason I passed it by as being too esoteric for the likes of moi. I'll take another look at it.

No one should care what I think of course, however I have always felt that Hitler, unlike his Admirals Donitz and Raeder, never really understood naval warfare or had a proper appreciation of his navy or how best to use it. After early successes, there are some who might even argue the same thing about his understanding of the German air force and army.

After Jutland the German navy seemed to have an inferiority complex. It more or less remained in port chipped paint and watched out for..er.. its um...brass until the end of the Great War. Other than the U boat menace which greatly troubled Churchill and increased his consumption of (medicinal) brandy no doubt, plus the terrible nuisance made by the Bismark and those pesky but deadly German pocket battleships, the German navy sorta did all it could just not to disgrace the Fatherland by losing its ships. Ala the Graf Spee which I believe was scuttled at Montevideo, Uruguay.

Gents;

Hitler seemed to put his faith in technology and mechanization on one hand, and propaganda and bravado on the other. Not surprisingly under the circumstances, he valued loyalty above leadership ability. He did have shrewd leaders to rely on such as Donitz perhaps, but he also trusted yes men who were rather poor leaders, such as Goering. The Graf Spee was a classic sucker punch in which the Brits were able get the German mariners to defeat themselves. Indeed the u boats were probably the greatest theat to Britain. Fortunately for the Brits, intelligence and unwavering dedication (The RCN was a huge asset in thr Atlantic) outpaced them in the end.

I have just finished watching a documentary on the sinking of U864, it was submerged when it was torpedoed by the British sub HMS Venturer, also submerged. The British Captain was a brilliant mathematician and pursued for nearly an hour, calculating in his head all the while the predicted postion of the disection of the torpedoes with the zig zagging sub from the asdic readings. He hit the U864 dead centre on th 4th shot. Sad loss of life.

Perhaps the underlying folly was relying totally on the Blitzkrieg doctrine for all military matters at hand. Even pursuing this tactic when circumstances and 20/20 hindsight will reveal the faults of such a dependency on one single tactic.

The luftwaffe was built to support the Blietzkrieg; mainly twin-engined bombers and the Stukas to bomb the targets before sending in the Wehrmacht.

The English Channel was one natural obstacle to put a halt to the Blietzkrieg, so Göring needed to assure Hitler that the Luftwaffe could bring the British to their knees.

A few days ago I watched another episode of the War of the Century; this episode concerning itself with Operation Barbarossa; the invasion of the USSR. Advancing on Moscow at an incredible rate, Hitler wanted the advancing armies to turn south towards the Urals instead of pressing on towards Moscow. In a repeat of the Battle of Britain scenario, Göring once more assured Hitler that Luftwaffe could bomb the capital of the enenmy into defeat. Again he failed, and one wonders why Hitler and the Nazi leadership made the same mistake twice, but thankfully they did.

Folks,

MG:

Yes, Adolph might have slept better in April 1945 had he first gone all out for the Caucasus oil fields instead of following the example of that 'other' corporal and advancing on unfriendly Moscow. After being led into that deadly fiasco by his Luftwaffe Commander I wonder what the Fuhrer was calling Hermann? Whatever it may have been, it was probably much less flattering than his later sobriquet of Meyer.

Now if you and I wish to wind the hindsight meter all the way past lucky guess to clairvoyant, and if we want to really wish to tighten the screws on faulty Axis strategy, they desperately needed a long range bomber when Barbarossa began. The so-called New York Bomber was no where near getting it's first spit shine at that time and I don't believe more than one was ever built. Had Germany developed a four engined, long range bomber the Luftwaffe could have followed Stalin's industry when the lights were turned out in Moscow and the lot was dragged out and across the mountains where it continued to produce unhindered for the rest of the war.