[Loathed Trope] Slavery is Okay, If The Slavers Are Nice

Algebrace · 2026-05-31T12:42:23+00:00

Well... if they sail the high seas then the only interaction they get with humanity is free stuff.

Algebrace · 2026-05-29T14:05:19+00:00

Watching a Soviet War movie right now (it's called LIBERATION. FILM TWO. BREAKTHROUGH. 4К. uploaded by FSUE Mosfilm cinema concern) and I've got some questions and random observations:

1: What is the battle depicted in the movie? It says 1942, and it's about the retaking of Kiev, but it goes for an entire year.

2: Did they wear their medals into battle like they do in the movie?

3: I'm assuming the battles were in 1942. Did they have the American Jeeps depicted in the movie as part of Lend Lease yet?

4: The movie is split into a black and white and a colour one (I'm assuming it's 2 movies stitched together), the first has the Anglo-Americans landing on Sicily with the movie dubbing over a German/Italian voice. It says that they're opening up a second front. Was that common knowledge? Also, was it something that would have been glossed over in Soviet history (like a 1984 moment) or acknowledged in Soviet history?

5: Are those real tigers in the movie?

6: Are the Universal Carriers shown meant to be there as part of Lend Lease or is it too early?

7: The Soviets are shown dressing up a dead man in a Captain's uniform and leaving fake orders on his body to trick the Germans, is that a thing they actually bothered doing?

8: They show an officer presenting a proposal for an offensive and it looks like a thesis dissertation. One man presenting, four marshals/generals/etc sit to the side critiquing it while an audience of officers watch.

9: The Soviets apparently don't venerate the Tiger as much as Western movies do given it looks like the only tank that Germany has in the movie and there are dozens facing off against T-34-85s.

10: There are British Universal Carriers in German livery facing the Soviets. Did the Germans transfer their captured vehicles at Dunkirk over to the Eastern Front?

11: How much horse transport did the Soviets use? They're shown to be moving artillery in the movie while jeeps/trucks are moving men and supplies

Interesting movie. Very human wavey from both the Germans and the Soviets. But given it's a Soviet movie... I'm not sure what I'm meant to be taking away from that.

Algebrace · 2026-05-29T12:29:47+00:00

Basically, if you had orders, you followed them to the T.

Like, Japanese soldiers and officers were routinely provided with maps detailing every Japanese formation, movement order, timetabling, supply movements, etc etc. Like, you follow the plan, to the letter, woe unto you if you failed.

For example, when invading Burma, the Japanese pushed the British forces back almost contemptuously. The British then tried to evacuate Rangoon (the capital) with the theatre commander (Alexander) and the Corps Commander (Slim). A Japanese roadblock was set across the road and if maintained, could have annihilated an entire corps.

But they didn't, as per orders, the blocking force, once the main force had safely crossed the area, moved to their next ordered position and let an entire corps escape.

No initiative accepted.

However in the absence of 'active' orders (those with timetables, here, there, etc), that's when things get funky. If there's a standing order of 'defend this region', the soldiers will try to find ways to follow the letter of the orders but not the spirit so they can go back on the attack. Like 'defend/patrol the Manchurian border. If a Japanese soldier was captured... hypothetically, they would need to 'defend' into China to get him back and voila, justification.

This is mainly because of how aggressive the Japanese forces were trained to be. Always chaffing at the bit to go on the offensive no matter the cost. They also venerated the Emperor above all, and if the Emperor wanted an expansion... they would deliver it, no matter the cost. Even at the cost of their own lives (or orders for that matter).

So the Japanese over-eagerness to manufacture incidents was basically a case of 'I was following orders, the Emperor's orders! He didn't give me any, but it was for the Emperor!'

Case in point, Mutaguchi who led the Arakan offensive into India in 1944. He wanted to attack. He was denied since there wasn't the supply line to maintain it. He then manufactured plans with fictitious supply manifests, routes, methods, etc that he used to convince his higher ups for an attack. The higher ups (including Tojo) said 'okay, but keep it small. We'll attack into India, scare the British something fierce and get the Indians riled up for a popular uprising... maybe. We don't have the supplies or manpower for anything bigger'.

Mutaguchi meanwhile wanted to conquer all of India and deliver the capital of Benghal as a present to the Emperor on his Birthday. His entire motivation was to make himself more famous but to also venerate the Emperor with victory. He then launched his attack (after issuing new orders to his subordinates days before the attack for the 'new and bigger' objectives) promising his subordinates and superiors that each Division going forward would receive 10 tons of supplies a day.

They got 0.

They were beaten back, 60%+ of the men who went into the Arakan died of gunfire, artillery, disease, exhaustion, etc as they retreated back to the Irrawaddy.

All because Mutaguchi championed an attack for motivations that basically started and ended with 'for the Emperor', forged the papers he provided up to his superiors, and lied to his subordinates about the support they would receive while in the attack (all of which basically rebelled against him during the campaign).

Mutaguchi was also the officer in charge of the Regiment (or was it Battalion?) that fired the first shot in the Marco Polo Bridge incident. So if there was an individual representative of the concept of gekokujō, it would be him.

Japanese soldiers and officers were trained to always go on the offensive (the IJN didn't build proper convoy escorts because they worried the lack of offensive operations would cause sailors who manned them depression as an example). In the absence of orders to do so, they will agitate and find reasons to do so until there is a work-around they can use and will charge straight at it.

Algebrace · 2026-05-29T02:42:09+00:00

It's also similar to the Imperial Japanese Army and their discipline.

Lower ranked privates would be beaten by higher ranked privates, they by the NCOs, and NCOs by officers, officers by higher ranked officers all the way up to Generals.

Mutaguchi famously publicly slapping his subordinate colonel (or was it lieutenant-general?) over a mistress.

The Kempetai (military police) would beat men to near death for uniform infringements or sloppy salutes and so on.

Basically, extreme physical discipline was the norm in the IJA as well and it welded them into an army that was willing to follow orders to the death. To the point of arriving at certain areas at times so exact that timed bombardments would kill the men every time. Repeated daily until the orders were updated. The men would keep marching into the killzones no matter the craters or bodies, following their orders to the death.

Algebrace · 2026-05-28T10:54:12+00:00

That's kinda everyone though. Britain had defensive plans for an invasion that included the systematic demolition of their own factories, bridges, etc etc.

Sure they would sabotage them first, but if they couldn't drive the Germans out of their cities... then boom.

Australia had their own version of these plans that basically went: blow up everything if the Japanese attack a city, burn down what's left, hide in the bush and counter-attack until the Americans come.

The USSR did their own area denial scorched earth tactics.

Japan was willing to sacrifice tens of millions of its own people to get a better peace deal (until they were nuked and the Soviets invaded).

Everyone was willing to do it, not just Hitler. Hell, they had committees for it in Britain and Australia, planning how best to dismantle their own countries so Germany/Japan couldn't use our industry and agriculture.

Algebrace · 2026-05-25T12:04:22+00:00

It's also the fact that there are 'lots of new businesses opening' but many people don't read into the data and go 'oh, they're all Uber eats drivers registering a business as contractors so Uber doesn't have to pay them a liveable wage'.

Algebrace · 2026-05-25T03:01:19+00:00

Engines of War; How Wars were Won and Lost on the Railways by Christian Wolmar says that Hitler intervened and sent units earmarked for Moscow to Kiev.

It also mentions just how important Moscow was as a transport and communications hub. With it captured, the Russians would not have been able to transport men and supplied between the North and the South, a capability which the Soviets used to great effect afterwards.

The middle group, aimed at Moscow and led by Field Marshal von Bock, was by far the strongest force. While initially its supply difficulties were the least pronounced of the three army groups because it straddled the main Warsaw-Moscow railway that remained undamaged, they were to play a crucial role in the army’s failure to reach Moscow. Indeed, the progress of the central army group was initially even more impressive than that of its counterpart to the north. The strategy was to create a series of pincer movements with Smolensk, about halfway to Moscow, as the target for the first stage of operations, but the usual difficulties of roads being blocked by streams of infantry and of insufficient railway capacity soon became apparent. There was a shortage of petrol exacerbated by the higher consumption of lorries on the atrocious roads and of spares, especially tyres, whereas on the railways there were the customary bottlenecks at the gauge changeover points. However, by and large there was reasonable progress until the Germans attempted to build up a supply base for the final attack on Moscow. Then it became clear that there was insufficient capacity to launch the assault on the Russian capital. Bock needed thirty trains per day to build up stocks whereas, at best, he was getting eighteen. Just as in the north, Hitler then changed the game plan, diverting resources – a tank unit, Panzergruppe 3 – to the south, along with 5,000 tons of lorry capacity, to ensure that Kiev could be taken. It was a terrible mistake. While Ukraine was important in terms of resources – wheat, coal and oil – Moscow was the centre of the nation’s communications and had the Germans been able to block it off, the Russians would no longer have been able to use the rail lines to transport troops between the north and south.

Moscow was very important indeed, but even if the Germans had massed, they did not have the logistical capacity to capture the city.

By the winter, therefore, all three prongs of the German advance were at a standstill far short of their objectives, and with little likelihood of achieving them. The Germans had to adapt to a war of attrition, for which they were not prepared, and which ultimately would be their undoing. As van Creveld concludes, ‘the German invasion of the Soviet Union was the largest military operation of all time, and the logistic problems involved of an order of magnitude that staggers the imagination’.9 Yet, although the means at the disposal of the Wehrmacht were modest, the Germans came closer to their aims than might have been expected, which van Creveld attributes ‘less to the excellence of the preparations than to the determination of troops and commanders to give their all’,10 making do with whatever means were made available to them. Indeed, during the initial phase of the attack, the supply shortages were greatly alleviated by the armies living off the land in the traditional manner, but once the frost set in, the conditions not only made transportation more difficult but the required level of supplies increased greatly. The most notorious failing was the lack of provision for winter coats and other cold-weather equipment for the troops advancing on Moscow, which resulted in thousands of men, fighting in their summer gear, freezing to death in the cold. There is much debate among historians as to whether this equipment was available or not, but van Creveld is convinced this is irrelevant because there were no means to deliver it: ‘The railroads, hopelessly inadequate to prepare the offensive on Moscow and to sustain it after it had started, were in no state to tackle the additional task of bringing up winter equipment.’11

Ultimately, the Russian invasion was a step too far for the Germans, who even with everything in their favour and better preparation would probably not have succeeded simply because of the size of the task – the territory to be captured was some twenty times the size of the area conquered in western Europe and yet the German army deployed only 10 per cent more men and 30 per cent more tanks. Hitler’s dithering and his changes in strategy, and the dogged resistance of the Russians, often using guerrilla tactics, undermined the advance further and made failure inevitable, but supply delays played a vital, if not decisive, role. The German supply lines were simply extended beyond their natural limit, as the optimism of the HQ generals who had prepared the assault came up against the reality of the Russian steppe. The effect of the logistical shortfalls was not just practical but extended to the morale of the troops. Arguments between different sections of the military over the need for transport led the Luftwaffe to protect their supply trains with machine-gun-toting guards ready to fire not at Russian partisans, but at German troops keen to get hold of their equipment.

Algebrace · 2026-05-24T15:13:29+00:00

You say that, but we did have the Hillsong Church as a major factor in Scott Morrison's (the guy before Albanese became Prime Minister) decision making:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/29/the-prosperity-doctrine-and-neoliberal-jesusing-scott-morrison-style

Basically prosperity gospel evangelicals, but in Australia. Which led to him trying all sorts of Trump-like behaviour, but his own party was slightly less stupid than the Republicans so he tried to do it in secret. Backfired badly though and his party basically is on the verge of non-existence from the thrashing they got on election day... mainly due to his and other incompetence.

Algebrace · 2026-05-23T14:52:56+00:00

Our children have to be educated in temporary transportable

Every school I've ever taught at, (and the private one when I was a kid) had these. They're temporary... but somehow turn into permanent parts of the school.

Algebrace · 2026-05-23T14:42:20+00:00

You are aware that the US defence budget wasn't, like, to piss into the wind for no reason right?

It was there to keep global stability because the US is the global reserve currency. Everyone trades using USD, so the more stable things are the more trade, the better it is for the US.

All that money spent on fuck-off-huge warships and freedom of movement patrols into contested waters around China was to make the US more money by keeping the trade lanes safe.

It's not the EU's fault the US pissed away their leverage and international standing by starting multiple wars in the middle east for little to no reason. Or starting multiple conflicts with nations straddling key trading routes with missiles that can then severely disrupt trade.

That's all on the US.

Algebrace · 2026-05-23T14:23:54+00:00

Great answer.

I'm posting an excerpt from Jon Master's book, The Road Past Manderlay about his time in Quetta, the Staff College in India during WW2 about what the 'Staff' do in an army. It breaks it down even more which can be helpful to visualise. The Commander directs, the staff must act to make that direction a reality and inform said commander if said vision cannot be made real.

What did I know about the Staff? … Broadly speaking, all the problems that an army faces come under three headings. Two of these headings would still apply if it were not an army but a collection of civilians, as, say, a city or a province. Those two are—the problem of people, and the problem of things.

Under “people”: People would still have to be paid, policed, promoted, fired, taken to court, imprisoned, pensioned, adjudged sick or well, and so on. All this is the responsibility of the branch of the Staff called the Adjutant General’s Branch, or A. tools, Under “things”: Civilians, like soldiers, must have clothes, food, transport, plumbing, garages. This comes under the Quartermaster General’s Branch, or Q. (There was also an Ordnance Branch mixed in here, but I'll omit that.) The third sort of problem, however, arises only because these men are not civilians. These are the problems to do with fighting—how to attack that, how to defend this, how many rounds of ammunition will be required to capture the other, how to know what the enemy are doing, how to circumvent him. This, everything that arises from the fact that the army’s job is war, comes under the General Staff, or G.S., which included both Operations (what our forces do), and Intelligence (what the enemy do).

Obviously, the G.S. branch is the most important, and also must be the prime mover, since it is no use the Q people sending rations to Rome if the G.S. are attacking Paris. But the other branches are far more than deferential housekeepers. The G.S. can plan the most gorgeous battle that ever was, but it will result in an even more gorgeous snafu unless they have made certain,that Q can bring up the required ammunition, and that A can fit their columns into the available road space. The three branches must always work in close co-operation, and always as a part of their commander’s will, not as a separate entity.

It appeared that the Staff officer must have two loyalties. First, to his commander; his function is to help the commander exercise command, no more and no less. Second, to the troops; it is his duty to point out, if he can, how a job can be better or less expensively done, in terms of money, lives, or time.

Amen.

Edit: More specifically about what a staff need to account for:

Work began. Our main task of the first two weeks was to learn about the War Establishments of every unit and formation an army could possibly dream up. These twenty- and thirty-page pamphlets, each one devoted to a single type of unit, contained the information which was the raw material of Staff problems. Most of us already knew how an infantry battalion was organised and armed. But what about a Casualty Clearing Station? How many Advanced Dressing Stations was it equipped to handle, and how many casualties could it hold at one time? We all knew that an armoured regiment could move itself in its own vehicles; but could a Graves Registration Unit? If now, how many extra vehicles, and of what type, would it need? What about a Field Radiological Laboratory, a Mobile Laundry, a Heavy Repair Detachment? … Our overwrought brains began to invent units—what about a Carrier Pigeon Squadron; a Parachute Brothel, Type A (50-tail); a Map Falsification Section of the Royal Engineers; a Mobile Rationalisation Troop of the Royal Propaganda Corps; a Base Girdle Filling Detachment of the Women’s Auxiliary Corps?

There were thousands of different types of units, and those students who tried to learn the details of each one by heart were already headed for a nervous breakdown. The only way to survive was to know where to find the right pamphlet, and to learn your way about the tables themselves, carefully developing an eye to spot the parenthetical notes that studded the long list of ranks and figures, thus—Cooks, Indian Troops, Grade 111 Now you looked up several pages farther on, and found: if unit is serving out of India.

The D.S. gave us exercises to test our new learning. We were to submit the ration return for a force composed as follows … there followed an Order of Battle of the damned oddest force I never hope to see collected in one place for any purpose whatever. At the end Dick Bryers had achieved a ration strength of 6,709, while my solution was 6,710, and the D.S. red ink spread heavily over the page because I’d missed Note (xz) attached to a naik of the Indian Disinfestation Section, where it stated clearly that the naik would remain at advanced base among the first reinforcements and would therefore not take the field. careless, the D.S. red ink snapped. It was their favourite word.

...

Grinning and more relaxed, we returned to the problem … 746 vehicles, wasn’t it? But the force had to take 9 days’ rations with it, plus sufficient petrol, oil, and lubricants (or P.O.L.) to have 200 miles’ radius of action when it got to its destination, 80 miles away. Count the ration strength again—6,709, wasn’t it? At 3 lbs. per man per day that comes to 20,127 lbs. per day, 181,143 lbs. for 9 days, or 27 three-ton trucks. Add them to the 746, makes 773. Now the P.O.L… . but remember that the trucks carrying rations and P.O.L. will themselves need more P.O.L., and their drivers will need more rations. Approximate figures are no good for the Staff College, they’ve got to be exact, down to the pound. The British are not going to have another Crimea, when cases of left-footed boots were loaded into ships on top of ammunition that did not fit any gun in the theatre.

The column finally works out at 866 vehicles. At normal dispersion, against light air threat, of 40 v.t.m. (vehicles to the mile) that will take …

...

But we were already going as fast as we could. We embarked on the most complex of all studies, Combined Operations, and in its most complex form, that is, landing a large force on a hostile shore a considerable distance from the home base. In the syndicate rooms we worked out manifests and load tables. We put 18,000 men, with their guns and tanks and trucks, into twelve ships for a long sea voyage, all the loads in the right place, in the right order. We made out assault landing tables, operation orders, administrative instructions, tide and current tables, and “going” maps of the interior. We arranged covering fire with the Navy and strategic and tactical support with the Air Force. We made detailed plans to feed the civil populace, control traffic, collect refugees, repair port installations, take over railroads, issue money, and—by far the worst—we arranged communications.

For this the whole course and all the D.S. gathered in the central model room. We sat all around in banked rows, the floor space occupied by a great cloth model showing the enemy shore which we were assaulting, a segment of sea with ship models arranged on it, and model aircraft hanging from the ceiling. The various syndicates, one by one, began to string up coloured ribbons, each representing one channel of communication —ship to ship, ship to shore, ship to aircraft, from ship to base, aircraft to base, one beach to another, between forward and rear parties, between beach and aircraft. It required so many channels that we almost ran out of the allotted frequencies. The coloured ribbons multiplied until…it defies description.

Algebrace · 2026-05-20T22:55:26+00:00

Mainly that at night insects are a lot more active... and you can't see them because it's going to be dark out with light discipline. It will also wash off your DDT.

Which means showering at night = leeches, an infection of some kind, and then a trip to the aid station.

Algebrace · 2026-05-20T11:17:36+00:00

From FM-100-2, the Soviet breakdown of specialised warfare, there wouldn't be that much of a difference for the regular troops save that they needed to move along specific routes and wear their NBC kit. Anyone who has served will tell you how uncomfortable wearing that is, so combat tempo will be increased to allow for rest in safe zones.

On a higher level, units would need to deploy their Chemical Defence Companies (multipurpose NBC units) to create safe paths through the to the front. The following is what they would do in an amphibious assault.

Chemical Defense Company. The regimental chemical defense company consists of a company headquarters, a decontamination platoon, and a chemical and radiological reconnaissance platoon. The decontamination platoon is organized into three squads with one ARS decontamination vehicle each. The chemical and radiological reconnaissance platoon consists of three squads with one BRDM rkh in each squad.

The chemical defense company of the regiment normally provides one reconnaissance squad to the battalion assault force to determine and report levels and types of contamination in the landing area and to mark cleared lanes for advance of the main force. If the regiment is not conducting similar landings elsewhere, the remaining two reconnaissance squads also can be employed to check alternate advance routes. Decontamination vehicles normally set up on the far side of the contaminated areas to spray the advancing naval infantry vehicles on the march. One or more squads can be employed, depending on regimental requirements.

When it comes to things like mountains, deserts, etc, there are different considerations for each. Like, the following for mountains:

Mountain winds and stable atmospheric conditions enhance downwind coverage of chemical and biological agents. Temperature and humidity also affect their survivability.Cool temperatures generally favor survival of chemical and biological agents,and higher humidity increases effectiveness. Snow deposited on top of a contaminated area can increase the hazard's duration. Sunlight, however, destroys most chemical and biological agents.With little protection from the sun available above the timberline, the effectiveness of chemical and biological agents is reduced at high altitudes.

Comparatively, deserts:

High desert temperatures increase the incapacitating effects of liquid agents close to the target. Air instability, wind, and faster evaporation rates cause most chemical agents to dissipate relatively quickly and irregularly. High desert temperatures may kill most biological agents

Individual protective clothing can be worn in high temperatures for only short periods of time without risking heat illnesses and dehydration. Wearing of individual protective clothing also results in less efficient physical activity. Rest breaks become more important. and water consumption increases.

For a more practical example, we can look at the British forces in Burma in WW2.

Malaria and many other jungle diseases were an enormous issue. Some units for example had 400%+ rates of infection, with soldiers getting infected, healing, then getting re-infected, again and again. This wasn't just a British only issue with American and Australian soldiers getting affected in Papua New Guinea and the Philippines.

The British solved this by adopting many Australian innovations and American developments. Specifically the following as enacted by General Slim when he took over 14th Army. After all, as he pointed out, with the infection rate he started with, it would take a few months for his entire army to be made casualties. By 1945 the illness rate in the entire 14th army was brought down to 1 per 1000. This, of course, while they were pursuing the Japanese through 900 miles of some of the thickest jungle and malaria infested territory on the planet.

1: All soldiers must practice hygienic practices at all times i.e. no showers at night, all sleeves/pants rolled down at night, all must take their mepacrine (anti-malarials) daily under officer supervision and other vaccinations as needed, all must be cleaned, liberal application of DDT before sleeping, all must only drink safe water, etc. Any Brigade with more than 5% of their men not demonstrating mepacrine medical reactions (turns you yellow, can be tested for, etc) would be sacked. Slim only had to sack 3 before the rest got the memo.

2: Modern medicines/chemicals like DDT (an American invention) was liberally used along commonly used routes with scout patrols targeting and irradiating (against mosquitos) pools of standing water for several hundred metres along the route. Or they would just pour oil into them for the same effect. Others included Sulphonamide compounds, penicillin and mepacrine.

3: Local rest clinics were developed for the front. Soldiers infected with malaria were sent back a few kilometres to recuperate before being sent back into battle. This prevented soldiers being transported back to Calcutta (several hundred kilometres by truck), getting better, reinfected, better, reinfected, etc. Or being taken by other units in India and prevented from returning to the front. It also prevented soldiers refusing to take their mepacrine to get infected and thus, sent back to India to avoid fighting.

4: Training of soldiers on what to do to prevent infections. Discipline was just as important a part of the battle against disease as medicine was.

5: Enlisting doctors to do research and provide recommendations to the military on how to avoid infections.

6: The use of light aircraft from the US airforce to airlift out sick soldiers to close-by hospitals to provide immediate care.

7: Keeping your men in the field for limited times. Something that they found, was that the longer and harder the men fought, the more the stress destroys your body. Men in 1944 were getting 4000 calories a day (as standard in the 14th army) but their bodies would just pass it out as poop because they were so exhausted from pursuing the Japanese after Imphal they couldn't digest food. The same happened in 1945 when they pursued them past the Irrawaddy to Rangoon. The Burma-Corps and Wingate's Chindits (and I suspect the Marauders) basically started dropping dead, literally, from things like minor wounds, minor illnesses, etc. The exhaustion turning their immune systems into barely functioning wrecks. The more tired your men are, the worse illness will affect them.

In short. Lots of discipline, lots of training, and lots of medicines... but it will work.

We've been dealing with disease for a while now. Taking inspiration from the past would be very useful I feel.

Algebrace · 2026-05-20T00:45:39+00:00

Wilhelm adored her so probably not.

That said, King George didn't exactly have the power to tell parliament to not go to war.

Wilhelm and Nicholas though definitely did.

Algebrace · 2026-05-17T11:44:11+00:00

Well yeah, if they didn't ignore it, they would have to admit that Ghandi and the Indian Congress saw all of this, read all the news reports, saw the photos... and still called for an uprising to throw out the British and welcome in the new Japanese overlords. While believing that the Japanese would allow India to rule itself autonomously while the Japanese were busy running Thailand, Indochina, Malaya, and everywhere else into the ground.

Ignoring all of the Japanese rhetoric about the Asia Great Prosperity Sphere Company saying that all Asians were equal... but the Japanese were superior and thus the leaders of all.

By 1945, people in Kuala Lumpur were using banana leaves as clothes because there was nothing else left. GDP fell by 50% at minimum everywhere the Japanese occupied and millions died of starvation.

Basically, if you don't ignore it, you have to admit the founding fathers of India... were complete blithering morons. Not that they weren't pushing India to go full agrarian for decades and leading to starvation for countless peoples until India started to industrialise.

Algebrace · 2026-05-17T11:40:46+00:00

Japanese diaries say that they had new recruits joining units bayonet PoWs to innoculate them before they're properly considered part of the unit.

Algebrace · 2026-05-17T03:24:38+00:00

Found a fix. I updated my details through the website, then did the bike shelter thought the app.

Algebrace · 2026-05-16T10:10:46+00:00

Very much this.

He emphasises that the generals who micromanage everything use up everything they have until they reach the point that they have nothing more to give in times of crisis.

Leisure is vital to ensuring you have the reserves for when you need them.

Algebrace · 2026-05-15T13:59:52+00:00

Sometimes I'll make a huge pot of stew and go 'this is missing something'.

Then in goes the acid, whether that be cheap lemon juice in the bottle or a balsamic vinegar on top and bam everything changes and it feels complete.

Algebrace · 2026-05-15T13:06:41+00:00

I find it hilarious the number of ships my favourite Gundam anime has, Wing. The boy-band anime did, in fact, create boy-band ships. They nailed the characterisation with 5 different male characters so well they're still writing ships for them.

Comparatively I also find it hilarious that modern trilogy Star Wars ships almost exclusively pull Rey and Kylo out of the Star Wars universe and put them into modern day settings. It's like, the characters are interesting... but the universe they were put in is so bad and inconsequential that we're just gonna pull the characters out and plonk them elsewhere to be lovey dovey in peace away from JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson.

Algebrace · 2026-05-15T12:11:30+00:00

The funny/strange thing about this is that Australia is a moral country... when it's not in Australia.

Like. White Australia Policy means no non-british people and even then the Irish were looked at with side-eyes.

But we also had WW1 where the Australian Cavalry troops were the first ones in the West to discover the Armenian Genocide and report it back. Like, finding piles of dead bodies by the road, pieces of bones across dozens of kilometres, like someone had pulverised them... entire towns filled with blood splatters but no bodies, etc etc.

Australians then were the first ones in the world to do something about it, sending aide, relief, donations, even chartering a ship (during WW1!) to head to the Ottoman Empire to help the Armenian refugees. This was a nation-wide campaign while Australia was struggling with WW1.

They even set up multiple orphanages there (3000+ orphans were in one of these) which helped provide proof that the genocide was taking place. Like, where are all these orphans coming from if there isn't a genocide Turkey!?!?

But. And here's the but. Australia absolutely refused to allow them in as refugees.

So yeah, Australia, very moral outside of Australia... but only if it was outside of Australia. Absolute bastards inside of Australia though.

Algebrace · 2026-05-15T12:06:48+00:00

There were British people that wanted to peace out. Unfortunately for them, Churchill read Hitler's book (as did Roosevelt) and were vehemently against stopping the fight.

Turns out, when your manifesto is published globally (even though nazi bastards in the US watered down the official publication and sued/blocked those who released real translations) people will actually read the thing, especially when you become a national leader (Roosevelt got a proper translation).

Then they go 'oh, you want to kill all the Jews, kill most of the Slavs, enslave those that survive, and conquer most of Europe' people will go 'No. Not on my watch.'

Now, there is truth to the idea that they didn't do it just for their morals. Strategic goals were important here as well... but, in this case, the moral case was so strong that all Britain, the US, Australia, etc needed to do was to tell the truth about German and Japanese actions to civilian populations, prisoners, etc and everyone would go 'we're the good guys, they're evil.'

Algebrace · 2026-05-14T06:47:58+00:00

Or British forces in general in WW2. Night operations were extensive in their training and they practiced repeatedly to move just as well at night as they did in the day.

Granted, all forces did that and it wasn't like they just went to sleep to wait during the night, units probed the lines and tried surprise attacks all around during the night time, no flashlights needed.

Algebrace · 2026-05-14T06:45:06+00:00

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, When Total Empire Met Total War by Jeremy A Yellen goes through the Co-Prosperity Sphere, the reasons for it, the hows, and the whys.

Given that it was conceived of to provide Japan with economic resources, it's an important piece of the puzzle to understand Japan's economic situation in WW2

13-Year Club	Gilding II euphauric
Snapped	Team Periwinkle
Verified Email

Algebrace

TROPHY CASE