Africa Corps Order of Battle (DAK)

You know, Field Marshall Rommel's guys.  Just another example of the triumph of German Historiography, I recently had an opportunity to play the old SPI Boardgame on Operation Crusader.  Interesting little game, seemed to have a slight pro-Axis Bias in various ways, but no real commentary on Board Game Geek to sort it out.

BUT, while examining the counter mix, I realized that both myself and my opponent probably knew more about the Axis Forces than we did about the British/Commonwealth.  Oh sure, we "know" there was 7th Armored Division (UK) and the NZ Division, but after that it was a bit fuzzy. Now the Germans, well, you have 15th and 21st Panzer, 90th Light (Technically still Division Africa zBv at the start of the campaign?), Ariete (The Italian Armored Division), plus an assortment of other Italians.  We got bogged down on which (German) Panzer (5th or 8th) Regiment belonged to Which Panzer Division?

The Answer is, 8th Panzer Regiment belongs to 15th Panzer Division, and 5th is (nominally) subordinate to 21st.  The Four Panzer Battalions (Two per regiment) are the Major source of combat power for the Axis.  Against Ten (Much Weaker) British Tank Regiments (Battalion size units). 

Short version (More on the game later, plans to play again).  I went home and pulled a book off the top of one of my piles with the answer (above), and realize once again I have three (separate) published sets of German Order of Battle Documentation, plus at least two specialized works on the Africa Corps.  But I own NO comparable work on the British.  I tried to buy one ten years ago, what was billed as an "Order of Battle" was really a "Bathtub" game guide.  Forget the various Osprey "OB Guides", which seem to be more "Handbooks" than OB reference works.

The Military Industrial Complex

Sources:

Why We Fight (Documentary Film, 2005)

Drift, Rachel Maddow (2012)

Little America, Rajiv Chandrasekaran (2012)

What a mess.  I understand this years election is going to be settled based on domestic issues, but both Maddow and the film call for rational discourse on the subject.  Which I am not hearing. 

While Little America is more about operational matters, what is striking is how we repeated the Vietnam experience ("We fought the war for one year, seven times"); We forgot and had to relearn "Counterinsurgency", and however adaptable our forces are, they are still limited crippled by inter service particularism and even less supported by the USAID and State Department than they were in Vietnam.

Following up on the arguments made by Baskevich, yes, there is some bipartisan blame, but it was the (Republican) "neo-cons" who lead us over the Rubicon into Iraq under false pretenses, with no rational follow up plan.  I wouldn't trust those guys (or their contractors) to run the county animal shelter.

Human Intelligence (HUMINT)

You know, Spies and other good stuff.

Actually, this is provoked by a post on Charles Stross's blog

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2012/08/spies-1.html

Nothing special. a short meditation on what the potential for HUMINT is in the 21st Century.

BUT, with over 400 comments form a well informed and interested population, well, most of them don't have a clue.  They confuse Hollywood and James Bond with the well documented (Memoirs, etc) process of recruiting "agents" and the difference between that and limitations of "Direct Action".

Direct Actions is things like sending Seal Team 6 after Osama;  Drones and Black Helicopter stuff.

HUMINT is one of the tools to develop targeting information.

OK, I'm weird I actually READ the court filings about the recent case of the (Russian) SVR Illegals in New York/New Jersey.

Yes, it is a complex process often spoken of in hushed tones.  But it's not a deep dark secret.  Actual knowledge of the identities of our "Case Officers" (See Valerie Plame) is secret, and should be protected. 

The "SECRETS" that must be protected are the identity of any agents they (The Case Officers) have recruited.  Techniques are pretty straightforward and widely reported;  one of my favorites was the MICE acronym (Money, Ideology, Compromise, Excitement).

I recall a throway in a memoir about the KGB establishing twenty "rings" of Illegals in the US in the 1950's.  The accidental compromise of Colonel Abel (The guy we traded for Francis Gary Powers) closed down ONE of them.  What ever happened to the other nineteen?  And was the recent New York operation a sample of a similar scale of effort?

And if people are that (generally) clueless, how do I get a job with (as?) the Wake Up Walmart Rezident?

Dissing the Tsar

OK, I need followers, but....

I just couldn't put "Pussy Riot" in the title.

Not nice to dis the Tsar.  There was a throwaway reference to Tsar Putin the V in a really BAD science fiction novel I read a couple of years ago.

Like anyone needed any more proof they (he?) really isn't ready to be considered a responsible member of the international community.

Stalin's General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov by Geoffrey Roberts

This looks like it will be the only "Mass Market" Soviet military history title this year. 

There was a Wall Street Journal book review, and I have seen it in the local Barnes & Noble.

More information if I actually get to read it.

Down the Memory Hole

All of History basically.

About three months ago I became aware that Wizards of the Coast (A subsidiary of Hasbro) had "Eliminated the Positon" of Richard Baker.

He was the manager for the various "Historical" Collectible Miniatures Games (CMG);  Specifically, Axis and Allies Miniatures, and Axis and Allies: War at Sea.  So much for Historically themed product from our major toy manufacturers.

We Meant Well by Peter van Buren

Originally published 10/1/11! (My Bad, trying to edit/update, accidently republished)

Another book about the seamy underside of our misadventures in Iraq, heard him on NPR this morning (10/1/11), telling about the Chicken Plant fiasco.

It makes me wonder what kind of systemic incompetence leads to that kind of mistake, and how we can begin to address it in the large organizations that comprise our society.

I know, too many polysylables for the local Republicans.

(6/22/12) OK, I know I went down to my local Public Library and filled out a suggestion form on this book.  Still waiting.

Oh yeah, despite at least one other request for Rachel Maddow's Drift (I overheard), not that one either. 

Going in Circles: Hitler's Panzers by Showalter

I'll admit, this morning I entirely forgot the significance of todays date (See this date's post from last year).
Last weekend I bought a recent book (new to me), the only thing at Hastings I could find of marginal interest to me I could afford: 

Dennis Showalter

Hitler's Panzers: The Lighning Attacks that revolutionized Warfare.

Berkely Caliber, New York, 2009.  ISBN 978-0-425-23004-6

Pretty good actually, I really liked his treatment of the organizational expansion issues.  As a popular overview for beginners, outstanding, well written (I've tried to read a couple of pieces of real dreck recently), and only a couple of minor technical errors. 

Repeated discussion of how NOT nice the Germans were. Only two mentions of recent contemporary western Historians I noticed, Dave Glantz is discussed primarily in the context of Operation Mars, and Catherine Meridale is the only other modern historian metioned by name. And a mention of  "Order of Battle" and "Rivet Counter" hobbyists..... (Which one am I?)

The final, "Epilogue" chapter could have been usefully expanded.  I undersand the goal of a brief, non-scholarly popular account (The metion of Adolf in the title ought to boost sales somewhat);  But suggestions for wider reading would have been appropriate, and a fuller discussion of the cold war historiography issues so brilliantly analyzed by Dave Glantz in his Voprosy Istorii article.  (Note: When you enter "Glantz Voprosy Istorii" in the search Box, it will pop right up).

But recommended for bright eighteen year olds interested in the subject, I'll be sending it on to my nephew, er, eventually.  I got my $6.99 worth.

Because....

Yesterday I told the volunteer ladies at our communtity center library to just take the stack of Nazi Glorification coffee table books (Walmart donations?) and put them in the forthcoming book sale.  This morning I wander in, and another person has "cataloged" them (It's not a real catalog, but that's another issue) and hands them to a different volunteer, saying we don't have room on the shelves, so "we" will store these until we do (there never will be room on the shelves, it is a fixed space).

At least there is a convenient brick wall for me to beat my head against.  Oh, that feels so good.