The War in Ukraine

Ukraine undertook a counterattack to retake Kherson. The map reflects as closely as is possible, the situation with contested areas in pink. Snihurivka will fall to Ukraine. Maybe today, maybe it will be cut off and it will fall later this week.

Kherson was an important port on the Black Sea and on the Dnieper River, and the home of major ship-building industry. activity. Ukraine began to undertake the effort to retake the Black Sea coast.

 

Fried Chicken & Egg Sandwich

The FC&E is underappreciated for breakfast. Leftover friend chicken from the day before, crack an egg, a little basil for flavor and you are ready for the day.

 

Matilda

British Matilda 1, knocked out in France. It was useless in an attacking sense, as its weak armament made it toothless in combat against enemy armor. The tank was obsolete before it even came into service, yet they sent men forward in them.

 

From Hillary

 

 

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28 COMMENTS

  2. D Day: Brave men indeed. While there are still men just as brave today the numbers of them have sure decreased. I hope and pray we will not need them in the numbers we saw in WW II ever again.

    FC&E sandwich: Looks very tempting. Darn it LL if I followed all your food suggestions I would be pushing 300 pounds inside of a year. Many thanks for helping me practice my self restraint. 😉

    No one needs and AR: I don’t “need” a lot of the things that I own. That doesn’t mean I don’t find them useful and enjoy using them though.

  3. Masonic lodge brother was a Ranger who went up Pointe du Hoc. He could still recite the names of the men he lost. And said that was the most horrific battle he saw in the entire war.

      • My Uncle Clarence was air-dropped in on the midnight run. He never talked about it. I knew he was a paratrooper, but until my cousin told me some years ago, I had no idea.

  4. In regards to “need”, that always bothers me that someone suggests that I don’t “need” when its something I want and my ownership is guaranteed by the constitution. And, further in that vein, I am reminded of Bob Dylan and lines in a stanza in “Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again.

    “And when Ruthie says come see her
    In her honky-tonk lagoon
    Where I can watch her waltz for free
    ’neath her Panamanian moon
    An’ I say, “Aw come on now
    You know you knew about my debutante”
    An’ she says, “Your debutante just knows what you need
    But I know what you want”

    Men need more Ruthies in their lives, and I know what I want, needed or not.

  5. In the movie, “The Longest Day”, there is a scene where engineers blow a path through a seawall. The company, the 112th Engineers, was a predecessor to the one I was with mid 1960’s. Doing a stint in the 1st Sgt’s “volunteer after hours work party”. he assigned me the job of sorting through and organizing several files about the unit history. Best assignment I ever had. No mention in those files as to casualties but my guess is few there survived for long.

      • That scene was cinematic not accurate. Bangalores are great at cutting barbed wire and even logs but concrete requires shaped charges. I don’t know what was actually used. Best guess was Bangalores to clear obstacles to the wall and then two or three shaped charges, probably around 60 lbs each.

        • Bangalores were often used in the Pacific by shoving them into the vision and gun ports of bunkers and other hard points. If the bangalore didn’t kill the troops inside, the followup flamethrower and/or satchel charge usually (repeat, usually, but not totally) finished off the defenders.

          A neat idea, as long as you don’t have to expose yourself to use it.

      • The first ones came from the Britsh arsenal in Bangalore India for use on the Western Front in WWI, I think.

  6. That’s not a sandwich it’s a cheese scone! Can you please stop putting delicious food that I can’t eat on your posts.

    • A cheese scone? In America, it’s a biscuit and a biscuit is not a cookie…

      Two peoples, separated by a common language.

      You could try eating one.

  7. When the rangers were practicing scaling cliffs in the UK, the ropes they fired up were dry. By the time the landing crafts reached the shores at Pointe du Hoc, all the ropes were soaked with sea water. Only about half managed to reach over the top of the cliffs due to the added weight… yet they persevered and won the day. Greatest generation to be sure, I’m in awe.

  8. That’s a good illustration of what I was saying a couple of weeks back about losses for engineers in an opposed breach. Sappers are out in front making a passage for everyone else. It’s brutal.

    • WSF engineer cannon fodder engineer.
      LL UDT maritime cannon fodder
      LSP British infantry — wear red, quick March over the top when the whistle is blown
      Old NFO fly low over surfaced sub waiting for SAM to launch from conning tower

  10. A steak and fried egg biscuit is also a smash. A rather tasty treat. Either pan seared or chicken fried, steak. Mmmmmm…. steaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkk.

    A lot of the Brit equipment wasn’t up to snuff. But you fight with what you have, not what you want.

    As to D-Day, not a lot of people remember that Eisenhower had two letters prepared. One announcing a succcessful landing, another falling on his figurative sword and taking all the blame for the failure. Fortunately he got to use the first and not the second.

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