Capitaine Vengeur

Horrible news to start the day! His Popeye face will be missed. Priceless, irreplaceable. Also remember his more serious characters in "Awakenings", "Good Will Hunting" or "Insomnia". Yet he won't make us cry half much as he had made us laugh, and that's a good reason to remember him as a great artist.

For post-WW1, I suppose there could be some places named after people like Johannes Steinhoff? - who besides a formidable ace not in favour with the Nazis, was also a prominent figure of post-War Germany & NATO military. I suppose also that due to her political beliefs, there are few places named after Hanna Reitsch, which is a pity for she was one of the most outstanding airwomen ever. In France, we sometimes find groups of adjacent streets named after illustrious aviators, like Blériot, Mermoz..., with some more local names. For example, in the Southeastern outer rim of Reims, my city of origin, a traffic circle with monument and adjacent street are named after Henri Farman, close to the place where he landed after the first cross-country flight ever in 1908, 27 kms from the village of Bouy to Reims. And in the city of Le Havre where I am living now, there is a "Rue de l'Aviateur Guérin" named after Gabriel Guérin, 23 confirmed kills during WW1 (mostly within SPA 15), who had been born and grown up in this Norman harbour (while said as born in Morocco in most of English-speaking sites!!!). Also, there are several streets in Châlons, Poitiers, etc... which are named after my grand-uncle Henri Guillaumet, hero of the Interwar Aéropostale (who had been born in the same village of Bouy from where Farman had taken-off).

Happy birthday to you !

In the context of intense nationalist brainwashing since childhood all over Europe, very few people were conscious enough about the absurdity and danger of a mass and deadly European war, after the alliances forged between the main antagonistic powers. The national leaders of the Workers' International Movement were the most active in publishing books, articles and manifestoes, but were not federated enough to concretely plan large multi-national actions against national mobilisations. Even at national levels, the left wings, affected by ultra-patriotic atmospheres, were too divided to represent a serious threat to the militarists; yet in doubt, they were preventively considered as such by the national regimes. In France, one unifying figure stood out by large: the Socialist deputy Jean Jaurès, a charismatic tribune, scourge of the conservative wing, and long-time organizer of many strikes and political struggles for social rights. By 1913, he had threatened to wage many more actions to prevent the militarists from mobilising, and from happily throwing the country into the European-scale war of mutual aggression they hoped since long, without using all of ressources of diplomacy. On the evening of 31 July 1914, 100 years ago today, as war got closer than ever, Jaurès was shot dead in a Parisian café by a fanatic nationalist. He was about to release the next day a blazing editorial, that he expected would stand out above the universal background of nationalist prattling, and wake up the minds of the more sensible of his compatriots. This never happened after his murder. On August 2, France decreed mobilisation in response to Germany's mobilisation and state of war against Russia. The French left wings, stunned, divided, overtaken by events, lacking the figure of a Jaurès as standard, did not react with any kind of vigor. They soon rallied to the ultra-patriotic unison of the Union Sacrée. Jaurès' assassination, as well as the inability of Socialists Karl Liebknecht or Rosa Luxemburg to federate the German left wings against the threat of war, are the symbols of the failure of the Workers' International Movement – which after the War opened the door to the new Soviet-inspired Bolshevik wave. After his martyrdom made him a legend, Jaurès' name was politically exploited by both the left and right wings as an icon of commitment and peace; and now, you would hardly find a French town over 2,000 souls that has no avenue or main street named after him. [-Slartibartfast,even the U.K. Embassy in Vienna happens to stand in local Jauresgasse!-]

The ship infamous floating thing is expected to sail drift close to the Corsican coast, and the Corsicans are not happy at all about this. And you guess how Corsicans are when they are not happy about something. Demonstrations at sea are planned off the coast, let's hope there won't be one on the shore, with another irresponsible tourist captain at the helm: "Hey Luigi, there are lots of people on the shore, they say us hello! Let's get closer to the coast to say them hello too! Andiamo!"

Everyone mature enough remembers where he/she was when this news was released. Thus, a university teacher of mine, specialist of the Middle East, told us that at that time, he was part of a geographic mission in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, far away from the civilization and Hertzian waves-covered areas, and that he could have missed the event. The mission was scheduled to spend that night in a godforsaken village of mountaineers. When arriving at dusk, they found nobody outside, which after the guide was unusual. They soon discovered that each family was at home near its transistor, listening at that incredible news that Yankee astronauts were about to land on the Moon; some believed it a hoax. Down to the last hole in Zagros, this was really a planetary live event.

The indisputable arguments in favor of this ridiculous gadget: Is panic-proof, NBC-proof, small caliber bullets-proof (G.I.s don't want shrapnells in their peanut butter, do they?), thirst & hunger-proof (useful in the barren holes where the U.S. tend to wage war, mules don't drink oil)... Spares the distressing show on Youtube of an agonizing real mule wounded by bullets or IED, it could lower the morale of Western decadent voters at home. Contrary to a real mule, sexually frustrates the Talebans in case of capture. Is a good first-step experiment to be tested on the battlefield: later increase the size tenhold, replace junk with grunts, and you have a fine StarWars-style AT-AT. Allows some Congressmen in the purchasing commision to change their car again and keep a fourth lover.

Netherlands 3, Brazil 0: inconceivable kill ratio of 1/10 against Brazil on the last two matches. Now a third and ultimate humiliation for the poor organizing nation would be the World Cup for Argentina. Always painful to have your fave neighbour use thumb and index fingers to draw an "L" on own's front across the border. Always painful to have your fave neighbour's team wave the coveted trophy in front of disheartened crowd, style: "Hey, you unfortunate over-indebted Brazilian people, guess to whom we dedicate this big golden sextoy?..." Pope Francisco is expected to watch the final. Maybe this time, and this time only, he could allow himself one "¡Hostia!".

Would look nice with yellow smokes?

Well, almost anything could taste spicy to people used to the bland English cuisine...

Karate for Columbia, theatrical play for Argentina... Where the hell was soccer? Best wishes to poor Neymar, and regarding the Dutchmen on Wednesday, they should beware of the Argentinian falling histrions...

Germany 1, France 0. Once again, the Panzerdivision has rolled over the Senegalese tirailleurs. Les Bleus had no will to fight, no fear to lose, Benzema was disappointing. One could have expected a burst of pride and a switch of fortunes for the centenary of the 1st Battle of the Marne. But it's over. Now my best wishes to the sympathetic outsiders of Belgium and Costa Rica.

This carrier inherits the name of a fine warship with a long career, yet having missed many opportunities to prove own valor during both Global Wars. Best wishes for this new Queen to win fame for her name...

France vs Germany: Time to take revenge at last for the unpunished German aggressive game in 1982. Not through ourselves using aggressive game, of course. This is only sport, played by gentlemen (allegedly).

On June 19, 1944, the Imperial Japanese Mobile Fleet challenged in the air the United States Navy's Fifth Fleet besieging the Marianas Islands and invading Saipan. For hours, successive swarms of green warplanes bearing red disks tried to pierce the enemy defenses and to reach the invaluable Yankee carriers. When the countless geysers from downed Japanese planes finally fell back around the undamaged American Fleet, any hope Japan could have had to save his fate on sea had vanished. In the History of the US Navy, that day would remain forever known as: THE GREAT MARIANAS TURKEY SHOOT ! This terrific air battle makes for a great part in the scores of several of the greatest aces ever in the US Navy. On this June 19, Cdr David McCampbell (CO of Air Group 15, USS Essex) shot down five 'Judys', and later two 'Zekes' over Guam, out of his final score of 34, while Lt Alexander Vraciu (VF-16, USS Lexington, still alive to this day) shot down six 'Judys' in 8 minutes out of his final score of 19. Among the few American casualties of this famous day (20 pilots and 7 crewmen), LtCdr Charles Brewer (CO of VF-15 after McCampbell) shot down five Jap aircraft, but could not make it back to the Essex.

As long as Washington will be eager to please Ankara, there will be no Kurdish state allowed in this area...

Is this a 'World' Cup? Somewhat bleached... What about China, India, Kenya, Cuba, Brazil, Polynesia, and all other beautiful colors of the World? About the sound pollution, if vuvuzelas broke your nuts, wait for Qatar 2022 and the reading of 21 verses of Holy Quran before each match...

At the time of Saddam, the Boss was the bastard whose picture was in every place. You could not miss him. That was called dictatorship. Today in Iraq, the Boss is the bastard that is standing before you with a Kalash at the present moment. He cannot miss you. That is called anarchy. Iraq is a hopeless cause.

Yesterday at night, there were synchronized fireworks in several places all along 80 kms of Norman coast. I could observe the whole line of fire from the cliffs of the Northern side of the Seine Estuary. Not much impressive at such a distance, but some moments when the coast took shape at night under a blazing sky, as well as the dull, distant, delayed beat over the sea, could give the short-lived impression that the Invasion had resumed.

Mascott? What about this nice, pleasant, edible animal? Just call him "Hog"! Yet, political correctness could find him unsuited for some religions represented here...

I am not ashame to confess that I am a sycophant of Nolan's creative work. And I just found out that the musics will be composed by Hans Zimmer again: Nolan's usual winning team. Now, I really have to see that film!

At the time of Sarkozy, we French felt we had De Funes for President. And now with Hollande, I feel we have François Pignon for President. And now I find both characters much less funny. And I find the whole joke not funny at all, dammit !!!

No academic work here, but I like the way WW1, for its French part at least, is summarized by crude figures in this element of Jacques Tardi's classic comic book "It was the War of the trenches" (available in English translation, not comic at all, believe it). Here is some raw translation: Deads... Deads... Older ones and warmer ones... That's the interest! The magnificent FIRST WORLD WAR! 35 countries participating closely or remotely! You want figures? Some "historical" accounting for the future? 10,000,000 deads! How many years of life expectancy buried forever in the mud? How many orphans? Disabled men, widows? In France only, 930 hectares of military cemetaries, good farmland for beet, but only crosses growing up! If all of the French deads were marching past in four by four for the Bastille Day, it would need no less than 6 days and 5 nights before the last one could show his pale face... 11 départements, 2,907 districts, 485,600 hectares of woods, 1,923,000 hectares of farmland devastated! 794,040 houses and buildings, 9,332 factories, 58,967 kilometers of roads and 8,333 civil engineering structures destroyed, to wit 71,000,000 cubic meters of rubbles! 330,000,000 cubic meters would be necessary to fill in trenches along 780 kilometers of front... And the cost? Guns, shells, other junk?... 2,500 billion Francs-Or*! For this cost, each European – Russians excluded – could have been offered a little four-rooms house... But figures, you know... * 1 Franc-Or in gold value = 8,7 EUR = 12 USD

Here are some of the links to WW2 Soviet air units and aces I routinely use when designing campaigns (at the moment, 3 works in progress for Wings over Russia). Using a translator or reading Cyrillic characters may be useful. I still miss an accurate database for the bases and dates of transfer for all of these units, which may have been as many and often as for their German counterparts. Units (operational dates, campaigns fought, planes used, parent units...) : http://halconesrojos.com/cantina/index.php?topic=9477.0 http://www.allaces.ru/cgi-bin/s2.cgi/sssr/struct/main.dat http://aviahobby.ru/publ/soviaps/iap_vmf.html Organization : http://www.alternatewars.com/BBOW/Organization/Soviet_AF_Organization.htm http://www.airpages.ru/ru/vvs1.shtml Aces : http://militera.lib.ru/bio/0/pdf/bykov_my01.pdf http://soviet-aces-1936-53.ru/abc/a.htm

No contest, the Soviet Front was unquestionably the place where the fate of War in Europe was sealed. And so overwhelmingly that campaigns fought elsewhere may have appeared, in comparison, as relatively anecdotal. The proportions in German and Axis losses East are telling enough (over 80%, if including PoWs dead in captivity). From Moscow to Berlin, from Leningrad to Königsberg, from Sevastopol to Budapest, this front of gigantic dimensions in width and moving depth, saw hundreds (hundreds, too many of them to be remembered) battles the size of Kasserine or Anzio, and dozens of battles the size of Normandy or Ardennes. One of the reasons why the difficult battleground of Normandy did not get stuck in the quagmire it may have become, was that on the same month of June, the Soviets had launched Operation Bagration, one of the biggest offensives of the War gathering 2.5 millions soldiers, which could seize all of Bielorussia and Eastern Poland in one single impulse (alright, largely due to the large amounts of trucks provided by Lend-Lease). The Soviets also had to face the additional forces of Finland, Hungary, Romania, some other puppets, and enough anti-Communist volunteers from all over Europe to build two dozens of legions or SS divisions - while the Allies before September 1943 only had to face unprepared Italy with very few additional German divisions, and some more significant German help in the air. On the other hand, true, the Soviets had no influence over strategic warfare during this War in Europe (the convoys war in Mediterranea and Atlantic, and the air front over Germany). But once again, this compared to an Eastern ground front that permanently engulfed over 200 Axis divisions, appears anew as anecdotal.