The Fruits Of Victory Would Be Ashes In Our Mouth
These words from from President Kennedy’s speech on the Cuban Missile Crisis, seem to be the Russian aim, as they continue to lay waste to Ukraine.
Kennedy was talking about nuclear war, but pictures from Ukraine remind me more of the damage of atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima or from an all-destroying earthquake.
Vlad the Mad will certainly be remembered by history in the same way as Hitler, Pol Pot and Stalin.
I don’t believe in the death penalty, but he is surely the one case, where anybody would make an exception.
I wonder how he would like Hitler’s most feared punishment. Hitler apparently, worried most about being exhibited in a zoo.
Putin And The School
This has just been published by a reader on The Times web site.
To get on the good side of voters, Vladimir Putin goes to visit a school in Moscow to have a chat with the local children. He talks to them about how Russia is a powerful nation and how he wants the best for the people. At the end of the talk there is a Question and Answer session.
Little Sasha puts up her hand and says ”I have 2 questions. “Why did Russia invade the Crimea and why are we amassing troops at the the Ukraine border?”
Putin says ” Very good questions ” but just then the bell goes for lunch break.
When they come back to finish the Q&A section another girl, Misha, puts up her hand and says ”I have 4 questions for you. Why did Russia invade the Crimea and why are we amassing troops at the the Ukraine border? Why did the lunch bell ring 20 minutes early and where the hell is Sasha?”
Someone thought it was a Finnish joke from the time of the Winter War.
But we should certainly unleash the Dogs of Comedy!
Now That’s What I Call A Mission Statement!
This is a paragraph from the Comment in the Business section of today’s times, with the heading of Mission Statement.
Rousing stuff from Astarta, a Ukrainian agri-group listed in Warsaw spanning sugar, milk and soya beans. Having secured extra financing for the “spring planting” season, its latest update underlines a commitment to “maintaining food security and rebuilding the national economy”. The sign-off? Well, not your typical corporate speak: “We believe in the army of Ukraine! We believe in Ukraine! We believe in our Victory!”
Companies love mission statements. Surely, this is one of the best.
Slava Ukraini!
It’s Time We Used Cyber Dark Arts To Foil Putin
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times, which was written by Edward Lucas.
This is the first paragraph.
Breaking the Kremlin’s grip on the Russian people is the greatest national security priority of our lives. We cannot (or rather, will not) fight the Russian invaders in Ukraine. But we can fight inside Russia, using disruption and subversion to disable the war machine, ideally to the point that the country becomes ungovernable.
He suggests the following.
- Russian speakers could sow doubt about the regime’s lies and brutalities.
- Use the Russian diaspora to contact friends and relatives back home.
- Build and unleash a psychological warfare arsenal against Putin’s cocktail of crimes, lies and secrecy.
- Send condolences to family members for their losses in the war.
- Prepare Nuremberg for war crimes trials.
- Highlight the friendly treatment that Ukrainians give Russian deserters.
- Use wit as a weapon.
Edward Lucas then talks about the antics of Sefton Delmer in World War II. Wikipeda says this about him.
During the war, he led a black propaganda campaign against Hitler by radio from England. It was so successful that Delmer was named in the Nazis’ Black Book for immediate arrest after their planned invasion of Britain.
I suspect he was very good at his job. Two of his weapons were.
Aspidistra, which was a 500 kW radio station.
A daily “grey” German-language newspaper titled Nachrichten für die Truppe (“News for the Troops”). These leaflets were delivered by the USAF.
Edward Lucas says that we should all read Delmer’s autobiography, which is called Black Boomerang, which is now out of print and difficult to find.
Wikipedia gives this explanation of Black Boomerang.
When fighting entered Germany itself, black propaganda was used to create an impression of an anti-Nazi resistance movement.
At the end of the war in Europe, Delmer advised his colleagues not to publicise the work they had been involved in, lest unrepentant Nazis claim (as had been the case after the First World War), that they had been defeated by unconscionable methods, rather than on the battlefield. Consequently, former Nazis were able to claim, without contradiction, that they had assisted the fictitious resistance movement; Delmer described this unintended consequence as a “black boomerang”
Edward Lucas suggests reprinting Black Boomerang.
If someone has a good clear copy, I could possibly arrange it.
Demoralising The Russians
Edward Lucas believes, we can use similar techniques to Delmer to attack the Russians.
But instead of using a massive radio, he proposes using the Internet and its various messaging apps.
I suspect with a bit of arm-twisting Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft et al, could produce a very good list of Russian Internet users.
It might be against the law, but who cares? It’s a war out there, we’re not using the information to physically hurt anybody or steal anything of value.
News For The Troops
I believe we can go one better than Sefton Delmer.
We are dealing with Russians invading and occupying Ukrainian territory, where many of the inhabitants can certainly read Russian.
So could we develop a truthful leaflet, that is delivered across Ukraine to both Russian Troops and the Ukrainian population?
Delivery would be primarily by the Internet, but why not deliver it by drone?
Delivery from say 5000 feet would distribute the leaflets over a wide area.
Could We Go Candy Bombing?
Gail Halvorsen, who died recently was known as the Candy Bomber.
This is the introduction to his Wikipedia entry.
Gail Seymour Halvorsen (October 10, 1920 – February 16, 2022) was a senior officer and command pilot in the United States Air Force. He is best known as the “Berlin Candy Bomber” or “Uncle Wiggly Wings” and gained fame for dropping candy to German children during the Berlin Airlift from 1948 to 1949.
I think, his actions could be copied in Ukraine.
Consider.
- The Ukrainian people are starving in the occupied territories.
- The Russian soldiers aren’t doing much better.
- These days, we can supply nutrition bars instead of sweets.
- Automated drones could deliver them safely from 5000 feet.
- They could be flown on behalf of the Red Cross from over the border in Hungary, Moldova, Poland and Slovakia.
Organised properly, the Russians would have a problem.
- If they let the drones through, the siege will be broken in a small way.
- If they shoot them down, their soldiers won’t get the smallest snack and the Russians will be attacking the Red Cross.
We might lose a lot of drones, but eventually we’ll get the nutrition through, each wrapped in a large dollop of propaganda.
Battery And Hydrogen Trains For ScotRail ‘Could Make Scotland A Global Leader’ In Zero-Emission Transport
The title of this post is the same as that of this article in the Scotsman.
This is the first paragraph.
New fleets of cutting-edge trains expected to include battery and hydrogen power are to be ordered for ScotRail which the rail industry believes will put Scotland at the forefront of zero-emission transport.
Other points from the article.
- Talgo appear to have passed the story to Scotland on Sunday.
- Three routes are mentioned; Borders Railway, Fife Circle and Glasgow-East Kilbride.
- The new trains could help phase out diesel trains by 2035, which is Scottish Government policy.
- The Inter7City trains might be replaced by 2030.
- Talgo hopes to win an order for its factory in Fife.
Talgo’s Managing Director is quoted as saying, they are starting testing of a hydrogen and electric train with a range of 311 miles.
Consider.
- I wrote about this train in Talgo To Begin Fuel Cell Loco Trials.
- Talgo’s hydrogen and electric train would be ideal for Scotland’s railways of which only forty percent are electrified.
- A four or five-car high specification hydrogen and electric train would be ideal for the Inter7City routes, if it were built specifically for the routes.
- The range would cover all of Scotland.
- Hydrogen hubs are being planned all over Scotland.
- Scotland have 26 Inter7City trainsets.
This could be a rather nice order to fund the factory and test all the trains close to the factory.
Is there a better place to show off your new train to a prospective buyer than the Highlands of Scotland?
In A Class 319 Train, But Not As We Know It!, I told this tale.
I am reminded of a tale, that I heard from a former GEC manager.
He was involved in selling one of GEC’s Air Traffic Control radars to a Middle Eastern country.
The only working installation of the radar was at Prestwick in Scotland, so he arranged that the dignitaries and the sales team would be flown to Prestwick in GEC’s HS 125 business jet.
As they disembarked at Prestwick and walked to the terminal, the pilot called the GEC Manager over.
The pilot told him “The Scottish Highlands at this time of the year, are one of the most beautiful places in the world! Would you and your guests like a low-level tour on the way back? I can arrange it, if you say so!”
Despite knowing GEC’s draconian attitude to cost control he said yes.
The sale was clinched!
I’m sure that Talgo will exploit the scenery and the local produce.
Talgo’s Hydrogen Trains
This page on the Talgo web site, is entitled Talgo’s Hydrogen Train Will Be Ready In 2023.
This paragraph gives an overview of Talgo’s hydrogen power system.
This system is configured as a modular solution that can be installed on all types of trains, as well as in upgrades from diesel to hydrogen. However, it has been specifically designed for the Vittal platform for Commuter and Regional trains, which Talgo has presented in the bidding process for various tenders in Spain and other countries.
And these two paragraphs describe Talgo’s hydrogen trains in more detail.
This innovative system uses hydrogen batteries that provide the energy for the train’s electric motors. It is powered by renewable energy sources, such as solar photovoltaic or wind, which produce hydrogen that is stored and then used to power fuel cell-based propulsion systems, such as the one designed by Talgo. The system is complemented by batteries that increase the speed of the train when it starts, taking advantage of the braking system to recharge it.
Unlike the extended battery systems in the automotive industry, hydrogen (H2) technology is the logical answer to the needs of heavy transport and, in particular, of those railway lines that do not have catenary electrification systems, and which today depend on trains powered by diesel engines. The hydrogen system designed by Talgo enables conventional network lines to be “electrified” without the need for costly and lengthy adaptation operations, and without the use of fossil fuels.
What do they mean by hydrogen batteries? Looking at the German and the Spanish on the page, I think Talgo means hydrogen fuel cells.
The Rebuilding Of Ukraine
It should be noted that Talgo have sold trains in the past to Russia, which has a gauge of 1.520 metres, which lies between Iberian gauge of 1.668 metres and our standard gauge of 1.435 metres.
- Talgo have also sold trains to Germany, who use standard gauge.
- Talgo have built Strizh trains for Russia, that are both standard gauge and Russian gauge for running between Berlin and Moscow.
- According to the BBC and The Times, Ukraine’s railways have been an important lifeline during the Russian invasion, but pictures show they are in need of modernisation and more electrification.
- The Strizh trains or a development would surely be ideal for running between Kviv and Berlin, Budapest, Prague and Warsaw.
- There would also appear to be a need for a hydrogen and electric regional train to reconnect the country back together.
- Other countries using Russian gauge include Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Belarus, Moldova, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland.
So are Talgo positioning themselves to take part in the modernisation of Ukraine’s railways, once the war is over?
- Development and testing is done in Spain and Scotland.
- Manufacturing could be done in Spain and Scotland.
- Delivery from Scotland could either be by ship or if they were dual-gauge trains, they could be hauled through the Channel Tunnel and then through Germany and Poland.
As Talgo has the technology, I can certainly see them exploiting the Russian gauge market once Vlad the Mad has gone.
Ukraine Maternity Hospital ‘Destroyed’ By Russian Shelling
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
These are the first two paragraphs.
Russian forces surrounding the southern port city of Mariupol have destroyed a maternity hospital, Ukraine says.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said children were under the wreckage, and called on Western leaders to impose a no-fly zone.
This Wikipedia entry is entitled Russian–Syrian Hospital Bombing Campaign.
The campaign may have been started by the Syrians, but the Russians joined in later in 2015-2018, as this paragraph from Wikipedia describes.
After Russia began military operations in Syria, aerial bombardment intensified. In 2015, there were more than 300 attacks on medical facilities by Syrian and Russian forces. From May to December 2016, medical facilities were attacked about 200 times by Russian and Syrian forces.
It does look to me, that the Russians consider bombing hospitals to be a legitimate tactic. It is not, as it is a war crime.
From Belfast With Love
Ben Wallace has just announced in the House of Commons, that Ukraine has received over three and a half thousand NLAW missiles and more are on the way.
This has appeared in the last few minutes on the Wikipedia entry for the Starstreak missile.
On March 9, 2022, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said that the United Kingdom was looking into delivering Starstreak missiles to Ukraine, to prevent Russian air supremacy amid the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Both NLAW and Starstreak missiles are made by Thales in Belfast.
This YouTube video shows NLAW missiles including during training with Ukrainian forces.
Read the comments, of which this is an example.
In Ukraine the instructions on how to use NLAW is top trending content on Facebook and Instagram. Amazingly you can fit a comprehensive instruction on how to shoot a tank with NLAW in like 10 pictures with arrows and subtitles.
These missiles will change the face of defensive warfare.
Is Vlad The Bad Running Out Of Cash?
The BBC News Channel has just reported, that in a speech Vlad the Bad has said, that if you have too much money in your Russian Bank account, that can’t be supported by your salary, then he’ll seize it.
I suppose he needs to pay the gas bill on his little dacha in Sochi.
Vlad’s Childhood
Out of curiosity, I looked up Vladimir Putin’s Wikipedia entry.
This is the first paragraph, in a section entitled Early Life.
Putin was born on 7 October 1952 in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia), the youngest of three children of Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin (1911–1999) and Maria Ivanovna Putina (née Shelomova; 1911–1998). His grandfather, Spiridon Putin, was a personal cook to Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. Putin’s birth was preceded by the deaths of two brothers, Viktor and Albert, born in the mid-1930s. Albert died in infancy and Viktor died of diphtheria during the Siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany’s forces in World War II.
In my life, I’ve known two people, who’ve had their childhood disrupted by death.
- With one, as with Putin two elder siblings died before they were born.
- With the other, their father died when they were about eight.
Both these people received therapy and now lead normal lives.
I’ve also heard many stories of similarly seriously disturbed children, from my late wife’s work as a barrister.
So I have to question, Vlad’s state of mind from his possibly disturbing childhood.
Putin’s Father
His grandfather too, probably had a similar status to say one of the Queen’s personal staff, but they would obviously have had different beliefs.
He would have probably made sure Putin’s father’s beliefs were spot-on.
This is the second paragraph in the Early Life section.
Putin’s mother was a factory worker and his father was a conscript in the Soviet Navy, serving in the submarine fleet in the early 1930s. Early in World War II, his father served in the destruction battalion of the NKVD. Later, he was transferred to the regular army and was severely wounded in 1942. Putin’s maternal grandmother was killed by the German occupiers of Tver region in 1941, and his maternal uncles disappeared on the Eastern Front during World War II.
The NKVD were the secret police and run by Beria.
This is an extract from Beria’s Wikipedia entry.
Beria was the longest-lived and most influential of Stalin’s secret police chiefs, wielding his most substantial influence during and after World War II. Following the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, he was responsible for organizing purges such as the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers and officials. Beria would later also orchestrate the forced upheaval of minorities from the Caucasus as head of NKVD, an act that was declared as genocidal by various scholars and, as concerning Chechens, in 2004 by the European parliament. He simultaneously administered vast sections of the Soviet state, and acted as the de facto Marshal of the Soviet Union in command of NKVD field units responsible for barrier troops and Soviet partisan intelligence and sabotage operations on the Eastern Front during World War II. Beria administered the expansion of the Gulag labour camps, and was primarily responsible for overseeing the secret detention facilities for scientists and engineers known as sharashkas.
Note.
- Like Stalin, he was another Georgian.
- The Katyn massacre took place near Kharkiv in Ukraine.
I don’t think he would be my type of friend.
Did Putin’s father relate the stories of the NKVD into his son?
Conclusion
I’m no psychologist, but I hope that NATO and other nations lined up against Russia behind Ukraine are analysing the character of the dangerous Vladimir Putin.
In My Fathers Footsteps
This article on the BBC is entitled Hundreds Gather In Trafalgar Square To Protest Ukraine Invasion.
My father, who was born on the first of January in 1904, described himself as a left-wing Tory.
- His great-great-grandfather had been a Jewish tailor, who possibly had been born in Konigsberg in East Prussia.
- In his politically-active years before World War Two, he had been an opponent of both extremes of the political spectrum.
- He had possibly been involved at the League of Nations in Geneva, which is something I aim to prove or disprove.
- A couple of times he talked about the horrors of the famines in Russia in 1931-33, but he never expanded on what he knew.
- He was mixed up in the stopping of a member of the British Union of Fascists getting elected in the 1935 Norwood By-Election.
- He was proud to have been at the Battle of Cable Street, when as he said, the whole of the East End, stopped Mosley and his blackshirts from marching through.
I heard him say a couple of times, that Stalin could have been worse than Hitler.
He would have approved that I went to the protest today, where I took these pictures.
It was all peaceful, as no supporters of Vlad the Mad turned up.
The Anonymous Widower 