badgerx16

Do the Free French count ? Or the Poles and Czechs ? ( The latter were fighting before we started ).

There is a point of view that the Germans' plan to launch Barbarossa in May was actually a pre-emptive strike against a planned Soviet invasion due to start in August 1941, and that the reason so much Russian military materiel was ensnared in the first few weeks of hostilities was due to it's having been positioned in preparation for such a move.

Up until mid 1942 the Americans didn't use convoys for their own coastal shipping, despite allocating fleet destroyers to assist UK bound convoys from Canada, ( which in fact they had been doing for many months previously whilst being ostensibly 'neutral' ). They didn't even blackout the coastline which helped the U-Boats to navigate, and to silhouette shipping against the lights. It should be remembered that in took quite a few months, and some heavy loses for us to institute the convoy system ourselves, despite the lessons of WW1.

Apart from the 'second happy time' U-Boat blitz on coastal shipping - over 600 ships sunk.

Norway was invaded primarily for 2 reasons - to gain better access to Swedish iron ore, and to take control of harbours granting more open access to the North Atlantic and British supply routes. Denmark was just in the way. However there was the secondary justification of expanding the 'germanic empire', so possibly this would still have happened.

I agree about the French mentality, one division at Sedan during the Ardennes offensive in 1940 abandoned it's position in panic when the men heard tanks approaching - the tanks were their own reinforcements. The success of the BlitzKreig was based on the divisional generals in the German army, such as Rommel and Guderian, taking some extreme chances ( often in direct contravention of Army orders ), and in doing so beating their opposition psychologically by spreading fear and panic in the rear of opposing formations whilst avoiding direct head to head conbat.

The nearest point to the centre of Moscow that the Germans reached was to the NorthWest, at Khimki. There is a memorial to mark the spot at just over 20Km from the Kremlin.

That's what happens when the Italians are your allies.

They would have needed 51 to finish above Colchester, they finished with 32. Before the Oldham game they were 10 points from Oldham in 20th place, ( Skates 23 Oldham 33 ).

I suspect that the German plan was always to invade Russia in 1941; the Heer ( Army ) was not happy with commencing hostilities in 1939 because they weren't ready. The German armour, in terms of numbers, as well as quality of armament and protection ( apart from the Czech tanks they adopted after 1938 ) was inferior to what the French and Russians had, and despite the mythos of the BlitzKrieg, most of the divisional artillery was horse drawn, and the vast bulk of the infantry went on foot. What the western allies should have done was to commence an attack against German territory as soon as they could after war was declared, but the mentality of the French was strictly defensive, ( although they did make a token advance of about 7 miles on part of the frontier ), and they sat, cosy, in the 'impregnable' Maginot Line. which the Germans, of course, simply drove around.

Careful, Barry will be calling you a clapper !

Also, has the yodeller been seen yet ?

By keeping possession we also prevent the other team scoring - we have conceded less than 1 per game so far this season, which when combined with our 1.3 per game scored means we win more than we lose. Simples.

If we win our next home game 6-0, what will be the 'negative aspect' post match thread ?

Until Milner went off.

So does that mean a foul in the 89th minute would result in a 1 minute binning, or are 9 minutes carried forward to the next game ?

Excellent point - 15 games in and above Man Utd.

Who ???

I present for the consideration of TMS a truly BAD joke: The England cricket team.

Trousers - fair enough, my quote is from this Independent article, ( http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/from-terrorist-to-tea-with-the-queen-1327902.html ). You would think they would have checked their facts.

I wonder what state SA would be in now if Mandela had been executed.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cameron-we-were-wrong-to-call-mandela-a-terrorist-413684.html "Cameron: We were wrong to call Mandela a terrorist" ........................................... 'The ANC is a typical terrorist organisation ... Anyone who thinks it is going to run the government in South Africa is living in cloud-cuckoo land' - Margaret Thatcher, 1987 This from the woman who declared Pinochet a 'great democratic'.

"A man's best friend is his duck. A duck will bring you good luck." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQpX4SLsG0w

And on the bench ? Something like this.... Cropper, Fox, Chambers, Lambert, Ramirez, JWP ( if fit ), Yoshi. ( Is Jos injured ? )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOGJegd3dmQ High tide with a backing wind - a bit wet at work today.