#Military Logistics

[from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras]

Research Rabbit-Hole Tag Game

Rules: As writers, we all end up researching random things for our writing. Share the latest thing you've researched for your fic and tell us something you learned!

Thank you @emmanuellececchi ! You know I’m obsessed with your planetary rings research, and mine might be a little dry in comparison but we’ll see!

I’ve been working on and off on a WIP about the massive muster of Rohan (connected to Obscure Blorbo Dúnhere), and that’s had me dipping into the logistics of supplying and moving a huge army in pre-modern times. That sounds like such a yawn topic, but I find it fascinating. And it’s so impactful on who wins and who loses in military conflicts, so its importance can’t be overstated. A few random tidbits:

– There are massively complicated calculations that go into what supplies (and in what mix) you bring with your army. Every kilo of weight has to be carried by someone so it’s got to be stripped to the bare minimum. Often that meant trusting that you’d forage or pillage food and water along the way, so those were left behind in favor of things like weapons and material goods that are less likely to be found away from home.

– The benefit of pack animals or wagons to increase your carrying ability was largely canceled out by the hassle of how much pack animals need to eat and the degree to which they slow your army down (thus requiring everyone to need more total food/water).

– All this means your options for where you’re going are very limited by the availability of foraging/pillaging opportunities along your path unless you’re in the very rare scenario where a resupply from allies is possible. It also means your army must nearly always be on the move because (again, without resupply) if you sit in any one place for too long, you’ll exhaust the local resources and then you’re f*$^ed.

Anyway. One source I thoroughly enjoy is the blog A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, which looks at ancient military strategy and how it’s reflected in pop culture. It breaks down topics like logistics or what a battlefield would look like right after a fight, and it analyzes specific battles from books or film. It’s got deep dives on what Tolkien got right/wrong at the siege of Gondor or Helm’s Deep and lots of hot takes about who were the best/worst generals in Middle Earth (it’s not always who you might think!). So I recommend that to anyone else who might find that enjoyable!

No pressure tagging @hobbitwrangler @lucifers-legions @celeluwhenfics or anyone else who’s interested if you’ve got anything you’d like to share.

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Introducing Two Brand-New Tools: Character Sheet Generator and Military Roleplay Shipping Manifest Generator

Hello, everyone! Hot on the heels of my recent announcement about the new suite of tools, I’m back again with some exciting news. I’m thrilled to present two more additions to my toolbox: the Character Sheet Generator and the Military Roleplay Shipping Manifest Generator. Character Sheet Generator: The first tool I’d like to introduce is my Character Sheet Generator. This tool is a game-changer…

[smalltofedsblog]

The Future Of Military Logistics Is Predictive

The Future Of MILITARY LOGISTICS IS PREDICTIVE - A recent commander of Army Materiel Command says the war in Ukraine illuminates the path to data-driven sustainment

[latestnews-now]

NATO’s Admiral Pierre Vandier issues a wake-up call for Europe to reform its defense strategies and ramp up military readiness. Highlighting weaknesses in space tech, IT systems, and logistics, Vandier warns that Europe risks falling behind in the global arms race. Learn how increased defense spending and strategic reforms can shape Europe’s future.

[nocternalrandomness]

"RUDY 35" arriving at Mesa Gateway, Arizona from NAS North Island, San Diego

[morkaischosen]

yaaaaay!

[jeannereames]

Your top 5 Alexander the Great moments?

Top Five Alexander Moments

One issue with answering this is to figure out what events actually happened, especially when it comes to anecdotes! Here are four I find either significant to understanding his charisma and/or which explain how he functioned and why he was successful, plus one I like just because I’m a horse girl.

1) To my mind, the event that best illustrates why his men followed him to the edge of their known world occurred in the Gedrosian Desert. While I’m a bit dubious that this trek was as bad as it’s made out to be (reasons exist for exaggerating), it was still baaaad. One story relates that some of his men found some brackish water in a sad little excuse for a spring, gathered it in a helm, and brought it to him. Given his poor physical condition after the Malian siege wound, he no doubt needed it badly. He thanked them (most sincerely), then carried it out where all (or at least a lot) of his men could see, raised it overhead, and announced that until all of them could drink, he wouldn’t. Then he poured it onto the rocky ground.

That gesture exemplified his charisma. And it absolutely is not something the likes of a Donald tRump could even imagine doing—nor most dictators, tbh. They’d be blaming everybody else and calling for heads while drinking Diet Coke, not suffering alongside their people.

This wasn’t an isolated event of that type. While he almost certainly didn’t have time to engage along with his soldiers in every project, we’re told he would drop in from time-to-time, to inspire them and to offer a little friendly competition.

He also dressed like his men for everyday activities, especially early in the campaign. As time went on, some sources say he inserted more distance—probably necessary as his duties exploded—but he still seems to have found time to “just hang out” with his Macedonians on occasion. The claims that he was too high and mighty to do so appears to have been exaggeration (as such accusations often are) in order to forward a narrative that he was “going Asian.” Troop resentment over court changes was very genuine—I don’t want to underplay it (especially as I’ve written about it in a few chapters in this), but it tended to boil up during certain periods/events, then die back again. Alexander was trying to walk a very fine line of incorporating the conquered while not ticking off his own people.

2) Reportedly, he once threw a man out of line because he hadn’t bothered to secure the chin strap on his helm. I pick this one because it tells me a whole lot about how he saw himself as a commander, and what he expected of his men (and why he tended to consistently win).

On the surface, his reaction seems almost petty. It’s precisely the sort of mistake students whine about when professors ding them for it. It’s just a chin strap! I’d have tightened it before I went into battle! (It’s just a few typos; you knew what I meant! Or, Why does everything in the bibliography have to be exactly matching in style? Who cares? What a stupid thing to obsess about!) These objections are all of a piece. First, they’re lazy, and second, they indicate a disconcern with details. In battle, such disconcern can get a person killed. And on a larger scale, for a general, such disconcern loses battles.

One of the striking aspects of Alexander’s military operations was just how well his logistics worked. Consistently. We hear little about them precisely because they rarely fail. Food and water was there when they needed it, as were arrow replacements, wood to repair the spears, wool and leather for clothes and shoes, canvas for tents, etc., etc. All those little niggling (boring) details. If these are missing, soldiers become upset (and don’t fight well). Starting with Philip, the Macedonian military was a well-oiled machine. That’s WHY Gedrosia was such a shock: the logistics collapsed. Contra some historians, he did not do it to “punish” his men, nor to best Cyrus.* He had a sound reason—to scout a trade route.

Alexander understood that details matter. It starts with a loose chinstrap. (Or an unplanned-for storm and rebellion in his rear.) Everything else can unravel from that.

3) Alexander sends Hephaistion a little dish of small fish (probably smelts). He also helps an officer secure the lady of his dreams. And writes another on assignment (away from the army) that a mutual friend is recovering from an illness. While technically three “moments,” these are all of a piece. Alexander knows his men, and is concerned not only for their physical well-being, but also their mental state: that they’re happy. Granted, these are all elite officers, but it suggests he’s paying attention to people. I’ve always assumed he sent Hephaistion the fish because they were his friend’s favorite, and/or they were a special treat and he wanted to share. That he didn’t punish an officer for going AWOL to chase the mistress he wanted but offered advice, and even assistance, on how to court and secure her suggests the same care.

I don’t want to take away from what appears to be his serious anger management problems(!), but little details like those above strike me as the likeable side of Alexander—why his men were so devoted to him.

4) Then we have the encounter with Timokleia after the siege of Thebes. While probably a bit too precious to have occurred exactly as related, I think it may still hold a kernel of truth.

Alexander had a reputation of chivalry towards his (highborn) female captives. If some of that was likely either propaganda from his own time or philhellenic whitewashing later by Second Sophistic authors such as Plutarch (and Arrian), poor treatment of women is not something we hear attributed to him.

Ergo, while the meeting was probably doctored for a moral tail, he may well have freed Timokleia as an act of clemency to put a better face on a shocking destruction he knew wouldn’t sit well with the rest of Greece—who he both wanted to cow yet earn support from. (A difficult balancing act.) Also, if Timokleia hadn’t been high-born, she’d probably have been hauled off to one of the prisoner cages with little fanfare.

Nonetheless, I find his actions surprising given the casual misogyny of his era. If we can take the bare bones of the story as true, and it’s not all invented, Timokleia was raped as a matter of course during the sacking of Thebes, then managed to trick her rapist and kill him by pushing him down a well and dropping rocks on him. I assume this happened when his men weren’t there, but they found out soon enough and hauled her in front of Alexander to be punished for killing an officer. To the surprise of all, Alexander decided the man had earned it and freed Timokleia. One might be inclined to call this overly sentimental, but….

There’s a similar story that occurred much later in the Levant, when two of Parmenion’s men seduced/(raped?) the mistresses/wives of some mercenaries. Alexander instructed Parmenion to kill the Macedonians if they were found to be guilty.

In both cases, we have an affront against (respectable) women. In the latter case, Alexander was (no doubt) working to avoid conflict between hired soldiers and his own men, who—in typical Greek fashion—would have looked down on mercenaries as a matter of course. Some sort of conflict between Macedonians and Greek mercenaries up in Thrace had almost got Alexander’s father killed. Alexander saved him. No doubt that was on Alexander’s mind here.

Yet what both events illuminate is a willingness on Alexander’s part to punish his own men for affronts to honor/timē that involved women. Yes, this is clearly about discipline. But it also shows an unusual sensitivity to sex crimes in warfare: actions that would normally fall under the excuse of “boys will be boys” (especially when their blood is up).

I doubt he’d have felt the same about slaves or prostitutes; he was still a product of his time. Yet without overlooking his violence—sometimes extreme (the genocide of the Branchidai, for instance)—I find his reaction in these cases to be evidence of an atypical sympathy for women that I’d like to think isn’t wholly an invention of later Roman authors. And just might show the influence of his mother and sisters.

5) Last… the Boukephalas story…because who doesn’t love a good “a boy and his horse” tale? Obviously the Plutarchian version is tweaked to reflect that author’s later concern to contrast the Macedonian “barbarian” Philip with the properly Hellenized Alexander. Ignore the editorializing remarks, especially the “find a kingdom big enough for you” nonsense.

But the bare bones of the story seem likely: unmanageable horse, cocky kid, bet with dad, gotcha moment. You can imagine this was an anecdote Alexander retold a time or three, or twenty.

——

* His attempts to copy Cyrus may be imposition by later writers. In his own day, he may have cared more about the first Darius, for reasons Jenn Finn is going to explain in a forthcoming, very good article on the burning of Thebes and Persepolis.

[necrophilemagpie]

you cannot meaningfully threaten Integra Hellsing with military power, money, assassination. You can't harm anyone she cares about without monumental effort.

you can probably absolutely threaten her with introducing Alucard to The Campaign For North Africa board game. because its something he, and He Alone could possibly unironically enjoy.

[clansunsharp]

i appreciate people being cool about the fact that my clan is the dragon military instead of calling me a bootlicker or a fascist or whatever. idk if we've all just gotten older or i was in a particularly toxic online circle a couple years ago or both but yall are nice

[yearofinstitutionalization]

203/638 One Suga a day while he is away

[you-were-alone-too]

i can't wait until we get a better understanding of the show timeline in s5 because what do you mean max might be in a coma and mike doesn't find out about the painting and they're all living in apocalyptic hawkins for 1.5 years???

[mosaicofmee]

Life gets hard but the toughest moments shape us. Take it one step at a time, and keep pushing forward. You’re stronger than you think, don’t give up.

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US Navy C-2A Greyhound COD aircraft cockpit