“Amateurs study tactics,” goes an old saying, “armchair generals study strategy, but professionals study logistics"
Received wisdom in modern military circles.
During Operation RESTORE, the Departmentio Munitorium Engineering Corps laid 1126kloms of dual railway from the port of Randstad to the lager point, later known as Fort Nuttar (Nuttar being a local small but colourful bird that gathers in large flocks to eat grass seed on the prairie).
Received wisdom in modern military circles.
During Operation RESTORE, the Departmentio Munitorium Engineering Corps laid 1126kloms of dual railway from the port of Randstad to the lager point, later known as Fort Nuttar (Nuttar being a local small but colourful bird that gathers in large flocks to eat grass seed on the prairie).
The dual railway, in the space of two months, carried:
8960 Vehicles
24 Milllion litres of drinking water
31 Million litres of vehicle fuel (derv and avtur)
48000 tonnes of ammunition (incl CPR, capacitors, plasma
flasks and batteries)
7000 shipping containers of misc stores (uniform items etc)
Departmento 8x8s covered 1230000kloms in support of
Operation RESTORE.
In order to achieve all of this, in support of the railway
construction and fabrication of Fort Nuttar, the Departmento Munitorium Labour
Corps moved 853000 tonnes of earth and dug 212000kloms of ditching.
During this period the Engineering Corps printed 12450000
maps. The 72AG Surgeon General, having
so many Imperial Guardsmen, Departmento Engineers and Labourers either in one
place or spending some time in Fort Nuttar, administered 78000 vaccinations.
By the time that the military operation (Operation FIRESTORM) was due to re-start,
the Engineering Corps focussed on laying two promethium pipelines (one for
Avtur and one for Derv) to support the advance from Fort Nuttar.
“At first there will be increased slaughter—increased slaughter on so terrible a scale as to render it impossible to push the battle to a decisive issue. . . . Then, instead of a war fought out to the bitter end in a series of decisive battles, we shall have to substitute a long period of continually increasing strain upon the resources of the combatants. . . . That is the future of war—not fighting but famine, not the slaying of men but the bankruptcy of nations and the break-up of the whole social organization.”
—Jean de Bloch, Is War Now Impossible? The Future of War in Its Technical, Economic and Political Relations, 1899
“At first there will be increased slaughter—increased slaughter on so terrible a scale as to render it impossible to push the battle to a decisive issue. . . . Then, instead of a war fought out to the bitter end in a series of decisive battles, we shall have to substitute a long period of continually increasing strain upon the resources of the combatants. . . . That is the future of war—not fighting but famine, not the slaying of men but the bankruptcy of nations and the break-up of the whole social organization.”
—Jean de Bloch, Is War Now Impossible? The Future of War in Its Technical, Economic and Political Relations, 1899
Was it not ever so? starvation in siege, denial of forage to invaders?
ReplyDeleteWhat changes as you rightly point out with your convincing figures, is the scale of the thing.
Food for thought. (pun intended)
Hullo again old chap - I do always enjoy swinging by here. An interesting and oft-neglected aspect of 40K warfare. "No army is brave without supplies"...
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