The Crusader Project

Thank you!

I mean, we have standards and all that. Unless you express your level of disappointment by threatening to come and burn down my house to sell my children while simultaneously DNOSing The CRUSADER Project like, forever, how can I even take you seriously?

Not these kind of comments.

The first article is basically done, it will appear when I receive the ISSN for the project.

Comments and observations are welcome.

The articles will deal with specific aspects of the desert war, in a wide sense, and what comes out will be based on my interest at the time. Or sometimes an external trigger, like the inquiry on the death of a soldier of 51st Field Rgt on 23 Dec 1941 on WW2talk. There will be no schedule.

In terms of quality, the articles will be better than the ones you currently see on the site, more rigorous sourcing, more care in editing. Overall a more rounded product. Standards for paid-for will be higher than for 'stuff I just put on the blog'.

Sea-Air Battle in the Mediterranean 10 – 13 September 1941 Introduction The summer of 1941 was primarily spent trying to build up the Axis forces in North Africa to prepare for the assault on Tobruk and the subsequent invasion of Egypt. While the supply ro…

So at some point something has to give, and this point has been reached. I will also formalise this by obtaining an ISSN for the article series. So what will you get? Well the past is a good guide to the future. These will be articles that would be good enough to appear in e.g. Britain at War.

Why now? Well, as an independent researcher working on a hobby, I just spent probably multiples of what I will ever earn on getting the first book out for which I am a co-author. Mostly in picture fees including @curatorian.bsky.social, but also maps by @benskipper.bsky.social, war diaries by Andrew

Pricing is what I consider 'reasonable', £4/article fixed, i.e. less than the cost of a coffee and snack at Prêt. Payment options are Wordpress/Stripe/Bank transfer. It's similar to the pricing for the E-Articles on airwarpublications.com and I am aiming for similar levels of depth.

The Battle for Ed Duda, 29 November 1941 29 November 1941 – the Crucible of Ed Duda Background Following the failure of the ‘dash to the wire’, and the increasingly critical situation around the Tobruk breakout salient, Rommel took …

This will be quite limited, applying ONLY to NEW ARTICLES. I.e. ALL currently available content, including articles already published, will remain free. There will be no paid-for subscription unless legislation such as the Online Safety Act would force it (I doubt it but IANAL). E.g. the below? Free

Screenshot of a draft blog entry for The CRUSADER Project Background Payment for (some) content is a new feature, in which we are trying to recover some of the cost for running the blog through providing in-depth content related to the desert war. Future feature length articles will also be subject to payment of UK£4 or local currency equivalent. General blog entries are going to remain free, there are no plans for a subscription requirement, and the blog will remain advertisement-free as well, because I hate advertisement. What you get This is a ca. 5,00 word article in PDF format, covering the failed attempt by the Commonwealth forces to cut the retreat of Panzergruppe Afrika at Beda Fomm on 22/23 December 1941. A mix of command failures and a spirited performance by 15. Panzerdivision in reaction to the threat posed by BENCOL (see here and here) prevented this attempt by 13 Corps to destroy the retreating Axis forces before they could form a new, coherent line at Agedabia. The article is based on a mix of primary sources, and is the first detailed description of the action and the context thereof that is utilising sources from both sides that I am aware of. The article can be saved and printed, but you cannot copy text or pictures out of it without a password. Ownership rights are permanent but I would prefer for you not to transfer it. Pricing is based on the presumption that people play nice.

So. There will be a major change to the approach to rommelsriposte.com in the next few weeks. After about 17 years, and with the imminent publication of the first book, some content will become 'paid-for'. 🧵

@alanallport.bsky.social @navalairhistory.com @cedricmas.bsky.social @milavhis.bsky.social

a man in a hat stands next to a younger man ALT: a man in a hat stands next to a younger man

Chapeau!

Ah, but don't you know, all immigrants are part of the liberal/leftie elite, so they have only themselves to blame.

No. He's got legitimate concerns that you really should listen to, because quite frankly the concerns of the immigrants in all this aren't being given enough attention, and that's led to the rise of sectarianism and grooming for Islamist terror purposes.

You know, two can play this game.

Lenin > The Beatles.

For at least my entire adult lifetime we've been told over and over and over again that if we just listen and understand the concerns of murderous fuckwitted bigots and give them everything they want, it'll magically make them stop being hateful murderous monsters.

Ah yes, let’s get back to Lenin’s ten-day work week which gives us 520 days per year while we’re at it! 🤣

That’s a 700% capacity factor. You may want to check what the capacity factor actually is.

Permanency, even.

Also, 24x7x365 gives you a capacity factor of 700%. 🤷‍♂️ the maths ain’t mathing.

Wait until he finds out about annual maintenance downtime on NPPs and TPPs, which also breaches the 24x7x52 permanent y requirement.

a cartoon character with a whistle blowing sign behind him ALT: a cartoon character with a whistle blowing sign behind him

Springfield, FL?

Thame WWII hero awarded blue plaque to mark legacy John Henry Smythe is being remembered as a heroic WWII resident after being given a blue plaque.

Wizard news! We interviewed Johnny's son, Eddy for the IBCC Digital Archive in 2017, and he recently spoke about his father at the centre. @ibccdigitalarchive.bsky.social #History

Does it matter?

Austrian, but you’re not wrong.

What I don’t get is why the interviewer doesn’t just say ‘I do it all the time, why don’t we meet in the Chandos off Trafalgar Square for a quick one at 9.30pm tonight. I’m buying. Unless you’re scared, of course.’ To call out his bullshit.

All of them then?

One of these was captured in a raid on the Libyan/Egyptian border in October 1941 and you can just see the puzzlement of the ordnance intel folks on the Allied side in the intel summary write up.

My other hot take on this is that if we hadn’t 1) created and 2) worked so hard to maintain a global system that is horrendously unequal, there would be far fewer people economically migrating to escape poverty. That’s the fix, not shuttering the system.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

Frederick Forsyth's 1970s book The Odessa File depicted the fictional account of an SS officer living in West Germany under an assumed name, based on a real SS officer and real events of the Holocaust in Riga in WW2. One person in Argentina who saw the film of the book ...

In fairness, only hard cases go to see that.