Re: Falkland Islands
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2019 12:57 pm
The Stanley Marathon - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Marathon
(Note the nationality of some past winners.)
If a small, but dedicated, group of older chess-playing and younger marathon-running Argies (perhaps including some vets) are reduced to sneaking into the main island via a third country and then have to creep about in the dead of night for a couple of kilometres to reach the chess venue it's hardly a carefully planned commando operation - along the lines of the WWII Allied raid on Dieppe in 1942.
The Dieppe raid was severely repulsed by the Bosch (they've since beaten their swords into the proverbial... and make a great range of peacetime products), but it served as a testrun for the D-Day landings in 1944.
Yet, from my armchair observation post, I can't see another large seaborne invasion force appearing on the horizon any time soon.
All I can see is a small storm in a large, but otherwise empty, South Atlantic teacup, accompanied by the distant echoes of rattling sabres carried on the remnants of a whistling wind coming up from the roaring forties.
PS Presumably they left the same way they came, and may have done so in a hurry. Were any discarded scoresheets found? They might indicate the strength of the landing party.
Can't be too careful you know - the last show was preceded by "scrap merchants" occupying S. Georgia while HMF had their backs turned!!
Maybe I should start sittin' on the fence on this one, but not the peace-at-any-price one Jezza's on. No dinner for him last nite.
(Note the nationality of some past winners.)
If a small, but dedicated, group of older chess-playing and younger marathon-running Argies (perhaps including some vets) are reduced to sneaking into the main island via a third country and then have to creep about in the dead of night for a couple of kilometres to reach the chess venue it's hardly a carefully planned commando operation - along the lines of the WWII Allied raid on Dieppe in 1942.
The Dieppe raid was severely repulsed by the Bosch (they've since beaten their swords into the proverbial... and make a great range of peacetime products), but it served as a testrun for the D-Day landings in 1944.
Yet, from my armchair observation post, I can't see another large seaborne invasion force appearing on the horizon any time soon.
All I can see is a small storm in a large, but otherwise empty, South Atlantic teacup, accompanied by the distant echoes of rattling sabres carried on the remnants of a whistling wind coming up from the roaring forties.
PS Presumably they left the same way they came, and may have done so in a hurry. Were any discarded scoresheets found? They might indicate the strength of the landing party.
Can't be too careful you know - the last show was preceded by "scrap merchants" occupying S. Georgia while HMF had their backs turned!!
Maybe I should start sittin' on the fence on this one, but not the peace-at-any-price one Jezza's on. No dinner for him last nite.