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Private Notes
US troops went into the civil war in Somalia with a clear mission statement - to help aid agencies get supplies through to where they were needed. But this was soon and disastrously forgotten amid hot pursuit of the warlords.
No German spy operated successfully from Britain during World War 2. Ill-trained and undermotivated, most were picked up within hours of landing, and ‘turned’ to send back misinformation to their former masters. But the clues to this massive con-trick were there, had the Abwehr chosen to see them.
The struggle between Italian and Austro-Hungarian forces in the Alps was one of the most bitter yet little-known campaigns of World War 1. Eleven costly Italian offensives had failed to break the stalemate. When the demoralised troops were struck by fresh German units disaster ensued. But the Germans were to make blunders of their own
For Hitler and his High Command the crucial question was where would the Allies land to begin the liberation of Western Europe, and where should their armoured reserve be held? Once D-Day came Hitler refused to believe that this was the main assault, and vital counterattacks were fatally delayed.
As Lenin seized power in Russia in October 1917, civil war erupted as counter-revolutionaries attempted to defeat Bolshevism. The Western Allies decided to intervene to aid them. It was an act of pure folly, for it enabled Lenin and his tiny minority of followers to pose as the true champions of the Russian people.
The dramatically changing moods of the sea mean that maritime disasters are sometimes inevitable. But when the roll-on roll-off car ferry The Herald of Free Enterprise lurched to port in calm waters just outside the Belgian port of Zeebrugge and capsized within a minute there had to be other reasons. What emerged was a trail of errors that led to some of the most far-reaching changes in ferry safety regulations.
