Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

An interesting case of logistics deciding outcomes is the North Africa campaign in World War II. It's discussed in Daniel Yergin's "The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power" in some depth, and there are a few other sources.

Essentially, this is where the code-breaking efforts of Bletchley Park had a major result. The reason that Rommel had such shortages of fuel, according to Yergin and other sources, was that Enigma intercepts allowed the Allies to destroy several critical fuel convoys, limiting Rommel's maneuverability:

https://www.e-education.psu.edu/egee120/node/242

> "General Rommel was committed to a war of movement and boldness. In addition to his talent for tactics, he could also improvise. One thing he could not do, however, was fake the fact that mobile warfare was absolutely dependent upon ample supplies of fuel. Fuel supplies had to be delivered along very long supply lines."

> "The grand strategy failed due to a number of reasons including, Allied attacks on German fuel supply lines, the fierce Russian resistance, and Allied code breakers. Clearly, the bitter lesson learned by Rommel is illustrated by his statement, "The bravest men can do nothing without guns, the guns nothing without plenty of ammunition, and neither guns nor ammunition are of much use in mobile warfare unless there are vehicles with sufficient petrol to haul them around."

In particular see: https://www.nytimes.com/1974/12/29/archives/the-ultrasecret-...

> "During the campaigns in North Africa, Ultra kept Gen. B. L. Montgomery informed fairly exactly of Gen. Erwin Rommel's order of battle and, in some cases, of his plans. It also enabled the British to know when supply ships would sail from Italy - and to sink them, thus eventually starving Rommel of vital fuel."

My grandfather was shipped into North Africa after Rommel's defeat as part of the US Navy SeaBees construction battalion, to prepare for the Allied invasion via Italy. Ever since I learned about this, I've wondered whether without those Enigma intercepts and those sunked fuel tankers, how things might have turned out.




SPI's "Panzerarmee Afrika" is a "beer & pretzels" wargame where supply dumps and supply counters are pretty critical. Also it has some units with 60 and 80 movement points, making it lively.


And Russia has unlimited gas. Gas decuples human work, same as IT decuples human brains.

I’m worried for Europe. Russia will lack a lot of things, but it’s a race on natural resources.


Also coal. But oil is better than both, and cannot be effectively embargoed for a country as big as Russia.

And the Mid to North African pipeline projects will be supercharged now, but how long will they take ?

(At least, the first German methane vaporization terminal should be up and running this winter ?)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32052302

Finally, not «unlimited» - this shows yet again (and we knew this for nearly 70 years now), that it was foolish to rely medium-term on fossil fuels - only viable if your goal was medium-term survival as a polity against industrialized polities - and I have the suspicion that the oncoming decade of industrial recession and freezing will push public opinion even more towards short-, rather than long-term comfort and survival...




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: