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The second battle of Sirte: one of the most extraordinary naval victories of all time

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In all the hundreds of years of history of the British Royal Navy, there are few more extraordinary victories than the second battle of Sirte. On 22 March 1942, a British convoy escorted by Royal Navy destroyers, four light cruisers and an anti-aircraft cruiser under Rear-Admiral Philip Vian, with no air cover, came up against met an Italian battle squadron in a rising gale in the Gulf of Sirte. The Italian force consisted of the modern battleships Littorio , two heavy and one light cruisers and ten destroyers. Littorio alone, which carried nine 15-inc guns throwing shells which weighted a ton and a half each,  threw six times the weight of shells of Vian's entire cruiser force, in which the heaviest guns were HMS Penelope's six 6-inch guns. In fact Penelope's guns were the only ones in Vian's force which even matched the calibre of Littorio's secondary armament. If a convoy escort was attacked by a force so overwhelmingly superior in a David Weber novel, unless th...
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Instant film review: Pressure

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Just back from watching the film "Pressure" about the decision whether and when to launch the Normandy landings in 1944 and the meteorologists who advised General Eisenhower. The central characters of the film, which launched in cinemas today, are Group Captain James Stagg, CB, FRSE, who was the Scottish Chief Meteorologist advising the Supreme Headquarters Allied Forces Europe (SHAEF,) portrayed by Andrew Scott, and the Commander in Chief, General Dwight D Eisenhower, portrayed by Brendan Fraser.   "Pressure" is a drama, not a documentary, and it would probably be more accurate to describe it a a brilliant piece of fiction inspired by real events rather than a true story. But it does capture in a gripping way, some of the challenges which the D-Day commanders and planners faced. Everyone who watches this film already knows that the largest amphibious invasion in history was going to succeed, and on what date. Those who planned and gave the orders it had no such for...
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"The Navigator's burden" - a Thrawn fan fiction video

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This is a fan fiction video by the same people who produced some excellent "Thrawn explains" videos we have previously posted. Grand Admiral Thrawn brings both Imperial and Chiss charcaters together to explore the unknown regions. This is "Legends" content and not part of the Disney Star Wars canon, though it is evident that it has drawn heavily on some material, such as Timothy Zahn's canon novels, which are consistent with the Disney canon.    
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Thrawn on why the Empire replaced the Clone Army with conscripts who couldn't shoot straight

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The latest, and best so far, of the "Chris Talks" fan fiction videos features Grand Admiral Thrawn holding a review with Captain Pellaeon and General Covell of the effectiveness of the Imperial military and particularly the Imperial army. Thrawn begins by pointing out that the galaxy has a settled idea about the Empire's soldiers: that it took the finest infantry in history, the Clone army of the Republic, and replaced them with worse men, conscripts in the same uniforms who couldn't shoot straight. These briefings are set in the "Heir to the Empire" timeline which is currently not part of the Disney canon, and there are some non-canon references, but most of Thrawn's arguments would work equally well in the canon timeline. Indeed the process of how the clone army was replaced by human conscripts and how the Imperial Security Bureau kept tabs on army and navy alike aligns very closely with what we see in canon projects like "The Bad Batch" and ...
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Grand Admiral Thrawn's theme: Piano cover

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Apologies for the lack of posts over the last few days. We've had a lot going on dealing with Jedi spies and Mandalorian bounty hunters while establishing Imperial control over Dathomir. There will be reviews coming out within the next week of two books which have just been published - "Soul Synergy," the first in a completely new fantasy series by David North and Michael Dalton and "The Worst Carrier in the Resistance" which is the latest installment in the "Dumb luck and dead heroes" epic by Skyler Ramirez, which manages to be both exciting and exceptionally funny. We also hope to publish at least two or three more classic SF reviews in the next fortnight. In the meantime, as a reminder and confirmation that this blog is very far from going inactive, here is the piano cover version of Grand Admiral Thrawn's theme from Rebels.
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How the RN Sea Harriers beat the Argentine Mirage fighters

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When I was a boy, several years before the Falklands war, I was told about a tactic called "Viffing" which RAF V/STOL fighters could use to get behind their opponents. Every contemporary account on the 1982 Falklands War, and every history, suggests that the "Viffing" manouver was used by Fleet Air Arm Sea Harriers to defeat the Argentine Mirage fighters. This film argues that this wasn't the real story at all. The Fleet Air Arm's Sea harriers certainly defeated their Argentine opponents. They won 100% of dogfights - shooting down 20 Mirages without losing a single Sea Harrier to an Argentine air force. However, there were a number of reasons for this. One was the capability of the Sidewinder missile and the skill with which the Sea Harriers used them. The hit rate of that missile was the best ever achieved in by an air-to-air missile in any war up to that date: fully 88% of Sidewinders fired by the Fleet Air Arm in the Falklands war hit an Argentine fighter...
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Thrawn on Dooku

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In this fan fiction video, Grand Admiral Thrawn discusses with Jedi master Jorus C'baoth and Captain Pellaeon the history of the former Jedi Master turned Sith Lord Count Dooku. This discussion is set in the "Heir to the Empire" timeline, part of the Legends universe, not the Disney Star Wars canon. As Thrawn argues, Imperial officers were taught to see Dooku as a failure because they assumed he was trying to with the Clone Wars. In fact that was not his objective at all ...
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