Comedy/Tragedy of Errors: Stupidity in the Honorverse

kenl511 wrote:According to V. I. Leonov, Combat Engineer and Partisan trainer, the Soviet Officer Corps Purges coincided with a re-organization of the army and those who opposed the re-org. were purged. The focus was shifting from infantry to cavalry tactics with armor (applying lessons from Spain). Barbarossa hit at the time of maximum confusion.

The one point of cosmic (almost comedic) justice in those purges was the next round of purges after the army were the NKVD personnel conducting the purges. The purges never really stopped, They just changed targets from round to round.

Yes and no, yes some of the officers objected to the reorganization but IIRC only 2 Field Marshall's and 3 or 4 Marshalls were retired the rest were 'purged'. Also IIIRC Stalin wanted to purge Zukov and Konvev shortly after the Battle of Berlin because of there immense popularity but Beiria talked him out of it because the Red Army would have revolted.

People's Commissioners were emplaced to watch the Officers, but no one was emplaced to watch the Commissioners.

They should have been emplaced by twos.

cthia wrote:People's Commissioners were emplaced to watch the Officers, but no one was emplaced to watch the Commissioners.

They should have been emplaced by twos.

In a way, they were. Every ship got a Commissioner(who mainly watched the Captain) and a flag officer had their own Commissioner, theoretically doubling up on flagships.

The mistake was not swapping them around. Saint-Just let Pritchard, LePic and virtually every other Commissioner in 12th Fleet stay with Giscard, Theisman, etc. for years. On the other hand, regular rotation could have hastened a conspiracy amongst the Navy and its Commissioners.

But Commissioners were pointless in the first place, especially for front-line units deployed far from Capital Fleet. Worse than pointless, really - some of them were damaging to the Navy's efforts.

kenl511 wrote:According to V. I. Leonov, Combat Engineer and Partisan trainer, the Soviet Officer Corps Purges coincided with a re-organization of the army and those who opposed the re-org. were purged. The focus was shifting from infantry to cavalry tactics with armor (applying lessons from Spain). Barbarossa hit at the time of maximum confusion.

Not really. For example Stalin got rid of Tukhachevsky, who pioneered the concept of "deep operations" and was heavily involved with armor tactics, and kept Semyon Budenny, who would have been a great heavy cavalry commander in 1812, but was not cut out for modern warfare.

That Stalin had been Budenny's commissar during the Polish-Soviet war of 1920 was purely a coincidence.

cthia wrote:Good one Hutch. But I'll see your bid and raise you one Pavel Young.

A normal human male who thinks he can rape a genetically enhanced Sphinxian who knows martial arts.

Ouch!

Honor put her foot so far up Pavel's ass that her toenails were painted with blood from his spleen!

Now that I think about it. He got raped!

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For both Pavel Young and Santino (and for that matter, Harold Styles on Hades) their biggest error was assuming / underestimating their adversary.

-- Stewart

SWM wrote:Corporal Heinrich Johnson, for deliberately choosing to let a prisoner hack the computer system of the Tepes.

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In Johnson's defense, Johnson thought he only had access to the "Games and Simulations" area, so Johnson can get an excuse of ignorance. Ignorance can be cured with education (for the willing).

Ransom's greater stupidity was accepting Harkness' defection at face value.
Since she had betrayed PubIn and InSec in the CPS coup, she SHOULD have known better.

-- Stewart

roseandheather wrote:Giancola. Of all the careless, cruel, thick-headed, cruel, selfish, cruel, thoughtless, selfish, cruel asshats in this 'verse, I hate Giancola the most.

I will never forgive him for what he did to my girl. Not if I live to see the death of the universe. I only wish he had died in a more painful, bloody, agonizing, prolonged fashion. Hung, drawn and quartered would be good. So would being torn apart by wild horses. Or flayed open and doused with saltwater.

saber964 wrote:How about being fed to pigs live.

roseandheather wrote:My only concern is that the pigs will get to the back of the neck too quickly, so his death won't be at its maximum agonizing potential. Now, if you could ensure me that he could feel every second of it....

I'm not quite sure I know what girl of which Rose refers. Any help?

n7axw wrote:I thought that kidnapping Helen Zilwicke was a less than bright move on the part of the Peep ambassador. Using the Scrags was even worse.

Don

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Again with the underestimating the adversary (or in this place target).

As Kevin Usher says in the same story, "the map is not the territory, the file is not the man"

Not researching the potential "target" leads to assumptions (ASS-U-ME --> when you assume, it makes an a$$ out of you before me)

-- Stewart

Tom wrote:Not really. For example Stalin got rid of Tukhachevsky, who pioneered the concept of "deep operations" and was heavily involved with armor tactics, and kept Semyon Budenny, who would have been a great heavy cavalry commander in 1812, but was not cut out for modern warfare.

The concepts of Tukhachevsky and Triandafillov were what was used against Japan in 1939 and against Germany in 1944 and 45 and were the core of the 80s Soviet army tactics. So yeah, he was pretty damn important and Stalin killing him was insane. But Stalin was a nutcase.

cthia wrote:

SharkHunter wrote:Allowing Shannon Foraker to upload tactical plans to the new
StateSec SD(s). I believe the key word was.... "Oops".

Preceded shortly by Oscar St. Just NOT replacing Denis LePic as Theisman's political commissioner. But we're glad that it worked out that way in both cases, right?

Nah! Pissing Shannon off to the point that it awakened her to the real world is what was stupid!

She was content to play with her 'puters.

But noooo, they wanted to awaken a sleeping giantess

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Beware the Uber-Nerd when she gets angry (or he when referring to Harkness)

-- Stewart