Missed the Saturday dance

I should mention I'd finished off 1948 in my Hearts Of Iron II game. When last we left, there was a huge longitudinal front from western China through Siberia being struggled over, and my landings around Archangelsk had, by July, reached Moscow. And yet I could feel my basic weakness in European Russia and threat of a ``Battle of the Bulge'' counterattack.

( In short: my worst fears did not develop, although the lingering frustration in the China-Siberia front has continued.  )

And so come the end of 1948, there are these enormous numbers of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Canadian, British, Australian, New Zealander, and even Dutch troops tromping eastward on a course that's recognizably Route 66, to the Lincoln Highway, to the Boston Post Road, on their way to the liberation of Russia.

Oh, and a little game-mechanism glitch the final day of 1948: I got reports of the expiration of non-aggression pacts between the United States and every Latin American nation. This is the game's effort at shadowing the Monroe Doctrine/Good Neighbor Policy, and for the limits of game mechanics isn't bad. It's just they forgot when updating the game for the Doomsday Expansion Pack --- which is what I'm playing --- to move the expiration date of this from the old final simulation date of 1948 to the end of 1954, when the expanded game ends.

Trivia: On arriving in Moscow for the October 1944 conference, Winston Churchill's plane first landed at the wrong airport, then had to be diverted; nevertheless he arrived at his dacha (Viachelav Molotov's residence) earlier than expected and so his luggage was not there; and on attempting to take a bath, Churchill found only cold water coming from the hot and the cold taps. Source: 1945: The War That Never Ended, Gregor Dallas.

Currently Reading: We, Eugene Zamiatin.