Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Neville Worland</i>
<br />As far as I can understand we Aussies spent most of the 19th century preparing for a Russian attack.
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[:0][:0][:0] Sounds very odd!

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<center><b>Eyo Imperatorskogo Velichestva Leib-Kirassirskogo polku
General-Adjutant Anton Valeryevich Kosyanenko
Commander of the Second Army of the West </b></center>

Its True, Neville is correct. Even the kiwis got a bit twitchy about it all.

Then in the last century when the aussie prime minister disappeared off the coast of Portsea (a military base)they thought he had been kidnapped by a Russian submarine whilst out swimming!!

Its true!

Regards

Col Mike Ellwood
Konig Regt
1 Bde, 22 Div
VII Saxon Corps, ADR

A mixed feeling of pride and sadness. Pride for the country so strong that even 20 years after it disappeared so many people so far away are still afraid of the invasion that could never happen. Sadness, because so many grown up people still believe in whatever paranoic idea they are told about Russia.

There is a simple fact there could be no Russian or Soviet invasion into neither into Australia nor into New Zeeland, neither in 19th nor in 20th century. Before the WW2 they were British colonies and invading these territories would mean a war with Britain. The War Russia had no chance to win because of British overhelming naval superiority. As you may know before WW2 there was no other way to deliver a force enough to conquer a whole continent rather than by sea. The sea was owned by Britain and it couldn't be taken. The whole history of the World before and during the WW2 demonstrates that. Technically it was impossible. But most importantly it was not needed. I can't see any tiny reason Russia could start a war against the richest empire on Earth just to get a few almost uninhabited peaces of land. Peaces that Britain found fit to use only as penal colonies. It couldn't happen because Russia was never in need of these colonies. After WW2 such an invasion could happen only after WW3, provided the USA will be totally annihilated. A perspective much worse than red flag on the Opera in Melburn!

It couldn't happen because Britain will never allow it. It couldn't happen because Russia didn't need it. In fact Russian invasion was less probable than one from Mars! I just can't believe someone able to think for himself could believe in such a "thread". Sounds as if "a right to think" is not among the "basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled" in our brave new world.[V]

<center></center>
<center><b>Eyo Imperatorskogo Velichestva Leib-Kirassirskogo polku
General-Adjutant Anton Valeryevich Kosyanenko
Commander of the Second Army of the West </b></center>

A Russian submarine? What utter rubbish! It was a <u>Chinese</u> submarine and I've met several people who saw the periscope.

No, it is true about the fear of Russia bit. At the time, Britain was concerned about its position in India and feared a Russian invasion from the north. Whether there was any such plan in Russia, or capacity to carry out that plan, is beside the point. The British at the time believed it (and therefore us faithful little colonialists did too).This was after a century of Russian expansion soutwards, to the northern part of present day Afganistan.

The novel "Kim" by Rudyard Kipling, a terrific read in which India is still recognisable today, is the kind of literature spawned by that fear.

Lt Colonel Neville Worland
Chef d'Etat-Major
Ier Corps de Réserve de Cavalerie
Army du Nord

Its a weird old world isn't it

Col Mike Ellwood
Konig Regt
1 Bde, 22 Div
VII Saxon Corps, ADR

Fortunately I'm an aussie who chose to join the Russian Army.

My god, how did I forgot the Russian panics of the 1850s? Shame on me! I even ride past two enormous cannons mounted to 'guard' the suburb of Northcote: "30 tonnes of unsightly iron" they were called by an irate rates-payer when they were installed there. Previously they had graced the fortress (Point Napean) protecting Melbourne's harbour entrance and had been installed there to stop a Russian invasion fleet.

Yes indeed, it's a strange world.