Naval-Logistics

The Invisible Army ← Series Home Key Takeaways Distance defines everything: 8,000 miles from home, with no bases en route except Ascension Island (3,400 miles out), Britain had to bring everything or do without. Improvisation was survival: Ships were loaded by hand in days, not weeks. Stores were "cross-decked" at sea. Civilian vessels became warships. Nothing went according to peacetime plans. Time compressed decisions: Winter was coming. Every day of preparation was a day closer to impossible conditions. Speed trumped optimization. Just enough was enough: Britain didn't have comfortable margins. They had barely sufficient supplies to win—and knew that any major loss could be fatal. The Shock of War On April 2, 1982, Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Islands—a British territory 8,000 miles from London, home to 1,800 people and several hundred thousand sheep. ...

The Kinetic Chain 1 Part 1: Alexander's Invisible Army 2 Part 2: Napoleon's Fatal Calculation 3 Part 3: The Railroad Revolution 4 Part 4: The Crimean Catastrophe 5 Part 5: Barbarossa and the Battle of the Gauges 6 Part 6: The Battle of the Bulge and the Tyranny of Fuel 7 Part 7: Wholesale Distribution and the American Way of 8 Part 8: The Pacific Logistics Challenge 9 Part 9: Victory Through Logistics 10 Part 10: Vietnam and the Tyranny of Terrain 11 Part 11: Giap's Bicycle Brigades 12 Part 12: The Ho Chi Minh Trail 13 Part 13: American Largesse in Vietnam 14 Part 14: The M16 Debacle and Logistics Failure 15 Part 15: The Falklands Logistics Miracle 16 Part 16: Desert Storm and the Logistics Miracle 17 Part 17: The Future of Contested Logistics ← Series Home Key Takeaways Distance defines everything: 8,000 miles from home, with no bases en route except Ascension Island (3,400 miles out), Britain had to bring everything or do without. Improvisation was survival: Ships were loaded by hand in days, not weeks. Stores were "cross-decked" at sea. Civilian vessels became warships. Nothing went according to peacetime plans. Time compressed decisions: Winter was coming. Every day of preparation was a day closer to impossible conditions. Speed trumped optimization. Just enough was enough: Britain didn't have comfortable margins. They had barely sufficient supplies to win—and knew that any major loss could be fatal. The Shock of War On April 2, 1982, Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Islands—a British territory 8,000 miles from London, home to 1,800 people and several hundred thousand sheep. ...