Vann the Red - You may be pleased to know I recently acquired a pair of interesting books on jet engines and the Fleet Air Arm, containg some information I am now determined to wangle into the next (very long overdue) tech update.
Regardless, it's always good to see you back Ruddy.
Nathan Madien - A mixed bag indeed. But then no person, let alone politician is perfect, so a mixed bag is perhaps the best one can hope for. Which neatly brings me on to;
Atlantic Friend - The faults of Churchill. Where to begin really, for he far from faultless. Sometimes so far away from faultless he couldn't even see it.
Starting in the Great War, Gallipoli obviously (though I'd argue it was more badly executed and under-resourced than actually a bad idea, still his fault though), implementing the Ten Year Rule in 1919 (which those with long memories for small details may remembered was noted in this very AAR) and the continued intervention in the Russian Civil War (too small to do any good, just large enough to annoy the Soviets and get too many Tommies killed)
Moving onto inter-war you'd have to highlight his tenure as Chancellor, including the quite epically wrong decision to take Britain back onto the Gold Standard, a decision so wrong it could well be used as some form of international benchmark for incorrectness.
Finally his war record, you'd have to at least question the Greek Campaign (or put it down as a stupid idea that extended the North African Campaign by months and saw Crete needlessly lost) and wonder why Bomber Command got all the long range bombers when transferring even a few squadrons worth to Coastal Command would have turned the Battle of the Atlantic. And that's just off the top of my head.
Yet for all that his achievements were immensely valuable, so he ends up considerably in credit despite it all. That said he was best used by putting in a case marked "Break in case of War", possibly with the label beneath "And force him to listen to the General Staff occasionally". His biggest failure as a PM, both times actually, was that domestic policy just didn't interest him and he regularly made big mistakes and got badly out of touch, such as over Edward VII's abdication. Which attentive readers will note is what caused his downfall in this AAR.
Moving on to Attlee, I am utterly incapable of forgiving him for a variety of reasons;
1. British Rail.
2. Giving the Rolls Royce Nene (the most advanced jet engine in the world, as used by the RAF and USAF in various forms until the late 1950s) to the Soviets. Who promptly copied it and used it in the MiG-15 to shoot down Allied pilots over Korea. There's blood on his hands over that if nothing else.
3. British Rail.
4. Not shooting Cripps, not only for #2 above, but just for the fact he actually enjoyed imposing the harsh post-war rations. He genuinely liked imposing what the country could or couldn't buy and eat, because he believed he knew better than anyone else.
5. African policy. Just look up the Tanzanian ground nut scheme for proof.
6. British Coal. It hurts my miners soul what happened there. *sob*
7. British Rail. Unless you travelled on it you can never know the horror of BR. So inept they had trouble making toast. (Literally actually, apparently the on-train toasters on the Inter-city trains never worked properly
)
Of course he was dealt a very rough hand and it was never going to be pleasant post-War. He did a great deal of good work on social reform, the NHS and much else. But the nationalisations left a terrible legacy and one a miner/railway nut cannot forgive him for.
