COUNTERSTROKE AT SOLTSY - Strategy & Tactics Press

Preoccupied with his civil war,
Antiochus sent one of his relatives,
a general named Lysias, against the
Judeans. Lysias’s level of military experience
and acumen remain unclear,
but it didn’t take an Alexander to
comprehend his instructions: “Uproot
and destroy the strength of Israel and
the remnant of Judea. Blot out all
memory of them in the place. Settle
strangers in the territory and allot the
land to the settlers.” (I Maccabees,
chapter three, verses 36-37.)
Already numbering approximately
20,000 men, the Seleucids were
further reinforced by an unrecorded
number of Idumean troops at their
sprawling encampment just to the
south of Judea. That bivouac also
hosted large numbers of slave traders,
all anticipating a bonanza upon the
defeat of the insurgents. Those merchants
brought not only chains, but
also hefty amounts of gold and silver
in anticipation of setting up a lucrative
market. The camp itself therefore
become a rich prize.
Learning from his spies the
Seleucids planned to attack at night,
Judah abandoned his own camp after
lighting a number of bonfires to make
it appear still fully occupied. While
6,000 Seleucids groped in darkness,
searching for the elusive rebels, the
Jews circled behind them to assault
their camp at dawn. And attack the
Judeans did. Amid the pandemonium
of stampeding horses and elephants,
the invaders were cut to pieces while
panicked survivors fled in disorder
toward the coast.
The victors helped themselves to
the treasures of the captured enemy
camp, which included yet another
massive cache of weapons. News of
the plunder swelled Judah’s army to
around 10,000, all spoiling for further
action.
Lysias escaped the debacle, made
it back to Syria, and frantically raised
yet another expeditionary force, hoping
to surprise the Judeans by returning
more quickly than they expected,
as well as salvaging his own reputation
with his master Antiochus. The
Maccabees, however, remained ready,
and easily routed the new force near
the city of Beth-zur in southernmost
Judea.
After Judah upended yet another
large Syrian invasion in the spring of
161, the Seleucids broke off action for
a year, lulling the Judeans into believ-
ing they had won. The Maccabean
army began to disperse, and in 160BC
the Judeans were unable to survive a
new, massive and unexpected attack.
Judah himself was killed in the final
battle.
The Maccabean Revolt died along
with the leader who had made it
possible, but it was not a real victory
for the Seleucids. Their empire had
bled too much during the eight year
uprising. Its armies were depleted and
its coffers drained. Before long, the
ascendant Roman Republic moved
in and conducted what was one of
their easiest conquests enroute to their
mastery of the Mediterranean littoral.
— Kelly Bell
Codename Blue
Peacock
During the early days of the
Cold War, western Europe was hard
pressed. The British, then responsible
for halting any potential Warsaw Pact
sweep across the Northern German
Plain, lacked the financial and manpower
resources of the United States.
So the British government came to
believe stopping the “Red hordes”
might call for desperate measures.
One solution explored was an
atomic land mine, for which a War
Office “specification” was issued in
1954. The document called for a 10
kiloton device that could be triggered
remotely from up to three miles away,
or by a clockwork timer that could
be set for up to an eight-day delay. A
study followed in 1955. Its conclusion
was that atomic mines buried
in northern Germany could indeed
thwart a Soviet advance across the flat
expanses of the British sector.
In 1955, Britain’s nuclear arsenal
was limited to one design, the “Blue
Danube” bomb, first tested in 1952
and then in service with the Royal Air
Force. The Blue Danube, a plutonium
bomb, had been created as a free-fall
aerial device, carried to its target in a
bomber. In 1955 it was the only nuclear
weapon immediately available
to the British. The design became the
basis for the army’s new atomic land
mine, codenamed “Blue Peacock.”
Converting the Blue Danube to
an army munition offered challenges.
The weapon was big: Blue Danube
weighed 10,000 pounds, was over 24
feet long and five feet, two inches in
diameter. It was intended to be stored
under climate-controlled conditions,
and it was expected to be under the
control of the British military until
it had been delivered. Blue Peacock
would – by its very nature as a supermine
– be left alone for up to a week
in primitive field conditions.
Blue Peacock ended up using the
Blue Danube detonation system in
a larger casing that was also made
waterproof and airtight. It could
therefore be buried, dumped into a
lake or river, or simply left on the
ground. A surface burst would create
a 375 foot crater. Buried 35 feet deep,
Blue Peacock would dig a hole 640
feet across.
Since the bomb would be untended,
anti-tamper devices were
also added. The casing was pressurized,
and pressure switches and tilt
switches were added. Once armed,
Blue Peacock would detonate 10 seconds
after being moved, if the casing
lost pressure (for example, if gunfire
punctured it), or if it was filled with
water.
Field tests indicated a European
winter might chill the bomb below
the detonator’s operating temperature.
Therefore the bomb was insulated
with fiberglass batting, and a unique
heating system added – live chickens.
The birds were to be sealed inside
the casing with a week’s worth of
birdseed and water. The fowls’ body
heat would keep the detonator warm
enough to fire, at which time Blue
Peacock would flash-fry the birds
along with everything else within
its range. [Talk about a “chicken
outfit”…ed.]
The Army Council ordered 10
Blue Peacock mines in July 1957, and
Britain’s atomic weapons establishment
built two inert prototypes later
that year. One of them was used to
test the design in a gravel pit near
Seven Oaks. Only then did wiser
heads decide the project was too
desperate.
Blue Peacock had meanwhile
grown to 16,000 pounds (weight, not
cost in Sterling). Operational deployment
of the weapon would therefore
have required an item the size a
large locomotive boiler to have been
secretly trucked around Germany.
Various devices were to be used to
disguise the mine’s purpose. One
cover story called for Blue Peacock to
be described as “an atomic power unit
for troops in the field” – an accurate,
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