Quote · Fin vs History
I Prefer El Alamein’s Early Stuff (with Pierre Novellie) | Monty vs Rommel (Part 3/4)
Where this was said
He's A Gemini
At 45:47 · chapter starts 41:08
Rommel arrives back at the front on 25 October — having missed the opening chaos — but Stümer is already gone and the situation is critical. Fin describes the period from 26–31 October as 'barbaric': close-range artillery fire, men being squashed by tanks (evoking the famous scene from All Quiet on the Western Front), combat degenerating into fists, spades, and knives. The proximity to Cairo means Allied supplies flow freely, while Rommel's lines stretch back to Libya. Horatio drops the observation that Muammar Gaddafi was born in 1942 and is therefore approximately four months old during all of this, and the group confirms he is a Gemini ('makes sense'). Fin has been watching Tom Hanks' 20-part WWII documentary series on streaming, described as 'WWII for a more online generation,' and the group debates whether any new take on the war is possible. [1]
North Africa was won by the British Empire's genuinely multinational force — Australians, Indians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Greeks — before American forces had any meaningful involvement. Fin calls it the last great hurrah of empire.
The Long Range Desert Group were there before the war charting the desert. Pierre says they're the same personality type as today's rock climbers — people with master's degrees and a master's appetite for suffering. That scholarly obsession turned out to be a decisive Allied advantage.
