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Though the Yangtse isn't as infamous as the neighbouring Yellow for drastically re-drawing the map (*), it still has a nasty habit of bursting its banks and flooding vast areas... My best guess would be a frantic scramble to evacuate several million people from the area at risk. If it coincides...

Um, didn't Churchill, while an 'embedded correspondent' during Boer War, famously use one of those scary German pistols with a box-mag *in front* of the trigger grip ? Mauser ?? You could fit a bigger, longer 'pistol' round into such and, IIRC, the weight distribution meant the gun did not...

IMHO, the Ottomans would tackle Jerusalem en-passant before tackling Byzantium, long, long before besieging Vienna.

IIRC, things didn't settle down until the drought eased, when contour plowing and other mitigations were introduced via federal schemes...

Oh, dear... IIRC, Agincourt was picked for the battle as a 'perfect storm' for the attackers' cavalry. Soggy bottom-land, a forest of sloping stakes and a nice, dry slope to give the defenders' long-bow archers clear line of sight... Same slog through the soft ground, same spiky hazards for...

The irony of the 'Land League' thing was that many aggrieved tenants withheld their rent, but expected their sub-tenants to pay in full and on time. Or else... === Irish history grim ?? Oh, yeah... Happens there's a cautionary tale in our extended family... "Remember, those Ancient Greeks...

Um, it may seem a silly question, lionhead, but have you seen those passes' pinch-points ? Think 'Canadian Rockies'--- A steep valley, a road, a rail-line and LOTS of avalanche warning signs. Yes, yes, the Swiss won't have 'Marshal Winter' to help during 'Panzer Season', but they do have lots...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_National_Land_League That's a grim chunk of 'recent' history that was totally new to me. Live and learn...

Think how UK wartime rationing system worked with coupons-- But, of course, you had to *pay* for the stuff your coupons allowed, and 'through the nose' for anything more. IIRC, several Marxist / Communist states tried the money-less route, and a parallel economy promptly developed. Barter...

"All these comments make me wonder how tough an Axis Switzerland would be to crack." IMHO, it would make AH's proposed 'Eagles Nest' redoubt look like a kiddies' sand castle. That, the Dambusters could have stomped with those 'tallboy' silo-busters. Dug-in Swiss must either be starved out or...

May be urban legend, but one of the German generals reputedly spoke to his Swiss counterpart pre-war. "You can muster a quarter-million men under arms. How would you fare if I arrive on your border with an army of half a million ?" "Oh, we'd all shoot twice, then go home..." Perhaps more...

Surely proximity fusing trumps both timing and altitude ??

Until folk found oil in the Deep South, mineral wealth and associated manufacturing tended to come from hilly country, convenient for exposed strata, adits etc. IIRC, the Mississippi Basin overlays what was the 'North American Seaway', so there's a LOT of sediment between would-be miners and...

"man is a smug creature who thinks he has tamed nature, until it bites him in the proverbial rear" "Also contributing factor was an absolute absence of individual courage/initiative." Yup. That's a dangerous combination... IIRC, Fukushima staff often dined at a little port up the coast where...

Um, can't remember the source, but the ancient 'Adriatic Coast' Greeks may have called their small ports' and little ships' 'working cats' by 'psipsina'... Think 'Barn Cats' on modern farms-- The kitties are *so* cute but you cannot handle them beyond three or four months' age...

Didn't Dr Morell get his hands on Mussolini, too ??

Snag was the site design suffered from a *nasty* attack of 'tunnel vision'. Despite historical records of bigger Japanese tsunamis, their sea-wall was considered adequate. Then, rather than respecting 'Murphy's Law', they put *all* the essential back-up generators at ground level, thus ensuing...

IIRC, it was one of the zillion options considered. Snag was OTL's design was meant as 'one size fits all', able to hoist long hab modules for NASA, those REALLY BIG spy satellites for the TLAs and BIG, JUICY upper stages to boost space probes. Sadly, the design turned out to be a 'bridge too...

Lyme disease ? Some nasty pox carried by eg black-foot ferrets ? Plagues of passenger pigeons ? Worse plagues of locusts ?? No kidding on the locusts; wasn't until settlers serendipitously destroyed their breeding grounds in a *few* mountain valleys that they stopped swarming every decade or...

Corned Beef ??