#heer

This photograph shows General der Panzertruppe Hans-Valentin Hube, commander of the XIV Panzer Corps and one of the most capable Heer (German Army) operational commanders of the entire war, a man who had already lost his right arm in World War One and still became one of the most aggressive and effective armoured commanders Germany produced in World War Two.

The battle described in the caption is the Sicilian campaign of July and August 1943, codenamed Operation Husky by the Allies, the largest amphibious invasion in history at that point, landing approximately 160,000 British, American, and Canadian troops across the southern coast of Sicily on 10 July 1943.

When the Allied landings began, the island's defense rested primarily on Italian forces whose morale and fighting quality had largely collapsed, leaving Hube's four German divisions, all understrength and totaling perhaps 60,000 men, as the only reliable combat force on the island against a combined Allied army of over 450,000 men across General Bernard Montgomery's British Eighth Army and General George Patton's US Seventh Army. Rather than attempting a futile static defence of the entire island, Hube fought a masterful fighting withdrawal northward, using Sicily's rugged, mountainous terrain to force the Allies to attack uphill along narrow roads where their overwhelming numerical superiority and air power counted for far less than it would in open country.

He delayed, counterattacked selectively, gave ground only when necessary, and inflicted casualties far out of proportion to his own strength for 38 consecutive days. Then, beginning on the night of 11 August, he executed the operation that truly set him apart. Over four nights, using ferries, barges, and every available vessel crossing the two-mile wide Strait of Messina under Allied air and naval observation, Hube evacuated approximately 100,000 German and Italian troops, along with 9,800 vehicles, 47 panzers, 94 artillery pieces, and over 17,000 tons of supplies, to the Italian mainland virtually intact.

LOVE AND PEACE......!!!!!!

Who is Laila? Who is Tara, or even Heer? They are not put in a story, to play their role of a lover, turning their lovers against the world or his family. They are not supposed to be conscious of the importance of their part in the bigger picture of Imtiaz Ali’s final thought. I don’t think so. They are not meant to know the mysteries of what lies on the other side of these questions or even be intrigued by these questions. Why?

Because they are beautiful metaphors of the utmost innocence, beyond and above anything ‘worldly’ we have to put up with, to survive.

And when Imtiaz Ali brings together a Qais and a Laila, it is not to create another Raj and Simran but to shake Qais’ or Ved’s world into disorder and bring to him those same questions of what lies “Pahad ke uss paar’’ or what is even the need of that Pahad? Laila, the metaphor, is his way to the answer and sometimes, she IS the answer.

Imtiaz Ali may provide different plots, ambitions, backgrounds; only to ditch the mundane and the superficialities of society, for ‘’…what you love and let it kill you’’ (Charles Bukowski). His philosophy resonates with me and since I am someone who deals with those existential questions day in and day out, I have the greatest urge to be the male character in all of his films.

Jordan in Rockstar holds Heer’s hand and walks her towards the field, away from right and wrong.

Ved in Tamasha finally breaks free from what limits him, with Tara as his guiding Star.