Small Business Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Small Business Management - Essay Example Virtual Transport is a small business which offers transporting and haulage services and functions with a staff of eight employees and the entrepreneur. Having undergone a financial crisis during its first year of inception, the company has just managed to turn around the company. However the business had to seek additional funding support from its bankers and have given them an undertaking to provide financial information to keep them informed of the progress the business is making. The following proposal of management and monitoring strategy for Virtual Transport which takes in to account the information requirements of various business stakeholders such as the government authorities to meet the statutory requirements; the bankers; business accountants as well as the internal staff and the entrepreneur himself. The strategy takes in to account the need for regular monitoring of business performance in order to assess the actual performance against the initial business plan, through calculation of performance ratios, variance analysis etc. The information required in filing the quarterly tax returns, and annual profitability statements to meet the legal requirements are born in mind. Capturing of all income and expense data on a daily basis to facilitate the business accountant in drawing up the monthly accounts has been a key consideration is developing the information strategy and the proposed information systems. In addition the role which information sharin g plays in building and maintaining employee moral and commitment has also been considered. The information requirements have been identified under main categories of Legal & Taxation Requirements; Internal Business Management; Financial Administration and Financial Monitoring. The information will be in the form of quarterly and annual profit and loss statements; Business Activity

Orion Nebula Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Orion Nebula - Research Paper Example It was the first nebula to be photographed (1880), by Henry Draper in the United States† (Encyclop?dia Britannica, 2013). Orion is amongst the simplest to be found patters of star in the sky on the evenings of the winter season. The feature that defines Orion is a three stars’ row that constitutes Orion’s belt. The bright reddish star called as Betelgeuse is located above the belt. The bluish star called as Rigel exists just underneath the belt. A dimmer stars’ sword hangs straight from this belt. The ancient astronomers were impressed to observe a splotch of blood upon the stars’ sword, that can be seen with the naked eye in the dark; that is Orion Nebula. Although Orion Nebula can be seen with the naked eye, it was not until 1610 that its actual nebulous nature was identified. â€Å"As a vast and active star-forming region of bright dust and gas located a mere 1,500 light-years distant, the various stars within the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) has g iven astronomers invaluable benchmarks for research on many aspects of star formation† (Major, 2012). Orion Nebula appears as a web of dark dust and glowing gas when observed with the help of a large telescope or when its processed images are seen. â€Å"As a region of gas and dust coalesced under its combined gravity, stars began to burst into life and lit up the rest of the cloud resulting in the bright and colourful swirls of gas and dust that you can easily see through binoculars and telescopes† (Active Astronomy, n.d.). Inside the Orion Nebula forms the adolescent stars’ energy. Trapezium is the conglomerate of four bright stars that exist in its center. Observations made with the help of telescope have led to the conclusion that 11 stars exist inside the central group whereas the number of immediately neighboring stars is more than 2000 (Fraknoi, 2007). These surrounding stars are very small in age; their age is less than one million years which is why they can be considered as babies according to the astronomical standards. Nebula gains its glow from the energy provided by one of the stars, that is known as Theta-1C Orionis. Theta-IC Orionis can make up to 40 stars like Sun. The glow it contains is equal to the brightness of 210,000 Suns. The width of nebula is around 30 light years. A certain number of infant stars can be seen throughout the nebula. Disks of darker material surround the infant stars. These disks make a planet system that is similar to the system of planets that surrounds the Sun. â€Å"Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed over 150 such "getting-ready-to-make-planets" disks, an indication that the birth of stars is frequently accompanied by the birth of planets† (Fraknoi, 2007). The Orion Nebula entirely extends over the sky’s one degree region. It consists of numerous associations of stars, neutral clouds of dust and gas, reflection nebulae, and ionized gas volumes. Orion Nebula i s a constituent of a larger nebula called as the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex that includes Barnard’s Loop, Flame Nebula, M43, Horsehead Nebula, and M78 and extends all across Orion’s constellation. The heat-intensive process of star formation inside the Orion Nebula makes it prominent in the infrared. The roughly spherical cloud formed by the nebula that reaches its peak in the density close to the core. The temperature of the cloud ranges up to 10,000 K that

Microorganisms in Waste Water Treatment Process

Microorganisms in Waste Water Treatment Process When people think of microorganisms, they tend to think of unsafe pathogens. While this may be of concern there are beneficial microorganisms living ubiquitously around us as well. Microorganisms that live in air, soil, and groundwater live in a symbiotic cycle, consuming harmful chemicals and masses of organic materials. Therefore, it is only natural that scientists would harness the natural biodegradation of these in the field of Wastewater Management. Biotechnologists prefer to call this process bioremediation. They have been using bioremediation on wastewater for many years and have discovered a plethora of usable microorganisms. Due to the vast amounts of microorganisms capable of bioremediation, this paper is focusing on bacterium capable of breaking down organic material useful in treating wastewater. Wastewater treatment is performed on a variety of waste sources such as agricultural, residential, and industrial waste. Many bacteria such as Nitrsomonas, nitrobacter and paracoccus are important players in the treatment of industrial and sewage waste. The use of microbes in wastewater treatment plants is an integral piece of the wastewater treatment process due to the fact that microbial population in a facility can become depleted resulting in system back-ups, organic material build-up and overall reduction in system efficiency. It is at this point when supplementation of a microbial product becomes necessary. There are three stages of wastewater treatment: primary, secondary, and tertiary where microorganisms can be added or encouraged to grow in wastewater . The first two stages are concerned with large debris and organic matter removal by the use of a variety of filtration and sedimentation processes. Microbial organisms are stimulated in the second and third stages and the goa l is to degrade excessive amounts of contaminants such as nitrogen, phosphates, oils, chemicals and heavy metals by the third stage. One common practice used in residential wastewater in the second stage, is using activated sludge techniques, which aerates the waste to stimulate denitrifying and nitrifying microorganisms to biodegrade the waste. Most large sewage treatment plants use a two-phase digestion system in which organics are metabolized by  bacteria,  anaerobically. In the first stage, the sludge is heated and mixed in a closed tank for about 15 days, while digestion takes place. The sludge then flows into a second tank, which serves primarily for storage and settling. Sludge digestion is a biological process in which organic solids are decomposed into stable substances. Nitrifying and denitrifying organisms, both aerobic and anaerobic are added to convert about half of the organic sludge solids to liquids and gases (Siezen Galardini, 2008). Nitrosomonas europae was isolated in 1892 by Russian microbiologist Sergio Winogradsky. It has been a useful bacterium in wastewater treatment, usually added in the secondary treatment process due to its ability to breakdown organic material. If given an aerobic environment, ammonia is oxidized first to nitrite by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria, then nitrite is oxidized to nitrate by nitrite-oxidizing bacteria which makes N. europaea primarily important in the nitrification cycle (Arp and Bottomley, 2006). Nitrosomonas. europaea  is a bacillus shaped, gram-negative obligate chemolithoautotroph; which is an autotroph that gets its energy from oxidation of inorganic substances in the absence of light. It is a mobile bacteria with flagella located in its polar region. It commonly inhabits places rich in ammonia and inorganic salt, such as in soils, freshwaters, stone monuments, and sewage. It obtains most of its energy from its ammonia-oxidizing capabilites, an unusual process for most ba cteria.  Cell division may take several days due to its need for large amounts of ammonia consuming about 25 moles of ammonia per mole of carbon dioxide assimilated into cellular biomass (Arp and Bottomley, 2006).   Due to its long delay in cell division, scientists tend to avoid studying Nitrosomona. N. eurpoaea gains carbon from the atmosphere by converting carbon in a gaseous form into carbon bound up in organic molecules. Its genome consists of a single circular chromosome with 2,812,094 bases. Its gene structure denotes that it must take in Fe and suggests it can take in other metals such as Cu, Cd, Zn, and Co as well (Chain, Lamerdin, Larimer, Ragala, Lao, 2003). N. europea functions best at a basic ph but can tolerate a ph between 6.0-9.0 and it prefers temperatures between 20-30 degrees Celsius. Nitrobacter hamburgensis got its name because it was isolated in soil of the Old Botanic Garden in Hamburg. It is a gram-negative bacteria that lives mainly in soil, building sandstone, and sewage sludge. It is pear-shaped and has one sub-polar flagellum. There is one circular DNA chromosome and three circular DNA plasmids with 4,406,967 base pairs on the chromosome. (Kaipa, et al, 2010). N. hamburgensis  gains energy from oxidation of nitrite to nitrate and has the ability of metabolizing nitrogen in nitrite from its environment. It is found mainly in soil and freshwater. (Arp Bottomley, 2006). The bacteria has provided a solution to removing high levels of nitrogen from municipal effluents of wastewater treatment plants. Biofilms with different nitrifying bacteria including  N. hamburgensis  have been constructed. Before the invention of these biofilms very large and expensive reactors were used for this purpose. Paracoccus denitrificans, an organism that removes high levels of nitrogen in wastewater when paired with Nitrosomonas europaea, a nitrifying organism which reduces ammonia to nitrate. P. denitrifican  is a spherical coccus shaped gram-negative bacteria having a double membrane cell wall. It inhabit soils in either aerobic or anaerobic environments. First isolated in 1910 by Martinus Beijerinck, a Dutch microbiologist gave the organism the name  Micrococcus denitrificans, only later to be changed by Diana.H. Davis in 1969 to the current name Paracoccus denitrificans after the discovery that the bacteria contained many features known to be in mitochondria, possibly an ancestor to the eukaryotic mitochondria. (Davis, et al, 1969). The genome of  P. denitrificans  consists of two circular chromosomes and one plasmid. The first chromosome has 2,852,282 base pairs and the second chromosome has 1,730,097 base pairs. The plasmid has 653,815 base pairs (Swiss Inst., 2007). Many of th e proteins transcribed and translated from the plasmid is what gives  P. denitrificans  its unique features of the ability to metabolize ammonium to nitrogen gas. Due to P. denitrificans  ability to produce more than 5000 proteins it is useful in biotechnological applications (Uemoto Saiki, 2007). Another process commonly used in wastewater treatment is the use of biofilms, various trickling rock filters that encourage biofilms. (Sillankorva, Neubauer, Azeredo, 2008) These biofilms build microorganism communites enclosed in a matrix of extracellular polymeric substances separated by water channels. Within these colonies are a variety of bacteria, fungi and algae which biodegrade waste. Psuedomonas fluorescens, P. syringae and P. putida are a few of the bacterias found in biofilms. As well as fungus like Mycelium and algaes. The biofilm community is an optimal environment for cell-cell interactions, including the cellular exchange of genetic material, and nutrient exchange within the community. The matrix protects the microorganisms from UV exposure, metal toxicity, acid exposure, dehydration and salinity, phagocytosis, antibiotics, and antimicrobial agents (Hall-Stoodley, et al 2004). Pseudomonas fluorescens makes a great contribution to the turnover of organic matter and while present in soil, is abundant on the surfaces of plant roots and leaves. P. fluorescens grows at an optimum temperature of 25 ° Celsius but can also survive in temperatures as low as 0 ° degrees Celsius make it a rare pathogenic in humans. The bacterias degrading ability has been applied to pollutants such as styrene, TNT and, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Sillankorva, Neubauer, Azeredo, 2008). Notable is P. putida possessing a high biodegrading metabolism. It can breakdown styrene which is a highly polluting synthetic chemical, used to make plastics (Park, et al, 2005)). Pseudomonas putida is a gram-negative shaped bacteria, similar to  Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an known pathogen to humans, however it is missing key gene segments that P. aeruginosa possess making it nonpathogenic. The biochemistry of P. putida makes it an aerobic, gram negative, flourescent colored, rod-shaped bacteria. It a motile organism with one or more polar flagella. They are usually found in moist soil and water environments and grow optimally at room temperature. Certain strains have the ability to grow on and break down many dangerous pollutants and aromatic  hydrocarbons  such as toluene,  benzene, and ethylbenzene.  P. putida  can also be used in petroleum plants to purify fuel. P. putida  is also closely related to  Pseudomonas syringae, an abundant plant pathogen, but again it la cks the gene that causes such disease (DOE, 1998). The first isolation of Psuedomonas syringae occurred in 1902 by van Hall from a diseased lilac. Psuedomonas syringae are aerobic rod-shaped gram negative bacteria that are motile with the use of several polar flagella. Psuedomonas syringae secretes a plant toxin making it a known plant pathogen. Therefore, it is easy to see its use in the biodegradation of organic waste. Each strain of this bacteria has a specific plant it targets and is often found on plant leaves. Any interesting quality is its ability to form ice crystals, P. syringae  is responsible for causing frost injury to frost-sensitive plants. (Feil, et al, 2005) This discovery led to its production of artificial snow.

Quest For Love in J.D. Salingers The Catcher In the Rye :: Catcher Rye Essays

The Quest For Love in J.D. Salinger's The Catcher In the Rye In many novels written by J.D. Salinger, there is a recurring theme of love that arises and that indicates the character of the individual in the novel. Salinger uses love in the context of being a device that is used to protect and to care for people who need protecting and caring. In Salinger's novel, Catcher in the Rye, love is used by a character, Holden Caulfield, who struggles desperately to find a certain somebody or anyone to allocate his love to, but realizes finally, that this love is not necessarily expressed through saving " the children in the rye" from the time of trial, but actually caring for them and being their friends, during the time of trial.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The quest of finding the true love of people is an ongoing dilemma in the lives of many people all throughout the world. The constant need for love is overwhelming, and the tragedy of this great world is the fact that some people do not find the proper love that they deserve. Holden Caulfield is a perfect example of the striving to acquire a love sought all throughout his life. According to this quote, "He is simply expressing an innocence incapable of genuine hatred. Holden does not suffer from the inability to love, but does despair of finding a place to bestow his love" (Heiserman and Miller 30), Holden Caulfield has the need for allocating his cornucopia of love for people. His quest is very simple. He wants to do good. As compared to tragic heroes in the past,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   "Holden seeks Virtue second to Love. He wants to be good. When   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   the little children are playing in the rye-field on the cliff   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   top, Holden wants to be the one who catches them before they   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   fall off the cliff.   He is not driven toward honor or courage.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   He is not driven toward the love of woman. Holden is driven   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   toward love of his fellowman...." (Heiserman and Miller 25).   In other words, he is not a tragic hero, but rather a misfortuned hero that struggles to find a person to give his love to. There is nothing tragic about his life.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Holden also seeks circularity in his life.

Locomotion of Horse Movement

Locomotion is the movement of bodies from one position to another. Therefore, locomotion of horse movement refers to the bodily movement of the horse in particular. The bodily movement of the horse depends on the shape, length and structure of the horse. When galloping, a horse alternates between the front and back legs. When one side protracts, the other side retracts, hence the four legs change their position. Therefore, during a complete stride, the horse walking performs four triple stances, two diagonal and two laterals. Starting movement with the protraction of the right hind, the left hind retracts, moving back. This position rotates the right hip a head and the left foot back. Measurement and use of some anatomic parts of the animal body has been considered objective criteria for morphological evaluation. Therefore, the dynamically similar locomotion will not be similar in the animals that have properties that are identical. This means that deviations that are detectable from those that are dynamically similar in locomotion are likely over the size limit that is found in adult horses. These have been bred by human beings in a wider range of sizes as compared to the adults most species. The horses walk is quite similar to that of human beings walk. This fact is supported by the results attained by Ronalndelli e Dust. In his study, he found out that an average hip rotation of 25, 39 degrees measuring the walk of the horse. This result is similar to that of the hip rotation observed by Van de Linden (2002) in kinematics and kinetic gait characteristics of normal children walking at a range of clinically relevant speed. Adding to this too Donald F.  Hoyt*  &  C. Richard  Taylor also feels that there is need to minimize their energy there is need to minimize their energy consumption. Therefore, the quadrupeds need to change the gait from a walk to a trot, then to a gallon to support this. This is seen in human who change from walk to a run at a certain speed that requires less energy than running and vice versa. Therefore, they minimize the energy cost of locomotion as their speed increases. This is because the metabolic rate does increase curvilinear with change in the walking speed. However, this is not the same to the quadrupeds as their metabolic rates increase linearly with the change in speed. In an experiment, extended gaits are taken to be tools of importance in the study of the changes of human beings. Using three trained horses, its seen that through the use of the amount of oxygen consumption as the indicator of the amount of energy consumption, the natural gait shows the s smallest amount of energy a t any speed. According to Dr. Alan Wilson, a horse’s leg resembles a pogo stick that uses energy stored in the muscles and tendons to enable animal move forward and upwards. The stiffer the horse’s leg restricts how quickly it can transmit force to the ground and bounce back up again and increase the chances of injury. However, research has shown that fast horses can bring their legs forward quickly in preparation for the next stride. However, this is difficult and therefore slower for large and long-legged horses. We found that the minimum, preferred and maximum sustained speeds within a trot and a gallop all change in the same rather dramatic manner with body size, differing by nine-fold between mice and horses (i.e. all three speeds scale with about the 0.2 power of body mass).  Also we found out that the mass-specific energetic cost of locomotion is almost directly proportional to the stride frequency used to sustain a constant speed at all the equivalent speeds within a trot and a gallop, except for the minimum trotting speed (Heglund NC, 2002). When in movement, the forelegs of the horse bear the weight of the horse. This leads to the occurrence of a momentary deceleration. This is followed by downward movement due to the force of gravity. That is, the head and neck moves downwards. Therefore, this leads to the stretch of the strong elastic rope found at the back of the skull. It then stretches withers hence forming the upper lining of the neck. As the head pendulum swing s downwards, there is an effect on the spine which is rigid. This leads to the raising of the tail end part of the spine. There is also the swing of the hind legs due to elevation of the hips. This helps to keep stable the inertia that leads to the backward movement of the back legs from the stride they were before. Therefore, the expenditure of the energy used by the muscles to move them forward to in the coming stride is saved amicably. However, the contents of the liver and abdominal are thrust against the diaphragm due to the first deceleration that occurs together with the hips elevation. This diminishes the volume of the thorax and assists respiration. At the suspension stage when the elastic recoil of the ligament is important as it is used to take back or restore the head into original position. This happens when all the four feet are off the ground. As a result, a tug occurs which helps to draw the forelegs caused by the head being elevated. The inertia is overcome and as a result the previous backward move occurs (Chris Webster (2005) The fore legs are then moved forward while the hind legs bear the weight. This combined performance therefore elevates the spine of the horse at a level similar to that of the withers. This leads to the flattening of the diaphragm and as a result of the liver being firmly bound to it. Hence, the thorax enlarges supporting the process of inspiration. As the process of locomotion takes place, 100% efficiency cannot be achieved although economy is enhanced by the cyclic interchange that takes place between the many forms of mechanical energy that is available. A metabolic cost is also associated with fluctuations that occur in mechanical energy that is involved in the locomotion that is of high speed gallop type race horses (Karen E. Adolph (2000). Therefore, natural waving of the head and neck done by the horse is termed as the head bob. Each head bob varies depending on its degree from one horse to the other. This mechanism therefore helps a galloping horse to minimize the amount of energy spent on movement or locomotion and respiration as well. To counter the movement of the horse too the anatomy of the horse at the muscle level also matters for its movement too. Looking at the longest tendons found in the horse, that is the superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT), disturbance of the locomotors characteristics of the SDFT takes place in most cases at the middle part of the mid-metacarpal area. However, up to date there is no evidence the morphological characteristics of collagen fibrils found at the middle and peripheral parts of the three regions that make the entire tendon. However, there is the presence of the myotendious junction (MTJ), the osteondious joint (OS) and the mid- metacarpal region (mM) The mass average diameter (MAD) is useful since it provides important information on the mean collaged diameter and the strength of the tendon. That is the tensile strength of the tendon. This was found to be smaller in the central are as compared to that at the peripheral area of the three regions. The MAD value however was found to lowest in the two areas at the MTJ region, but increases gradually in a distal way in the OTJ which unite with the bone. Thus, the morphological characteristics suggest that it is similar to biochemical functions in some parts of the SDFT. But for Butcher MT, the process of training and racing the lesions of the superficial tendon always are taken to be common careers ending injuries to the race horses although this is not fully understood. However, this has fatigue –resistant characteristics and force production features as well, which allow storage and return of the elastic energy by the tendons (Andrea Ellis, Julian Hill (2005). Depending on these features and proof from history, it is therefore assumed that overloading of the SDFT is as a result of fatigue of the synergist, which is a faster contracting and deep flexor muscle. Therefore, the horse should be well taken care of and well fed to enhance its locomotion. References Karen E. Adolph (2000) Learning in the Development of Infant Locomotion, Psychology, Blackwell.ISBN0631224564. Chris Webster (2005), The Mechanism of Motion, Performing Arts. Nohingham University press, ISBN1897676468. Andrea Ellis, Julian Hill (2005) Nutritional Psychology pf the Horse, Medical. Elsevier, ISBN0240516664      

Why Germany Failed in the Battle of Barbarossa

Between June and December in 1941, German judgement inhibited achievement in Operational Barbarossa. Strategic indecision in a wider and more specific context was exacerbated by climatic conditions and a widening rift between the reality and the theory of the battle. The Blitzkrieg strategy that had defined German military capacity was inapplicable to the Russian situation in several contexts. Blitzkrieg was intended to avoid stagnant trench and linear warfare, it was intended to prevent enemy forces form arranging a coherent defence, and it depended upon a highly mobile and mechanised form of warfare. None of these credentials existed in Operation Barbarossa, and the result was a battle of attrition. In commencing Operation Barbarossa, the German prerogative was; ‘Provided everything was over quickly’. Hitler had expected complete strategic freedom within five weeks, an outcome which did not require substantial supplies. However, the reality was that supplies were grossly mismatched with the capability and objectives of German infantry and tanks. The subsequent extension of supply lines increased exposure to Russian attack. The changing nature of the Operation had wider ramifications. Blitzkrieg was not just a tactic, but it was the most fundamental structure of the wider German war plan. Consequently, the entire domestic structure of production was intricately arranged to facilitate a particular warfare. This rendered it incapable of supporting the prolonged warfare of Operation Barbarossa. In November 1941, the Quartermaster General of the German Army reported that; ‘We are at the end of our resources in both personnel and material. We are about to be confronted with the dangers of a deep winter. ’ Hitler was so confident of a rapid victory that he did not prepare for even the possibility of winter warfare. In the first instance, the campaign was launched too late. Hitler should have invaded in April so that objectives could have been achieved before winter set in. However, Hitler’s decision to fight over Yugoslavia in Operation Retribution delayed Barbarossa by five weeks. German Command was unprepared for winter warfare. The many German weapons that malfunctioned in the climate debilitated German firepower. More significantly, forces were not equipped with adequate cold. Vital supplies such as fuel were consumed in managing the temperature. Deep mud, followed by snow disrupted supply lines to exacerbate existing logistical problems. Russian equipment was comparatively adapted for these conditions. Soviet soldiers had warm, quilted uniforms, felt-lined boots and fur hats Climatic conditions only exacerbated the morale deficiency that already marred German forces. Depression was rife, and the presence of an intangible enemy starved German soldiers of contact and success. Soviet potential was severely underestimated by German Command. Communist structures were resistant and adaptable in the sense that they pervaded all aspects of Russian existence. Despite significant losses of land to German forces in the West, the capability of Russia to produce armaments was retained as Communist political structures legitimised the relocation of all industry eastwards. Throughout the duration of the war, the Soviets retained the capacity to rapidly replace its losses and mobilise over 500,000 drafted men each month. The capacity of the Soviet to extract sacrifice from its population was foreign to Western nations. Russian soldiers were reportedly insensible to losses and unmoved by severe attack. A German officer observed that ‘The Russians seem to have a never-ending supply of men. Furthermore, there was little opportunity to interfere with supply columns or communications, because supplies were obtained from the villages through which they advanced. Russian partisans of these same communities would engage in Guerrilla Warfare with advancing German forces. The mismanagement of tactics and climate, and the underestimation of Russian f orces was largely the result of Hitler’s detachment from the tactical and logistical realities of Barbarossa. Hitler’s original three-pronged attack was ludicrously ambitious and unrealistic. Rather, he should have concentrated all forces and supplies on successive breakthroughs. Later, the redirection of the majority of German forces south towards the Caucasus necessitated the displacement of the majority of the 6th Army’s supplies. Despite this, Hitler did not alter the objectives of the Army. Though it was severely incapacitated, particularly in terms of firepower, he insisted that it continue to Stalingrad to isolate the oil fields. Hitler’s decisions were absolute and inflexible, but were undefined and imperceptive to the specifics of the Operation. Paradoxically, these decisions did not ensure conformity, but depended entirely upon the unpredictable interpretations of those under Hitler. As a result, his intentions were often distorted with significant consequences. Moreover, Hitler’s decisions were actualised within an inefficient system. Hitler did not recognise the vitality of admistrative order and clear lines of authority, frequently interfering in the informed judgements of those in the Operation, including Von Paulus. Rather, Hitler dogmatically pursued his preconceived notions of the inherent weakness of communism and inferiority of the Russian culture. His response to the mounting failures of Barbarossa was obtuse. He proclaimed; ‘What we need here is national socialist order’. Perhaps it was mentality that resulted in his gross underestimation of the capability of the Soviet Army. Ultimately, the failure of Operation Barbarossa was the result of palpably inappropriate German judgment. It remains the largest military operation in human history in terms of manpower and area traversed, but as a result of these judgments, also in casualties. Barbarossa provided Britain with an invaluable ally, with which Germany was forced to fight the dreaded two-front war.