Don't forget to disclude military people in the top 75 so that they're not counted twice, since it was Top 75 + Military. That will increase the list further. Altogether I actually think we're pushing 400, though it depends on how we count the crossover between the two lists, and also the military people on Spacebattles.
More thoughts: It appears that the most effective form of WWI chemical attack in general was to simultaneously use Phosgene and Chlorine gas. Would it be worthwhile to manufacture both? Could both be used for other purposes as well? I think that Chlorine could be at least, which is a mark in its favour.
As for artillery, you won't have a problem making it. If you have a lathe, then you can produce smoothbore artillery all day long of a bore commiserate to the diameter of the lathe (Well, taking into account the thickness of the barrel). With that number of humvees and the need to make repairs long-term, then the machine shop is sure to have several lathes. Lathes are an industrial instrument which can, interestingly enough, produce more of themselves. So you can make more lathes, and then meet all of your demands for artillery production/repairs.
Heck, set them up to run on water power if you want. You probably have the equipment for precision rifling of the barrel within acceptable tolerances for the early 19th century, for that matter. Ask for clarification on what the machine shop includes (It's not like any of that stuff, albeit at a somewhat smaller size usually, wouldn't be in the garage or shop of the average tool-oriented person in the U.S. at least and probably Canada too).
I would teach any locals you can get on your side how to build the mortars, after manufacturing a few examples and enough for the use of a light battalion. (which with some people who adapt quickly to the idea and the danger and sign on, would probably be the upper limit of strength in the short term. Will also provide spares.) It will
not be that hard to bring up their industrial base. Medieval tech of the type Tolkien favoured is quite capable of sustaining the sort of low-grade cast iron production required for mortars, and potentially in a very large scale.
You can start producing cannon in the base, then, and again use those as examples while you get your local allies to build close fascimiles, or whatever they're capable of. They don't need to be fancy. Staved wrought-iron, cast-bronze, whatever gets the job done. For your own I'd go with twelve-pounder Napoleons, which would provide direct fire to compliment the indirect fire of heavier mortars and simple enough for your allies to supply the ammo (
very important), possibly even imitate by the time things get going, albeit probably not the more complex aiming mechanisms you can provide for them. The tube on your variant can also consist of basically a lathed barrel of steel or even higher-quality cast iron and it doesn't need to be any fancier. But I'd only do that once you have enough additional personnel to handle them; otherwise, stick to mortars.
In terms of trading technology for food, well... You have an extensive library, right? You don't necessarily need to trade military technology, though if they recognize the same threat it might be wise, needing the numerical support.
Why not trade food technology? These people do live in the middle ages. Improve their watermills and windmills, their grinding stones, their pumps, their plows, uhm... Hrmm. If you can build several reaping machines and lease them out to the surrounding villages, you can free up their manpower for your campaigns (And the amount of labour you'll save will be so considerable they may actually volunteer to fight in payment for it).
Heck, you might be able to build a large enough coalition to defeat Sauron with Middle Earth tech alone simply by introducing agricultural and medical refinements that you could get out of publications produced for improving agriculture and health in third world countries.
I doubt you'd want to trust to that alone, but to be sure of yourselves, I'd recommend taking a dual approach of military buildup, and building alliances with things like agricultural improvement and hygiene improvement - Elves are great symptomatic healers, and cities like Gondor probably have Roman-quality sewer systems, but the average farming village? Things like this have great potential.
I mean, you're going to look like you're filming a Soviet propaganda film, but it's almost certainly goes to work on the average peasant in the Middle Earth (especially since you're not tossing them into Kollektives!).
Once you get them on your side through initiatives like that, you could bring them up as far as possible: early cannon, either arquebuses or perhaps even fusils, and mortars. They'd be a highly motivated force, fighting to defend a massively improved socio-economic condition with chances for further improvements against a tyrannical evil which would regress them into total slavery, with lots of slaughter of their beloved innocents along the way.
Another thought on the military affairs:
To much emphasis on technology, not enough on drill. Coyote, get these slobs out on the field and rigorously train them in bayonet drill until they drop!
I think everyone needs the same type of rifle, and whatever it is, it needs to be long, heavy, and be capable of easily being fitted with a nice triangular bayonet (the kind banned by one of the Hague Conventions - I forgot which - because when it gets pulled out again the suction from the shape rips your guts apart) that's made of high enough quality steel that lower quality armours will have a tough time against it.
I also think that everyone needs to have a breastplate, and possibly other armour - About the same amount a Spanish
tercione would have. That may sound odd, but think on this:
At Gumburu, a reconnaissance of two companies of the 2nd King's African Rifles and 48 rifles of the 2nd Sikhs came up with the Mullah's main force, commanded, so it is said, by their chief in person. The fight which ensued appears to have lasted two and a half hours. The Dervishes charged the British square from dense bush some 300 to 600 yards distant, their horsemen and riflemen being driven back time and again with cruel losses. The square was eventually broken by a rush of spearmen, but not before all our ammunition had been exhausted. The Dervish casualties, estimated by some at 2700, are unknown: for no British officer survived to tell the true story of Gumburu. Our casualties were all officers (9) and 187 men killed and 29 men wounded.
The "Mad Mullah's" force at Gumburu was somewhere between 12,000 - 14,000 men. The 2nd King's African Rifles, a black regiment, would have been thought of as third-rate, and the 2nd Sikhs, second rate, by the British of the time - And they probably weren't trained as well. It was an incredible effort of perserverence by both sides, and teaches an important lesson:
Against a fanatical enemy, you
must be prepared that they will be able to make it against all possible fire of the rifles to drive home a charge against your lines.
At that point you have only one hope, considering your numbers. You must be able to form square and present the burnished ranks of your bayonets to the enemy in good order. You may be out of ammunition, or they may have simply charged in against it. At that point, your survival will depend entirely on an ability to hold rank, to trust entirely upon your comrades to your right and left, and attack and defend in melee with an interest to protecting your comrades and preserving the formation, and according to orders. This requires an iron discipline, steady commanders, and supreme fortitude, combined with exceptionally rigorous training. You must be prepared to forfeit your own will and place your survival utterly in the hands of your unit. That is how you triumph on the field of battle, only, and most surely in such a situation.
Against the book enemies, and most of the movie enemies, if you can maintain such order - and the military men who will be accompanying you
can instill it in your whole ranks, as was done to them, and as was done by their forbearers to your forbearers for many generations - then it is not impossible that should a situation arise where you must face a major concentration of the enemy alone, you can close ranks, even on open terrain, and with good ammunition distribution and strict order and readiness to employ the bayonet when the enemy comes to touch, survive, despite tremendous numerical odds.
Only the movie Uruk-Hai have so-far been shown to have the kind of discipline to threaten such a formation in any way except by saturation, and a tight formation of pikes would be rended quite ragged by judicious firing of rifles.
