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HEY GUNS
Oct 11, 2012

FOPTIMUS PRIME

JaucheCharly posted:

Question: Do soldiers keep their weapons or ammunition exposed to the elements? Do you leave your sword out in the rain for a few days? To make it harder, let's pose the question for material that really get's hosed up instantly when it's wet. I'm sure Hegel or anyone else experienced with the handling of gunpowder :911: can give an answer how people kept their poo poo dry, so that they didn't have to resort to clubbing each other to death with sticks.
Black powder will absorb enough moisture from air, even dry air, to cake if it's stored for a long period--I found some old paper cartridges I'd left in my mom's garage for about a year once and each one was like a tiny cinder block--so if that happens you have to grind it again. (I said "humid air" at first, but upon reflection that was not the case.) Serpentine powder will sift out on the march and you have to recompound it.

In the period, it's kept in barrels which are sealed with beeswax or pitch, and the little wooden boxes on a musketeer's bandolier close pretty tightly. But heavy rains really are a problem in the 17th century, not because of the powder in storage so much as the way the gun's used, it might extinguish the match. So musketeers cup them in their hands or put them in little metal cylinders with holes in them (that matchlock video that owlkill posted shows one of those things), but if it rains enough they will have problems.

Fortunately, a musket actually is a club as well, that's what the plate on the butt's for...

Cyrano4747 posted:

I can't speak to blackpowder, but anything from the era of modern brass cartridges (so - basically ~1870s to today) is functionally waterproof for short term exposure, with a slow trend of things getting more waterproof the closer you get to the current day as things like primer sealants and factory bullet crimping techniques get better. I wouldn't want to count on a box of ammo that was left in a bucket of water for a week to work, but if we're just talking about general rain and dampness even the most basic of precautions (like keeping it in a magazine pouch and not dunking it in water for multiple days on end) there isn't that much of a concern.
Cyrano4747, posting from the future. Independent of waterproof cartridges, does the powder people use now attract water like black powder does?

Tomn posted:

So, hey, question for HEY GAL here - you mentioned a while ago how the common soldier during the 30 Years War tended to believe in sorcery, and further believed that the senior officers of the army were generally wizards. Do you have any idea what those senior officers tended to think of such beliefs and what they did about it? Was it something they promoted to enhance their own reputation, or something they tried to suppress as being superstitious nonsense, something they tolerated because they felt they couldn't change it, or something they just didn't know about period?
Not all senior officers, just some of them, like Tilly (because he was pious), Wallenstein (because he had brain problems), or Gustavus Adolphus (because he was the savior of world Protestantism and one of the western world's first media superstars). I mean, there's more to being a wizard than just attaining high rank.

I honestly don't know, but I imagine it would depend on the officer himself. Wallenstein was big into astrology, and G.A. was on record as saying that the ship that carried him couldn't sink because of his great mission. (Worked out real well for them both.) Gustavus Adolphus also cultivated his own image quite a bit, and the part where he was protected by God was part of that. Did he believe that he had magical powers? Who knows, but if he did it would have been from his piety and the Lord God, probably not from mixing up fragments of the Host with little prayers in a bag around his neck.

The thing is, it's only according to certain belief systems that this stuff is even a problem. There's a school of thought according to which it's a kind of science--like magnetism or gravity, magic works according to hidden sympathies in the natural world. Wound magic's the clearest example of this: the sword that stabbed you is now connected to you in the same way that a cloth rubbed against a piece of amber is now connected to the amber. But there's also a school of thought according to which it's religious. This could be OK--you pray to God to help you, and He helps you. But according to some interpretations, it's "superstitious" (relying on ritual instead of faith...or too much like Catholicism), or outright demonic. The last one is really bad, but not everyone will believe that that's why magic works. Is believing in magic a mark of the lower classes or the less educated? I don't think so.

I'm being vague here because it is conjecture, I have come across no hard data to answer your question. Honestly, I'm not familiar with most higher officers giving a whole lot of a poo poo what their employees think of them at all, beyond whether or not they're about to desert or mutiny.

HEY GUNS fucked around with this message at 18:48 on Sep 11, 2014

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Trin Tragula
Apr 22, 2005

100 Years Ago

In the Pacific, Australian troops arrive at German New Guinea; its garrison will soon surrender despite the best efforts of the Australians to trip over their own bootlaces.

Casualty reports for the Marne, nearly at an end with the Germans now furiously digging in at the Aisne, are generally estimated these days to be in the region of 260-270,000 on both sides, depending on how you do the adding up. The BEF's share is very slightly under 13,000 with 1,700 dead; when added to the losses on the retreat, they have now lost about 27,000 men, almost a full third of their initial establishment. While reinforcements of some sort are now starting to arrive, the situation is greatly complicated by the Chief's early decision to move all supply lines away from the Channel ports (they would certainly have fallen if the Germans had been in a position to make a play for them, of which more later). Everyone and everything that leaves Britain must now make the long journey to the front from the Atlantic port of St Nazaire, and five minutes with Google Maps should make apparent how much more complicated it is to get to Paris from St Nazaire rather than the likes of Calais, Le Havre, or even Cherbourg. The French railway system is at its very limit under the ferocious demand for trains, trains, and more trains to ferry soldiers about. Added to which, conditions at the port itself are far from ideal.

quote:

Bandsman Shawyer, 1st Rifle Brigade

Words fail me to describe the chaos. It was absolutely chronic! If a whole platoon of quartermaster-generals tried to howl me down, I would still howl back at them, "Chaos! Panic! Chaos! Panic!" No soldier of the rank and file, even in his widest nightmare, ever dreamed up such a mess of concentrated confusion and misery as there was at that base. The chief sufferer of course was a chap named Tommy Atkins. He always is! The BEF along the battlefront must have taken a hell of a licking to account for the terrible state of affairs at the base. It seemed to me that only one thing showed any sign of planned organisation, and that was that all the tents were going up in orderly lines.

We were on fatigues all day, working on the dumps [unloading cargo and storing it for later travel towards the front]. Every morning, so much ration was issued to each tent and from that point it was up to us. After working all day for long hours on heavy work. we would return late in the evening to our own tents and then have to prepare our own meal, with the result that the meat was often eaten half raw because there was no time to cook it and no fuel to cook it with. Broken boxes at the ration dumps were almost as valuable as the rations, and a man who got his hands on one at work hung on as though his life depended on it. At night there were hundreds of little campfires glowing all over, men squatting on their heels cooking the evening meal, and others hanging around hoping for a chance to use the embers after they were finished.

Personal cleanliness was an almost overwhelming problem. Quite rightly, we were forbidden to wash ourselves in animal drinking troughs, which left us with one alternative - the sea. Now ordinary soap won't lather in salt water, so you can imagine our predicament. As for our clothes, all they got was a rinse in seawater and it left them anything but clean. Then we had to dry it!

Then came the crowning misery that turned our camp into crawling bedlam. The weather broke, the rain came down in sheets, day and night. We'd had rain on other occasions but there was always an end to it. This lot never stopped. The mud became deeper and deeper as thousands of men, horses, mules, and big heavy wagons churned up the slush. Of course with no drainage we were floundering around in a sea of mud a foot deep and in some places it must have been two foot deep. Tent pegs wouldn't hold firm, and all over the camp the tents were collapsing on the poor blighters inside them. Then they had to set to in the pitch dark and the pouring rain to put them up again! Every night we cleared as much of the mud out of our tent as possible, but it seeped back in again, and by morning we woke up lying in mud.

Incidentally, Shawyer was still underage for active service and should not have been in France; but the size of the Rifles' losses (and many other regiments also) was on such a scale that, if the man was willing to go, it was suddenly a lot easier for colonels to overlook their ages.

So, over two million men participated in the Marne, over half a million are now casualties, and it's been open warfare all the way, with vast army-sized manouevres, no real time to prepare proper defensive positions. It's been a war of hard-won advances and speedy retreats of many miles at a time.

This is about to change.

Waroduce
Aug 5, 2008

Mightypeon posted:

Depends. I mean, Rokosovsky did some really Major stuff.
Early on, he was a part of the Kiev Military district, where he treated some warnings about the upcoming Invasion (received 48 hours or so in advance) as seriosu buisness and acted on it. He later wrote that he was lucky to not be in the very western most Units, because nothing he could have done would have saved his Units if he was there.

He did some outright amazing stuff and Yartsevo during the battle of Smolensk, which allowed parts of the Red army Units there to retreat out of encirclements (by no means all of them got out though). It also seems that, when forbidden by Stalin to retreat for now, it was Rokosovsky who came up with a "we arent retreating, we are actually attacking the German Panzers in our rear" ploy (together with Timoschenko, who had the political power to not get shot for that stunt) to creativly retreat a bit earlier.
Rokosovskys main achievment there was to Keep the Yartsevo corridor open. Stavka gave him roughly 40 dudes, one Radio car and one anti Air car for this. The majority was stragglers he found and promtply indicted into his "Yartsevo grouping".
WHen he found a Tank unit that actually had ist ordered allotment of tanks (such things were ridiculously rare), he allegedly did a "MUAHAHAHAHAHAH". When being told that those tanks basically all sucked, he responded with "yeah, they do, but do the Fritzes know that?".
He also pioneered some new anti tank tactics there.

He was at Moscow, where he annoyed the gently caress out of the Wehrmachts finest with a bunch of suspiciously competent penal batallions.

He was in Charge of liquidating the Stalingrad pocket (Operation Ring), and imho performed well enough. Interestingly, later on he prefered threatening encirclements, and then harrying Germans while they retreated out of potential encirclements, to actually encircling them.

At Kursk, he commanded the northern part of the Salient and defeated Models Heeresgruppe Mitte so decisivly that Stavka could sent the entire Steppe Front that was in reserve against Heeresgruppe Süd to reinforce the struggling Vatutin against Manstein.

Bagration was also his gig. And it was a really effing big one.

Anyone recommend books about Roko?

Trin Tragula
Apr 22, 2005

100 Years Ago

The Allies arrive at the Aisne, where the news is less than completely positive. The river itself is wide and deep and absolutely will not admit to being fordable. The bridges have mostly been attended to by various engineers; the few that remain intact have been heavily fortified. The German artillery has had plenty of time to set up behind the Chemin-des-Dames and range their guns on the south bank, and the rapidly deepening trenches afford many spots for observation posts that combine an excellent view from above with minimal visibility from beneath. The south bank is completely flat grassland without cover of any sort. Assuming they can get across the river, the blokes would then have to face a tricky scramble up a sharp, muddy incline just to get to the short area of flatland at the bottom of the ridge. And, just to make this poo poo sandwich complete, it soon becomes apparent that the first line of hills south of the river is so far away that the guns won't be able to shell the German defensive positions from cover; the elevation change and the sheer distance has put them out of range.

in short, this is a damned tricky spot. Everyone gets a breather and attempts to take cover while the Brains Trust puts their thinking caps on and the German artillerymen enjoy some light target practice. All across the front line, dispositions are shuffled. Allied commanders are particularly anxious to get their spotter planes operating from locations within range of the Aisne, but it will not be possible to send them up until tomorrow.

Trin Tragula
Apr 22, 2005

100 Years Ago

The Allies are determined to stay on the offensive. What could possibly go wrong?

Therefore, the problem now facing them is how to cross the Aisne. In some areas where the heights are relatively distant from the river, the engineers are called upon to build pontoon bridges, inevitably drawing heavy fire from the guns. Even near misses frequently land in the river and make things considerably more exciting than the men would prefer. The Aisne itself is swollen by days of rain and flowing a great deal faster than usual. Meanwhile, some of the permanent bridges have not been very efficiently demolished. Some have only small breaks in them that can be crossed with the aid of a few large planks. In some places, the river has cut a sharp trench for itself, and more interesting methods are required...

quote:

Cpl Holbrook, 4th Royal Fusiliers

They'd blown up the bridge over the Aisne. There's a canal before you get to the Aisne, then the river, and they're only a few yards apart. They'd left the canal bridge, but blown the river one. So the engineers had fixed up a temporary bridge, but it wasn't a floating pontoon bridge. It was a dump of boxes strung together in mid-air. We had to cross that, one at the time over the river.

It was about sixteen feet below, you know, and we had to walk on these boxes. No rail! As you put your foot down, the box came up to meet the other one. It was a hell of a job to get across. But thousands of us went across. I suppose it took about four hours to get even our own battalion over. It was just before dawn when we finished. We lost quite a few. Quite a few fell off and drowned.

Of course, to avoid having matters enlivened still further by the attentions of the enemy, all this is being done at night, in the pissing rain. The mid-air box bridge was the standard way of crossing ravines in India; but of course it's one thing to cross such a bridge with all the time in the world in broad daylight, and another to cross it in pitch dark, staggering slowly towards a man showing the weakest of torchlight a hundred and fifty yards away, knowing that thousands of your mates are all waiting for their turn, with the occasional crump going off in the darkness...

And, just to add to the confusion, the weather has grounded the spotter planes and left the commanders without any intelligence on the German positions beyond "hmm, there seems to be rather a lot of Boche over there".

Meanwhile, in Serbia, the Serbs are forced to withdraw from Mackov Kamen to the next line of hills, where they entrench and the front line settles down for a period of static warfare. They can produce only 100 shells per day, and their guns are old and few in number; their Austro-Hungarian opponents are rather better supplied.

Libluini
May 18, 2012

I gravitated towards the Greens, eventually even joining the party itself.

The Linke is a party I grudgingly accept exists, but I've learned enough about DDR-history I can't bring myself to trust a party that was once the SED, a party leading the corrupt state apparatus ...
Grimey Drawer

Back To 99 posted:

You're also confusing Georgians with Russians, I'm assuming.

Nope, that advance force beat up the Georgians, then went into Russia and beat them up, too. Not even being trapped in the Ural stopped them. The Russian princes of course did nothing to prepare after the Mongols retreated again, so when the actual invasion happened, they were beaten up some more.

So my reasoning here is, even a strategic retreat could have been a faint, considering the Europeans weren't soothsayers capable of predicting their enemies' leader dying and everyone rushing back to Mongolia.

Kaal
May 22, 2002

through thousands of posts in D&D over a decade, I now believe I know what I'm talking about. if I post forcefully and confidently, I can convince others that is true. no one sees through my facade.

Trin Tragula posted:

Of course, to avoid having matters enlivened still further by the attentions of the enemy, all this is being done at night, in the pissing rain. The mid-air box bridge was the standard way of crossing ravines in India; but of course it's one thing to cross such a bridge with all the time in the world in broad daylight, and another to cross it in pitch dark, staggering slowly towards a man showing the weakest of torchlight a hundred and fifty yards away, knowing that thousands of your mates are all waiting for their turn, with the occasional crump going off in the darkness...

This sounds like it'd certainly make for a lively and precarious evening. I'm having a bit of a problem picturing it though. I tried Google Image Searching for "mid-air box bridge" and "box bridge India" but didn't have a lot of luck, as a box bridge is a standard type of bridge (i.e. an old train trestle). You wouldn't have any examples available or search term ideas?

mllaneza
Apr 28, 2007

Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1993-1952




uPen posted:

The Guns of August thread in TBB has a ton of recommendations.

e: While we're talking about books, whoever recommended the Audiobook of Battle Cry of Freedom, the narrator is the same guy that did the audiobook of Snow Crash and it's driving me nuts.

I'm going to chime in with a recommendation for Sleepwalkers. That book does an amazing job of providing context for the situation in July 1914. I'm just digging in to it, but the early chapters on Serbia, Austria, and Germany are very informative. We've all heard of the Black Hand by now, but the fact that the organization grew out of the conspiracy to kill the king and queen in 1903. And they succeeded, there was an actual regicide in Serbia in 1903. The head of military intelligence who supplied the weapons to Princip's group was severely wounded by a palace guard during the attack on the royal family. A decade later and he's planning another royal assassination. The situation makes a lot more sense when you have a decade or two of context for all the major players.

Trin Tragula
Apr 22, 2005

Kaal posted:

This sounds like it'd certainly make for a lively and precarious evening. I'm having a bit of a problem picturing it though. I tried Google Image Searching for "mid-air box bridge" and "box bridge India" but didn't have a lot of luck, as a box bridge is a standard type of bridge (i.e. an old train trestle). You wouldn't have any examples available or search term ideas?

The mental image I've got is of something like the Elves' rope bridge over the Nimrodel, except probably with more than one bit of rope along the bottom and the ropes being used to support boxes. "Mid-air box bridge" is far more of a description than a name; it seems to be the sort of thing your sergeant or captain shows you how to cobble together as and when needed, out of whatever you have to hand or can quickly requisition, based on how he was shown to do it by his sergeant or captain back when he was a private or subaltern. Everyone knows how to make one, but it's probably not in any manual, that sort of thing.

I'm sure I've run into descriptions of similar bodge jobs before now, but where they were I can't remember. Possibly there's one in one of Flashman's Indian adventures?

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

quote:

Despite their romantic portrayal in Soviet propaganda, female soldiers faced a multitude of challenges in the male-dominated military. First, the women struggled to obtain combat roles on the front lines. The 1936 Stalin constitution asserted that Soviet women were fully emancipated, but the state still considered women unsuited for combat. As a result, when war broke out in 1941, the state rejected thousands of female volunteers eager to defend the motherland on the front lines. Even after the creation of all-female and mixed-gender combat units, many female soldiers were relegated to the rear. Women of the 1st Separate Women’s Volunteer Rifle Brigade, assigned to domestic service detail, became frustrated by their lack of combat action and requested to be sent to the front. When these requests were denied, many deserted to the front to fight for the fatherland; if caught, the deserters were severely punished.
welp, I didn't think desertion to front was such a problem :commissar:

HEY GUNS
Oct 11, 2012

FOPTIMUS PRIME

Trin Tragula posted:

The mental image I've got is of something like the Elves' rope bridge over the Nimrodel, except probably with more than one bit of rope along the bottom and the ropes being used to support boxes. "Mid-air box bridge" is far more of a description than a name; it seems to be the sort of thing your sergeant or captain shows you how to cobble together as and when needed, out of whatever you have to hand or can quickly requisition, based on how he was shown to do it by his sergeant or captain back when he was a private or subaltern. Everyone knows how to make one, but it's probably not in any manual, that sort of thing.

I'm sure I've run into descriptions of similar bodge jobs before now, but where they were I can't remember. Possibly there's one in one of Flashman's Indian adventures?
From the description, it seems like one of those hanging bridges like in Nepal, only made out of boxes tied together instead of metal things or planks because boxes are a ready source of wood.

Edit: These things are common in Nepal, Pakistan, and the mountainous parts of India, so it makes sense that a British soldier would have learned how to construct one from the people there.

Nenonen posted:

welp, I didn't think desertion to front was such a problem :commissar:
Punishing some of the few Russian soldiers who actually want to be there, wtg Stalin

HEY GUNS fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Sep 13, 2014

HEY GUNS
Oct 11, 2012

FOPTIMUS PRIME
Sorry for the double post, but this is in response to Tomn's question--I just read that Kepler, as imperial mathematician, gave the Emperor political advice based on astrology. I'm also remembering how into occultism the Winter King and Elizabeth Stuart were. This poo poo was everywhere. It may have been cruder or more sophisticated based on your level of education, but after a day or so of reflection I'm going to reiterate that there was no way a more educated person would be less likely to believe in magic.

Hell, I read one officer's memoir (was it Monro??? no idea) where he mentions that his side lost a particular battle because one of the common soldiers on the other side was a wizard who called up fog that day, in the same sort of shrugging, offhanded tone as one would mention that the sun was in your soldiers' eyes.

For more on this stuff (at the sort of level that the intelligentsia would be likely to encounter, not Johann Q Public), I recommend these books:
http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Renaissance-Chicago-Original-Paperback/dp/0226123162
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Memory-Frances-Yates-ebook/dp/B005TKD6UC
http://www.amazon.com/The-Rosicrucian-Enlightenment-Routledge-Classics/dp/0415267692

HEY GUNS fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Sep 14, 2014

Fangz
Jul 5, 2007

Oh I see! This must be the Bad Opinion Zone!
Do wedge formations actually work in land battles? What is the rationale behind them?

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

Fangz posted:

Do wedge formations actually work in land battles? What is the rationale behind them?

Kinda sorta like Napoleonic attack columns but with flank guards.


It seems like it would be much easier to lead in battlefield, too, than a solid line because the wings just need to follow a little behind the speartip column.

Trin Tragula
Apr 22, 2005

100 Years Ago

General von Moltke is relieved by Erich von Falkenhayn as supreme German commander on the Western Front, who must now pick up the pieces and continue to prosecute the war as best he can.

All along the front, the BEF and the French army emerge from their hiding places on the north bank of the Aisne for one more push. There are many small settlements nestled along the foot of the ridge that make excellent first objectives before the ground begins to rise.

quote:

Sgt Sanderson, 2nd King's Royal Rifle Corps

This day will ever remain in my memory. It was a rainy morning. We went through a village, Troyon, and up the slope of a big spur in front. We got to the top, reformed, and were going through a cutting in the hillside when a terrible rain of bullets came amongst us.

I went with my platoon officer, Mr Davidson. We extended about three paces up to the edge of a [beet field]. Day was just breaking. We had two killed in a few seconds. Then the Germans turned two machine-guns on us from a haystack not ten yards in front. My officer seized a man's rife, stood up and deliberately fired. He was shot through the eye immediately, and died a few minutes after. Before he died, he said "Hold onto this position, and don't retire until you get orders."

Bullets went through my cap and hit the safety catch of my rifle. All officers were out of action, so I crept to the left front and got a beautiful view of [the machine-gun operator] as he sat there manipulating his gun. I avenged Mr Davidson, and felt pleased.

I heard a lot of shouting, and everybody was standing up. The Germans had put up a white flag and were coming to surrender by hundreds. I noticed a battery of twelve guns on our right front, and I had a suspicion something wasn't right. The gunners were coming in with rifles, so I ordered my men back. When the Germans got to our front line, they realised what a small number we were. Then they deliberately opened fire at short range. Our chaps gave them rapid, with the result that 300 Germans made for our lines as prisoners, and the rest ran back. We dispatched the prisoners to the rear, and settled down to work again.

In the German telling of this incident, the British soldiers had fired upon them without provocation. The story spread quickly, and was directly responsible for some serious reprisals against British prisoners in the following days. Another incident of similar character occurred on the 19th at Troyon, involving the 1st West Yorkshires and the 2nd Sherwood Foresters.

quote:

Drummer Slaytor, 3rd Coldstream Guards

After ascending the heights on the right bank of the Aisne, which were quite steep in places - we had to pull ourselves up by the branches of trees - we emerged at the top near Soupir Farm. I believe our orders were to advance on the village of Ostel. This we attempted to do, advancing across stubble and a beet field in extended order.

We had gone a few hundred yards when we came under heavy rifle fire, machine-gun fire and shell fire. How alone we felt! They could see that our thin straggling line couldn't advance, so we were given the order to retire and form a firing line by some haystacks to the left of Soupir Farm. We'd just started back when a shell fell between a comrade and myself. We both fell to the ground, expecting to be blown to eternity, but it didn't burst!

We went on, and eventually found ourselves in the haystacks. There we established a rough firing line, and there we stayed. We got no further. We bogged down.

Bill Holbrook had a similar experience at Vailly, with the added bonus of his job as a runner affording him an excellent chance to watch the Royal Scots Fusiliers attempting to advance through yet another beet field. They promptly came under vicious enfilade fire and lost most of their men in a few minutes.

When the mud settles at the end of the day, various battered units are clinging to isolated positions on the north bank. There simply aren't enough of them, or enough low ground in front of the river, to form a continuous line. Some of them have been forced back to the south bank. At the far east of the ridge, elements of the French Fifth Army have captured the very eastern tip of the Chemin-des-Dames as it descends from the heights. They look around hopefully for their mates, but soon come to realise that they're in a salient. No other French units have made significant headway anywhere else.

On the Eastern Front, Galicia/Lemberg closes in favour of the Russians, while the Russian First Army retreats from the Masurian Lakes and Prussia in complete disarray.

WoodrowSkillson
Feb 24, 2005

*Gestures at 60 years of Lions history*

Fangz posted:

Do wedge formations actually work in land battles? What is the rationale behind them?

If you have superior troops, it can divide the enemy in two and really gently caress up their cohesion and morale. The Romans used it when super outnumbered by Boudicca at wattling street.

Goofus Giraffe
Sep 26, 2007
I'm really loving Trin Tragula's 100 Years Ago posts. My apologies if this has already been asked before, but are there any solid documentaries on WW1?

HEY GUNS
Oct 11, 2012

FOPTIMUS PRIME

quote:

If you now have a "company" of soldiers, 300 strong, among which are namely 100 pike and 160 musketeers, 20 halberds and 20 rodeleros, or instead of the halberds pikes, thus you have 120 pikes, 160 musketeers, and 20 rodeleros, since I think rodeleros are better than halberds, of which more in another section. I'm telling you, though, that you have 280 men with which you can do your "drill," since one will be sick, another will be here, another will be there, so the 300 head won't be complete.
Johann Jacob Wallhausen knows his audience.

Kriegskunst zu Fuß, 1615 (note the large companies--when everyone bothers to show up--the comparatively large pike:musket ratio, and the presence of people other than pikemen and musketeers--this is early in the century)

HEY GUNS fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Sep 15, 2014

xthetenth
Dec 30, 2012

Mario wasn't sure if this Jeb guy was a good influence on Yoshi.

I like the font change for the numbers. Numbers aren't supposed to be foreign words guys!

HEY GUNS
Oct 11, 2012

FOPTIMUS PRIME

xthetenth posted:

I like the font change for the numbers. Numbers aren't supposed to be foreign words guys!
Well, we have no idea what was kicking around at the printer's, they may not have had any fraktur numbers at the time.

PittTheElder
Feb 13, 2012

:geno: Yes, it's like a lava lamp.

They also switch for Compagnie and Exercitium for some reason. Is that the equivalent of using italic for foreign words today?

HEY GUNS
Oct 11, 2012

FOPTIMUS PRIME

PittTheElder posted:

They also switch for Compagnie and Exercitium for some reason. Is that the equivalent of using italic for foreign words today?
That's the foreign words font! You can tell the difference in handwriting too. Everything that's not German, and sometimes one of the Bohemian languages or Hungarian (but I study east Germans, it could be different in like Aachen or something), gets that font.

For instance, check this out:


Everything's written in German script, except for "incaminere," "hit the road," which is Latin...ish.

Edit: Oh, and Novemb. (November) and Ao. (Year), both of which are also Latin (this time actual Latin!).

HEY GUNS fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Sep 15, 2014

Tollymain
Jul 9, 2010

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
What period did the adoption of Arabic numerals in Europe take place, anyway?

Kaal
May 22, 2002

through thousands of posts in D&D over a decade, I now believe I know what I'm talking about. if I post forcefully and confidently, I can convince others that is true. no one sees through my facade.

Goofus Giraffe posted:

I'm really loving Trin Tragula's 100 Years Ago posts. My apologies if this has already been asked before, but are there any solid documentaries on WW1?

The classic must-see WWI documentary is the BBC's The Great War. It's fascinating to watch, though sometimes a little dated in the historicity:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXhiagFG8KE

Raenir Salazar
Nov 5, 2010

College Slice
Part 2 of the seminal tragedy of the twentieth century. Brought to you by Extra History!

I cried a little. :) Dan does a good job capturing the emotion of it all.

Pornographic Memory
Dec 17, 2008
Kind of a vague question, but how decentralized was the German Empire, and how did it affect military matters? Was it just a matter of having units in an otherwise uniform military recruited on a regional basis, or was there real differences in how, say, a Prussian unit would be organized and equipped compared to a Bavarian one?

Trin Tragula
Apr 22, 2005

100 Years Ago

It's obvious that further attacks on the Aisne would be suicidal, and the order goes out for the Allies to dig in and wait for further orders. This is a welcome order, but not the easiest one to carry out. Picks, spades and shovels are in terminally short supply. Most of them are strewn along the roadside between Mons and St Quentin. A battalion with a current strength of ~650 counts itself extremely lucky if they are in possession of two digging tools. Fresh ones have been ordered, but are currently stuck somewhere between the factory and St Nazaire. Runners quickly transition from carrying attack orders from HQ to the front line, to carrying plainitive requests between subalterns on the theme of of "C Company wonders if D Company has finished with the shovel yet".

Tools are not the only things in short supply. There are men without caps, men without coats, men without water-bottles, or blankets, or webbing. Men without boots, socks or puttees. The men in the trenches are all absolutely filthy, unshaven, unwashed, wet through, unable to sleep for longer than a few hours at a time. There are a large number of rather harassed quartermasters unable to supply satisfactory answers to urgent enquiries from London about where all this missing equipment has gone; it seems that "we couldn't carry it while retiring at twenty miles a day, so we left it behind" is not a satisfactory answer. And without a satisfactory answer, the proper forms cannot be filled in; and without the proper forms (most of which are currently decomposing in a ditch somewhere near Valenciennes) to account for losses, no replacements may be issued, no matter how loudly the overworked Quartermaster-General shouts at his hapless subordinates.

Both sides sink into the ground like moles. While the ground is sodden and slushy on top, underneath the mud is firm chalk and a low water table. Digging is surprisingly easy, even with the tools available. Over the following days, once the bridges are in an acceptable state of repair, the engineers will get to the serious work of transforming the scattered funk-holes and scratchings into a proper trench system.

The lines being established now will barely move an inch for the next three and a half years.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy
What happened in the War of Spanish Succession after the Battle of Blenheim?

Alchenar
Apr 9, 2008

gradenko_2000 posted:

What happened in the War of Spanish Succession after the Battle of Blenheim?

The Battle of Ramillies.

Marlborough is one of the greatest generals you have probably never heard of.

e: also a twist of history that twice a man called Churchill was responsible for breaking the dominant power in Europe.

Alchenar fucked around with this message at 14:07 on Sep 15, 2014

Cyrano4747
Sep 25, 2006

Yes, I know I'm old, get off my fucking lawn so I can yell at these clouds.

Pornographic Memory posted:

Kind of a vague question, but how decentralized was the German Empire, and how did it affect military matters? Was it just a matter of having units in an otherwise uniform military recruited on a regional basis, or was there real differences in how, say, a Prussian unit would be organized and equipped compared to a Bavarian one?

I know less about the organizational end than I do the equipment end, but the non-Prussian units were at least somewhat considered second-line units. Off the top of my head a lot of the southern imperial states and kingdoms (Bavaria, Thuringia, Würtenburg, Baden, etc) got equipment that was slightly inferior to what the more prestigious Prussian commands were fielding, often older stuff that was on its way to being rotated into obsolescence. Pfalz D.IIIs instead of Albatross III or V's on the aerial end of things, refurbed Gew 88/05 "Commission Rifles" instead of the more modern Gew 98, etc.

FAUXTON
Jun 2, 2005

spero che tu stia bene

How exactly did the pre-stirrup Cataphract stay in the saddle? Did they just build out a bucket seat on the horse like I'm imagining?

E: on a related note, were the "war horses" of antiquity/medieval warfare breeds which have since become extinct due to obsolescence? Or have they basically been bred into draft horse usage e.g. Clydesdales?

FAUXTON fucked around with this message at 15:01 on Sep 15, 2014

alex314
Nov 22, 2007

FAUXTON posted:

How exactly did the pre-stirrup Cataphract stay in the saddle? Did they just build out a bucket seat on the horse like I'm imagining?

Their saddles were designed to provide support, even for a lance charge.

Power Khan
Aug 20, 2011

by Fritz the Horse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisean_horse

Plutonis
Mar 25, 2011

Are there any records of normal infantry/cavalry troops beating an equal amount of horse archers? Ain Jalut doesn't count because the Mamlukes had horse archers of their own.

FAUXTON
Jun 2, 2005

spero che tu stia bene

alex314 posted:

Their saddles were designed to provide support, even for a lance charge.

I'm giggling at the prospect of a saddle with a set of ergonomic adjustment knobs and levers so that the consummate cataphract would be able to tolerate the job of slaughtering infantry from horseback without suffering back pain due to poor posture or lack of support.

Gotta bring a doctor's letter to the ergo lugal or else they won't approve the request.

HEY GUNS
Oct 11, 2012

FOPTIMUS PRIME

FAUXTON posted:

I'm giggling at the prospect of a saddle with a set of ergonomic adjustment knobs and levers so that the consummate cataphract would be able to tolerate the job of slaughtering infantry from horseback without suffering back pain due to poor posture or lack of support.

Gotta bring a doctor's letter to the ergo lugal or else they won't approve the request.
This is the same thread that just saw the gimballed muzzleloader, so...maybe??? :confuoot:

I'm going to send a request up to make pikes more comfortable, I hope someone will listen to me!

FAUXTON posted:

How exactly did the pre-stirrup Cataphract stay in the saddle? Did they just build out a bucket seat on the horse like I'm imagining?

E: on a related note, were the "war horses" of antiquity/medieval warfare breeds which have since become extinct due to obsolescence? Or have they basically been bred into draft horse usage e.g. Clydesdales?
As far as I know, the really big draft horses are 19th century, both because you need big animals for the more intensive 19th century agriculture and and because we started feeding animals higher-calorie stuff beginning in the 17th century and continuing onward. I don't know a great deal about horse breeding, but I think the really big guys are too big to move quickly (and too chill to want to), that you'd want something like a big hunter instead.

And some breeds have survived, like these beautiful dudes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friesian_horse

HEY GUNS fucked around with this message at 16:47 on Sep 15, 2014

bewbies
Sep 23, 2003

Fun Shoe

FAUXTON posted:

How exactly did the pre-stirrup Cataphract stay in the saddle? Did they just build out a bucket seat on the horse like I'm imagining?

E: on a related note, were the "war horses" of antiquity/medieval warfare breeds which have since become extinct due to obsolescence? Or have they basically been bred into draft horse usage e.g. Clydesdales?

Medieval warhorses actually weren't particularly big as horses go. Compared to draft horses they really didn't have to be super strong...they didn't haul that much weight. Horse armor weighed maybe 100 lbs, plus an armored rider, which is a fraction of what a good draft horse might pull around. Warhorses were basically comparable to modern sport horses; a good combination of strength, agility, and hardiness. Draft horses really weren't optimal in this respect, they were bred more for slowly hauling huge loads over long distances (obviously).

That being said medieval draft horses were about the same size as warhoses from that era (that is, much smaller than modern draft horses) which I think is where the idea that warhorses were huge kind of stems from.

Animal
Apr 8, 2003

Were there rudimentary versions of the stirrup in antiquity, or is it an invention that truly slipped the cracks until way later?

Power Khan
Aug 20, 2011

by Fritz the Horse

TheLovablePlutonis posted:

Are there any records of normal infantry/cavalry troops beating an equal amount of horse archers? Ain Jalut doesn't count because the Mamlukes had horse archers of their own.

It's never just an army of horsearchers.

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FAUXTON
Jun 2, 2005

spero che tu stia bene

Animal posted:

Were there rudimentary versions of the stirrup in antiquity, or is it an invention that truly slipped the cracks until way later?

It would make sense that the stirrup came later since the thought process probably went "oh, I'm getting jarred off my horse when I hit things, so I'll put a backboard on the saddle to brace me against that."

Stirrups aren't obviously connected to preventing that if you don't immediately know how they work by bracing the rider laterally and giving them a place to plant their feet. Eventually someone got their foot caught in a strap or something and realized it would give them leverage the cataphract's battleseatthing couldn't.

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