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Trin Tragula posted:100 Years Ago Can you add a read from the beginning button to your blog?
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Apr 23, 2015 13:21
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Finished Neptune's Inferno, on to Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. Thank you, thread, for recommending both. Haven't enjoyed either yet as much as I did Shattered Sword, but they're all pretty enjoyable reads.
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Apr 23, 2015 13:57
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Klaus88 posted:Can you add a read from the beginning button to your blog? Added to the second top menu. Be warned, there's still a big yawning gap between mid-July and the Battle of Mons.
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Apr 23, 2015 14:04
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Fascism II - Fascism Harder: The Marxist Critique Continued Fascism I Firstly, I'd like to invite people to ask questions for me to handle in these posts, and I'll take care of them in the course of these posts. swamp waste posted:The Marxist analysis of fascism seems to ignore the fact that it was sold to the general public in Axis countries as anti-capitalist as well as anti-communist. I don't know anything about Italian history but in Germany and Japan people were freaking out about new methods of exploitation inflicted on them by international capitalism (the anti semitic stuff is super tied into this) and the fascist position was basically that the country needed to shake off the yoke of both economic systems and embrace their glorious national destiny (of beating up whatever nearby countries couldn't stop them). This is way oversimplified but I don't think the basic point I'm making is controversial In all of these countries, particularly European examples, capitalism in a modified form was warmly embraced by the governing party. These modifications were typically: (1) The absolute primacy of the national/state/racial interest over the market interest. All of the axis powers and a number of other regimes commonly labelled 'fascist' emphasised autarky (self-sufficiency in national production) and the gearing of private industry towards state ends. However, the idea of private property was not disputed. Moreover, the private property owner was a celebrated figure in fascism - the virtuous small business owner serving his community, the farmer etc. This behaviour is also typified by the 'crony capitalist' dimension of fascism, particularly in relation to heavy industry and armaments and prestige industries (rail, aviation) where the relationship between the major corporations and the state became very close and there was a great deal of subsidy and corruption. Here you can see that opposition to socialism and particularly communism and Marxism is much more significant than anti-capitalism, since socialist ideology is fundamentally internationalist and argues that class interest is the important point of differentiation between people, as opposed to the organic community of race or nation. The materialist conception of history also casts doubt on the role of individual agency, which is a stark contrast with fascist aesthetics, which we will touch on later. And, of course, Marxism also casts doubt on a number of other features of traditional society, not least religion, which fascists in general were pretty keen on. Mussolini posted:We deny the existence of two classes, because there are many more than two classes. We deny that human history can be explained in terms of economics. We deny your internationalism. That is a luxury article which only the elevated can practise, because peoples are passionately bound to their native soil. Moreover, fascist is essentially postmodern or relativist inasmuch as it is an eclectic philosophy: Mussolini posted:Everything I have said and done in these last years is relativism by intuition. If relativism signifies contempt for fixed categories and those who claim to be the bearers of objective immortal truth … then there is nothing more relativistic than Fascist attitudes and activity... From the fact that all ideologies are of equal value, that all ideologies are mere fictions, the modern relativist infers that everybody has the right to create for himself his own ideology and to attempt to enforce it with all the energy of which he is capable. It was therefore capable of embracing capitalist and socialist ideas where convenient to the ideology. (2) Following (1), a distrust for international finance capital and for the financial dimension of modern capitalism To some extent, since fascists were not generally great thinkers, international finance was not really a phenomenon that the fascist movement ever really understood - Gramsci, in fact, strongly makes this point about Mussolini. This obviously was strongly tied to the Jews in the German case in particular. International finance capital is hated for obvious reasons - it is rootless, without an origin and tie to the organic community of the nation or race - which is much the same as the critique of the Jew as luftmensch. (3) If one accepts the premise that fascism evidences a failed revolution, anti-capitalism inherently follows: Trotsky, 'What is Fascism' posted:Italian fascism was the immediate outgrowth of the betrayal by the reformists of the uprising of the Italian proletariat. From the time the [first world] war ended, there was an upward trend in the revolutionary movement in Italy, and in September 1920 it resulted in the seizure of factories and industries by the workers. The dictatorship of the proletariat was an actual fact; all that was lacking was to organize it and draw from it all the necessary conclusions. The strong groundswell of anti-capitalist feeling is implied in the revolutionary situation at work in the fascist state's formation. However, to the extent to which fascism is a negationist philosophy it is much more opposed to communism than capitalism. Fascism is here to be seen as an alliance of the disparate anti-revolutionary elements of society against the proletarian revolutionary element. Trotsky describes this: the social democrats, scared of violent revolution, compromised and compromised with the authorities, while the petit bourgeoisie allies with big capital to poo poo on the workers and supress the revolution. (4) However, you shouldn't mistake anti-capitalism for the oppositon to the cultural 'baggage' of capitalism A lot of the accompaniments to capitalism and things that tend to come with it are hated by fascists. These include its increasing focus on internationalism and cosmopolitanism, liberalism, democracy, anti-clericalism, the decline in family values, the rise of functionalism and utilitarianism, urbanisation etc. This is to be taken as corrupt and decadent. quote:When you try to be all coherent and intellectual about it and cram it into some marxist dialectic you're missing the way that it won people over by NOT being coherent (^^"America is racist... and filled with filthy Jews!!"), by NOT being intellectual. Maybe you're gonna get into this later? But I feel like the high-level discussion of ideologies is missing the common ground of The Actual Thing That Happened That We Are Talking About You're probably being a bit dismissive when you say 'cram it in to some marxist dialectic' - this may be a reflection of a poor understanding of Marx. A lot of people see dialectical materialism as very prescriptivist because of bad scholarship on Marx and Hegel that pervaded the middle 20th century. As for your last sentence, see my first post - I am just introducing one of many possible methodologies for analysing fascism, and will cover others in due course. Fascism as aesthetic movement Since that was a long post, I will just deal with this little bell and whistle now. Walter Benjamin (German thinker, 1892-1940), coined the idea 'aestheticization of politics' to describe a tendency connected to fascism. This is what one should think of when one sees Italian futurists collaborating with Mussolini or hears about Nazi obsessions with Wagner. In this idea, life and politics are to be thought of as being inherently artistic and part of a romantic vision. This sometimes drips from fascist propaganda: Mussolini posted:Lenin is an artist who has worked men, as other artists have worked marble or metals. But men are harder than stone and less malleable than iron. There is no masterpiece. The artist has failed. The task was superior to his capacities. One can also see here how some pact can be made with capitalism - the image of the entrepreneur, engineer and pioneering industrialist is easily re-integrated in to the fascist aesthetic as a risk-taking hero who creates something from nothing. A Randian hero, but affixed with a love of country. One can also see how war can become such a firmly fixed feature of fascist ideology, as well as practice: to Mussolini war was 'as natural to men as maternity is to women': it is a grand struggle and drama in which heroic action is possible and in which one can acheive great deeds. It is for this reason that it is important that war be continuous or eternal Mussolini/Gentile, 'The Doctrine of Fascism' posted:Above all, Fascism, in so far as it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace. It thus repudiates the doctrine of Pacifism — born of a renunciation of struggle and an act of cowardice in the face of sacrifice. War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the people who have the courage to meet it. All other trials are substitutes, which never really put a man in front of himself in the alternative of life and death. To put it another way: Ernst Junger posted:The heroic spirit is opposed to seeking the idea of war in a stratum which can be determined by human action. Yet the multifarious transformations and disguises endured in changing times and places by the pure form of war do present the heroic spirit with an engrossing drama. As we may see later, fascism also required conflict as a necessary condition not just theoretically, but in practice: fascism thrives on the continued state of mobilisation and emergency, and the militarisation of everyday life. The hardship of war forces people in to a discipline that sustains the system and justifies its continued ambitions to ever greater power, and ultimately excuses its self-created failures as well. This idea is tremendously influential to the work of Zizek, the most famous contemporary hard left philosopher. He is insistent that Fascism, and in particular the obscene crimes of fascism, require this kitschy romantic element - what he refers to as the 'mytho-poetic'. Nobody can obtain the distance required to mass-murder without this hysterical self-justification, a way of losing oneself in a grand narrative of events - 'ethnic cleansing: the continuation of poetry by other means' Enough for now. I will touch on the relationship between romanticism and other intellectual traditions to fascism in future posts (including Nietzsche, which is particularly relevant to this aesthetic), after I deal with 'liberal' critiques of fascism. Disinterested fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Apr 23, 2015 |
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Apr 23, 2015 15:04
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Disinterested posted:Fascism II: The Marxist Critique Continued Thank you for doing what I'm too lazy to do. Seriously, I wish someone would copy/paste both of these posts into the OP's of this and the Nazi thread. The abuse and misuse of the word "fascist" is one of my biggest pet peeves.
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Apr 23, 2015 15:23
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I think that link's broken. Really interesting so far.
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Apr 23, 2015 15:24
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So, is the general consensus that McClellan's over cautious (some say timid) use of the Army of the Potomac a direct result of him having been an observer during the Crimean war, in particularly the siege of Sevastopol? He seems very much like he wants to avoid any kind of war that even resembles attrition. Lee insisted after the war that McClellan was by far the Norths best general and his most difficult opponent. McClellan certainly gives the appearance that with an infinite amount of time and infinite political will behind him he may have been able to accomplish a lot more than he did. He certainly seemed willing to prepare and maneuver indefinitely until he could achieve the most certain result that could possibly be engineered. As far as I can tell though R.E. "his name is Audacity" Lee was probably the perfect foil to McClellan's plodding method and probably would have won 2 out of 3 falls even if McClellan had been gifted the perfect political environment to work in. fake edit: ^^^^ I've always been so confused as to what fascism actually is that it's nice to get some real information on it.
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Apr 23, 2015 15:37
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Murgos posted:So, is the general consensus that McClellan's over cautious (some say timid) use of the Army of the Potomac a direct result of him having been an observer during the Crimean war, in particularly the siege of Sevastopol? He seems very much like he wants to avoid any kind of war that even resembles attrition. I'd always heard it was because McClellan had political ambitions and wanted to avoid a loss at any cost so he could make a run for the white house.
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Apr 23, 2015 15:48
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Agean90 posted:I'd always heard it was because McClellan had political ambitions and wanted to avoid a loss at any cost so he could make a run for the white house. Who knows? Pinkerton kept saying that Lee outnumbered McClellan 2 to 1 and a lot of McClellan's actions make more sense if we assume he genuinely believed tbat.
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Apr 23, 2015 16:02
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There's a really hilarious moment in one of Bernard Cornwall's ACW books where he basically skewers the logic that Pinkerton would have used to arrive at 2-1 odds against the Union. I know that historical fiction doesn't really have a place in this thread but it's hard to fight a war when your intelligence services are feeding you misleading information. And you hold back your scouting arm instead of distracting it to confirm aforementioned information.
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Apr 23, 2015 16:09
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You have to bear in mind that McClellan ran against Lincoln on the ticket that (a) he'd done better than the other even more incompetent generals after him and (b) he'd end the bloodletting, so there's skin in the game politically to make him look better for Lee even ex post facto.
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Apr 23, 2015 16:14
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Cyrano4747 posted:Thank you for doing what I'm too lazy to do. Seriously, I wish someone would copy/paste both of these posts into the OP's of this and the Nazi thread. Thanks. My writing is lovely because to disguise the fact I'm writing about fascism at work, I'm writing in sublime text editor. Once I go further with this series of posts I may go back and put them together in long form and post them somewhere, and also improve their structure and prose. And also augment. Maybe.
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Apr 23, 2015 16:15
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Fantastic posting! Goes really well with the early chapters of The Rise and Fall of Communism which I'm slogging through at the moment. For a more MilHist perspective: just imagine what all that eclectism does for rationalization of production, how a misunderstanding of finance creates crises, and how romanticism works as a military strategy 
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Apr 23, 2015 16:33
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Koesj posted:just imagine what all that eclectism does for rationalization of production, how a misunderstanding of finance creates crises, and how romanticism works as a military strategy Hahaha that's basically thirdreichatwar.txt.
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Apr 23, 2015 16:35
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sullat posted:Who knows? Pinkerton kept saying that Lee outnumbered McClellan 2 to 1 and a lot of McClellan's actions make more sense if we assume he genuinely believed tbat. Agreed. I personally dislike McClellan quite a bit, and see him as being a key enabler that permitted the war to drag on as long as it did despite overwhelming Union supremacy, but there are certainly sufficient excuses out there for his actions that prohibit simply dismissing him as an incompetent, self-aggrandizing traitor, as much as I would like to.
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Apr 23, 2015 17:47
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Wikipedia pretty much sums up McClellan with Grant's quote on him: "McClellan is to me one of the mysteries of the war." On paper he should have been everything the Union needed, but once out in the field he consistently underperformed. My guess is that he just lacked that ruthless streak a general needs to send people to their deaths in order to win a battle, and most of his failures stemmed from that. But there are other things about him that are just odd - he was an expert on logistics and understood from the Crimea that rifled muskets had changed the nature of battles, but opposed the Anaconda plan in favour of winning a grand decisive battle. But then in practice he never showed any enthusiasm for seeking out and fighting that battle.
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Apr 23, 2015 18:03
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McClellan reminds me of a little kid who makes something out of legos exactly like the instructions say to and then never plays with it because he's afraid it'll break.
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Apr 23, 2015 18:39
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sullat posted:Who knows? Pinkerton kept saying that Lee outnumbered McClellan 2 to 1 and a lot of McClellan's actions make more sense if we assume he genuinely believed tbat. But then that brings us back to McClellan being incompetent, which according to his contemporaries, he wasn't. So, why didn't McClellan use probing attacks and cavalry sweeps to verify the strength, quality and location of his opponents forces despite knowing the value of intelligence? Which brings us back to the traitor theory (which was widely believed at the time), but if he was a traitor then why was he kicking Johnston's rear end so thoroughly (if slowly and deliberately) during the Peninsula campaign? Of course if he was really a traitor and complicit with the southerners then when he moved the forces south Johnston would have taken Washington (which Johnston had proposed but been turned down by Davis).
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Apr 23, 2015 19:08
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Disinterested posted:Fascism II - Fascism Harder: The Marxist Critique Continued
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Apr 23, 2015 19:21
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Jamwad Hilder posted:McClellan reminds me of a little kid who makes something out of legos exactly like the instructions say to and then never plays with it because he's afraid it'll break. If he were playing Civ, he'd be a builder, making a pretty army but not wanting to use it. Also probably a savescummer when it got dinged up in battle. And even when he gets a good roll like the random event before Antietem, he still doesn't want to get his army damaged. It was great when the Army of the Potomac needed to be rebuilt after Bull Run, less so when it needed to be used.
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Apr 23, 2015 19:32
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TheFluff posted:there is a classification level that sounds really silly when you describe it, because it is so secret that the very existence of the classification level itself is classified. Or at least it used to be; its existence was officially revealed in 2011, but the regulations that govern it are still classified (I hesitate to call it a law, even though I'm pretty sure it technically is one). It seems to be almost exclusively used for military intelligence. This doesn't surprise me at all. Classified information is just a formalized secret; since secret military actions are just formalized conspiracies, the conclusion is that there have been countless successful conspiracies that will never see the light of day as everyone involved is either sworn to secrecy or dead. More than likely several of these schemes have existed concurrently within the same organizations without being aware of each other.
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Apr 23, 2015 19:54
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OK cool. Sorry for being dismissive, but I still take issue with this part:Disinterested posted:Fascism II - Fascism Harder: The Marxist Critique Continued This is just that-- the dialectic holds that whatever isn't socialism is capitalism, but the part I bolded is the part that distinguishes capitalism from how any community operates ever, the supremacy of the market. To say that the fascists embraced "modified capitalism" because they were down with the exchange of things for other things seems wildly disingenuous. The farmer and the guy who sells nails or whatever aren't celebrated in their capacity as property owners, but rather as vital cogs in the machine of mass society. The Manifesto has a big passage about feudalism vs capitalism, you know the one, and the way fascism conceptualizes property and capital is a lot closer to the first than the second. Germans' wages becoming worthless before they can spend them because of inflation or Japanese farmers starving to death because the harvest was TOO GOOD and crashed the prices of their monoculture crops is not cultural baggage, it's down to how capitalism works, and the man on the street was well aware of this even if he didn't (and uh I don't) know all the details. And I know this is the marxist critique and not your own personal opinion but I still feel it's a little bit cart before the horse. Anyway though I've said my piece and I'm glad that you're doing this, and you're doing a good job, even if I disagree with some particulars. It's fascinating and not understood very well for something that's so important to history. Keep on keepin' on
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Apr 23, 2015 19:59
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Murgos posted:But then that brings us back to McClellan being incompetent, which according to his contemporaries, he wasn't. So, why didn't McClellan use probing attacks and cavalry sweeps to verify the strength, quality and location of his opponents forces despite knowing the value of intelligence? Which brings us back to the traitor theory (which was widely believed at the time), but if he was a traitor then why was he kicking Johnston's rear end so thoroughly (if slowly and deliberately) during the Peninsula campaign? Yeah, McClellan takes a lot of poo poo...deservedly so, really...for his failures as a battlefield commander. He squandered a lot of chances to do the CSA harm because of his overactive imagination. But that same imagination is what made him so drat good at army building. He took the shattered wreck of an army that he inherited after Bull Run and transformed it into something that could survive defeat after defeat, and, once out of his hands, could even win just enough. The Army of the Potomac doesn't win Gettysburg, hell it may not even survive Fredricksburg, without the work Little Mac put into reforging it throughout '61 and '62. The man was a swordsmith who forged the Army of the Potomac into a deadly blade. He wasn't alone in being incapable of wielding it effectively, and we shouldn't forget that even if it was in Grant's hand that the fatal blow was struck, it was still Little Mac who gave it to him.
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Apr 23, 2015 20:08
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Disinterested posted:Hahaha that's basically thirdreichatwar.txt. They didn't know what rationalization of production meant.
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Apr 23, 2015 20:21
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swamp waste posted:Germans' wages becoming worthless before they can spend them because of inflation or Japanese farmers starving to death because the harvest was TOO GOOD and crashed the prices of their monoculture crops is not cultural baggage, it's down to how capitalism works, Inflation has nothing to do with capitalism unless you mean any society that has money and is not purely barter based must be capitalist. Inflation is generally caused by public policy controlling the money supply. Inflation can happen in any society that has money not just ones that privately own the means of production. Also, mono-culture farming is not a consequence of capitalism unless you mean that any farmer who does not farm first to 100% meet his personal needs is a capitalist. Which seems rather strict. Mono-culture farming is a result of seeking efficiency, it doesn't matter if the farmer owns the lands or holds them communally. e: For the inflation argument I guess if !communist -> capitalist you could say that you wouldn't have money in a true communist utopia since everyone owns everything and everyone has a claim on all goods and services? How do you (or you know, the theory) propose to limit consumption in that case? Murgos fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Apr 23, 2015 |
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Apr 23, 2015 20:23
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Murgos posted:But then that brings us back to McClellan being incompetent, which according to his contemporaries, he wasn't. So, why didn't McClellan use probing attacks and cavalry sweeps to verify the strength, quality and location of his opponents forces despite knowing the value of intelligence? Which brings us back to the traitor theory (which was widely believed at the time), but if he was a traitor then why was he kicking Johnston's rear end so thoroughly (if slowly and deliberately) during the Peninsula campaign? The cavalry thing, as I understand is a failure of the way the union used cavalry early on in the war. It was not organized in big groups like the rebels, but attached to the smaller units (whose names escape me) and so it was not used as successfully for scouting until they had independent commands.
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Apr 23, 2015 20:39
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monoculture farming seems to definitely be a consequence of capitalism, why would you devote all your acreage to growing only bananas, or coffee, without international market forces making that product the most.. profitable? this type of farming seems explicitly market-oriented, and internationally so, which uh i guess exchange of goods does not a capitalist make.... I suspect also swamp waste was referring more to the extreme price fluctuations that accompany market-oriented monoculture farming, which can't be anything but a "consequence of capitalism".
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Apr 23, 2015 20:45
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Monoculture farming is only possible thanks to modern fertilisers. People always farmed the most profitable crops but had to rotate to not ruin the soil.
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Apr 23, 2015 20:51
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Murgos posted:But then that brings us back to McClellan being incompetent, which according to his contemporaries, he wasn't. So, why didn't McClellan use probing attacks and cavalry sweeps to verify the strength, quality and location of his opponents forces despite knowing the value of intelligence? Which brings us back to the traitor theory (which was widely believed at the time), but if he was a traitor then why was he kicking Johnston's rear end so thoroughly (if slowly and deliberately) during the Peninsula campaign? The thing that always made it make sense to me was that you have to consider it together with his political beliefs. He felt a great duty to build up the army into something proper, but also felt it would be wrong to force the South back into the Union militarily. If that's why he did what he did, everything fits together perfectly, but that's a very big 'if'.
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Apr 23, 2015 20:52
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Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
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Yeah trying to convince the farmer to not grow the most bang for his buck is an exercise in futility.
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Apr 23, 2015 20:56
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Raskolnikov38 posted:Yeah trying to convince the farmer to not grow the most bang for his buck is an exercise in futility. I can't actually source this for poo poo since it was from a non-academic book I read a looong time ago and it wasn't terribly well-sourced even then, but there's an interesting and sorta-relevant story from the Chinese Warring States period. Supposedly, there was a king who really wanted to conquer one of his neighbors, a country who grew a certain kind of plant useful in textiles but not much else. Not wanting to risk a potentially equal military engagement, the king came up with a Cunning Plan. He decreed that all of his subjects HAD to wear clothes made of the textile in question - failure to do so would be punishable by law. He also decreed that all such textiles could ONLY be imported from the country he wished to conquer, and that his own country was forbidden to plant the textile. This, naturally, drove demand for the textile right the hell up, causing the farmers who produced the plant to become increasingly wealthy. As their neighbors watched and envied, more and more farmers began to go into the textile trade as well, until practically everyone in the country was spinning money out of textiles. At which point, the king made another decree stating that anyone caught wearing the textile would be punished. His target's economy went into freefall, and without the money to import grain or the fields to grow their own it suffered a famine, at which point he conquered his enemies easily with barely a shot fired.
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Apr 23, 2015 21:23
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Speaking of Early Modern Germans with ridiculous names
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Apr 23, 2015 21:28
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Fixed that for you 
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Apr 23, 2015 21:40
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Disinterested posted:Fascism II - Fascism Harder: The Marxist Critique Continued I'm still irritated that you threw all these left thinkers into the "far left" pot in your first post. Gramsci's analysis about Fascism has alot to offer.
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Apr 23, 2015 21:43
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Japanese Explosive Ordnance: Army and Navy Ammunition Army Projectiles: Part 13 Type 11 Year 70mm High Explosive Mortar  Weight of complete round: 4.28 lbs Weight of main charge: 15.2 oz Weight of booster: 1.6 oz Explosive components: -Main charge: TNT -Booster: Picric -Propellant: Nitrocellulose diphenylamine flaked powder Overall length (w/o fuze): 7.12 inches Maximum diameter: 69.8mm Color: Black overall with a red band around the nose. A yellow band is painted below the bourrelet and a white band forward of the rotating band. Fuzing: Type 93 instantaneous short delay mortar fuze Used in: Type 11 year 70mm Rifle Mortar Description: This projectile is similar in construction and operation to the Type 89 50mm H.E. mortar shell 70mm High Explosive Anti-Aircraft Barrage Mortar  Weight of complete round: 5.19 lbs Weight of main charge (H.E. cylinders): 12.84 grams Explosive compenents: -Main charge: RDX -Booster: Lead azide Overall length: 11.38 inches Maximum diameter of shell: 70mm Length of canisters: 6.5 inches Diameter of canisters: 0.75 inches Length of H.E. cylinders: 3.12 inches Diameter of H.E. cylinders: 0.69 inches Color: Shell - black overall with a 5/8 inches red band at nose. Canisters - zinc coated (grey) H.E. Cylinders - black overall with a 3/16 inch red band at forward end Used in: 70mm A.A. barrage mortar Description: This mortar shell consists of an outer shell containing seven canisters in each of which is an H.E. cylinder and parachute. A turned steel base is welded to the outher shell and provision is made for reception of a delay train holder, a shell propellant container, and an end cover. The delay train leads to a black powder charge which ejects the canisters from the shell. The end cover is fitted over the propellant contained and is sealed against moisture and held in position by adhesive tape. A wooden plug in a pressed steel cap closes the forward end of the shell. The canisters contain a wooden plug in the base bored to receive a delay element and a small black powder cahrge to eject the H.E. cylinder from the canister. The steel H.E. cylinders are closed at the base and threaded at the forward end to receive a plug into which is screwed a friction cap. The explosive content is in three blocks, each wrapped in a waterproof paper carton. Parachutes are attached to the outer shell, nose cap, and each ot the seven canisters and H.E. cylinders. The length of the parachute cords varies from 19 inches (Canisters) to 66 inchers (Cylinders). The H.E. cylinder parachute lines are attached to a friction cord which passes through the friction cap. Thus, this shell, when fired, puts sixteen separate objects suspended by parachutes in the way of low-flying aircraft, seven of which will explode if hit. Operation: The delay train to the first ejection charge is ignited by the shell propellant charge, and the first charge in turn ignites the delay trains to the second ejection charges in each of the canisters. The parachutes attached to the nose cap, outer shell, and canisters all open when the canisters are ejected and the H.E. cylinder parachutes open when they are ejected from the canisters. A plane hitting the parachute cord of any of the H.E. cylinders would cause the friction wire to be pulled through the friction cap initiating the explosive train. Type 97 81mm High Explosive Mortar  Weight of complete round: 7.35 lbs Weight of main charge: 1.19 lbs Explosive components: -Main charge: TNT -Booster: Picric -Propellant: --Nitrocellulose and graphite: 58% --Nitroglycerine: 7.1% --Dinitrotoluene: 25.7% --Dophenylamine: 0.5% --Potassium nitrate: 8.7% Overall length (w/o fuze): 11.5 inches Length of fin aseemble: 3.19 inches Maximum diameter at bourrelet: 81mm Maximum diameter of tail fins: 81mm Color: Black overall with a red tip. A yellow band is painted before the bourrelet Fuzing: Type 93 instantaneous short delay mortar fuze Used in: -Type 97 81mm Mortar -Type 99 81mm Mortar Description: The body is of one piece streamline construction having a threaded opening in the nose to receive the fuze adapter ring. A steel booster cup screws (L.H.) into the lower end of the shaped aluminium container which receives the gaine of the fuze. The bourrelet is well machined and has four grooves cut in it. The fin assembly screws into a female threaded (R.H.) opening in the base of the body. It consists of a male plug welded to a cylindrical steel tube. Welded to the tube are six fins shaped to receive the six silk bags containing the propellant increments. Between each set of fins are three gas escape ports for the propellant gases from the cartridge which fits inside the tube. The cartridge is held in place by a countersunk ring screwed into the end of the tube. The cartridge resembles a shotgun shell. Type 100 81mm High Explosive Mortar  Weight of complete round: 7.52 lbs Weight of main charge: 1.18 lbs Explosive components: -Main charge: TNT -Booster: Picric -Propellant: --Nitrocellulose and graphite: 58% --Nitroglycerine: 7.1% --Dinitrotoluene: 25.7% --Dophenylamine: 0.5% --Potassium nitrate: 8.7% Overall length (w/o fuze): 11.78 inches Length of fin assembly: 3.31 inches Maximum diameter at bourrelet: 81mm Maximum diameter of tail fins: 81mm Color: Black overall with a red tip. A yellow band is painted before the bourrelet Fuzing: Type 100 instantaneous short delay mortar fuze Used in: -Type 97 81mm Mortar -Type 99 81mm Mortar Description: Except for minor details, this shell is similar to the Type 97 81mm H.E. projectile. The cup to receive the fuze gaine is held in place in the booster cup by being fitted into a brass ring which screws into the fuze adapter ring above the booster cup. There is no retaining ring to hold the cartridge in the tail fin section. Instead, the cartridge is held by a friction fit. 81mm Parachute H.E. Mortar  Weight of complete round: 3.87 lbs Weight of main charge: 4 oz Explosive components: -Main Charge: RDX (1 block), TNT (2 blocks) Overall length: 21.25 inches Length of shell (less propellant container and nose plug): 18.5 inches Diameter of shell body: 1.5 inches Diameter of fins: 81mm Diameter of H.E. cylinder: 1.37 inches Length of H.E. cylinder: 7 inches Color: Black overall with an unpainted wooden plug in the nose. Used in: Standard 81mm smoothbore mortars Description: This mortar shell is a black steel tube with an ogival wooden block sealing the forward end. Six fins which give the shell an 81mm diameter are spot welded along the after part of the tub. A steel disc drilled through the center for the delay lead-in is welded to the tube 1/2 inche from the base. Forward of the disk is a 5 inch wooden block through the center of which runs the 12-second black powder delay element. The forward end of the wooden block contains the ejection charge. The H.E. cylinder and parachutes are located forward of the ejection charge. The cylinder consists of a steel case, a central tube containing the 45 second self-destruction delay train, a friction igniter, and three cylindrical explosive blocks fitted around the central tube. The booster fits in the forward block. The parachute which supports the cylinder is secured to a small fixed U-bolt on the cylinder by nine short (13 inch) shrouds. A second parachute above the first is secured to the friction igniter by a line 32'4" long. This line leads through a central hole in the lower parachute. The tinned steel propellant container is 81mm in diameter and 1 inch deep. A neck on the container cover fits into the base of the mortar shell and is secured by three small screws passing through the sides of the shell and the neck of the cover. Operation: When the shell is fired. the flash from the black powder primer ignites the propellant and the 12 second delay train. Setback shears the small screws securing the propellant container to the shell, and when the force of the propellant is expended the container falls free. Twelve seconds after firing, the delay train ignites the ejection charge forcing the H.E. cylinder and parachutes out the forward end of the shell. The 45 second self-destroying delay train is also ignited by the ejection charge. Planes striking the 32 foot parachute cord which is attached to the igniter will cause it to explode the H.E. cylinder. After 45 seconds, the self-destroying element detonates the cylinder. 81mm Parachute H.E. Smoke Mortar  Weight of complete round: No Data Weight of main charge: No Data Explosive component: -Main Charge: Tetyl Overall length: 21.87 inches Lenght of shell (less propellant container and nose plug): 19.1 inches Diameter of shell body: 1.5 inches Diameter of fins: 81mm Color: Unpainted galvanized iron with a yellow wooden nose and a green band around the body Description: This shell is similar to the H.E. round except that there is a smoke pellet in the bottom of the suspended cylinder. Above the smoke pellet are two pellets of tetryl with a black powder delay train running through the middle. As with the H.E. round, the line to the upper parachute is attached to a pull ignited and, if pulled before the self-destroying feature operated, will detonate the charge. Operation: The operation is similar to the H.E. round except that the expelling charge ignites the smoke flare pellet, which burns about 53 seconds and which then ignites the short delay train which burns seven seconds before the self-destroying element functions. 81mm Parachute Flare Mortar  Weight of complete round: 4.87 lbs Weight of flare composition: 409g Explosive components: -Flare composition: No Data Overall length: 22.25 inches Length of shell (less propellant container and nose plug): 18.75 inches Diameter of shell body: 1.75 inches Diameter of fins: 81mm Diameter of flare cylinder: 1.37 inches Length of flare cylinder: 7.75 inches Color: Unpainted galvanized steel body with a red wooden plug in the nose. Used in: Standard 81mm smoothbore mortars Description: This mortar shell resembles in construction the 81mm H.E. parachute mortar shell, the only differences being in dimensions. A thin sheet metal tube containing the flare composition is located before the ejection charge. Two parachutes are packed in an inner sleeve 5.5 inches long made in two longitudinal half sections and are attached by means of 14 inch and 15'3" cords, respectively, to an eyebolt threaded into the forward end of the metallic flare composition. The wooden nose plug is secured to the outer shell by two small nails. Operation: The operation of this shell is the same as the 81mm H.E. parachute mortar shell. The ejection charge ignites the flare composition as it ejects the flare cylinder from the shell. Type 94 90mm High Explosive Mortar  Weight of complete round: 11.8 lbs Weight of main charge: 2.35 lbs Explosive components: -Main charge: TNT -Booster: Picric (presumed) Overall length (w/o fuze): 15.83 inches Length of fin assemble: 4.02 inches Maximum diameter at bourrelet: 90mm Maximum diameter at tail fins: 90mm Color: Black overall with a red tip and a yellow band before the bourrelet. Fuzing: Type 93 Instantaneous short delay mortar fuze Used in: -Type 94 90mm Mortar -Type 97 90mm Mortar Description: This shell is similar in construction to the Type 97 81mm Mortar shell. Type 94 90mm Semisteel H.E. Mortar  Weight of complete round: 11.5 lbs Weight of main charge: No Data Explosive components: -Main charge: TNT -Booster: No Data -Propellant: No Data Overall length (w/o fuze): 14.25 inches Length of fin assembly: 4 inches Maximum diameter at bourrelet: 90mm Maximum diameter at fins: 90mm Color: Black overall with a red tip and a green band before the bourrelet Fuzing: Type 93 instantaneous short delay mortar fuze Used in: -Type 94 90mm Mortar -Type 97 90mm Mortar Description: This shell is similar in design to the Type 94 90mm H.E. shell, except that it is made of low-grade or semisteel instead of high grade steel. Type 94 90mm Incendiary Mortar  Weight of complete round: 11.6 lbs Weight of incendiary mixture: 2.2 lbs Weight of burster charge: 2.75 oz Explosive components: -Burster charge: No Data -Propellant: No Data Incendiary filling: Phosphorus, carbon disulphide and 40 cylindrical rubber pellets. Overall length (w/o fuze): 15.9 inches Length of fin assembly: 4 inches Maximum diameter at bourrelet: 90mm Maximum diameter at tail fins: 90mm Color: Black body with blue bands around the nose, a yellow band halfway between the bourrelet and tail and white band at junction of body and tail. Fuzing: Type 94 instantaneous short delay mortar fuze (Presumed) Used in: -Type 94 90mm Mortar -Type 97 90mm Mortar Description: This shell is similar in design to the Type 94 90mm H.E. mortar shell with the following exceptions: 1. An enlarge booster cup threads into the nose of the projectile. It contains a well for the lower fuze body and detonator, a burster charge, and a wooden block. 2. A fuze adapter threads into the forward end of the booster cup. Remarks: A shell of similar construction weight and measurements contains a filling of diphenylcyanarsine (DC). The shell is painted black overall and has a red band around the nose with a blue band adjacent to it. There is a yellow band aft of the bourrelet and a red band halfway between the bourrelet and the tail. There is a white band at the junction of the shell body and tail. Next Time: We finish up the Imperial Japanese Army's Explosive Ordnance, and maybe take a look at the IJN's color/identification system. I am skipping entirely over fuzes
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Apr 23, 2015 23:13
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Jobbo_Fett posted:Japanese Explosive Ordnance: Army and Navy Ammunition Would it be possible if you did like Trin Tragula, and posted just a brief summary of your blog post in this thread, and not the whole blog post?
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Apr 23, 2015 23:33
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Hogge Wild posted:Would it be possible if you did like Trin Tragula, and posted just a brief summary of your blog post in this thread, and not the whole blog post? Will do. I've barely been adding things to the blog, hence the large posts, but I'll use the end of the IJA stuff to give me some time to catch up with the blog.
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Apr 23, 2015 23:41
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sullat posted:The cavalry thing, as I understand is a failure of the way the union used cavalry early on in the war. It was not organized in big groups like the rebels, but attached to the smaller units (whose names escape me) and so it was not used as successfully for scouting until they had independent commands. One thing Hooker did right was organize all the scattered Cavalry units into an independent Cavalry Corps. This paid off during the Gettysburg campaign when John Buford fought his classic delaying action so Reynolds', Howard's,. and Hancock's corps could get onto the high ground. Then Buford dies from illness a few months later and the Union loses its best cavalryman before he can take over the Cavalry Corps.
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Apr 24, 2015 00:42
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JaucheCharly posted:I'm still irritated that you threw all these left thinkers into the "far left" pot in your first post. I dont intend it pejoratively, but if you want to expand on Gramsci, I encourage you to. I want to cover a lot of ground so I can't dwell on anything in particular. But I can give people recommended reading if they want it. What I would say about Gramsci is that he nailed the peculiarly Italian example, by tackling all of the internal complexities and tensions. Taken on a circumspect and breezy evel, he does belong in the same pot with the Frankfurt school for the casual reader. Typical historians' problem - the experts are never happy with the generalists, and visa versa!
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Apr 24, 2015 00:48
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Jobbo_Fett posted:Will do. I've barely been adding things to the blog, hence the large posts, but I'll use the end of the IJA stuff to give me some time to catch up with the blog. Thanks! I didn't want to be That Guy and complain, but holy poo poo your posts take forever to scroll passed on a phone. (Not that there's anything wrong with them, of course! The bits I've skimmed are excellently written. I just, personally, don't really care about specific kinds of projectiles and stuff ; I would never want to stop other people who enjoy that sort of thing from reading.)
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Apr 24, 2015 00:52
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