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Ensign Expendable posted:There was an endless arms race between the military denaturing the alcohol and conscripted chemistry students finding ways to make it drinkable again. Was there much frontline distilling going on? I would assume that knowing how to turn basic plant matter into hooch was a pretty wide spread skill in rural Russia in the early 20th century, and given enough of a desire to get hosed up pretty much any plant material can ferment.
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Mar 28, 2017 20:04
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OwlFancier posted:Guessing this is a case where the torpedoes run on ethanol fuel? It was actually hydraulic fluid! Gonna cross post from AI since there are some choice qoutes MrChips posted:Where the MiG-25 went wrong was with a common characteristic of many Soviet aircraft; the hydraulic system. Instead of a conventional hydraulic fluid, the MiG-25 used pure grain alcohol as hydraulic fluid. Being Russian at heart, pilots and ground crews alike in MiG-25 squadrons formed miniature black-market bootlegging rings to sell this free, state-supplied nectar, skimming off a bit of fluid every now and again and selling it in makeshift market stands outside the gates of their fighter bases! It was such a popular thing to do that the MiG-25 quickly earned the nickname “Massandra”, which is a backronym in Russian for “Mikoyan Aviation equips alcohol, people happy with decision of aircraft designer”. Famously (and perhaps apocryphally), the wives of these bootlegger-pilots began a letter-writing campaign, sending letters to both the MiG design bureau and the Air Ministry, demanding that a change be made to the MiG-25 to rid the aircraft of its boozy hydraulic fluid. Artem Mikoyan bristled at the suggestion, stating that “If aircraft system performance demands we fill it with the finest Armenian cognac, then that’s what we’ll use drat it!” Ultimately, later versions of the MiG-25 switched to a more conventional hydraulic fluid; certainly not because of the endemic bootlegging either.
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Mar 28, 2017 20:04
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Vincent Van Goatse posted:Probably. Most other nations' navies weren't dry like the USN. The British and Australians used to be able to barter for supplies by trading whisky to American crews. Did they have a don't drink and dive policy?
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Mar 28, 2017 20:06
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I've read that old school navigational compasses were filled with alcohol way back when as well, leading to yet another piece of equipment that had to be guarded least Able Seaman Bob drink it.
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Mar 28, 2017 20:08
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Cyrano4747 posted:I've read that old school navigational compasses were filled with alcohol way back when as well, leading to yet another piece of equipment that had to be guarded least Able Seaman Bob drink it. The Whiskey Compass on USA planes.
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Mar 28, 2017 20:57
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In one of my classes I had a guy who said he was a former Bear pilot. He told me all of the various places the crew would siphon off ethanol for drinking. There were apparently quite a few. Including one conveniently in the cockpit for the pilot and copilot.
Thomamelas fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Mar 28, 2017 |
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Mar 28, 2017 21:02
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Cyrano4747 posted:Was there much frontline distilling going on? I would assume that knowing how to turn basic plant matter into hooch was a pretty wide spread skill in rural Russia in the early 20th century, and given enough of a desire to get hosed up pretty much any plant material can ferment. Haven't read about anything like that.
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Mar 28, 2017 21:04
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A list of British Army regimental nicknames through the ages.... Kind of curious about other countries ones if they do this too.
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Mar 28, 2017 21:28
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I think that's big with the Army (Old Ironsides, Big Red One, I'm sure someone former Army can say more). Not so much the Marine Corps. Units definitely have nicknames and call signs and mottos with historical significance but I can't think of any big deal "historical" names other than the Walking Dead (1/9) which dates back to Vietnam. Could be more I'm not familiar with though. Like, you never call a unit by its nickname or call sign really Then you've got stuff based on location and battle or campaign rather than unit (Battling Bastards of Bataan)
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Mar 28, 2017 21:42
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These things change with every generation, and well half of them are born by interservice rivalry where I imagine you'd not want to openly use the more comical/disrespectful ones around said groups. I do like the Coldsteam Guard is nicknamed The Coldstreamers. I imagine this really is case of 'don't loving call us anything else now or else, old boy...'.
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Mar 28, 2017 21:45
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Interesting. I really like all the British ones. They're really colorful and make every unit sound elite and special. I go down Wikipedia wormhole all the time going from regiment to regiment reading histories because I saw a cool name in a book and went to research the origin "real quick"
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Mar 28, 2017 21:47
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Cyrano4747 posted:The Indians and Pakistanis clashed a few times at sea in the 70s. Notable for being some of the first uses of ship to ship missiles in combat. Destroyers and frigates mostly from what I recall. USS Saratoga had a blue-on-blue incident where it accidentally fired two Sea Sparrows and hit the bridge of a Turkish destroyer. Damaged it badly enough that it was scrapped, too. And in the late 80s, there was Operation Praying Mantis where the US got sufficiently pissed-off at the Iranians for mining the Persian Gulf that it flipped out on their surface forces, destroying a few ships and oil platforms. The USS Wainwright (a cruiser) and USS Simpson (a frigate) hit an Iranian missile boat with five SM-2s, and then finished it off with their deck guns. A US destroyer also might have scored with a Harpoon hit on an Iranian frigate, but since an A-6 also fired 6 missiles at the thing at the same time and it was blown to hell and gone when the fires reached its magazines it's hard to say. Also, how hosed up does your country have to be where "finest Armenian cognac" is hyperbole for "something really good and fancy"?
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Mar 28, 2017 21:48
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SeanBeansShako posted:A list of British Army regimental nicknames through the ages.... You can tell that most or all of the nicknames are affectionate terms invented by members of the unit itself, otherwise there'd be a lot of Highland Wankers, Queen's Own Tossers, Royal Twats etc.
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Mar 28, 2017 21:53
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Cognac is manky but Armenia is in literally classical wine country so I don't see a problem.
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Mar 28, 2017 21:54
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SeanBeansShako posted:These things change with every generation, and well half of them are born by interservice rivalry where I imagine you'd not want to openly use the more comical/disrespectful ones around said groups. Much the same with The Cameronians, whose nickname is The Cameronians. Lot of thought went into that one.
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Mar 28, 2017 21:56
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Cyrano4747 posted:I've read that old school navigational compasses were filled with alcohol way back when as well, leading to yet another piece of equipment that had to be guarded least Able Seaman Bob drink it. Can't recall if I've read it or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if they had to post marines on Lord Nelson's pickled corpse.
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Mar 28, 2017 21:57
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Phanatic posted:Also, how hosed up does your country have to be where "finest Armenian cognac" is hyperbole for "something really good and fancy"? What's wrong with Armenian cognac?
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Mar 28, 2017 21:58
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my dad posted:What's wrong with Armenian cognac? https://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/03/the-spirit-of-armenia/
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Mar 28, 2017 22:00
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OpenlyEvilJello posted:Can't recall if I've read it or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if they had to post marines on Lord Nelson's pickled corpse. Didn't the crew actually drink from that barrel while he was still inside it? or is that a milhist urban legend?
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Mar 28, 2017 22:00
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There was never an Armenian Cognac. -Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
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Mar 28, 2017 22:04
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On the one hand, that's the most booj article I've read in some time, on the other hand, that seems appropriate for an article about cognac.
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Mar 28, 2017 22:06
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What was the reason for the Red purges within Indonesia during the 1960s?
Grouchio fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Mar 28, 2017 |
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Mar 28, 2017 22:31
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OwlFancier posted:Cognac is manky but Armenia is in literally classical wine country so I don't see a problem. Cognac is only cognac if it's from the Cognac region of France. All other "cognac" is just brandy. Like with champagne, where all of it from anywhere but Champagne is supposed to be called sparkling wine.
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Mar 28, 2017 22:45
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Grouchio posted:What was the reason for the Red purges within Indonesia during the 1960s? Suharto did a coup against Sukarno, wanted to purge Indonesia of communists, suspected communists, potential suspected communists.
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Mar 28, 2017 22:49
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gohuskies posted:Cognac is only cognac if it's from the Cognac region of France. All other "cognac" is just brandy. Like with champagne, where all of it from anywhere but Champagne is supposed to be called sparkling wine. Let me tell you about Soviet Champagne.
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Mar 28, 2017 22:55
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Phanatic posted:USS Saratoga had a blue-on-blue incident where it accidentally fired two Sea Sparrows and hit the bridge of a Turkish destroyer. Damaged it badly enough that it was scrapped, too. I consider myself a bit of military history junkie and I had never heard of Operation Praying Mantis (reallllyy shows my ignorance, and many Americans, of the while Iran-Iraq war era). I read up the wikipedia page and holy poo poo  , you were not kidding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Praying_Mantis The U.S. Navy tore apart the Iranians, and barely anyone remembers this. Just goes to show how much crazy poo poo was happening during the Cold War era. Can you image the consequences if such an engagement happened today, especially in today's media/political environment? I shudder at the thought..
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Mar 28, 2017 22:57
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Solaris 2.0 posted:I consider myself a bit of military history junkie and I had never heard of Operation Praying Mantis (reallllyy shows my ignorance, and many Americans, of the while Iran-Iraq war era). I read up the wikipedia page and holy poo poo It's probably good that sometimes poo poo like this goes without becoming a public spectacle when you're dealing with the possibility of public sentiments throwing your country into chaos and giving rise to a dangerous warmonger who blows the world up over something stupid.
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Mar 28, 2017 23:26
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Crazycryodude posted:I feel like it'd be easier to make a list of things that pop culture/Hollywood gets RIGHT about the military/spies/whatever
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Mar 28, 2017 23:32
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SeanBeansShako posted:A list of British Army regimental nicknames through the ages....
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Mar 28, 2017 23:36
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OwlFancier posted:Cognac is manky but Armenia is in literally classical wine country so I don't see a problem.
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Mar 28, 2017 23:38
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Just googling torpedo fuel brings up a wikipedia drinks article stub. It does list the recipe for Torpedo Juice as being "two parts ethyl alcohol and three parts pineapple juice." Apparently those spoilsport electric torpedoes put an end to the fun. Looking through the Kriegsmarine inventory, nearly all of their torpedoes were electric. (The non-electric one burned kerosene.) quote:Poor range and speed were not the T2's only problems. Both of its detonators were flawed. The magnetic influence mechanism, designed to allow the torpedo to run under the keel of a ship and detonate, breaking the ship's back, was inconsistent; often a T2 would detonate prematurely, or not at all. This led the BdU to order that all G7e/T2 torpedoes be fired only for contact detonation. However, the contact pistol of the T2 also malfunctioned; the British battleship HMS Nelson managed to survive almost certain destruction when three torpedoes from U-56 struck on her keel, two broke upon hitting and the other failed to explode.[2] Captain Wilhelm Zahn of U-56 was so depressed by the evident futility of his efforts that he needed to be briefly relieved of duty by Admiral Karl Dönitz in order to compose himself, while the civilian Naval Ordnance Corps, responsible for torpedo development and maintenance, continued to insist the U-boat captains were somehow at fault. Estimates of the failure rate of T2 torpedoes for one reason or another range between 20% and 40%.[citation needed]
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Mar 28, 2017 23:40
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Solaris 2.0 posted:I consider myself a bit of military history junkie and I had never heard of Operation Praying Mantis (reallllyy shows my ignorance, and many Americans, of the while Iran-Iraq war era). I read up the wikipedia page and holy poo poo The US naval campaign against Iran is for my money the most interesting naval campaign of modern history, I'm really looking forward to the point when I get to it in my write ups. It showed so much variety and ingenuity on both sides.
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Mar 29, 2017 00:02
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Solaris 2.0 posted:
Well, this was the US Navy at its most powerful point in history. I mean, this was even more lopsided than the Gulf War, where Iraq was at least strong and worrisome on paper. If it hadn't been completely one-sided it'd have been a bigger deal. Plus it was pretty overshadowed at the time by the Vincennes fuckup.
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Mar 29, 2017 01:33
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Vinny's takedown of the Commercial Flight was v. much intentional
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Mar 29, 2017 01:40
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Phi230 posted:Vinny's takedown of the Commercial Flight was v. much intentional Oh, this should be good.
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Mar 29, 2017 01:54
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Phanatic posted:Well, this was the US Navy at its most powerful point in history. I mean, this was even more lopsided than the Gulf War, where Iraq was at least strong and worrisome on paper. If it hadn't been completely one-sided it'd have been a bigger deal.
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Mar 29, 2017 02:16
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Grouchio posted:Why would the US Navy be weaker now? Something something Obama.
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Mar 29, 2017 02:17
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Phanatic posted:Oh, this should be good. It's pretty simple. Vincennes's captain was convinced the airliner was an Iranian warplane broadcasting a false transponder code and ordered the shootdown over a bunch of other people's "err wait a minute"s. Turns out it was exactly what its transponder said it was, and subsequently the US government bent over backwards to avoid admitting the mistake.
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Mar 29, 2017 02:47
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Grouchio posted:Why would the US Navy be weaker now? Because it has a lot fewer ships, a lot fewer planes, a lot fewer people, entire specialized platforms like the Tomcat, the Intruder, the Prowler, are just gone. Naval aviation is pretty broken because O&M has been cut to the bone to pay for Operation Bomb Useless Dirt and readiness is lovely across the board. Then, it was at the peak of its size and trained and ready to fight a full-scale war against a peer opponent. Now it...it just isn't. The other services are in pretty much the same boat. The USAF is the smallest it's been since it's been the USAF. http://www.defensenews.com/articles/grounded-nearly-two-thirds-of-us-navys-strike-fighters-cant-fly
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Mar 29, 2017 03:02
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To this day my mom, who was working at RCA when they developed Aegis, is insistent that the system worked fine, it was the crew that hosed up.
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Mar 29, 2017 03:05
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