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SeanBeansShako posted:They are just really dedicated professional soldiers. This. As Don Gato remarks, they pay bills for their family, and are justifiably proud of living up to their insane service history, which makes for a potent combo. They are probably some of the most committed soldiers in the mix today. Tias fucked around with this message at 12:22 on Sep 26, 2017 |
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Sep 26, 2017 09:15
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Taerkar posted:I'm pretty sure that if they actually built and deployed a Ratte its crew would just get concussed to death by bomb explosions. They better build the Ratte 100% waterproof and make sure it can go through every kind of mud without getting stuck, or rivers will be a larger problem than bombs.
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Sep 26, 2017 09:33
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Tias posted:I don't know what percent of VCs are gurkha, but they have a melee weapon culture and so have a lot more "flip out with kukri" citations than other recipients. poo poo, there's even a rather recent one who killed a bunch of people with a mine and an MG tripod, among other things. Roughly around 1%. So far, 13 Gurkhas got a VC.
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Sep 26, 2017 11:17
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Don Gato posted:Nepal's main exports are rugs, nuts and Gurkhas. I'm not joking, remittance payments back home from Gurkhas serving in India and Britain make up a surprisingly large part of the GDP of their home regions, though I dont know exactly how many because I can only find statistics for general remittances. Ever since famous TV lady who's dad served with them called the UK government out for being sort of lovely with their pensions and other things have certainly improved and they can't really be touched now which is sort of neat.
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Sep 26, 2017 14:51
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Pharmaskittle posted:Why are Gurkhas so prominent in crazy heroic war stories? Are they really overrepresented, or is it like an orientalist thing that they get fixated on more than other folks? Same reason Sikhs have the same thing going on, they have maintained a warrior culture into the present day and that over represents them for this kind of poo poo cause they are all about it.
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Sep 26, 2017 16:18
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 besides the obvious joke about how we know how this ends, what lessons could be learned from the Austro-Hungarian Compromise?
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Sep 26, 2017 16:29
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How far on the inheritance line is that Habsburg
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Sep 26, 2017 16:37
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gradenko_2000 posted:
It kept a multi-national country going for another 50 years in an age of rapid modernization and nationalization. That's no small feat. Also don't split the armed forces. Just Don't
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Sep 26, 2017 17:50
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ArchangeI posted:Also don't split the armed forces. The Imperial Japanese Army aircraft carrier commander drew his katana and sighed,
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Sep 26, 2017 18:48
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I am working on my Middle English translation skills, milhist thread. Does anyone want to toss some thread favourite phrases my way for some very odd practice?
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Sep 26, 2017 20:11
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lenoon posted:I am working on my Middle English translation skills, milhist thread. Does anyone want to toss some thread favourite phrases my way for some very odd practice? http://www.songlyrics.com/anonymous-4/polyphonic-song-edi-beo-thu-hevene-quene-lyrics/ https://genius.com/John-fleagle-worldes-blis-lyrics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_syng_of_a_mayden
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Sep 26, 2017 21:34
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T'other way around - Middle to Modern isn't that difficult.
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Sep 26, 2017 21:36
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lenoon posted:T'other way around - Middle to Modern isn't that difficult. like you do
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Sep 26, 2017 21:50
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Just dig out the entire story imo.
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Sep 26, 2017 22:05
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Plutonis posted:How far on the inheritance line is that Habsburg last kid of the current crown prince
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Sep 26, 2017 23:33
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Plutonis posted:How far on the inheritance line is that Habsburg Hegel beat me to answering, but maybe he's looking to be the next Emperor Maximilian. 
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Sep 27, 2017 00:44
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GreyjoyBastard posted:Hegel beat me to answering, but maybe he's looking to be the next Emperor Maximilian. the thing about hapsburgs is the emperor (and the designated successor to the emperor) is an elective position so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Sep 27, 2017 00:58
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ArchangeI posted:It kept a multi-national country going for another 50 years in an age of rapid modernization and nationalization. That's no small feat. It was inherently terrible since in practice the settlement was designed to appease the Hungarian nobility, aka the worst people ever.
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Sep 27, 2017 01:35
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What i find interesting about Gurkhas is that they have a reputation for being terrifying badasses, but they also have a reputation for being very disciplined and not abusing civilians.
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Sep 27, 2017 02:01
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The Lone Badger posted:What i find interesting about Gurkhas is that they have a reputation for being terrifying badasses, but they also have a reputation for being very disciplined and not abusing civilians.
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Sep 27, 2017 02:22
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Arquinsiel posted:Both of those things are just sub-sections of their reputation for being relentlessly professional. This has been my experience, even when dealing with "retired" Gurkhas who work private security firms contracted by US/UK and partner forces.
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Sep 27, 2017 04:09
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Do Punjabis have a similar reputation as well? There were batallions of them on both World Wars and Sikhism has a real strict conduct on war and its morality.
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Sep 27, 2017 04:32
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Having a warrior culture: apparently not that bad while we still have wars going around. E: why is Hungarian nobility the worst? How bad was the settlement?
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Sep 27, 2017 05:39
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I'm guessing we don't hear much about the Gurkhas who instantly get killed the second they try to enter Hero Mode.
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Sep 27, 2017 07:46
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david_a posted:I'm guessing we don't hear much about the Gurkhas who instantly get killed the second they try to enter Hero Mode. Iirc, someone in this thread (Cyrano?) said that survivor bias makes us think heroic against all odds are common, because we obviously don't have a firsthand source for all those times someone went nuts, charged a machine gun nest and then got shot and slowly bled to death as the battle raged on.
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Sep 27, 2017 09:43
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Pretty sure those stories would percolate down just like the "So the SS attacked a village in formation, got killed to almost a man, but took it"
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Sep 27, 2017 09:51
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Also, the Gurkha recruitment process is really selective,due to the fact it gives you a huge (to Nepali's) salary and the chance to live in the UK - with 36 applications per place, the Gurkha brigates can select the cream of the crop.See this article
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Sep 27, 2017 10:05
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Just read the link someone posted about the Little Land landings. Your main force gets delayed because nobody knows how to embark, then gets delayed again because nobody took sea into account, the commander refuses to delay artillery and air support because lol Soviets, a third of tanks are lost on the water and only about 30 guys make it back to lines. Meanwhile, the obviously suicidal diversionary attack succeeds, gets fed reinforcements from the other land, and takes the city 7 months and 21K dead (100 a day) later. Also, shot down pilots drown because nobody gave them life jackets. Jesus.
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Sep 27, 2017 10:09
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JcDent posted:E: why is Hungarian nobility the worst? How bad was the settlement? When I think of Hungarian Nobles, the first guy comes to mind is the dude who's nicknamed 'The Impaler' and for some reason is a pop culture Vampire?
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Sep 27, 2017 11:38
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SeanBeansShako posted:When I think of Hungarian Nobles, the first guy comes to mind is the dude who's nicknamed 'The Impaler' and for some reason is a pop culture Vampire? I think I hear a rumbling sound, almost like a volcanic eruption, in the general direction of Romania. I wonder what caused it.
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Sep 27, 2017 12:02
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HEY GAIL did you ever consider that the 30YW is technically dubstep since it started with an epic drop?
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Sep 27, 2017 12:02
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Kemper Boyd posted:HEY GAIL did you ever consider that the 30YW is technically dubstep since it started with an epic drop? sick
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Sep 27, 2017 12:39
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my dad posted:I think I hear a rumbling sound, almost like a volcanic eruption, in the general direction of Romania. I wonder what caused it. There is even a perfectly Hungarian female Vampire to think of instead of that Romanian! And unlike Vlad she is reviled in her home country instead of hailed as a patriot hero.
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Sep 27, 2017 13:25
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Kemper Boyd posted:HEY GAIL did you ever consider that the 30YW is technically dubstep since it started with an epic drop? 30YW is milhist version of Clapton's Tears in Heaven then? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxPj3GAYYZ0
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Sep 27, 2017 13:30
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my dad posted:I think I hear a rumbling sound, almost like a volcanic eruption, in the general direction of Romania. I wonder what caused it. I know an old Hungarian lady who will loving lose it at the suggestion Dracula was Hungarian or at the suggestion Horthy was wrong
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Sep 27, 2017 15:18
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my dad posted:I think I hear a rumbling sound, almost like a volcanic eruption, in the general direction of Romania. I wonder what caused it.
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Sep 27, 2017 15:23
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JcDent posted:Pretty sure those stories would percolate down just like the "So the SS attacked a village in formation, got killed to almost a man, but took it" Survivor bias is a very real thing. It's a huge issue any time you're looking at groups of people who suffered mass casualties especially. It's something that has to be constantly corrected for when looking at the Holocaust and other genocides, for example. It's also really complicated by what stories people choose to celebrate. Most bears don't have a penchant for playing with artillery shells, but guess what story re: bears every loving mil hist geek knows? In the case of the gurkhas vs. the SS it helps a lot that one has a military establishment that still celebrates their bravery and victories (both present and as heritage) while the other has more or less the opposite thing going on. Then there's the whole orientalist/exoticism thing going on that adds another layer to why stories of these superhuman badasses from remote mountain valleys in the ~mysterious orient~ gutting nazis and other enemies of The Empire gain a lot of traction. There's one very gurkha-esque story about a (I think) Marine who jumped into a crowd of insurgents in Iraq with a pocket knife and it didn't get a tenth the traction even among military geek circles as what you see with gurkhas. What's more, what little you did see had similar overtones because he was salvadorian or something and what with it being a knife it went straight into  territory.
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Sep 27, 2017 15:39
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It's like when I see a 90 year old man smoking a cigarette and think "Why did I quit again?"
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Sep 27, 2017 15:42
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Cyrano4747 posted:Then there's the whole orientalist/exoticism thing going on that adds another layer to why stories of these superhuman badasses from remote mountain valleys in the ~mysterious orient~ gutting nazis and other enemies of The Empire gain a lot of traction. There's one very gurkha-esque story about a (I think) Marine who jumped into a crowd of insurgents in Iraq with a pocket knife and it didn't get a tenth the traction even among military geek circles as what you see with gurkhas. What's more, what little you did see had similar overtones because he was salvadorian or something and what with it being a knife it went straight into edit: if you want to talk sexism rather than orientalism, look at the way similar badassery among female soldiers gets described. There, the badass in question is sexualized rather than exoticized, but it's a similar thing. Except stories out of Serbia, which unlike a lot of other people has managed to view female (or what we would call trans male) soldiers as human beings first, possibly because they had so many.
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Sep 27, 2017 15:44
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The other thing to keep in mind about survivor bias is that it normalizes the exceptional. When you're teaching the holocaust, for example, you have to really, REALLY drive home that the incredible stories of people like Thomas Blatt are just that - incredible and in no way typical, but they're the ones we have. From a teaching perspective it helps to go through something like Blatt's account and point out the dozens of places where he got obscenely lucky, then got through the statistics of how many people died all around him. Talking specifically about the military, this normalizing of the exceptional is a feature rather than a bug. It is highly desirable to create the impression that acts of extreme bravery and valor are fairly normal occurrences, both to inspire your soldiers and to create the impression - mostly for your domestic public but also for the enemy if possible - that your men are far, far more effective than any other fighting force in the world. Of course this can backfire in horrible ways if taken to extremes. The destruction of the SS Hitler Jugend can at least partially be blamed on this kind of heroic indoctrination and the cult of sacrifice that it can inspire.
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Sep 27, 2017 15:46
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