Military History Mk. III: One that I know of is an archaic word for dick, another is

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Slim Jim Pickens: Jan 16, 2012

KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:

I'd make a strong argument that many societies in antiquity were genocidal!

That makes genocide unactionable.

# ? Mar 1, 2018 22:53

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# ? May 23, 2024 22:30

Clarence: May 3, 2012

13th KRRC War Diary, 1st Mar 1918 posted:

The Battalion is now in support, the Rifle Brigade being in the line and the Royal Fusiliers in reserve.
Battalion Headquarters is in HOOGE TUNNELS, where they are comfortably installed although somewhat crushed.

The company Headquarters are as follows :-
"A" Coy Hdqrs. - J.14.d.50.45
"B" Coy Hdqrs. - J.9.a.30.10
"C" Coy Hdqrs. - J.14.a.05.19
"D" Coy Hdqrs. - J.9.a.25.45

"A", "B" and "D" Coys are in posts or trenches while "C" Coy are in JARGON TUNNELS. All Coys have good accommodation but in some cases they are rather crushed.
The Battalion front stretches from J.22.a.05.90 to J.17.a.00.80 which includes the remains of POLDERHOEK. (E.1/10000).
On the left the ground in "no mans land" is very wet and badly broken by shell fire and comprises the valley of the REUTELBEER. This forms a very fine natural obstacle and makes the left front harder to attack than the right.
The Padre, who came up to B.H.Q. last night, went round to see the Coys with the Doctor, who went expressly to test the water in a spring near "D" Coy H.Q. which was discovered by them. On testing the spring it is found to be 1.5 measure water which is remarkably good for this part of the front. This spring now supplies the three forward Coys with water and save the long carrying parties which are usual.
The tunnels at HOOGE CRATER are particularly good, having 5 entrances North of the MENIN ROAD. These Tunnels continue to the South but are not occupied by the Battalion. As tunnels go, they are very dry and with the aid of a motor pump combined with a system of drainage they are kept in a good condition. The passages and dug-outs are lit by electric light which in some measure decreases the danger of fires. All entrances are fitted with gas curtains which can be instantly lowered in case of gas, by sentries who are posted at each entrance.
Much salvage is being carried on and all parties returning from the Line bring back salvage which is placed on the Battalion Dump and carried further back by transport.
The passages and dug-outs are all floored with concrete and covered by trench boards in such a manner that they can be swept out and kept throughly clean.
At roughly 5.30 p.m. the enemy bombarded HOOGE CRATER and did considerable damage. One entrance to the tunnels was blown in and the bearer post at the top was completely destroyed.
A ration limber on the MENIN ROAD which was being unloaded at the time escaped damage but both horses were killed.
All lines to the Coys were severed when the entrance was destroyed and considerable time elapsed bevore communication was restored.
The bombardment lasted an hour and a half but fortunately there were no casualties among the men. As soon as things were fairly quiet the stores were brought under cover and new horses brought up, the Canadian Tunnellers started to clean the entrance, Signallers mended the lines and things were restored to their normal conditions.
A flag - half red and half green, with the regimental crest in black which was recently designed - was flying at the entrance denoting Battalion H.Q. now boasts four shell splinter rents, which add considerably to its beauty and takes away the rather obvious newness. The flag now sports a "Gold Stripe".
The Lance (salved by the C.O.) having been to the tailors to have a similar flag fitted, was brought up with the rations and was with the horses when they were killed. In consequence the Lance is broken - about the centre - the flag badly tattered and torn already looks quite warlike and has started well.
Shortly after the bombardment was over, the Canteen complete with attendants and stores arrived, which was speedily installed in a small dug-out in the tunnels... This is the furthest forward that it has been since its existence and received a somewhat warm reception.

# ? Mar 1, 2018 22:58

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

I'm going to massively enrich the thread by saying I've been to the Hooge Crater and it's loving gigantic.

# ? Mar 1, 2018 23:10

Fangz: Jul 5, 2007; Oh I see! This must be the Bad Opinion Zone!

Slim Jim Pickens posted:

That makes genocide unactionable.

I don't think we should model our modern morality on the likes of the Romans.

Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.

# ? Mar 1, 2018 23:57

Trin Tragula: Apr 22, 2005

Hooge Crater itself is located in the grounds of the old chateau. First fought over in the dog days of First Ypres, the front moved a mile or so up the Menin Road and then returned during Second Ypres, after which the line congealed nastily around Hooge, only a few hundred yards ahead of the literal last-ditch GHQ Line protecting Ypres. It then got even worse after a number of local attacks from both sides, which among many other things saw the first use of Flammenwerfers against the BEF. (The crater itself was blown in July 1915, an early demonstration of the skills of a specialist tunnelling company which used "clay-kicking" miners.) The far right edge of this 1917 map should give you some idea of the rampant bullshittery at work in the area. Hooge Crater itself I believe is the hatched red circle just above the G in "Hooge".

http://maps.nls.uk/view/101464903

There's plenty of interest in squares I6, I12, and I18. Most notably, evidence of someone having obeyed orders with gleeful malignancy; this is an area where someone senior has tried to clamp down on undisciplined trench naming by whoever happened to be the first to occupy a position and insisted that all trench names here begin with the letters ID and IG; and someone slightly more junior has begun responding with "Ignorance Trench" and "Ignorance Reserve", followed it up with a series of "Idle" musings, and then really gone for the jugular with "Idiot Avenue" and about seven variants.

It got much worse than this, mind you. For several months in 1915, there was a small NW-facing hook in the line in square I12 which ran approximately from the corner of the salient to the W in Idea Row; it wasn't uncommon for BEF men in the hook to be positioned facing west and hear bullets going over their head which had been fired by their friends behind them in Railway Wood at the Germans who were stuck in the crisis of Identity. (Now remember that this is Flanders, so it all floods at the drop of a hat and all the trenches collapse and you can't dig too far down without going into the water table.)

Fortunately, by the time of this war diary, the Third Battle of Ypres has happened and the front has moved a few miles east towards Roulers. This map is the one that joins on directly to the east of the last one, but from December 1917, after the Third Battle of Ypres.

http://maps.nls.uk/view/101464909

That's where the blokes are right now. Passchendale village, or what's left of it, is dead centre at the top. The railway you can see leaving the previous map enters this map in J1; the Menin Road enters in J13.

A Company and C Company are in square J14. A Coy is in the south-eastern corner of J14, by Inverness Copse. C Coy is in the north-western corner, on the west edge of Glencorse Wood.
B Company and D Company are in square J9. D is at Polygonveld and B is I think just to the south, but nearby.

In this 1:10000 map from before Third Ypres you can see a major German position, with wire entanglements in front, running south through J9 to guard Polygon Wood (there's another one in J14), and I reckon the old German trench has been taken over and switched round, while being left unmarked on the post-battle map. The tunnels around here would have been built by the previous occupants, as we can also tell by their having electric lighting.

Their job is, at the moment, to reinforce and be a first backstop for the bit of front-line running between NW J22, in front of Gheluvelt, location of a famous stand by the 1st Worcestershires in 1914 that saved the BEF from being thrown into the sea, and NW J17 at Juniper Cottages, which seems to have been captured by a local attack after the December 1917 map was drawn. The boundaries are both marked by small streams, the Polygonebeek in the north and the Scherriabeek in the south. Very soon they'll go all the way up and occupy the trenches there for a few days.

Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 14:14 on Mar 8, 2018

# ? Mar 2, 2018 00:48

Jobbo_Fett: Mar 7, 2014; Slava Ukrayini; Clapping Larry

https://i.imgur.com/ZcKsTEn.gifv

# ? Mar 2, 2018 02:10

SeanBeansShako: Nov 20, 2009; Now the Drums beat up again,
For all true Soldier Gentlemen.

Go on.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 02:24

Jobbo_Fett: Mar 7, 2014; Slava Ukrayini; Clapping Larry

SeanBeansShako posted:

Go on.

"Lead ball from a flintlock musket flattens against a 17th century cuirass reproduction"

# ? Mar 2, 2018 02:33

SeanBeansShako: Nov 20, 2009; Now the Drums beat up again,
For all true Soldier Gentlemen.

I need to take a shower, be right back.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 02:34

Mycroft Holmes: Mar 26, 2010; by Azathoth

Miranda Carter, George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I posted:

�In an effort to distract him, the kaiser�s entourage decided to put on an entertainment, the kind that amused him: a ballet spectacular performed by the middle-aged members of his various cabinets. The climax was a performance by Field Marshal Count Dietrich von H�lsen-Haeseler, the hefty, fifty-six-year-old chief of Wilhelm�s military cabinet. Described in some sources as wearing a pink tutu (�not for the first time,� Zedlitz-Tr�tzschler wrote), in others a pink ball gown � what was undisputed was that he was in drag � with a large feather in his hair, he performed a series of energetic pirouettes, jumps and capers, flirtatiously blew kisses to his audience, stumbled off the stage and suffered a massive heart attack that killed him instantly. It was reported that by the time the doctors arrived, rigor mortis was so far advanced that it was extremely difficult to get H�lsen out of his tutu and into his military uniform. The story made Wilhelm look even more irresponsible and odd; in the French, Italian, and British papers there were gleeful screeds about German moral degeneracy.�

for the love of god tell me this actually happened.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 05:31

HEY GUNS: Oct 11, 2012; FOPTIMUS PRIME

Mycroft Holmes posted:

for the love of god tell me this actually happened.

this was 100 percent real

wilhelm and his close friends enjoyed drag shows, and regularly participated in them.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 05:35

Ataxerxes: Dec 2, 2011; What is a soldier but a miserable pile of eaten cats and strange language?

Mycroft Holmes posted:

for the love of god tell me this actually happened.

The Aristocrats!

# ? Mar 2, 2018 06:13

catfry: Oct 9, 2012; by Azathoth

Trin Tragula posted:

http://maps.nls.uk/view/101464903

There's plenty of interest in squares I6, I12, and I18. First we see the giant and ungainly blue protrusion running around Bellewarde Lake that cannot have been any fun at all to be in.

Unfortunately, water features have almost the same blue color as the trenches. You are seeing the Bellewaard creek.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 09:16

Kemper Boyd: Aug 6, 2007; no kings, no gods, no masters but a comfy chair and no socks

I had to drink about four cups of coffee to get my hangover down to a manageable level:

When it comes to war, soldiers, civilians and atrocities, there are a whole bunch of different factors at work. For instance, when you look at something like the War of the Roses which lasted for years, there's an extremely low count for civilian deaths because of how the nature of the war played out. Someone mentioned the chevauchees, but that was a completely different kind of war between two rival crowns. Also not something that was widely accepted at the time as morally acceptable.

Before nationalism, even long wars tend to have an absence of battles in general. Armies are on the average fairly small (you get periods where this isn't true, like the 1630's in the 30YW), they have a relatively small footprint and most importantly, the labor of war is not something that the average peasant, burgher or yeoman has a part in. Wars are a duty of the crown or the state or the nobility, and that is what they do. Nationalism changes this, and I think that what with nationalism and all, there becomes an idea that someone from the enemy nation is automatically at least partially your enemy, and not just an average schlub trying to live his life. Caesar in Gaul killed a huge amount of people, and enslaved even more, but I don't think there's any sort of indication that it wasn't either mostly for profit or incidental, unlike the Luftwaffe trying to terror bomb London into submission.

The Hague and Geneva conventions are maybe an attempt to curb the excesses inherit in the idea that wars are between nations, but at the same time, the ratio of soldiers dying as opposed to civilians dying in war changes radically after WW1. In conflicts since then, civilian casualties have always been greater than military casualties.

So I guess end nationalism and hang all nobles.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 09:20

Ithle01: May 28, 2013

Kemper Boyd posted:

The Hague and Geneva conventions are maybe an attempt to curb the excesses inherit in the idea that wars are between nations, but at the same time, the ratio of soldiers dying as opposed to civilians dying in war changes radically after WW1. In conflicts since then, civilian casualties have always been greater than military casualties.

So I guess end nationalism and hang all nobles.

I'm pretty sure that civilian casualties are higher than military in almost every war barring a few exceptions and although pitched battles might be rarer in ancient wars there's a significant amount of raiding that's not mentioned because it's assumed to happen.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 10:15

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

HEY GUNS posted:

this was 100 percent real

wilhelm and his close friends enjoyed drag shows, and regularly participated in them.

Do you have any sources? I literally never heard of this, and I've read a lot about Wilhelm being weird

# ? Mar 2, 2018 10:46

Mr Enderby: Mar 28, 2015

Ithle01 posted:

I'm pretty sure that civilian casualties are higher than military in almost every war barring a few exceptions and although pitched battles might be rarer in ancient wars there's a significant amount of raiding that's not mentioned because it's assumed to happen.

An army racks up a significant civilian death just by moving thorough the landscape, even without any violence whatsoever. It's hard for us to get our head round what a concentration of hundreds of thousands of people actually meant before there were logistics to support them. In a time before long food supply chains, an army is stripping away food from the surrounding countryside, with no quick way to replenish it. Soldiers are carrying disease, making GBS threads into the water supply in huge volumes. If the army stops for any length of time, outbreaks of typhus and dysentery are almost inevitable. Even if the soldiers are relatively friendly and well behaved, civilians are going need to stay behind closed doors to avoid falling victim to a bit of warm-up sacking. At certain times of year that can keep them away from the field at crucial moments, meaning losing the entire year's food crop.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 10:58

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Victor Hutchinson's POW Diary

Friday 2nd March

Bitterly cold and depressing. Many rumours circulating throughout the camp, but later all officially denied by the G/C. Later we had another bread ration cut of 15gms. Further outlook on food front is very depressing.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 11:08

Fangz: Jul 5, 2007; Oh I see! This must be the Bad Opinion Zone!

Worth pointing out that in WWII, civilian casualties are higher than military casualties only because of the efforts of Nazi Germany and Japan, especially on the Eastern Front and in China. If you are excusing Caesar in Gaul as 'doing atrocities for profit', then that's pretty much the same rationale as Lebensraum or Japan's neo-colonial project in China. Terror bombing, while killing lots of people, was not what made the war so lethal.

The difference seems to me to be more down to how you count and classify civilian casualties of war. For example the civilian casualties of colonialism are grotesquely high, but they are typically disregarded. Even when famines and so on are considered, they are not included with the original war. Compare say, the Iraq war, where casualties during the occupation are included in overall casualty figures, where the possibility of ending that war at all seems vaguely defined.

Fangz fucked around with this message at 11:44 on Mar 2, 2018

# ? Mar 2, 2018 11:29

feedmegin: Jul 30, 2008

Libluini posted:

Do you have any sources? I literally never heard of this, and I've read a lot about Wilhelm being weird

I mean you can just google the dude -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_von_H%FClsen-Haeseler

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...aeseler&f=false

I'd heard this before too, so it's not just Hey Guns.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 12:16

Kemper Boyd: Aug 6, 2007; no kings, no gods, no masters but a comfy chair and no socks

Mr Enderby posted:

It's hard for us to get our head round what a concentration of hundreds of thousands of people actually meant before there were logistics to support them.

This wasn't a common occurrance for most of recorded European history, though. Armies stayed relatively small after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, and in the 17th century you see armies doing that for a bit but then they shrink again because of logistics and finances.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 12:28

Tias: May 25, 2008; Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund

Denmark is having a light blizzer, can we talk about cold in warfare? Give me your Simo H�yhas and your mountaintop bunker rushes!

Gort posted:

Swagman

A casual labourer which wanders thru the country and tradition insists that any farm must extend hospitality to this man and give him his ‘8644’ in exchange for a few hrs work on his part. ‘8644’ means 8lbs of meat 6lbs of flour, 4oz sugar 4 oz tea. (What? That's a shitload of meat)

Sundowner

A roving gentleman who makes a point of arriving at the farm at sundown thus being too late to work but still insisting on his ‘8644’

Bilabong

A well or water hole.

Medieval Iceland had bunch of different cool sundowner hustles. A common hobo technique was cruising around the country and visitng every house on the way, saying you were on your way to a meeting, don't be an rear end in a top hat, you can give me a couple of sandwiches and a bed with your daughter

# ? Mar 2, 2018 12:48

Mr Enderby: Mar 28, 2015

Kemper Boyd posted:

This wasn't a common occurrance for most of recorded European history, though. Armies stayed relatively small after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, and in the 17th century you see armies doing that for a bit but then they shrink again because of logistics and finances.

Ok, I might have overstated the numbers a touch, but I deliberately wrote "people" rather than soldiers. However large the stated strength of an army, the actual number of mouths to feed was considerably higher.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 12:49

Clarence: May 3, 2012

Gort posted:

I'm going to massively enrich the thread by saying I've been to the Hooge Crater and it's loving gigantic.

I've only been past Hooge Crater (though planning to visit in October), but it's full of water and pretty much a large pond/small lake, isn't it?

Lochnagar Crater, on the other hand...

# ? Mar 2, 2018 13:13

Cythereal: Nov 8, 2009; I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Tias posted:

Denmark is having a light blizzer, can we talk about cold in warfare? Give me your Simo H�yhas and your mountaintop bunker rushes!

One of the most terrifying military history books I've ever read was about the Austrian-Russian front in the Carpathian Mountains during WW1. All the horrors of WW1, now high above the clouds in arctic conditions and featuring one of the most poorly lead and equipped armies in the conflict.

Blood on the Snow posted:

Readers of this investigation will note the frequent depiction of Habsburg troops as utterly exhausted and increasingly apathetic. At the risk of sounding repetitive, the mental and physical condition of Habsburg troops is critical to understanding the Carpathian Winter War. The exhaustion experienced in combat under winter conditions is incomprehensible to those who have not suffered under such circumstances. Reading the daily log-books of Habsburg units participating in the Carpathian Winter War, one would be hard-pressed to find an entry that did not include the words ganz eschopft ("utterly exhausted"). The men's physical and mental exhaustion was exacerbated by hunger. Food supplies often did not reach the front, and those that did were often frozen solid. The men began to hallucinate about food, driving them to near insanity. In the winter of 1915, not only did Habsburg Supreme Command decide to deploy massive armies into a region unfit for a major combat operation, but also, it did so with no provision for the most basic of necessities - food, clothing, and shelter.

...

The worst conditions were experienced during winter months. Weary soldiers spent the long winter nights struggling to stay awake to avoid frostbite or freezing to death. Emotional fatigue set in, compounded by the impact of the elements and the lack of food and sleep. Compasses malfunctioned, leading units, some as large as regiments, to march blindly in circles in dense woods during blizzards. Water jackets froze, leading machine guns to misfire or fail to fire. The troops often had to resort to warming their rifles over fires so the weapons functioned properly.

...

The Carpathian Winter War provided significant for many reasons. It would be the final campaign for the once revered k.u.k. army. In the chaos of the opening battles, the Habsburg army sacrificed 40 percent (420,000 men) of its mobilized combat troops (100,000 dead, 220,000 wounded, 100,000 prisoners of war). Only 404,000 professional officers, noncommissioned officers, and soldiers of the million-man army fought in the initial August-September campaigns. Thus, well over half of the Habsburg army was now made up of reservists or Landsturm troops (comparable to the U.S. pre-Iraq War national guard). Tons of war materiel, weaponry, food, 216 artillery pieces, and 15,000 railroad rolling stock and hundreds of kilometers of railroad tracks and locomotives were also forfeited in the battle and subsequent retreat. Furthermore, in sacrificing Galicia, grain warehouses and important manpower were also lost. How could these be replaced?

# ? Mar 2, 2018 14:09

SeanBeansShako: Nov 20, 2009; Now the Drums beat up again,
For all true Soldier Gentlemen.

'Hey where the gently caress is corporal Herschel?'

'Wolves got him....'

# ? Mar 2, 2018 14:23

RocknRollaAyatollah: Nov 26, 2008; Lipstick Apathy

Mycroft Holmes posted:

for the love of god tell me this actually happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veH3KI3Ycdw

# ? Mar 2, 2018 14:29

SeanBeansShako: Nov 20, 2009; Now the Drums beat up again,
For all true Soldier Gentlemen.

So who here ever wondered what British soldiers and officers of the late 19th century wore aside from the black cork home service helmets? aside from me. Presenting a rather fascinating section of this website dedicated to late 19th century British forage caps.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 14:48

SlothfulCobra: Mar 27, 2011

Kemper Boyd posted:

Caesar in Gaul killed a huge amount of people, and enslaved even more, but I don't think there's any sort of indication that it wasn't either mostly for profit or incidental, unlike the Luftwaffe trying to terror bomb London into submission.

It's weird when slaughtering people in the name of profit is a positive thing.

I mean, I get what you mean, but it's not like the Romans in general were strangers to the idea of "we hate these people beyond mere warfare and want them to die." They did their own exterminations in Carthage, Israel, and there was at least one emperor who tried exterminating a specific German tribe, the name escapes me.

The differences are mostly technological. The weird thing about bombing is that it starts the killing before taking the city with troops is an option. The holocaust involved a level of organization in killing that wouldn't have really been available to the Romans. And most importantly, modern media removes a lot of the distance and obfuscation from the atrocities and the societies that they are supposedly done in the name of. It's hard to really get your head around how devastating some ancient campaigns were.

It's also possible that modern morals are more developed and stringent than historical ones, but I don't know much about that. History of philosophy is weird to track.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 18:14

Ithle01: May 28, 2013

Mr Enderby posted:

An army racks up a significant civilian death just by moving thorough the landscape, even without any violence whatsoever. It's hard for us to get our head round what a concentration of hundreds of thousands of people actually meant before there were logistics to support them. In a time before long food supply chains, an army is stripping away food from the surrounding countryside, with no quick way to replenish it. Soldiers are carrying disease, making GBS threads into the water supply in huge volumes. If the army stops for any length of time, outbreaks of typhus and dysentery are almost inevitable. Even if the soldiers are relatively friendly and well behaved, civilians are going need to stay behind closed doors to avoid falling victim to a bit of warm-up sacking. At certain times of year that can keep them away from the field at crucial moments, meaning losing the entire year's food crop.

In this case I was thinking specifically of something akin to the Peloponnesian wars. Few direct pitched battles, but a near constant state of violence pervasive through out a region over a long time (and a recurring plague). Even though the battles might not result in piles of corpses the overall effect of disease, violence, and civil disorder was to significantly reduce the population of Greece.

I'm also thinking of an account of a city sacking during the initial Manchu conquest of China written by a Chinese author who was living in the city at the time. It's not great.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 19:55

HEY GUNS: Oct 11, 2012; FOPTIMUS PRIME

Cythereal posted:

One of the most terrifying military history books I've ever read was about the Austrian-Russian front in the Carpathian Mountains during WW1. All the horrors of WW1, now high above the clouds in arctic conditions and featuring one of the most poorly lead and equipped armies in the conflict.

The army of the eastern Hapsburgs ended their career as they had begun it back in the 16th and 17th centuries: fighting in those exact mountains while freezing and starving to death.

HEY GUNS fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Mar 2, 2018

# ? Mar 2, 2018 19:56

OctaviusBeaver: Apr 30, 2009; Say what now?

Kemper Boyd posted:

Caesar in Gaul killed a huge amount of people, and enslaved even more, but I don't think there's any sort of indication that it wasn't either mostly for profit or incidental, unlike the Luftwaffe trying to terror bomb London into submission.

One time Caesar cut the hands off every adult male in a Gaullic city he sacked. It would have been more profitable to sell them as slaves. That's not exactly what the Luftwaffe did but I don't think it's that radically different.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 19:58

my dad: Oct 17, 2012; this shall be humorous

That's just Belgium.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 20:03

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Clarence posted:

I've only been past Hooge Crater (though planning to visit in October), but it's full of water and pretty much a large pond/small lake, isn't it?

Lochnagar Crater, on the other hand...

Hooge Crater had a bunch of scrubby bushes and shrubs in it when I saw it, but that was decades ago.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 21:00

Milo and POTUS: Sep 3, 2017; I will not shut up about the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. I talk about them all the time and work them into every conversation I have. I built a shrine in my room for the yellow one who died because sadly no one noticed because she died around 9/11. Wanna see it?

Jobbo_Fett posted:

https://i.imgur.com/ZcKsTEn.gifv

I can't be only person to say ouch out loud. Like id be doubled over with broken ribs and air knocked out of me right?

# ? Mar 2, 2018 23:00

HEY GUNS: Oct 11, 2012; FOPTIMUS PRIME

Milo and POTUS posted:

I can't be only person to say ouch out loud. Like id be doubled over with broken ribs and air knocked out of me right?

but you would not be shot

modern bulletproof vests are also not fun to get shot in

# ? Mar 2, 2018 23:06

Clarence: May 3, 2012

Trin Tragula posted:

http://maps.nls.uk/view/101464909

I should have used that map.

13th KRRC War Diary, 2nd Mar 1918 posted:

Early in the morning Working Parties were organized and commenced cleaning up and repairing the damage which was done last night. The two horses were buried in a neighbouring shell-hole, and rations and fuel were separated. This took the greater part of the morning. Several men were sent down to transport who were proceeding on leave on the 4th in order that they may bath and clean themselves.
At 2 p.m. all rifles were inspected and the remainder of the day passed uneventfully. Some salvage was done and the H.Q. Gas N.C.O. repaired and improved the gas curtains.
While in this Area two Coys are employed each night in carrying rations to the Front Line Battn and on working and digging trenches, posts, etc, and each Coy is responsible for the maintenance of the duckboard tracks in their area, while a good deal of salvaging is being done by everyone.
Large leave allotments have come through for this Battn - 109 vacancies have been given for the coming 14 days.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 23:14

Nenonen: Oct 22, 2009; Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

There is no protective gear that makes it comfortable getting into an accident. Wearing a helmet and tripping on your bike hurts like gently caress but your brain won't be smashed as much. Falling on a harness feels terrible, but not quite as terrible as without it.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 23:17

Milo and POTUS: Sep 3, 2017; I will not shut up about the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. I talk about them all the time and work them into every conversation I have. I built a shrine in my room for the yellow one who died because sadly no one noticed because she died around 9/11. Wanna see it?

HEY GUNS posted:

but you would not be shot

modern bulletproof vests are also not fun to get shot in

Eh, sometimes I kinda wish I got shot on some crappy field somewhere in the 16th century

# ? Mar 2, 2018 23:27

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 23, 2024 22:30

SeanBeansShako: Nov 20, 2009; Now the Drums beat up again,
For all true Soldier Gentlemen.

You want a sphere of lead to slam into your gut and shred your vital organs bringing your clothing, skin and whatever dirt was around you and the owners mouth deep into a bloody new cavity?

That is a very ah, intense fantasy my friend.

# ? Mar 2, 2018 23:46

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > Military History Mk. III: One that I know of is an archaic word for dick, another is

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