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Wow, thank you for that write up and the pictures. That was amazing. And that poem is just haunting.
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Jul 26, 2018 23:02
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Krankenstyle posted:The French inscription in the first photo actually said they were buried by a barrage, but maybe the monument itself is still named after the bayonet story? As I remember from visiting that place as a kid, the story is that they were about to go over the top, bayonets fixed, when they were suddenly buried. I don't think they said anything about the Germans reburying them.
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Jul 27, 2018 07:20
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What was that about a paranormal experience?
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Jul 27, 2018 07:46
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Kassad posted:As I remember from visiting that place as a kid, the story is that they were about to go over the top, bayonets fixed, when they were suddenly buried. I don't think they said anything about the Germans reburying them. O poo poo sorry, I must've misread
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Jul 27, 2018 07:52
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Tendai posted:Wow, thank you for that write up and the pictures. That was amazing. And that poem is just haunting. Your words and photographs combine to form a poem of their own. What, may I ask, was the paranormal experience?
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Jul 27, 2018 09:18
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As mentioned earlier, the Luftwaffe would dump unused ordinance in the South after visiting London, so Hampshire has a heck of a bunch of that stuff. My grandfather was cycling to work one morning (about 5am, butchers started early) when the shop he was headed to exploded and knocked him off his bike. If he'd been any earlier, that air raid would have killed him. So, his workplace was a crater. Did he go home to recover from the trauma? Nope, he just got back on his bicycle, went to another butcher shop, and got a job there instead.
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Jul 28, 2018 22:57
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Technocrat posted:As mentioned earlier, the Luftwaffe would dump unused ordinance in the South after visiting London, so Hampshire has a heck of a bunch of that stuff. Reading about the English response to Germany during WW2 has always been amazing. There's a really great picture of a few British dudes just casually browsing a library that has a crater in the middle of it. The story goes that a bomb fell through the building but didn't blow up. So it was just kind of there, in the basement, full of explosives that could have detonated at any time. The response of the dudes in the library was "gently caress it, this was my day to go to the library so I'm going to a drat library." The psychological resilience displayed during that time was incredible.
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Jul 28, 2018 23:03
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The UK put a lot of effort into homefront morale and encouraging people to keep living their lives as normal except for a few changes to their diet and daily routine. InRange TV did an excellent (as usual) series where Ian spent a week eating the food a British two-person family would have for a week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5993lPFEwaE They actually had enough food and their health even improved somewhat over time. While black markets and other forms of cheating did exist, the nation as a whole participated in rationing all the way up to the king and queen.
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Jul 28, 2018 23:31
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During WWII, my grandfather had a farm in the Netherlands. Because people need to eat, nazi occupation or not, he was allowed by the nazis to continue farming with relative freedom. He told the story, and my dad passed it on to me, that one day, a British bomber flew over, towards Germany. It circled for a while, then turned back, dumped its bombs over an empty field (which happened to be my granddad's) and then went back to Britain. My granddad seemed convinced that the British pilot chickened out, kept circling to use up his fuel as if he went to Germany, and told his commander that he actually bombed Germany. In any case, my grandpa said he saw the plane drop 6 bombs, but only 5 exploded and left craters. He believed that the sixth one landed on a slope and slid into a ditch without hitting the trigger. I have no idea how much of this story is true and how much has gotten forgotten after it went to my dad and then to me, but what I do know is that when someone bought that old field a decade or two ago to build a greenhouse, my dad told em about the supposedly unexploded bomb, how it probably ended up underground after sitting in that ditch for who knows how long, and that they should make sure they don't drive foundation poles for the greenhouse straight into the bomb. My dad could point out exactly where it was supposed to be. So some guys came by with a metal detector, and all they found was some metal scrap, but nothing that looked like it would've ever been part of a bomb. So the bomb remains a mystery, if it ever existed. Carbon dioxide has a new favorite as of 23:36 on Jul 28, 2018 |
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Jul 28, 2018 23:34
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Pinball posted:
There was a spot in this graveyard reserved for the general who saved Verdun, who restored morale and confidence to the French army after the mutinies of 1917, and who was regarded as the greatest French hero of the Great War - a certain Philippe Pétain. In 1945 he was sentenced to death for treason, but the sentence was commuted by Charles de Gaulle (then head of the provisional government of France). Pétain was stripped of all military ranks and honours, save that of Marshall of France. He was imprisoned in the citadel on Île d'Yeu, died there in 1951, and was buried in a cemetery near the citadel. In 1973, his coffin was stolen from the Île d'Yeu cemetery by nationalists who demanded he be interred at Douaumont. However, the coffin was later recovered by the authorities, and reburied on Île d'Yeu.
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Jul 28, 2018 23:52
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As a prelude to the battle of Messines, British engineers had dug deep tunnels beneath the German lines and planted large caches of explosives (called "mines" because they were placed in a mine) at 26 different spots, ranging between 8000 and 43000 kgs of TNT. When they were detonated in the early morning of June 7th 1917, it was the largest non-nuclear explosion in history. The sound was recorded as far away as Dublin, and it is estimated to have killed some 10.000 German soldiers. Prior to the battle, the British general Harington had told the press "Gentlemen, I don’t know whether we are going to make history tomorrow, but at any rate we shall change geography". On that morning of June 7th 1917, 20 of the 26 mines went off. The 21st exploded when it was hit by lightning in 1955. Five remain, somewhere beneath the soil of Flanders.
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Jul 29, 2018 00:17
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Mr. Sunshine posted:There was a spot in this graveyard reserved for the general who saved Verdun, who restored morale and confidence to the French army after the mutinies of 1917, and who was regarded as the greatest French hero of the Great War - a certain Philippe Pétain. Also he was a fascist and Nazi collaborator, so don't feel too bad for him.
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Jul 29, 2018 01:19
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Mr. Sunshine posted:As a prelude to the battle of Messines, British engineers had dug deep tunnels beneath the German lines and planted large caches of explosives (called "mines" because they were placed in a mine) at 26 different spots, ranging between 8000 and 43000 kgs of TNT. When they were detonated in the early morning of June 7th 1917, it was the largest non-nuclear explosion in history. The sound was recorded as far away as Dublin, and it is estimated to have killed some 10.000 German soldiers. Prior to the battle, the British general Harington had told the press "Gentlemen, I don’t know whether we are going to make history tomorrow, but at any rate we shall change geography". Here are some pictures.   
-Zydeco- has a new favorite as of 01:40 on Jul 29, 2018 |
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Jul 29, 2018 01:36
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UXO chat makes me think of the saying “The only thing worse than hearing a boom when you don’t expect one is not hearing one when you’re expecting one”
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Jul 29, 2018 01:46
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Mr. Sunshine posted:Five remain, somewhere beneath the soil of Flanders. Somewhere between forty and two hundred tonnes of TNT. NBD.
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Jul 29, 2018 01:50
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Mr. Sunshine posted:As a prelude to the battle of Messines, British engineers had dug deep tunnels beneath the German lines and planted large caches of explosives (called "mines" because they were placed in a mine) at 26 different spots, ranging between 8000 and 43000 kgs of TNT. When they were detonated in the early morning of June 7th 1917, it was the largest non-nuclear explosion in history. The sound was recorded as far away as Dublin, and it is estimated to have killed some 10.000 German soldiers. Prior to the battle, the British general Harington had told the press "Gentlemen, I don’t know whether we are going to make history tomorrow, but at any rate we shall change geography". In Flanders Fields the poppies blow 
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Jul 29, 2018 03:43
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Technocrat posted:As mentioned earlier, the Luftwaffe would dump unused ordinance in the South after visiting London, so Hampshire has a heck of a bunch of that stuff. Congratulations on being Norman Tebbit's grandson.
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Jul 29, 2018 04:14
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big dyke energy posted:Also he was a fascist and Nazi collaborator, so don't feel too bad for him. Oh, no argument there. His regime was arguably trying to undo every liberal reform since 1789. He changed the national moto from "Liberty, equality, brotherhood" to "Work, family, nation". He helped raise volunteer workers and an entire SS regiment to aid the Nazis. It was infinitely safer to be a Jew in Italian-occupied France than in nominally independent Vichy France. There's just something I find sort of melancholy about the fact that, had he died in 1939, he'd be remembered as the greatest French war hero of the 20th century. Instead, he's become the very definition of a traitor and collaborator.
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Jul 29, 2018 10:05
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Mr. Sunshine posted:There's just something I find sort of melancholy about the fact that, had he died in 1939, he'd be remembered as the greatest French war hero of the 20th century. Instead, he's become the very definition of a traitor and collaborator. Not coincidently, many of the character taints which make a person very useful in war also make them absolute rubbish during peace.
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Jul 29, 2018 12:02
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Skippy McPants posted:Not coincidently, many of the character taints which make a person very useful in war also make them absolute rubbish during peace. Ah yes, that famously bucolic 1939-1945 French peacetime.
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Jul 29, 2018 12:09
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chitoryu12 posted:The UK put a lot of effort into homefront morale and encouraging people to keep living their lives as normal except for a few changes to their diet and daily routine. InRange TV did an excellent (as usual) series where Ian spent a week eating the food a British two-person family would have for a week. The BBC series called Wartime Farm is also worth checking out. It follows what went on on a typical farm over the course of the war, and how it related to overall food production and rationing.
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Jul 29, 2018 13:03
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Sweevo posted:The BBC series called Wartime Farm is also worth checking out. It follows what went on on a typical farm over the course of the war, and how it related to overall food production and rationing. Supersizers Go Wartime is also very good.
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Jul 29, 2018 14:08
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If you like this thread, you should watch all of Supersizers
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Jul 29, 2018 14:17
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Skippy McPants posted:Not coincidently, many of the character taints which make a person very useful in war also make them absolute rubbish during peace. Wasn’t this how the duke of Wellington worked out? Fantastic in defeating Napoleon, but bad when he returned home and inevitably went into politics?
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Jul 29, 2018 16:31
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:If you like this thread, you should watch all of Supersizers Just note that they do spread a few myths, like "All water was basically toxic forever because people were too stupid to not dump raw sewage in it so everyone drank beer instead."
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Jul 29, 2018 16:52
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Cacafuego posted:Wasn’t this how the duke of Wellington worked out? Fantastic in defeating Napoleon, but bad when he returned home and inevitably went into politics? The nickname "Iron Duke" originated not from his steadfastness in battle but because he had to have iron bars fitted over his windows to stop them from being smashed by angry protesters every time he blocked reforms to the system.
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Jul 29, 2018 17:57
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Marius was called the third founder of Rome but his politics was always weird. Though his worse excess happened when he was really old and you could blame it on that.
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Jul 29, 2018 22:18
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Wheat Loaf posted:The nickname "Iron Duke" originated not from his steadfastness in battle but because he had to have iron bars fitted over his windows to stop them from being smashed by angry protesters every time he blocked reforms to the system. I'm doing research for a paper on Irish history at the moment and there's a very good letter where some protesters attack the carriage of a high-ranking English governor and throw a rock at his head, and then go to his house and break a bunch of the windows. When you're reading 100+ letters where protestant politicians are griping about Irish people it's very satisfying to see them get attacked by a mob and almost killed. I also made a copy of this letter. All the letters, especially the professional ones, have a really dense layer of formal 'polite' language, so I thought it was pretty funny to see how that language worked in this case, where the prime minister is basically ordering John Beresford (an Irish politician) to meet him in private, in the most polite language possible. W.G. Hamilton (secretary for UK prime minister William Pitt) posted:W G Hamilton to Beresford, Sept 22nd, 1785
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Jul 29, 2018 22:53
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Persian kings employed sub saharan african men to watch over their harems, so that if they got busy with one of the ladies and impregnated her, the half black baby would get them caught.
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Jul 31, 2018 04:06
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Continuing the UXO chat, I run a scuba diving operation on an island in the SW Pacific. The island was a major Japanese base and was heavily bombed/shelled by the Allies. About a quarter of our dive sites have some form of UXO on them, ranging from a 16" battleship shell, through 5", 40mm, depth charges, bombs etc etc, which means our dive briefings always includes "don't play with the UXO, it has been sitting there for 75 years so it would be a shame for it to blow up today." The locals occasionally dig up UXO in their gardens or while doing roadworks. Their only real option for dealing with it is to light a fire on top and retire to a safe distance. No one generally tells anyone else when this is happening so we always get a nice surprise when a 75 year old shell suddenly cooks off during dinner time.
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Jul 31, 2018 07:02
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ChocNitty posted:Persian kings employed sub saharan african men to watch over their harems, so that if they got busy with one of the ladies and impregnated her, the half black baby would get them caught. I'm pretty sure they were eunuchs.
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Jul 31, 2018 09:13
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That, and it's also a pretty lousy alarm system if it has a built-in nine-month delay.
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Jul 31, 2018 14:58
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Plus the babies don’t always come out visibly black so it’s just a terrible system all around
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Jul 31, 2018 15:00
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Also there's oral and anal sex.
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Jul 31, 2018 15:05
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Also there's oral and anal sex. Yes. We've all met your mother.
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Jul 31, 2018 16:31
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8th-snype posted:Yes. We've all met your mother. At least she learned from her mistake.
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Jul 31, 2018 18:52
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Jul 31, 2018 19:37
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I would say “Did they not have multiple harem guards? How do you know which is responsible?” But historically the solution is “collectively execute them and buy a new batch”.
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Aug 1, 2018 00:51
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David W. Anthony: The Horse, the Wheel, and Language, p. 164 posted:[The Cucuteni-Tripolye culture] is named after two archaeological sites: Cucuteni, discovered in eastern Romania in 1909, and Tripolye, discovered in central Ukraine in 1899. Romanian archaeologists use the name Cucuteni and Ukrainians use Tripolye, each with its own system of internal chronological divisions, so we must use cumbersome labels like Pre-Cucuteni III/Tripolye A to refer to a single prehistoric culture. There is a Borgeslike dreaminess to the Cucuteni pottery sequence: one phase (Cucuteni C) is not a phase at all but rather a type of pottery probably made outside the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture; another phase (Cucuteni A1) was defined before it was found, and never was found; still another (Cucuteni A5) was created in 1963 as a challenge for future scholars, and is now largely forgotten; and the whole sequence was first defined on the assumption, later proved wrong, that the Cucuteni A phase was the oldest, so later archaeologists had to invent the Pre-Cucuteni phases I, II, and III, one of which (Pre-Cucuteni I) might not exist. The positive side of this obsession with pottery types and phases is that the pottery is known and studied in minute detail.
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Aug 1, 2018 12:50
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I googled that James Graham poem to find out more about the author, but when you google the phrase "Make no mistake: he is dead. He does not sleep." you get a bunch of edgy veteran-themed shirts that say "make no mistake, the beast inside is sleeping, not dead."
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Aug 1, 2018 14:15
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