Blind Rasputin posted:

Yeah I remember reading The Guns of August, and it described how at the beginning of the war the French military was still hung up on the old as heck tactics of marching toward the enemy in straight lines while wearing red pants. The Germans, on the other hand, said gently caress that to all those old gentlemen agreements and began the war decked out in drab scrubs and employing gorilla warfare like tactics. They just eviscerated the French armies in the most lopsided unfair battles. Not even playing the same sport.

UP THE BUM NO BABY posted:

Blind Rasputin posted:

Yeah I remember reading The Guns of August, and it described how at the beginning of the war the French military was still hung up on the old as heck tactics of marching toward the enemy in straight lines while wearing red pants. The Germans, on the other hand, said gently caress that to all those old gentlemen agreements and began the war decked out in drab scrubs and employing gorilla warfare like tactics. They just eviscerated the French armies in the most lopsided unfair battles. Not even playing the same sport.

CMD598 posted:

I can't get over the cuirassiers.

aphid_licker posted:

Because three seconds after this picture was taken they charged something and died

Blind Rasputin posted:

Trench warfare must’ve had to be the most godawful thing to ever exist during WWI.

quote:

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?

A Bad Poster posted:

Ouch.

McNally posted:

You'd think France would have learned their lesson about cuirassiers after Waterloo.

MikeCrotch posted:

If you want to get an appreciation of what it would be like to be on the receiving end.

Caconym posted:

That's a lot more impressive accuracy than I ever imagined.

CMD598 posted:

I can't get over the cuirassiers.

MikeCrotch posted:

If you want to get an appreciation of what it would be like to be on the receiving end.

MikeCrotch posted:

If you want to get an appreciation of what it would be like to be on the receiving end.

McNally posted:

Civil War artillery had rifled cannons.

PittTheElder posted:

Yeah I was staring at that earlier, and I think it's an unrifled Napoleon. Looks like it's bronze at least.

Scratch Monkey posted:

Fun fact: a lot of injuries from solid shot cannonball came from being hit by fragments of bone and meat from the guys next to you that received direct hits and exploded

MikeCrotch posted:

Also someone on the milhist thread said that cannonballs move slowly enough that you could see them coming, which led to soldiers doing poo poo like trying to kick them aside as them flew towards them (with inevitable results).

Smiling Jack posted:

Maybe if it landed short and bounced / rolled at you.

Fallom posted:

Some guy in a thread said they would line their shirts with hardtack to soak up the blow

Fallom posted:

Some guy in a thread said they would line their shirts with hardtack to soak up the blow

Smiling Jack posted:

I think mythbusters looked into this and busted it. It makes sense, the amount of energy it would take to accelerate random debris at an angle yet retaining enough velocity to injure is insane and unlikely.