Nenonen posted:

Make a movie about a tank's journey through a war, but the vehicle's actually possessed like Stephen King's Christine and her crews keep inexclicably dying one after another because they don't live to the tank's expectations.

wikipedia posted:

Haunted Tank was created by writer and editor Robert Kanigher and artist Russ Heath in G.I. Combat #87 (May 1961).[2] The feature centers on the ghost of 19th-century Confederate general J. E. B. Stuart, who is sent by the spirit of Alexander the Great to act as a guardian over his two namesakes, Lieutenant Jeb Stuart (named Jeb Stuart Smith in the early stories, eventually shortened to Jeb Stuart) and the M3 Stuart he commands.[3]
[...]
An origin story in G.I. Combat #114 reveals that, at the time of the ghost's arrival, Jeb is a sergeant in the United States Army who commands a Stuart tank fighting with the Allies in the North African Campaign. Jeb and his men are childhood friends who had volunteered for the cavalry when World War II began. The original crew consists of Jeb as tank commander; Arch Asher, loader; Rick Rawlins, gunner; and Slim Stryker, driver.

General Stuart's ghost does not initially care for his assignment, but is impressed with the fighting spirit of Jeb and his crew. Jeb further honors the ghost by flying a Confederate rather than a Union flag on his "haunted" tank. Jeb, however, is the only one who can see or hear the General. His crew thinks he is crazy, but continue to follow his leadership as he has solid tactical expertise (brought about through his consultations with the General, who usually gives him cryptic hints of future events) and rarely fails in his missions.

As the Haunted Tank fights from Africa to the European Theater of Operations, the crew goes through several M3 tanks. When their latest M3 is destroyed, the crew scavenge spare parts and wreckage from a "tank graveyard" to build themselves a new tank, known as the "Jigsaw Tank",[4] which serves them from that point. This tank has a modified Russian T-34 Hull, a Christie Suspension System and a Russian Y2 12-Cylinder diesel engine of 500 H.P. The nearly 15-foot track gives this rolling jigsaw puzzle excellent traction and it is capable of speeds up to 21 m.p.h.[5]

Following a disastrous mission engineered to rescue the son of their commanding officer, General Norton, from a German P.O.W. camp (based on the Task Force Baum incident), the crew of the Haunted Tank find themselves stranded behind enemy lines and spend several issues fighting their way back to the front. During this, they pick up Gus Gray, an African American soldier who had escaped from the same P.O.W. camp.[6] Days later, Arch dies saving them from an exploding suicidal German tank [7] and Gus takes his place in the crew.

Later in the war, Slim is also killed in action and older veteran, Bill Craig, replaces him.[8] Craig's son Eddie also joins the crew a few issues later,[9] taking over the loader's position and allowing Gus to act as a second gunner.

The Jigsaw Tank is eventually replaced by an M4 Sherman tank that sees them through to the end of the war. Despite a story that involves the ghost of General William T. Sherman being assigned to the tank once the crew switches to the Sherman, Commander Stuart's ghost continues to watch over the crew until war's end.

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

But if it's recoilless, how am I supposed to fly backwards?

PeterCat posted:

You're missing the best part, the sequel series set in the Gulf War. Though it does have some, uh, unfortunate implications:

PeterCat posted:

You're missing the best part, the sequel series set in the Gulf War. Though it does have some, uh, unfortunate implications:

Ensign Expendable posted:

Gun Motor Carriage T12/M3
King Tigers in Hungary
German King Tiger losses in December of 1944 in Hungary
Tiger (P) Typ 102
T-55 underwater driving equipment
T-34 tanks with M-17 engines

Thomamelas posted:

The Haunted Tank and it's ghost is one of those things writers for DC occasionally bust out for some WTF.

Marshal Prolapse posted:

Yeah, honestly I thought it was a great idea, granted it’s kind of tough to balance humor and ensuring you not making Jeb Stuart look like a decent person… well least without a ton of character development that I doubt DC would give in terms of a number of issues.

For the other end of the spectrum, Garth Ennis did some really really nice comics on war, he was apparently a huge fan of old British war comics when he was growing up and truthfully they don’t really exist as a genre that much anymore, so he made his own. I actually have a hardback of some of the ones done by Marvel around the Korean War.

Scratch Monkey posted:

Don't forget Tank 666 from Ghost Rider

fartknocker posted:

Scratch Monkey posted:

Don't forget Tank 666 from Ghost Rider

VostokProgram posted:

What colors did the Soviet military use to denote friendly and enemy forces on maps and wargames?

VostokProgram posted:

What colors did the Soviet military use to denote friendly and enemy forces on maps and wargames?

bewbies posted:

China's OPFOR at their CTC's is "BLUEFOR" which tickles me to no end.

The current BLUEFOR commander is also a real trip, its like he's an actor playing the part of what the Chinese think a US Army officer acts like.

bewbies posted:

China's OPFOR at their CTC's is "BLUEFOR" which tickles me to no end.

The current BLUEFOR commander is also a real trip, its like he's an actor playing the part of what the Chinese think a US Army officer acts like.

standard.deviant posted:

How are you going to say that and not give links?

Thomamelas posted:

We need video.

Marshal Prolapse posted:

For the other end of the spectrum, Garth Ennis did some really really nice comics on war, he was apparently a huge fan of old British war comics when he was growing up and truthfully they don’t really exist as a genre that much anymore, so he made his own. I actually have a hardback of some of the ones done by Marvel around the Korean War.

ChubbyChecker posted:

recoilles rifles were later used on jeeps

don't know how effective they were though

Gargamel Gibson posted:

Jeeps don't have a lot of armor so I would assume they were quite effective.

Marshal Prolapse posted:

Hahahah I thought I was the only one who remembered that, a read a few issues, it was pretty funny. Also the other half of the issue had the US and North Koreans fighting dinosaurs.

RocknRollaAyatollah posted:

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1028&context=dodmilintel (PDF)

The opposite of the US and I believe NATO, so red for friendly and blue for enemy.

bewbies posted:

China's OPFOR at their CTC's is "BLUEFOR" which tickles me to no end.

The current BLUEFOR commander is also a real trip, its like he's an actor playing the part of what the Chinese think a US Army officer acts like.

PeterCat posted:

Do any other countries look at US doctrine and think "Yes, this is something we should emulate?"

I always here about good things other countries do that the US should adopt, does it ever work the other way round?

KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:

this would logically make sense because you can't exactly adopt ideas from your own doctrine

PeterCat posted:

Well yes, but you can also just not adopt another country's doctrine as well.

I'll ask it another way.

What aspects of US doctrine, if any, have other countries found fit to emulate?

Not counting countries that the US was molding like Korea, Iraq, Vietnam, or Afghanistan.

feedmegin posted:

I mean literally called the Red Army officially at one point so not too surprising.

Nenonen posted:

I have some kind of muddleheaded recollection that this convention dates back to Imperial army days, though I could be wrong. But red has a special significance in Russian culture, as it used to be synonymous for beautiful (now krasnii vs. krasivyi). See also: the Red Square.
Fake edit: just as a quick inconclusive case that I could find just now, here's a contemporary print of the battle of Port Arthur in which Russian positions are printed with red.

PeterCat posted:

Do any other countries look at US doctrine and think "Yes, this is something we should emulate?"

Elissimpark posted:

Are OPFOR dedicated wholly to being OPFOR, or do they have regular armed forces jobs when there aren't war games?

Cessna posted:

The US Naval War College in the inter-war era had a whole color system for navies in their exercises. From the book The Blue Sword:

Blue = USA
Black = Germany
Orange = Japan
Red = Great Britain
Crimson = Canada
Scarlet = Australia
Garnet = New Zealand
Ruby = India
Gold = France
Silver = Italy
Olive = Spain
Green = Mexico
Brown = Netherlands
Purple = USSR
Lemon = Portugal
Citron = Brazil
Yellow = China
Indigo = Iceland
Emerald = Eire
Gray = Azores
Tan = Cuba

Cessna posted:

The US Naval War College in the inter-war era had a whole color system for navies in their exercises. From the book The Blue Sword:

Blue = USA
Black = Germany
Orange = Japan
Red = Great Britain
Crimson = Canada
Scarlet = Australia
Garnet = New Zealand
Ruby = India
Gold = France
Silver = Italy
Olive = Spain
Green = Mexico
Brown = Netherlands
Purple = USSR
Lemon = Portugal
Citron = Brazil
Yellow = China
Indigo = Iceland
Emerald = Eire
Gray = Azores
Tan = Cuba