Ask Us About Military History: Remove Balls To Fire Blanks

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Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

Elyv posted:

On this topic, why didn't Italy ship an army across the Adriatic instead of bashing their heads over and over into the Isonzo and the Alps? Is the answer just "lol Italy"?

In addition to what other's said, you see that lone Austrian division on the peninsula by itself? That's guarding Austro-Hungry's main and biggest naval base where most of their fleet is.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2016 01:00

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 01:19

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

Raenir Salazar posted:

What's interesting is apparently the Navy had it's poo poo together and avoided anything disastrous happening to them.

TBF its not like they had the capability to do much of anything that could go wrong.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2016 00:51

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

HEY GAL posted:

why does everyone here but me know a fuckload about tanks, jfc

TBF your time period doesn't have much of an excuse.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2016 00:35

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

Tias posted:

Wingate was mad, yo. He also wore a broken clock on a string around his neck, allegedly making stupid jokes about time while doing so

General Dad Joke

# ¿ Jan 27, 2016 17:52

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

Wouldn't stopping the engines completely be safer?

# ¿ Jan 29, 2016 04:02

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

LostCosmonaut posted:

Wasn't he trying to escape while crossdressing?

No, some union troops came across his camp IIRC and in his dash to get dressed grabbed a coat that belonged to his wife.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2016 02:46

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

Fangz posted:

3 tons of potatoes sounds like a lot.

Granted I know nothing of making vodka but it seems like you should be able to get more than 2.5 liters for something that's equivalent to three tons of potatoes.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2016 18:40

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

Arquinsiel posted:

The more I learn about the CSA the more I think "designed to fail" is appropriate

Southerners got real mad at the idea of their tax dollars being used to build Yankee canals.

e:

Arquinsiel posted:

If these aren't the words of a man who understands that he's herding cats then I don't know what is.

You know your new nation is going well when your vice president is threatening to secede Georgia over its militia being used outside the state in a war for national existence.

Raskolnikov38 fucked around with this message at 08:09 on Feb 26, 2016

# ¿ Feb 26, 2016 08:04

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

Ainsley McTree posted:

On a subject related to ACW weapons: At what point in the development of firearms did line battles stop happening?

My understanding of why people fought in lines to begin with was that muskets were horribly inaccurate, and in order to put them to good use, you had to group up and fire them in formation in order to hit things. But by the time of the ACW at least, my understanding is that most soldiers were now armed with rifles which actually could be aimed and reliably hit things; but they still used line formations anyway, for the most part? At least in that war.

I guess my question is:

1) Why did armies continue to use line formations even after accurate weapons became prevalent, and

2) Is there a particular point/reason where/why they stopped?

It happened some time between ACW and WWI at least, but my knowledge of the wars between that period is fuzzy at best. My best guess would be that advancements in artillery made standing together in a tight cluster of unprotected manflesh an increasingly unpleasant idea? And obviously if I'm wrong about any of my base knowledge, please correct me. Maybe there's more logic behind the line formation beyond "this is the only way we can figure out how to hit things."

Really it depends on what density you define as minimum for a line formation. The British adopted a thin, 2 man thick during the early 19th and retained it up until the Crimea at least. Hell, given the descriptions of the slaughter, line formations may have still been in use during the Russo-Japanese war.

# ¿ Feb 29, 2016 06:31

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

I went to a civil war reenactment today as part of my civil war historiography class (don't ask what a reenactment has to do with historiography, the professor teaching it is best friends with a member of the cannon crew and brought us along for fun). I'm reposting it from a chat thread so excuse the lack of capitalization.

Here's about 20 of the best photos i took today

Union parade column

cannon crew demonstration, iirc this one was a six pounder

front shot of cannon with my history professor looking goofy in the back

and we're on to the battle, confederate skirmishers seize a very poorly placed/design fence

confederate cannon getting to fire

union regiments show up and assemble

the cannon from before, this fucker was loud as poo poo

the confederate batteries reply

union battle line advances

the confederate cavalry arrives

the dude in front died like 8 times, the running theory is that he was the only one that knew how to fall off a horse without breaking a bone

union sharpshooters arrive on the field

reposistioning the cannon

like three seconds later a confederate cannon killed about a third of the guys in this shot

the union cavalry belatedly arrives on the field

and is just as quickly driven off

the confederate cavalry guy from earlier, i think this was his final death

stacked arms in the confederate camp

confederate three pounder (it's actually an old AA gun from a WW1 battleship re purposed)

sharpshooters rifle with scope

snipings a good job mate

Raskolnikov38 fucked around with this message at 03:34 on May 1, 2016

# ¿ May 1, 2016 03:32

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

Grand Prize Winner posted:

Dude you've gotta warn them about Lincoln and Ford's theatre before it's too late!

edit: I didn't read the captions. boy, is my face red.

There was actually a dude as Lincoln wandering around that you could talk to.

# ¿ May 1, 2016 03:57

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

Tomn posted:

Actually kinda curious about this - how many great Chinese generals can this thread name, and what were their notable exploits?

Yuan shikai and his establishment of himself as Emperor of the Chinese republic.

# ¿ May 2, 2016 22:37

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

Nenonen posted:

Colour photography goes back over a hundred years. Early methods involved combining three negatives that capture the red, green and blue light. In 1930s Kodak and Agfa introduced modern colour film but they didn't replace b&w photography immediately because of cost of the film and development.

Yeah but the colorized photo of Burnside is a photoshop at least.

# ¿ May 19, 2016 21:54

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

wdarkk posted:

Also holy loving poo poo was Chikuma unlucky:

There was also the cruiser that either sunk or limped away minus a bow due to a carrier's single 5in gun.

# ¿ May 23, 2016 05:50

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

So I'm going to Gettysburg tomorrow and I don't know if this has an answer but why the hell did Lee order Pickett's charge? The confederates plan was wrecked when the union retook Culp's hill in a dawn attack. Even if the Union center was weak Meade could order to reinforce it from the flanks while Pickett was still making his way across the field. Was there some pressing reason he couldn't have waited another day to design another plan?

# ¿ May 24, 2016 01:04

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

Returning from Gettysburg I have an even lower opinion of Lee than I had even thought possible. How the gently caress are 12k dudes supposed to take the fortified center of the union line when it takes half an hour of walking through the most perfect shooting gallery ever just to reach it.

# ¿ May 25, 2016 02:14

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

Stairmaster posted:

Didn't they have overwhelming air superiority at Stalingrad as well?

Even if they did the Luftwaffe didn't have the lift capacity to take advantage of it.

# ¿ May 28, 2016 23:15

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

cheerfullydrab posted:

Does anyone have an opinion on Red Storm Rising?

The Clancy book? Fun read but stupid if you think about the plot for more than a minute.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2016 21:51

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

I dunno what was more hilarious about Red Storm Rising, an attack on one oil refinery being enough to cripple the entire USSR or the soviets conquering Iceland with a single container ship.

Raskolnikov38 fucked around with this message at 15:15 on Jun 12, 2016

# ¿ Jun 12, 2016 15:13

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

oohhboy posted:

Red October is good in the way that in a sub Clancy didn't really have the space(HA!) to go off the deep end. LOL in Bear and the Dragon Russia is now part of NATO.

Without Remorse is your pretty standard white male revenge fantasy but completely horrifying as he turns people into paste with a hyperbaric chamber. Ends with "You murdered a poo poo ton of people with extremely questionable methods, would you like to work for the CIA?". I really hope that no one took his writing seriously, but I know there are plenty.

Was without remorse the one with Clark killing drug dealers? Reading and being unable to finish whichever one was that right after Rainbow 6 made teenage me realize how stupid Clancy was.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2016 06:29

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

He probably thought Hitler wasn't stupid enough to fight a two front war and would finish the west off before turning east.

Never bet against Hitler's stupidity.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2016 20:30

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

Xerxes17 posted:

So what are the top 5 milhist places to go in Paris and Berlin? In July I should be visiting these cities for a few days each and I'd like to look at more than just paintings and art.

Les Invalides in Paris and the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2016 16:27

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

Spacewolf posted:

Distracting myself from the world going to hell, I'm playing HOI4.

And I'm wondering: Where would I find tables of organization for US divisions from WW2 and pre-war? Preferably going down to the battalion/company level. I figure a good way to learn the systems of the game is to try to build as-realistic-as-possible, then branch out into trying to do stuff "optimally".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyQmhrVKsc0

Here you go, optimal setup is divisions of 20 width, usually 7 inf and 2 art however.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2016 18:17

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

HEY GAL posted:

also this weekend my hauptmann set fire to some things. and i threw up. this wasn't at the same time, but they were two things that happened.

content: i learned that D�nitz's surrender agreement said that he didn't want Germany to be "as destroyed as it had been in the Thirty Years' War," which means that at some point he and his aides were crouched in rubble, Berlin having been flattened, looking at one another, and one of them goes "You know, it could be worse."

Edit: Or so I was led to believe--can't find that anywhere, so it might be bullshit?

See I always pictured it going something like this:

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

# ¿ Jul 3, 2016 20:43

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

TheLovablePlutonis posted:

And you made a post I've seen made over twenty times in this thread so why don't we piggybank some money to buy 28-year old Klaus a new username.

Or just put another number in front of the 88.

Wait, klaus your favorite number isn't 14 is it?

# ¿ Jul 4, 2016 21:21

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 01:19

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

Phanatic posted:

Yep! 3.7 magnitude. They were shock-trialling one of the new littoral combat ships.

They literally dissolve in water, what possible battle damage could they take without sinking immediately.

# ¿ Jul 20, 2016 06:02

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