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Frostwerks posted:Reminds me of folks in remote parts of Afghanistan who either had no clue what the Twin Towers were or they thought that the Americans were the Soviets come back for more. My personal favorite version of this story is Chinese peasants asking red guards in the sixties who the current son of heaven was.
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Dec 16, 2013 01:36
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Pu Yi was still alive until 1967 so I guess him.
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Dec 16, 2013 02:16
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gradenko_2000 posted:The Guns of August made a mention of a certain Mr Haldane drawing the ire of the British government when he was asked what kind of army should Britain have, and he answered "a Hegelian army". I'm afraid I'm not getting the context. Help? I've dug into this a bit for you and its pretty  . Haldane was the British minister of war between 1905 and 1912 and reorganized the British army so that the BEF could be sent into the field as quickly as possible with territorial and home guard units being the second line while Kitchener's Mob was being formed. This was the system Britain entered WW1 with and is why the BEF was able to get in France in two weeks time instead of the British taking months to muddle through.Haldane was also apparently well versed enough in Hegel's philosophy at such a young age as to be noteworthy of it. How his reforms of the army fit in with the Hegelian concept of Entwicklung is loving anyone's guess though. e: oh wait here we go. http://books.google.com/books?id=-z...%20army&f=false It has nothing to do with anything inherent to Hegelianism, apparently being done or thought about in a rational manner was enough for Haldane to label something with Hegelianism. Raskolnikov38 fucked around with this message at 07:31 on Dec 19, 2013 |
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Dec 19, 2013 07:28
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Morholt posted:Interesting how it makes a big deal out of the various communist resistance movements but doesn't even mention the Warsaw Uprising. Oh Russia 
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Dec 23, 2013 00:29
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Slavvy posted:I don't know much about him at all, aside from him getting closer to Moscow than Hitler did before turning around and loving off home. Napoleon actually captured Moscow and discovered much as Hitler would have that holding Moscow is not the end all of a war in Russia. Also it was less turning around and loving off then "welp my army froze/starved/fought to death, time to bail."
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Dec 24, 2013 07:27
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Shattered sword goons, how different is that book from Symonds' book? I got a BN giftcard and would't mind picking it up if its at least some what different.
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Dec 25, 2013 19:33
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What's up with the Catalan enclave on Sardinia?
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Dec 29, 2013 20:54
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Godholio posted:They didn't drive poo poo. This is the McDonalds boiling coffee lawsuit all over again. Not to derail the thread into tort reform chat but please watch "Hot Coffee" if you have netflix, its available for streaming. The McDonalds lawsuit is not actually what its been portrayed as.
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Dec 30, 2013 03:30
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Kemper Boyd posted:There's only that many words you can squeeze out when your end result is "they didn't have their poo poo together and their policies were all over the place." Nazi_Germany.txt
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Dec 30, 2013 23:08
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SeanBeansShako posted:For London, I strongly suggest the Imperial War Museum. This is at the top of my must see museum list. Waroduce posted:In Germany, I want to see Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall, the Reichstag and Dachau. Any WW2 or Cold War museums/locations of significance/missile silos/bunkers/aviation graveyards/ whatever that are near those two cities would be great, since this portion of the trip is primarily mine to craft. For Berlin: The lines for the reichstag can be very long so research the best time to get there. There is also a nice memorial to the victims of national socialism nearby and a small memorial outside the reichstag itself to politicians killed by the nazis. After the reichstag the soviet WW2 memorial is a short walk away, inside the tiergarten though the victory column is a bit of a walk from there. The German History museum is also fantastic and a must see. I know your schedule is very tight but if you happen to be in France for the 29tth or 30th of June OR the 19th or 20th of July the French tank museum in samaur is having a field day where they drive a bunch of tanks around.
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Dec 31, 2013 20:46
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steinrokkan posted:If you make a stop in Prague, DON't visit the very heavily advertised Museum of Communism - it's a tourist trap set up by an American entrepreneur who created it to increase traffic to his nearby restaurants. Eh its not that bad of a tourist trap really. They have quite a collection of soviet and Czechoslovak SSR memorabilia on display. Also seconding Bloor's suggestion of Vienna and Salzburg they are both fantastic.
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Dec 31, 2013 21:31
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a travelling HEGEL posted:Edit: I found the medieval and early modern stuff (which was all I looked at) in the German Historical Museum somewhat basic, but the little cannon park in the glassed-in courtyard is adorable--and they have a leather gun, which was If you ever go back the Roman section is wonderfully interesting and the 20th century section is where the museum seemed to shine to me at least.
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Jan 1, 2014 05:52
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Shimrra Jamaane posted:Why were the US torpedoes so loving awful in WWII? Because we were too cheap to properly test the design we went into the war with. No I'm not joking, that's literally it. The torpedoes were expensive so they never tested them and just assumed it was all the captain's fault when they didn't work. Enough finally complained of hearing duds bounce off hulls that they finally tested them and found the fuse didn't work.
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Jan 1, 2014 06:26
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Shimrra Jamaane posted:I have to give Truman credit for one thing though, he was absolutely right to can MacArthur as soon as the dumb gently caress wanted to use nukes against China. And it was more or less Dugout Doug's fault that the Chinese even entered the war in the first place correct? IMO MacArthur should have been fired/strung up after the Bonus Army/Loss of the Philippines/Retaking of the Philippines. But yes it was his fault Mao got involved at all. Mao and the communists had been issuing warnings through an Indian diplomat since MacArthur crossed the 38th to not come within 20 or 50 miles of the Yalu. He ignored the warnings and PLA entered the war when he got too close to the Yalu.
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Jan 2, 2014 17:30
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I'm glad I held onto these books after writing my senior year IB history paper on this.Rodrigo Diaz posted:Truman was being sent warnings, and they were to not cross the 38th with American troops. Which were then passed onto MacArthur. His orders sent to him by the JCS on 27th Sept stated: quote:"Your military objective is the destruction of the [DPRK] Armed Forces. In attaining this objective you are authorized to conduct military operations... north of the 38th parallel in Korea provided that at the time of such operation there has been... no announcement of intended entry, nor a threat to counter our operations in North Korea [by PLA or Soviet forces]." In less than a week Chou En-lai makes these two statements" quote:30th Sept Some more quotes from The US Army's history of the war quote:"Indications that the Chinese Communists possibly intended to enter the fighting continued to be reported to the Department of the Army by the G-2 Section of the Far East Command. In daily teleconferences between officers at the Department of the Army and MacArthur's headquarters in Tokyo, General Willoughby, or his officers, relayed the latest information of Communist Chinese military activities." quote:"On 27 September, the Joint Chiefs of Staff directed General MacArthur to make a special effort to determine if the Chinese intended entering the war. [24] On the next day, General MacArthur assured them that there was no present indication of the entry into North Korea by Chinese Communist forces. [25]" quote:"On the day of Chou's warning, 3 October, the UNC intelligence staff reported some evidence that twenty Chinese Communist divisions were in North Korea and had been there since 10 September. They also commented on the reported warning from the Chinese Foreign Minister and other recent public statements that ""Even though the utterances . . . are a form of propaganda they cannot be fully ignored since they emit from presumably responsible leaders in the Chinese and North Korean Communist Governments. The enemy retains a potential of reinforcement by CCF troops."" From Oct 22 or 24th, after CCF entered DPRK but before being detected posted:General MacArthur... commanded Walker and Almond to drive forward with all possible speed using all forces at their command. The objective line he had set up only a week before was merely to be an initial objective; and the restriction he had placed on using other than ROK forces was removed... Also in true MacArthur fashion we get this wonderful quote quote:Before their 1-day conference ended, President Truman asked MacArthur what chance there was of Chinese interference. The United Nations comreplied, "Very little." He felt that the Red Chinese had lost their chance to intervene effectively.... But the Chinese had no air force, according to General MacArthur; hence, in view of U.N. air bases in Korea, "if the Chinese tried to get down to Pyongyang there would be the greatest slaughter." Rodrigo Diaz posted:CCF got involved because of a decision that was ultimately Truman's, not MacArthur's. As seen from above if MacArthur had not been MacArthur and only used ROK troops north of the 38th there was a good chance China would have never entered the war. In light of the warnings and his orders on the 27th. Walker's X corps shouldn't have entered the DPRK as they did on Oct. 9, 5 days before Chinese units began crossing the Yalu.
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Jan 2, 2014 23:33
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The Guns of August also notes the Russians' broadcasting in the clear during Tannenburg. The explanation given is that they had outrun their land lines and not enough either crypto machines or people were available to them, forcing them to use uncoded messages to coordinate troop movements.
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Jan 3, 2014 04:32
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I'm not sure if that would have even worked for them because both Russian armies were being commanded by this guy hundreds of miles away. (IIRC Guns of August says he was in Petersburg trying to get the 1st and 2nd armies to attack together, in East Prussia)
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Jan 3, 2014 04:47
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As any Grand Admiral worth his salt knows that fleets of thirty cruisers are the most efficient way to go.
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Jan 4, 2014 09:36
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Saint Celestine posted:It would have worked, (see: Berlin airlift). They just needed air superiority and way more aircraft. What are two things the nazis would never have? I'll take historical heroin addicts for 800 Alex.
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Jan 6, 2014 19:26
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Shimrra Jamaane posted:But then they lost nearly as many troops as the French. So what happened? Mud and the Somme. So the German plan for Verdun was to take the heights above the town on the German side of Meuse and bombard the crap out of town/salient. However, they decided to attack in February. First the attack was delayed by about a week, due to fog IIRC, then after a few days of attacking a storm comes in and turns the area to mud, slowing the German advance and allowing the French to reinforce the area. So now the Germans have to grind through the strengthened French lines to take the heights which they eventually nearly succeed at by June 1916. Then on July 1st the British open the Battle of the Somme which forces the Germans to redeploy artillery and troops from Verdun north. This, in addition to a poorly planned attack that still nearly took the last fort they needed to hold the heights, caused Falkenhayn to order a switch to defense, ending the German offensive at Verdun. The opening of the Somme also allowed some French units to be moved to Verdun where they were then used in the French counter-offensive that pushed the Germans back off the heights. e: also does anyone know if like a topographic version of google earth exists? It'd make looking up military movement so much easier. e2: Apparently the French have a pretty awesome at http://www.geoportail.gouv.fr/ but its for France only and of course is in French. Raskolnikov38 fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Jan 11, 2014 |
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Jan 11, 2014 05:54
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Really the lesson of Verdun is if you can't capture your start line in a few days, don't spend the next 7 months trying to do so.
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Jan 11, 2014 18:40
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The Entire Universe posted:I always love the idea of a fortified region being such a slog that it shriveled the deathboner sported almost permanently by noted insane person and self-styled Alexander reincarnation George God Damned Patton. Patton wasn't that great of a general so I'm not sure if how long he takes to overcome a fortified region isn't a great analysis of its effectiveness.
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Jan 13, 2014 05:34
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I'm not saying they weren't useful just that Patton is not a particularly skilled commander.
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Jan 13, 2014 05:54
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Acebuckeye13 posted:Not asking you specifically, but are there any good biographies on Patton or any other good resources for looking him up? Obviously you're not a tremendous fan of him, but I'm curious if there are any good sources that compare his reputation to his actual acomplishments. Can't help you there sorry. I would like to state that while I do enjoy hating on Patton he wasn't a godawful commander. He was bold and reckless which the US army both could afford and badly needed due to the loads of poor generals they had. If he was an eastern front commander he'd probably get his units cut off a lot. Really my biggest problem with him is that while he wasn't publicity crazy like MacArthur his flamboyant-ness crowds out generals that were better than him from the history books. Like General Rose who was a better Patton in everyway, including jeep related deaths.
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Jan 13, 2014 23:26
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Also wasn't there some fuckup in the negotiations before the attack because I seem to recall Darlan giving orders allowing for the ships to be moved to America if someone tried to grab them?
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Jan 13, 2014 23:32
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a travelling HEGEL posted:Say what you will, but he was the man who killed Hitler. In a similar vein I'm of the opinion that Goering should be given a medal for doing the most of any one person to bring about the fall of the 3rd Reich.
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Jan 14, 2014 06:07
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Arquinsiel posted:Apparently there's some pretty effective anti-mortar laser based weapon systems mounted on the HMMWV platform at the moment. I don't know much about them other than "they exist" and they make wargaming modern stuff a bit boring. What does it do? I've heard of a system for HMMWs that detects where sniper fire is coming from, is it like that?
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Jan 14, 2014 22:16
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Shimrra Jamaane posted:That's hilarious, you should do stand up. Hey we eventually got out of South Vietnam.
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Jan 16, 2014 20:36
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Jan 16, 2014 22:15
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Koesj posted:Isn't that all bit hyperbolic really, comparing the running of an ISAF PRT with South Vietnam, and then trying (possibly prematurely) to extrapolate its influence on long-running public sentiment? Are you talking to me or the German guy? Because my south Vietnam reference was about what's going to happen when the US pulls out. E: d'oh you're talking to the German guy I skipped over his 1st paragraph. Raskolnikov38 fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Jan 17, 2014 |
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Jan 17, 2014 18:30
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The Entire Universe posted:Germany was really painted as a douchebag, what with the Kaiser wanting to be a bully but not incur the wrath of other powers for doing so. Everyone wanted to knock Germany down a peg or three, Germany saw that writing on the wall and thought conquering France would basically shut everyone up. I honestly wonder if they could have done it if it weren't for their traipse through Belgium giving Britain an excuse to join in defending France. But that's wild and uneducated speculation. I think it would be an interesting topic but I'm a dullard in that realm. As you note this is getting into gay black hitler territory but had the Germans not gone through Belgium and knocked Russia out first while sitting in Alsace, they probably would have won.
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Jan 20, 2014 00:42
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Shimrra Jamaane posted:I think the Germans bought into the whole Cult of the Offensive thing just as much as the French did so it would have been unthinkable for them to just wait and react. I dunno, their original plan was to hold in the east while quickly striking west. The east just turned into offensive because Prittwitz panicked, wanted to retreat to the Vistula (which Moltke had previously authorized him to do, if he was actually facing a overwhelming force), and got shitcanned. Hoffman and Ludendorff*, not being the 'fat idiot' they replaced, then pull off a devastating victory allowing the Central powers to advance. *Hindenburg as well if you don't accept Hoffman's version of events quote:A few years after the war, when touring the field at Tannenberg, Hoffmann told a group of army cadets "See - this is where Hindenburg slept before the battle, this is where Hindenburg slept after the battle, and this is where Hindenburg slept during the battle
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Jan 20, 2014 06:48
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gradenko_2000 posted:Hoffman was just bitter that Hindenburg/Ludendorff got all the glory for the plan that was originally his. So very, very bitter. 
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Jan 20, 2014 07:16
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One of my favorite quotes from the Guns of August comes from I think the American ambassador to Belgium. He said something along the lines of "if German claims of franc-tireurs are to be believed, then the Belgians must have spent the last 20 years breeding a race of guerrilla soldiers from the sons of mayors."
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Jan 20, 2014 20:23
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SlothfulCobra posted:Is anyone all that good at occupation? It seems like in the modern era it's more trouble than it's worth for a nation. Western Europe after WW2 went well because we actually did the occupation right and rebuilt what we blew up for the most part.
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Jan 20, 2014 20:35
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Well there's "Ten Days that Shook the World" by John Reed for a first hand account but it is definitely biased. "A People's Tragedy" by Figes is good and relatively unbiased (he dislikes everyone) but there was some scandal involving him and amazon reviews IIRC.
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Jan 21, 2014 05:49
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I was going to go back and add that marxists.org had Ten Days up for free but they probably published the free e-book edition. Additionally, for iBooks at least, many public domain books are available for free such as Heart of Darkness and some other older books I've looked up, if they're not free they'll be for only a few bucks since they're public domain and all.
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Jan 21, 2014 07:52
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Shimrra Jamaane posted:Umm, I don't know if a book on the Russian Revolution endorsed by Marxists.org would be the most objective history. Its not, but it also happens to be one of, if not the only, english firsthand account of the October revolution. e: Reed in addition to being there when the revolution happened is one of the few Americans interned in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. Raskolnikov38 fucked around with this message at 08:34 on Jan 21, 2014 |
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Jan 21, 2014 08:29
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Oh this is hardly time traveling apartheid South Africans with Ak47s go to the CSA...yet. e: ^ and there we go
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Jan 22, 2014 00:34
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DerLeo posted:Probably fair to say that without the blockade Germany would have won although I think he might overstate how short it would have been. Yeah the BEF is not why the German plan failed. Von Kluck's rashness and Joffre's unexpected removal of his head from his rear end ruined the German offensive.
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Jan 22, 2014 01:37
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