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Nenonen posted:
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Aug 2, 2016 17:58
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Dick Trauma posted:I'm afraid I skipped... 20,000 posts. Probably the venerable m2 machine gun Well technically the USS Constitution.
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Aug 2, 2016 18:00
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feedmegin posted:Royal Navy still got you beat - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Victory  quote:HMS Victory, officially, has a surprisingly large crew complement, though visitors are unlikely to see any naval personnel. It is a legacy of naval legislation that all naval ratings and officers must be assigned to a ship (which may include a shore establishment – still regarded as Her Majesty's Ships by the navy). Any navy person allocated to work in a non-HMS location (such as the Ministry of Defence in London) is recorded as being a member of the crew of HMS Victory. Also I saw constitution sale in the late 90s after her restoration. It was loving amazing.
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Aug 2, 2016 19:43
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spectralent posted:My memory of it was that they were aware of it, but for one a huge fuckoff forest gives you loads of places to keep out of the eyes of recon, so they didn't realise just how much was coming through the obvious logistical nightmare, were reluctant to commit their own men to a logistical nightmare, and had trouble hitting it via air so close to germany's border where their air-force could intercept them (I think they lost something like 50 planes trying to bomb the trail). It also didn't help that the French suffered horrible losses in 1914 when they threw an army through the same place to try to turn the German southern flank. They had good reasons for not wanting that fight, they just didn't grasp that that wa ms where the killing blow was coming from.
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Aug 2, 2016 19:45
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Siivola posted:Imagine combining the latest tacticlol plate carrier with one of those goofy steel helmets from East Germany. Leave my TFR post history out of this please. Also loving laffo at the kit for the Agincourt archer including the loving sharpened log.
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Aug 3, 2016 20:01
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Tias posted:I'm reasonably sure that A) the 5.56 M16 round was introduced specifically to maim enemy soldiers, so that their allies would spend valuable resources treating and protecting them, exposing themselves to the U.S. forces and that Argh. No, no it was not. Will this myth not loving die?
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Aug 3, 2016 21:43
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Tias posted:I'm pretty sure I read about it somewhere that seemed legit, but could you maybe expound on why it's dumb instead of just implying that it's dumb? I'm about to head out, which is why I didn't expand up there. Hoped someone would come in and fill in the gaps. Here is the phone posted tldr 1) the driving force towards moving to intermediate cartridges was a combination of weapon handling characteristics and logistical issues. Simply put, a full sized rifle round is nigh uncontrollable in full auto in a rifle, and the rounds are pretty bulky. Something like an AK or an AR is a nice mid-point between your SMGs and your battle rifles and largely recognizes that while rifle-like accuracy and punch is desirable you really don't need a round lethal at multiple kilometers. 2) ~5-6mm calibers were a hot thing in cartridge development from the 30s through the 60s. poo poo, the Garand was originally designed for a .257 caliber bullet. ~6mm offerings weren't super uncommon. Basically by having a lighter, smaller bullet going faster you get some neat stuff, ballistically speaking. 3) shorter case + lighyer bullet = much lighter ammo. Check out the combat loads for a WW2 infantryman and the combat loads for a Vietnam infantryman. IIRC it was ~40 rounds for a guy with a Garand, which is less than two mags out of an M16. Having your guys carrying more ammo when they go into combat is a really important thing. On the other end of it, militaries don't train their soldiers to stop and help their buddy off the field after they're hurt. That's pure hollywood. The fastest way to get help to the wounded is to end the fight so that dedicated medical personnel can get to them, which means either driving off or neutralizing the enemy asap. It also doesn't help that a wounded enemy is still an enemy who can shoot back or otherwise hinder you doing whatever it is you're trying to do. I'm sure someone else will be along to fill in the gaps.
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Aug 3, 2016 21:58
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xthetenth posted:As a thought experiment, how many places you can shoot a person are actually going to be lethal? If we're talking immediately lethal or incapacitating it's pretty much just the central nervous system, followed by the vessels of the circulatory system. There are plenty of places that will be lethal in a little bit (lung shots, big organs full of blood that won't bleed out as fast as an artery, etc), and even more that will eventually be lethal without medical treatment (penetrating wounds of the gut). Past that a lot of it comes down to psychological factors. The effects of weapons on the human body is some freaky poo poo. Some people will get shot absolutely to ribbons and keep fighting (MOH citations are good places to see this in action) while others will be combat ineffective after a relatively minor injury. This part of it isn't all that well understood , even now.
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Aug 3, 2016 23:07
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MikeCrotch posted:IIRC the light & fast bullets we are talking about like 5.56 are tied up in this, since high enough velocity bullets can kill people via hydrostatic shock (essentially where the suction effect pf the bullet entering the body causes things like ruptured blood vessels and brain haemorrhages), something that is still relatively poorly understood. This is super contentious. I've seen people online swearing it is a thing, and I've seen a lot of people swearing it is bullshit. The fact that some people survive getting shot an awful lot when they don't have CNS trauma or catastrophic blood loss leads me to lean on the "if it is a thing it isn't a reliable killing thing" end of the issue, but I'm not a Dr. of Bulletology.
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Aug 4, 2016 01:53
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PittTheElder posted:As a sort of general counterpoint to the running themes in Trin's post, is there anyone particularly knowledgeable about radio usage in WWII? What level of unit has them? Do they effectively solve the problem of almost any advancing unit having zero situational awareness, and the generals having no idea what's happening during an offensive? This is massively dependent on what military you are talking about and what time in the war. The US in 1945 has radio operators running around and pretty OK coordination of front line troops with supporting air and artillery. The USSR in 1940 not so much.
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Aug 4, 2016 01:55
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Grand Prize Winner posted:Next time on the History Channel: Aircraft Carriers of the Renaissance! Did you know that Leonardo da Vinci proposed not just heavier-than-air flight and submarines, but submarines capable of carrying aircraft, as early as 1482, more than 500 years before the Imperial Japanese Navy? Were Japanese planners reading Da Vinci's secret notebooks in 1935? More next Tuesday at 1:30pm/2:30PST! GPW: Programming kicked this back. Frankly it wouldn't have been acceptable ten years ago. Not one mention of Hitler? Even that would just bring it up to our 2005 standard me guidelines. Resubmit with edits. Can you work aliens into it? Maybe da Vinci was a Neptunian? Perhaps a seance to contact him? Is there any way we could make this a reality contest? It's a lot more likely to get approved if we can avoid the expense of writers or flying s film crew out to talk with a random grad student and call them a field expert. Get your poo poo together or you'll be looking for work before thanksgiving.
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Aug 4, 2016 20:09
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ArchangeI posted:And right after that: da Vinci's mechanical designs were very advanced for his time. How could he have designed heavier-tan-air vehicles and submarines without anything to go on? Were Aliens the inspiration? Actually GPW lets just get this done now. Your fired, clear out your desk and give your materials to Archangel to unfuck.
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Aug 4, 2016 20:11
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Kemper Boyd posted:Book recommendation time: I am that loving prat who reads books while walking. I have walked enough this summer to finish Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947, and it is really good. From a milhist pov, it is interesting to see how the performance of the Prussian military ebbs and flows and how political situations affect it. Seconding this. It was great beach reading.
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Aug 4, 2016 21:45
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Tevery Best posted:Glass was so cheap that a widely accepted method of showing respect in Poland was to toast somebody and break the glass immediately after. NOte that the glass we're talking about here is more like wine-glass thickness than pint glass thickness.
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Aug 4, 2016 21:51
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I'm always amazed at the billshit about guns some soldiers will spout with an air of absolute confidence. It's fine that they don't know. It's a tool that is part of their job. I don't expect my cab driver to be a master mechanic. But hoo boy God help you if some 19 year old lance corporal digs in and insists that .50 bmg will tear off a mans arm with a near miss because by God he saw that poo poo in falluja and what do you know civilian Edit : still not as good as the time my wife's estranged aunt showed up at thanksgiving. I'd never met her in six years of marriage and, upon learning I "was interested in German history" proceeded to talk my ear off about how hitler lived in Chile after the war. Her coworkers mom was from there you see and she was a housekeeper for his half Chilean son. Cyrano4747 fucked around with this message at 06:34 on Aug 5, 2016 |
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Aug 5, 2016 06:30
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more to the point seeing a swarm of loving flies at more than a hundred yards just reeks of bullshit. it's not going to be a black cloud coming off the shitter that can be spotted from 400-500meters out.
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Aug 8, 2016 02:15
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A White Guy posted:. Hell, the conversion of AA guns into ersatz AT guns was because the Germans had to come up with some answer to a massive behemoth with a gun that can destroy any 1941-era German tank. AAA was used in AT roles long before Barbarossa. Going back at least to the Spanish civil war.
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Aug 9, 2016 16:34
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Slim Jim Pickens posted:In that scene, they don't actually get a clean shot on its side. That scene is about creating drama for a work of fiction, not accurately portraying the realities of ww2 tank warfare and the potential for penetrating armor with a Sherman's gun. The "Gita shoot it in the rear end" thing has been a Hollywood trope for the better part of half a century. gently caress it was a major plot point in Kelly's loving Heroes.
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Aug 9, 2016 17:41
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OwlFancier posted:I seem to remember early WW1 tanks were not actually bulletproof and could be stopped by machinegun fire.
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Aug 9, 2016 19:20
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Procurement. . . procurement never changes.
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Aug 11, 2016 01:58
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FAUXTON posted:IIRC the flamethrower apparatus was heavy as gently caress, maybe they didn't want to weigh the poor bastard down any more than he already was, plus armor wouldn't really help him if he got blown up. Flamethrowers don't blow up when shot like in the movies.
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Aug 15, 2016 19:57
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Nebakenezzer posted:I don't think you're wrong, but medieval economies being what they were, I think these projects were way, way more expensive than either of those relative to the society that built them. Like "half these three counties' GDP went into constructing this castle" expensive. On the other hand, labor costs then aren't really comparable to today's market either.
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Aug 15, 2016 21:44
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chitoryu12 posted:The fuel inside is ejected under pressure, but it doesn't spontaneously ignite on contact with air. You still need an igniter at the end to light the fuel. Bullets blowing up oil drums or propane tanks is Hollywood and video game fiction, unless you're firing incendiary rounds. even then good luck. A tracer won't cook off a gas tank, or even a propane tank, for example. When pressurized (non-oxygen) fuel leaves a container violently like that it displaces the air in its immediate surrounding, which means there isn't enough oxygen for it to ignite.
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Aug 15, 2016 21:56
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MrMojok posted:at getting hit in the tank and having the fuel spurting out was not a pleasant experience for the flamethrower man or anyone near him. No more so than having a bucket of gasoline thrown on you. Stay away from open flames and you're OK. Sure there is fire on a WW2 battlefield but it's not so prevalent that getting some on you is going to lead you to burst into flames immediately.
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Aug 16, 2016 04:25
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It also doesn't help that the US has to worry about half naked burned up little girls running past a news crew. I'm pretty sure no one besides us who is actually in the habit of projecting force internationally gives two solid fucks about the media the way we do.
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Aug 16, 2016 07:13
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Note that they're mostly used as gently caress off huge explosives not any kind of incendiary. They're what you drop on the jungle to blow a hundred meters flat for an LZ, not to set it on fire. Iirc the crazy over pressure also makes them useful for collapsing caves and tunnels and such b
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Aug 16, 2016 17:52
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System Metternich posted:I don't know enough about Nixon to say how he ranks in the "would I hang out with him y/n" department Don't forget if he was around today he'd probably be an annoying evangelizing atheist.
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Aug 16, 2016 21:56
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I have to admit I'm half a fan of his just because of how he stressed competency in the civil service over connections. Well, for the time.
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Aug 16, 2016 22:01
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of course the real rock stars of civil service reform are von Stein and von Hardenberg  Humboldt if you're a geek into educational history.
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Aug 16, 2016 22:02
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xthetenth posted:I maintain that him not loving a woman was a terrible mistake in retrospect though. There is some conjecture that this might not have been entirely his own decision. There's a lot of circumstantial evidence that even with his boy he never got into anything penetrative, and a lot of people wondering if one of the beatings he got thrown as a kid (especially after he tried to run away) didn't gently caress up his plumbing. edit: of course refusing to procreate as the ultimate "no gently caress YOU dad" would just be the ultimate F der G thing to do.
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Aug 16, 2016 22:05
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HEY GAL posted:depends on what was in among dudes who liked dudes at the time though, like intercrural was more common for them than for us i think Yeah, I can't pull a cite or anything right now but I remember reading a few years back that there's evidence of "frustration" and "pent up desire" that indicates he might have been unable to achieve an erection. edit: of course trying to figure out if a major royal head could  is going to be all kinds of tied up in court gossip and politics so in the end it's all speculative as gently caress.edit x2: it will never stop bothering me that the SA jizz emote is spelled with a loving g
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Aug 16, 2016 22:07
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HEY GAL posted:was there anything about his life that wasn't really goddamn depressing He always struck me as the kind of guy who would have been really, really happy living a bog standard early 21st century life but had the bad luck to be born when he was. Although I guess that could be said for a lot of people who ended up on the wrong end of some cultural norm any time before about the 80s,. edit: that should have been 21st century. You know, the era of gay activism and r/atheism. Cyrano4747 fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Aug 16, 2016 |
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Aug 16, 2016 22:12
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HEY GAL posted:i thought you were talking about the early 20th century in germany. You know, gay activism and atheism. hah, drat, yeah you're right. Dude would have had a blast in Weimar era Berlin
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Aug 16, 2016 22:37
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HEY GAL posted:http://www.salon.com/2016/08/16/bro...heneys-america/ You know you've made it as an arms dealer when Jonah hill plays you in the movie
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Aug 17, 2016 16:43
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HEY GAL posted:ideally, you can't dismiss them without paying them, so in the best of all possible worlds he's the guy keeping the books for that. i don't know where they found the money to dismiss the dudes, or why they found the money to dismiss them and not to keep them from dying that winter I'm going to hazard a guess that it was because he was going to go back there anyways and they didn't want to deal with the problem themselves. Better to send him back with a new job than to round up someone else to go down there and do it.
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Aug 17, 2016 22:41
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HEY GAL posted:this almost dead slightly-post-teen is the perfect choice Probably notably more disposable than your wife's third youngest brother who you finally broke in as a secretary.
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Aug 17, 2016 22:44
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The best part of that panther video is that the speedometer goes up to 100 loving KPH. edit: this may explain my VW's goes up to 160 MPH.
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Aug 18, 2016 22:33
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By the by, milhist related since we end up on a "what is fascism" digression every 50 pages or so. Ernst Nolte died yesterday.
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Aug 18, 2016 23:13
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Disinterested posted:Did you see that there's a film coming up that appears to be a longform weird interview with Goebbels' secretary? Yeah, I caught wind of it. I was mostly shocked that she was still alive. Frankly I'm glad that someone's getting all that on tape. Unreliability of testiomony, take with a sack of salt, etc but it's still a very unique view on a rather important actor in the early 20th.
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Aug 18, 2016 23:17
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Ensign Expendable posted:Tank ammunition isn't that unstable. I've read about complaints of ammo falling out of racks while driving on bumpy terrain, and it didn't mention anyone dying. Honestly fragments of the brass aren't really going to be a problem. I've tossed surplus WW2 / 1950s era rifle rounds with bad primers into fires tons of times and all they do is pop, fart out the bullet maybe six inches, and worst case the neck splits. You would need a REALLY heavy crimp on the bullet to hold it in long enough to develop enough pressure to rupture the brass. The bad OOB KB's where the brass fragments are usually caused by a cartridge extracting too far under pressure after firing. chitoryu12 posted:There's also an old Darwin Awards Honorable Mention story of a guy who mangled a hand or two when trying to turn a .50 BMG round into a necklace by grabbing an awl and hammer and trying to pound a hole straight through a live round. I'm pretty skeptical of this. Gunpowder isn't really pressure sensitive like that. You can go on youtube and watch videos of people putting ammunition into hydraulic presses for fun. Hell, the whole reason the primer was invented is that having your entire propellant charge being shock and pressure sensitive is a Bad Thing when it comes to actually being able to transport your ammo.
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Aug 19, 2016 15:13
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