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Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

Elyv posted:

why is bottom right guy wearing a hat that is so much bigger than his head that he can't see while it's on

War never changes.

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Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa
Hitler should have invaded Russia during winter 1939-40, I hear Soviets sucked at winter operations at that time.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

chitoryu12 posted:

I think my favorite is No. 4 where they both just start bashing each other with their helmets.

I like 3 where the guy on the right has pierced the left guy's hidden flask.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

Rodrigo Diaz posted:

In a modern spanish-language military context armada means navy.

And in modern Russian language Armata means a family of armoured vehicles.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa
It would have been quite a shocking experience for both sides, after getting used to beating a weak German army for the past year, to suddenly meet fresh tank divisions supported by intact air corps.

Although Task Force Smith was still quite shocked in 1950 when Bazookas failed to penetrate T-34s from the rear and only 105mm howitzers firing HEAT (only six shells available to a battery) could hurt them.

quote:

When the tank column came over the crest of the road, the forward howitzer, commanded by Corporal Herman V. Critchfield, Chief of Section and 5 cannoneers, fired its HEAT rounds, damaging the first two tanks and setting one of them on fire. One of the crew members of the burning tank emerged with a PPSh-41 and killed a member of an American machine gun crew before being killed himself; the American became the first casualty of Korean War ground combat.

That's like my every game of Combat Mission.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

Raenir Salazar posted:

I think that there was probably some sort of contingency plan or study on what to do if it happened as Typhoon got close, but as the Germans neared the city wouldn't it have been clear around the time (Hoth or was it Halder?) the Germans got to their closest point they were likely out of steam?

That sounds unlikely, building new railroads are major endeavours even when you're not harassed by jabos. Also a central transport hub is more than just any crossroad, you don't just lay some tracks to fix your logistical nightmare.

That Stalin was able to gather reserves for a huge counterattack tells that Taifun was nowhere close to taking Moscow. Those reserves could have been used to plug gaps at any time if it was necessary.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

Fangz posted:

I don't really think Moscow being a transport hub would have meant much more that make it really straightforward for the Soviets to throw everything they had at the city.

But transferring and organizing all those units and supplies would have been much more complicated and inefficient. What do you do if a tank corps north of Moscow needs replacements from a factory south of Moscow, but Moscow is lost? Well you better hope that rail yards east of Moscow aren't clogged and unable to let the replacement train go through.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

James Garfield posted:

Military equipment :spergin:: Is there any particular reason the Soviet Union used 76, 152 and 203 mm guns (i.e. gun caliber in inches) instead of round numbers in metric?

They date back to Imperial Russia. Also see 7.62mm rifles which are .30 cal (or in Russian parlance, three line rifles -a line was a tenth of an inch).

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

ArchangeI posted:

Napoleon was fairly capable in terms of logistics. For real logistics fuckups you need someone like Erwin "My supply line runs through hundreds of kilometers of desert and across a sea that is heavily interdicted by the enemy, let's attack anyway because lol so random" Rommel.

Is that any worse than Dwight "let's march to Berlin when the nearest operational ports are in Normandy, Rhine should be no obstacle roflol" Eisenhower, really? Generals aren't clairvoyeurs, especially when the enemy has no decency to stop fighting after their initial defeat.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

Tias posted:

Yeah yeah, I know, but all the more reason for AA to move to town I guess :) What cool things are there to see in Milhistorical Helsinki? Religious, local history type stuff has interest as well.

Viapori is always worth a visit on a sunny day. Never lost a battle, only surrendered once!


On the island there's also a WW2 sub that you can walk through (it's as cramped as you can expect with a dozen other filthy visitors)


Oh and there's also the war museum in the same location

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

MikeCrotch posted:

I thought you said the you couldn't flank a tercio because it was a square

Tilly: Fraud status confirmed

From playing Pike and Shot, I can tell you that early tercios are immune to flanking and rear attacks but late tercios can be charged from the rear!

Also I was playing Breitenfeld the other night as Gusto Ado. drat Saxon treachers!

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

Hogge Wild posted:

Yeah, this would have been my suggestion also. That submarine, Vesikko, was part of the secret rebuilding of the German Navy, the Reichsmarine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_submarine_Vesikko


Viapori also a replica gun sloop Diana:

By the way there's also a toy museum if you're into that sort of thing, it's small but very interesting in how children's toys and games have reflected their eras.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04aEE_hYf_o

http://lelumuseo.fi/

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

gradenko_2000 posted:

3. What was the deck gun on a WW1 German U-boat? I know the 88 and the 105mm weren't invented by then, and the boats were yet much smaller.

Actually German navy used several types of 88mm and 105mm guns in WW1, which is where the FlaK 18/36 inherited the caliber.

eg. http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNGER_88mm-30_skc97.htm
http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNGER_41-45_skc06.htm

50mm guns were also used
http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNGER_5cm-40_skc93.htm

More here:
http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNGER_Main.php

quote:

2. Did the Entente ever consider opening up another front by landing along the Baltic coast, the way Churchill planned in WW2?

Somewhere in Churchill's notes there must be a rough drawing of a plan to send tiny submarines up the Rhine past the Netherlands and then use them to blow all German bridges and dams along the way.

Nenonen fucked around with this message at 15:50 on Sep 2, 2016

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

FAUXTON posted:

Speaking of inherited calibers and long-term usage of standard shell diameters, what was the reason (if anything cohesive as far as mil-reasoning goes) for the US sticking with ~3in (incl. 75 and 76mm) shells for so long? I can't imagine they were just using the same tooling (or drat near anything for that matter) for 75 years but did they do something like an ergonomic study and realize that 3" was about as big as you could make a shell before it started getting too big for the average crewman's hand?

They were firing 3" shells in the ACW, and 75/76mm cannons were going on Shermans through WWII, not to mention field guns in that size throughout that whole time being fielded by tons of armies. Certainly pre-NATO there wasn't much standardization of breech and barrel specifications so it couldn't have been to share anything between, say, French and Russian field guns.

Might be, but gun weight and mobility is also a factor especially back when horses did all the hauling. Maybe they noticed that anything bigger than 3 inches started getting too wieldy?

But you're slightly mistaken about there being no standardization before NATO - the US and UK employed Canon de 75 modèle 1897 in large numbers, and the WW2 75mm tank guns used the same ammo all the way to M24 Chaffee. So it's not just a mere coincidence!

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

Raenir Salazar posted:

We use pigeons for utility.

What about hawks? Stab someone's eyes out?

During Franco-Prussian war the besieged Parisians used pigeons to stay in contact with outside world; in consequence, Prussians employed hawks to catch the pigeons. The next step was to use balloons to transport the pigeons safely past the lines.

MI5 also had its own peregrine falcon division during WW2 to counter German spies:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1999/01/99/wartime_spies/263333.stm

quote:

According to documents now held at the Public Record Office in Kew, London, at least two of the captured pigeons became "prisoners of war".

Displaying humour in the midst of adversity, an intelligence officer marked in his report: "Both birds are now prisoners of war working hard at breeding English pigeons."

Oh apparently in UK there also was a medal for animals that had shown gallantry, the Dickin Medal, awarded to 32 pigeons, 18 dogs, three horses, and one cat until 1949 (and then a bunch of dogs after 2000).

Nenonen fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Sep 4, 2016

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa
One reason for close order drills is that it's an efficient way for the supervising officer to see how well his men can take orders. He or she has everyone in view when in a realistic battle drill the same officer could at once follow the performance of only a handful of troopers because everyone is scattered and lying low.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

Edward Finne was a Finnish farmer's son with a peg leg, ironically trained to be a shoemaker. In the winter of 1915-16 he skied across the sea separating Russian empire and Sweden. From there he made it to Germany where he joined other Finnish volunteers being given Pfadfinder training. His impediment only came up in the drilling grounds when Finne was noticed to be clumsier than others.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa
Shaving in your bathroom in the morning: not a good idea.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa
There's been a trench war going on in Korea for the last 60 years.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

lenoon posted:

Is OIF a widely accepted term or can we lobby for Iraqi Wars: Revenge of the Bush?

The War against Terror, or TWaT

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa
Logistics of war would be so much easier if our cultures were okay with cannibalism. Paradoxically this might have resulted in more humane ways of warfare, after all you don't want to contaminate your food with chemical weapons or pick pieces of shrapnel from your dinner.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

Fangz posted:

You also need to figure out how to make your tanks and guns eat people.

This is already being worked on:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energetically_Autonomous_Tactical_Robot

I hope they gave a prize to the team who worked out that acronym

quote:

Cyclone Power Technologies stated that animal or human biomass was not intended to be used in the waste heat combustion engine of the robot,[3] and that sensors would be able to distinguish foraged materials,[1] although the project overview from RTI listed other sources including chicken fat.[4]

Yes, let's call it chicken fat... or soylent green or whatever.

Agean90 posted:

Kuru makes for poor marksmanship tho

You should be mostly fine as long as you don't eat brain?

Nenonen fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Sep 7, 2016

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

Tias posted:

This was in 1940 and would have been a pzkw II or maybe I.

Or an armoured car.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

cheerfullydrab posted:

Open truck filled with old pots and pans.

More likely a horse drawn field kitchen.

God, this is turning into a Radio Yerevan joke...

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

Ensign Expendable posted:

My guys are impeccable at pointing out the difference between tanks, SPGs, and armoured cars, but apparently the word "halftrack" didn't gain popularity until after the end of the war, since armoured halftracks are counted as armoured cars and unarmored ones are counted as tractors.

Do you know what they called the American tank destroyers???

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

xthetenth posted:

I imagine an autocannon firing a short burst and needing to reload. I'm unreasonably mad at the rarden from playing wargame and armored warfare.

Oh thanks for reminding me of that turd gun. In Combat Mission Shock Force you are also presented to the fact that the standard load out for Warrior and Scimitar is 1/5th HE-I, 4/5ths AP ammo. Guess which type always runs out and which is completely useless.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

Cyrano4747 posted:

The elevation problem was fixed by digging a sloped hole and backing into it or just using a handy hill as a ramp. Google around and you'll find tons of photos.

Yes indeed, like so:

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

OwlFancier posted:

It's still surprising they'd go to all that effort, I wouldn't have thought a 75mm shell would be especially effective at long range, accounting for dispersion and that.

I have an officer's manual from 1940 that has 21 pages detailing the indirect use of medium machineguns, including ballistic formulas and tables, wind correction tables, ammo consumption for effect etc. etc. For instance, to achieve 50% losses to a target 2.5km away spread across an area 100 metres wide, 50m deep you need to fire 4300 bullets. If the same 100m wide target area has no depth (a straight line, eg. a trench) you need 2600 shots for the same effect. For 50% probability of hitting a standing man at the same distance you need 800 shots.

So yeah, armies will go through any effort to kill a dude or force the dude to bugger off or stop him from approaching some place that they don't want that dude to reach, such as barrages on roads to hinder troop movements. And especially for that purpose all guns are good enough, you just don't drive a truck through a crossroads being shelled or pelted with machinegun fire. Assuming the fire is accurate, which especially for machinegun fire is hard to discern. Against entrenched defenders it might not be much, but suppression can be enough. Also, counter-battery fire is not an issue.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

OwlFancier posted:

I genuinely didn't think indirect machinegun fire actually worked because I thought the rounds lost too much velocity over that sort of range.

I recall it was supposedly done in the first world war but I didn't think it continued past that.

Range is not an issue, human beings are quite squishy and it doesn't take that much energy from a piece of metal to perforate you. OTOH if your target is behind some type of cover then the effectiveness drops rapidly.

The biggest weakness with this is that a spotter is unlikely to tell if the fire is hitting the target area or to give accurate corrections. But if it's the only way your machinegun company can support a battle, then why not? In one account that I read, supporting machineguns were ordered to fire at tree tops around the defender's location for demoralizing effect because the dense forest terrain was otherwise useless for them. This was in 1941 Finnish army attacking Soviets.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

bewbies posted:

did this get posted over here? pro click

This update of War Thunder lookin' good, not sure if the game needs ox carts though.

While discussing scenes from Korean films I can't desist posting this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuUR95-o_fw

2000 years from now archeologists are going to find a copy of this movie and historians will use it to study 20th century warfare.

e: or this maybe

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

Nenonen fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Sep 16, 2016

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa
1 Tank Love at the first sight. The single Tank, whatever its color, depicts utmost devotion to a single person. "All my deepest affections are concentrated in you".

2 Tanks Mutual feelings, especially if they are red in color speak of two people who are deeply in love and together form their own happy little world.

3 Tanks Stand for the three words in "I Love You", and seek to convey this very simple yet powerful message

5 Tanks I love you very much

6 Tanks I love you, I miss you. Speak of tthe need to be loved and cherished.

7 Tanks I'm infatuated with you

9 Tanks Together as long as we live

10 Tanks You are pretty

11 Tanks You're my treasured one. To assure someone that he or she is truly and deeply loved.

12 Tanks Be my steady

13 Tanks Forever friends. Also indicate that there is a secret admirer waiting to be discovered.

15 Tanks I'm really sorry

20 Tanks I'm sincere towards you

21 Tanks I'm committed to you

24 Tanks You're always on my mind. Stand for the twenty-four hours of the day, and say that the loved one is thought of during every hour of the day.

36 Tanks I'll remember our romantic moments. Speak of a romantic attachment

40 Tanks My love is genuine

44 Tanks Pledge a constant and an unchanging love.

50 Tanks Signify a love that has ripened well, and has never been regretted.

99 Tanks I'll love you till the day I die

100 Tanks I'm totally devoted to you. Signify a happy union of two loving souls till death or till a hundred years.

101 Tanks You're my one and only

108 Tanks Will you marry me?

365 Tanks I love you every single day. Speak of a love that has remained constant and true throughout the year

999 Tanks My love will last till the end of time

1001 Tanks Speak of a faithful love that will live on forever.

OTOH in Russia an even number of tanks means that the recipient will die, so I'd be careful with that 2-tank bouquet. It will probably combust spontaneously.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

PittTheElder posted:

What if it has silver components?

Then your own soldiers would buy alcohol with it.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

darthbob88 posted:

Hadn't thought about it until now, but might it be because throwing unexploded landmines away from you is generally considered a good idea?

Could be, though with the kind of force that it is exerting on the ground I wouldn't think that any mines that didn't yet explode ever would. But just look at how much dirt it's kicking up! If it was flailing the other way, it would be buried inside a mound of dirt very quick.

Although I guess the proper engineering solution to that problem would be to install a turbofan on top of the vehicle, to blow all dirt back :q:

Nenonen fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Sep 21, 2016

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

HEY GAL posted:

that's a weird way to spell Elsaß and the Province of Lotharingia

what is this Alemanni nonsense

I love it how split we Europeans are on how to call Germany, and a few other countries... but Germany probably takes the cake

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa
How different was the morale of German submariners in the final year, compared to the HSF? They were taking heavy losses and Allied convoys were harder to get at, but also got to see action even taking the fight to the American coast, and on top of that they were celebrated as heroes if they just managed to make it back to home port.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa
An embargo wouldn't necessarily have to affect neutral nations even if that opens some doors to smuggling. Like consider the Netherlands during WW1 and how Germany used it as a backdoor to get some much needed supplies. If UK tried to stop neutral nation's merchant ships from entering and leaving US ports it would likely hurt UK more than letting them pass would; first because having a famine in Europe would not help in keeping UK supplied, quite the opposite, and because it could result in the formation of an anti-British coalition. Grain from Australia and India is not going to help Britain if the ships get raided in the Med.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

feedmegin posted:

If the US exports grain to neutral countries, what's to stop those neutral countries selling the grain to the UK at a markup, either openly or secretly? The UK wants grain to get from the US to Europe, it's not going to try and stop it.

It all depends on how the pros and cons compare. How bad would a total economic isolation and the resulting grain mountains be for US economy? Could they negoatiate clauses with neutral trade partners that they promise not to sell food to the Brits? No such trust-based embargo would be complete and smuggling always happens, but it might work to the States' benefit anyway.

Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa

JcDent posted:

Why not Tsushima?

I think the preceding battle between Japanese torpedo boats disguised as English fishing trawlers and Russia's Second Pacific Squadron was even more lopsided...

On the 'lopsided land battles' front, the battle of Narva in 1700 is one of those. Peter had like 30-40k men besieging a Swedish garrison of 2000, but then he had to attend other matters in Russia, certain that his generals couldn't gently caress this up. Charles was busy in Poland, after all.

Except then Charles' relief force of 8000 veterans showed up and broke through green Russian lines. By the end of the day 9k Russians were killed and 20k taken captive after a bridge collapsed under the weigh of escaping Russians blocking the course for the rest of the force. Swedish losses? 667 dead, 1247 wounded. In fact there were so many prisoners that Charles had to let them go after disarming them. But hey, 20k free muskets!

Nenonen fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Sep 23, 2016

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Nenonen
Oct 22, 2009

Mulla on aina kolkyt donaa taskussa
You can obsess on any piece of technology to the point where nothing else compares and where any feeble attempt to point out that the alternative technologies do just as good a job will be met with scorn or be outright ignored. IT people know this well, and military people probably have been like that for the last 8000 years.

"You'd be a fool to trust this so called 'saddle' and 'spurs' when we already have a superior way of mobile warfare - the chariot."

"History will prove that this musket thing is just a passing fad, only the pike column will remain unchanged through millennia."

"The future is here today! In 50 years from now all tanks will be turretless, amphibious and equipped with a digging blade like S-tank, the harbinger of things to be!"

"If only we can get people to call the vehicle as 'General Gavin' then the idiots at MoD would open their eyes and understand..."

But really, Soviet cold war tanks were cutting edge in several ways and whenever a new model came to service it caused some serious gasping in NATO and increased military-industrial lobbying efforts in Washington DC. If you only stare at the bits where they were ahead of western competitors then even the T-62 will look like a sexy god of war. All things considered it wasn't objectively better than M60.

Rodrigo Diaz posted:

I don't care about the posts before this but want to chime in and say tea is a drink for troglodytes and the english, but I repeat myself

Like gunpowder, compass and paper, tea is one of those Chinese inventions without which only barbars can wage wars.

HEY GAL posted:

i love all battles where the punch line is "yes you can get artillery up that slope"

the defenders never learn, either. another century, another dude looking at the high ground next to his position and going "this is fine. i feel ok about this"

What's changed over the last hundred years is that even if you're dug in on the peak of The Mount Bloody Everest, there is no guarantee that someone won't show up above you.

Nenonen fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Sep 25, 2016

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