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For a little while, I saw that the old thread was locked, and there was no new thread. I felt like I had no purpose in life anymore. I literally did not know what to do.
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Aug 2, 2016 01:06
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xthetenth posted:If I want to do effort posts about carriers, none of you lot care if I do it in order, right? PLEASE do it!
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Aug 4, 2016 02:29
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bewbies posted:So I just got spun up on the latest iteration of Abrams upgrades and their solution to the next generation of missiles is just to slap more ablative armor on the thing and no poo poo I'm not kidding you it's new curb weight is no less than 93 tons. God bless America It weighs 72 tons now, and they are going to add another 21?!?
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Aug 5, 2016 19:09
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OK tankophiles, I know of no better place to ask this. My Dad just texted me raving about "Fury", a movie I have been wanting to watch. He told me a bit about the plot, and when he got to the point about "lone tank holding off 300 Wehrmacht troops" I said something like "RIP, boys" I am no armor-head, but it has always been my understanding that a single tank without supporting infantry vs enemy infantry is pretty much hosed. Then Dad says "Yeah Hollywood, but something like this did really happen" and quotes the wiki article about the film, which claims that the film was inspired by a story in "Death Traps", a book which I haven't read, but have heard mentioned in these milhist threads several times. Wiki says it was a disabled(!?) tank that had a bunch of German troops walk up on it without spotting it at night, and the next morning the tank was still there and alive with lots of dead Germans around it. Can anyone tell me about this? Cursory googling leads me to believe the story is possibly apocryphal, but I don't know. I'm going to watch the film regardless based on his recommendation, but I find it difficult to believe a single tank with no supporting infantry of its own could hold its own against large numbers of infantry then, now, or ever. They cannot even see well enough out of the tank, to defend themselves. Am I correct, naive, or maybe just ignorant? Also, what did you folks think of the film overall, if anyone saw it?
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Aug 9, 2016 05:49
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Sorry, was tanks trying to maneuver around to shoot each other in the rear end not a real thing? I'm not being a wiseass here. My WWII knowledge is concentrated mainly in fighter planes, and USMC campaigns in the Pacific. The extent of my tank knowledge comes from a 1970s Marvel comics series about a Sherman that was accompanied by the ghost of General Jeb Stuart, for some odd reason.
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Aug 9, 2016 19:48
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Thanks all. Makes perfect sense, Best Thread wins again!
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Aug 9, 2016 20:14
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hogmartin posted:Presumably not every engineer, but probably every officer. ADM Rickover was famous for conducting uncomfortable and humiliating interviews of potential nuclear submarine officers, it would be very surprising if he hadn't enacted some kind of plan to ensure that his successors continued the tradition now 30 years after he died. http://www.businessinsider.com/hyman-rickover-interview-techniques-2014-4 I remember a story in one of my sub books about some prospective officer going through the Rickover interview where he got pissed off at an answer, and picked up the paperwork he had on his desk and threw it all straight up in the air. A folded piece of paper spiraled down and landed on Rickover's head, perched there like a hat, and Rickover conducted the rest of the interview like that.
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Aug 14, 2016 18:51
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Yeah, WW2 flamethrower tanks did not explode when hit like in the beach scene in Saving Private Ryan, but it certainly goes without saying that getting hit in the tank and having the fuel spurting out was not a pleasant experience for the flamethrower man or anyone near him. The biggest problem they faced was that the weapon was so effective, at least in the Pacific, that these guys attracted almost as much fire as the tanks and rocket jeeps did.
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Aug 16, 2016 04:12
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Do historians seriously study whether some fellow could get it up or not?
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Aug 16, 2016 22:54
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Yes, I had not thought of the relevance of these things. Good points all.
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Aug 17, 2016 00:25
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Arquinsiel posted:"Congratulations Heinz! You are now 1st platoon!"
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Aug 17, 2016 02:43
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The Jaws monologue is mostly true except for the idea that five or six hundred men were killed by sharks
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Aug 18, 2016 01:37
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V. Illych L. posted:i'm pretty sure a traumatised survivor might perfectly well just sort of assume that that's what happened Yes. But it's the same thing addressed multiple times in this thread by historians, about first person accounts. Definitely a lot of sailors were attacked, and now being wounded, were bitten even more. Some were hit by big sharks and killed outright. But the idea that it was a nonstop feeding frenzy where everyone who didn't get rescued was killed by sharks isn't right. It's perfectly in line with thoughts on sharks at the time Benchley wrote the novel, and Spielberg made the film though. And very likely almost all the ones who drowned or drank seawater or died of exposure/dehydration or from injuries related to the explosions/sinking or went insane and were killed by their shipmates were later eaten, or partially eaten.
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Aug 18, 2016 02:12
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Haha thanks... I'll remove that one from my wish list. I almost bought it for the kindle a couple of times but never did. I'm glad, now!
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Aug 18, 2016 20:16
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Polyakov, these mine posts are FANTASTIC! Thank you.
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Aug 20, 2016 18:56
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MrMojok fucked around with this message at 07:44 on Aug 21, 2016 |
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Aug 21, 2016 07:39
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Color video, with sound, of Berlin in July 1945: https://youtu.be/R5i9k7s9X_A
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Aug 25, 2016 23:34
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bewbies posted:So to drag up D&C chat back up Bewbies, I just wanted to say, this was a fantastic post. I was in the USMC about half a lifetime ago, and your post has enabled me to understand a little better some of the culture bullshit I despised so much. And made me even more glad I got out. Beautiful post.
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Sep 8, 2016 00:42
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chitoryu12 posted:The 3 ingredients for black powder are: There is an interesting (flashback) chapter in Blood Meridian by McCarthy where the scalphunters are out of ammo, being chased by Apaches, and the Judge takes them into a cave and later to an extinct volcano and makes gunpowder in this way. It's fiction of course, but what you said reminded me of it. Also it's an interesting book with a historical emphasis that some of you might like. e: the story is ugly as gently caress, but a lot of people who read and post in here are used to such.
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Sep 9, 2016 20:09
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PittTheElder posted:Isn't an explosion strong enough to pull your head off that way going to kill you anyway? The head-blown-off-because-of-chin-strap thing appears to have been a thing that was believed by almost everyone, that was just plain wrong. e: 
MrMojok fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Sep 15, 2016 |
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Sep 15, 2016 23:15
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I am not seeing the discussion in the DnD thread about their mythical Operation Food Drop, but is the idea we mine their ports as we actually did to cut off all shipping, allow them to starve a bit then stand back and strategically try to drop food for Good Civilians and not for Bad Military?
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Sep 22, 2016 06:43
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Nenonen posted:
This is funny because I knew little about his past, but I am 90% certain this is the same guy who was one of the early members of the US Army Special Forces in the late 50s or 60s. A lot their early membership was made up of badass (sometimes crazy) former soldiers from various European armies.
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Sep 26, 2016 22:51
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OK now I have this image of you feeding them the way a mama bird feeds her babies
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Dec 2, 2016 02:39
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FastestGunAlive posted:On the Vietnam tour thing still; I believe officers were also a 12 month rotation but only 6 months in a "dangerous" billet. Still not much comfort to those you're leading. I also believe Marines were on 13 month tours. No idea why the difference of one month. Six months with a infantry company in the field, and six doing some staff job in the rear. I remember hearing or reading that the USMC 13-month thing was a holdover from when they initially sailed over there on ships. Like, time onboard ship on the way over doesn't count as time in-country. Don't know if that is true or not.
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Feb 16, 2017 00:37
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Can anyone point me to an effortpost about helicopter gunships in this thread, or the predecessor thread?
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Apr 26, 2017 19:40
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Arquinsiel posted:The first moden Medal of Honor is actually not terrible in terms of campaign. It's a reasonably accurate retelling of the invasion of Afghanistan right up to Operation Anaconda in 2002. I had as much fun playing it as I did any other greybrown modern shotmans campaign TBH. Possibly even more. I don't usually do multiplayer but the single player campaign in this game was not bad at all. I enjoyed it a great deal.
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Apr 27, 2017 03:28
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Was Rising Storm multiplayer-only?
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Apr 27, 2017 06:11
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That's the biggest thing that bothers me with the new-er CG-filled WWII movies. They can sure make photorealistic aircraft with computers now, but they often make them move more like TIE fighters than like WWII piston-engine aircraft. Red Tails was full of this, as highlighted in the clip below. This "maneuver" is actually a big plot point in the film, if I recall correctly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jlp2P9iO2I Here's hoping that the new Hanks/Spielberg show about the 8th Air Force finally gets it right (I know the show is going to be about B17 crews, but there will be plenty of shots with fighters I'm sure)
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May 8, 2017 20:58
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If I were to make an effortpost and scan some pics from books I own to put in there, is that a violation of  ?
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May 9, 2017 17:58
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Mantis42 posted:Wasn't that the plan for the Yamato, in the end? It got sunk at sea before it could make it to any beach but I remember reading that somewhere. Yep. A suicide battleship. Her orders were to sail to Okinawa and beach herself there.
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Jun 23, 2017 01:29
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bewbies posted:Wasn't there some sort of council consisting industrialists and movie producers and so on in WWII in the US? I can't find this on google and it is driving me crazy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Activities_Committee_of_the_Motion_Pictures_Industry
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Jun 27, 2017 20:16
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Since there's been some Mongol chat popping up in here again, I thought I'd ask. Has anyone read any of that five-book historical fiction series about Genghis Kahn? The author's name is Conn Iggulden. I was thinking about checking them out.
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Jul 5, 2017 23:27
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Average weight of 144 pounds in WWII? Wow. I knew people were smaller but I never would've guessed by that much. What about average height?
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Jul 21, 2017 18:46
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Anyone in the thread been watching Ken Burns' Vietnam? I know there are people who say Burns is a socialist pig and the documentary is too left-leaning or whatever. But I have what I believe to be the two best docs about the war-- "Vietnam: the ten thousand day war" and "Vietnam: A television history" and I will say that Burns' thing has it all over those two and everything else for one reason: no western documentary has ever given the Vietnamese this much time to tell their stories. There are lots of civilians, formerly North and South. Former government officials, North and South. And a ton of old VC and NVA fighters looking back and reflecting forty years later. I found all that stuff fascinating.
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Sep 29, 2017 20:16
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HEY GAIL posted:I've got to see it then, I've been interested in their perspective ever since I started coming to East Germany. You definitely should check it out. These people were as brutally honest as all the US soldiers and civilians were. It goes without saying, it's a monumentally depressing documentary.
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Sep 29, 2017 21:33
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That sand test video video is pretty crazy. Maybe it has something to do with the consistency of the sand or something. But all I know is, at least twice during the 1991 Gulf War I sat through sandstorms that fouled my M16A2 so badly that it was extremely difficult to pull the charging handle to the rear afterwards. You could hear and feel the sand in there, preventing the bolt carrier group from being pulled backwards. I really don't think there was much chance it could have cycled until I cleaned it. I'm not saying "AK47 good, M16/AR family bad". I'm just saying I think the sand over there could have fouled anything. And no I didn't ride around in sandstorms with the ejection port cover open. Had tape over the compensator too
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Nov 14, 2017 03:12
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We'd love to be able to join in the attack and defenestrations at ten AM but you see it's 8 AM now and our lads just started getting dressed. We won't be ready to move for at least five more hours
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Nov 17, 2017 00:01
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Late to the party as usual, but a couple of pages back people were talking about the composition of reconnaissance units. This is USMC-specific, but you can read about the organization of Recon and Force recon platoons on 2-15 and 2-20: http://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/MCWP%202-25.pdf
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Dec 7, 2017 02:48
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JcDent posted:So recon company has a wider role and is lead by lower level people while force recon has more narrow role, but is lead by more experienced leaders, everything else being the same (the document says that Recon and Force Recon platoons are basically identical)? I got out about twenty years ago, and I wasn't in recon, but my impression was that the main difference was really that Force was attached to a large unit like a MAGTF whereas Battalion recon was attached down at that level. The capabilities of the two units were pretty much the same, although in the case of Battalion recon it was very possible to have a grunt who had recently joined who was in Recon Bn but had not yet been to the Basic Reconnaissance Course. He would be sent eventually, but I think everyone at Force would have done that, scuba school, jump school etc. Bear in mind this is my recollection and is purely anecdotal. When the USMC finally decided they wanted a piece of the specops pie and created MARSOC, there was some talk that Force would be disbanded and all their personnel would be MARSOC going forward. I don't know whatever became of all that.
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Dec 7, 2017 18:41
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Jobbo_Fett posted:Reading up on shipping losses during WW2 and came across Wow, this must have been a lot of the inspiration for “Life of Pi”
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Dec 29, 2017 17:48
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