Airborne Viking posted:

finally, I might actually be able to keep up with this one

Empress Theonora posted:

Seeing a Sherman being used by the Nazis makes me really sad in a way I'm not sure I can justify regarding a piece of inanimate military equipment.

Poor tank.

Ataxerxes posted:

...
This concludes the foreword.

HEY GAL posted:

here is an article about a conscientious objector. it's also relevant to my interests, since it's about a man whose honor was taken away from him and who "says he cannot die—he literally cannot leave this earth—until [it] is fully restored."
http://reprints.longform.org/zepps-last-stand

OwlFancier posted:

I know WW1 biplanes were a bit notorious for chucking crap at the pilot if the engine suffered damage, and I think they just vented the exhaust out the side of the front of the fuselage rather than bothering to run the exhaust very far.

But this diagram of a model T shows a quite clear rear exhaust and what even looks like a muffler:



So gently caress if I know.

HEY GAL posted:

one tactic for the defenders during a siege is literally that from a distance it's hard to tell where the front door of a star fort is

Endman posted:

HEY GAL is a Swedish Cavalry reenactor who loves Gustavus Adolphus with a passion.

spectralent posted:

Maybe a dumb question since it might be a cultural thing that doesn't translate but:

To what extent are people before industrial war getting PTSD and related traumas? Are there knights who go off to war then can't be around their families because they have fight-or-flight fugues when they hear scraping metal? Are there samurai with chronic sleeping issues? Do the romans have an informal veterans support network?

SlothfulCobra posted:

My favorites are the bits of ordinance strapped to animals. Russia put explosives on dogs and tried training them to run at tanks. Somebody tried using pigeons to steer bombs. America had a very effective bomb developed with little timed incendiary charges tied to a bunch of bats, so that when the bats found little shadowy spots in Japanese buildings, they'd burst into flame. It never saw action because the nuclear bomb came out first.

Tias posted:

idgi, what is loophole 14

HEY GAL posted:

actually, imperial measurements are good

Owlkill posted:

This is a fantastic story that I'm going to steal as an interesting historical anecdote, but what was the point of this? Just to get the Germans to waste resources on rescue missions etc and also act as a trap for the local agents?

Raenir Salazar posted:

The 100 Years Ago Today Subreddit talked about the Brusilov Offencive, does anyone know if anything about the Russian preparations and strategic conditions going into it, strategy and so on, that maybe highlights or foreshadows Russian strategic and operational strengths? Like could you look back at it and see "Aha, and this is why Bagration."

Trin Tragula posted:

100 Years Ago: An Announcement

Hi folks, those of you who read my blog about the First World War, which started from effortposts I was making here a couple of years ago, probably noticed that regular updates stopped happening a while ago. There's a very simple reason for this: I don't have the time any more to keep churning out enough words every month (and it takes a lot of words) to keep it ticking over. I could do it if it were my job, but it's not, so. The Somme mud claims another casualty, but this one is at least wounded, not dead.

What I'm going to do instead is keep updating in skeleton form with the occasional longer thing when big/interesting things happen, and maybe some time down the road I'll have enough time to come back and finish the thing off properly. Thanks to everyone who read it and who bought the books.

Rodrigo Diaz posted:

Sorry about your hosed up language

BattleMoose posted:

Oh yeah, its certainly an effective means of clearing wire. But not having to focus your artillery on wire clearing duties frees them up to fire on other targets and potentially reducing how long a bombardment is necessary. Reducing the time the enemy has to bring up reserves and so forth. Not having to use artillery for wire clearing or not as much, has to be an advantage. Also fewer craters and such. I also see the success (relative) of the 1918 offensive as indicative that with the correct amount of artillery and infantry doctrines, trench systems could be overcome. Of course tanks would help, on the first few days.


Not sure how you intend to get the second wave of tanks through the crater filled hellscape of the trench systems, without directly driving them and with them subsequently breaking down. Getting through the hell scape of the trench system isn't sufficient, you also have to figure out how to get all your logistics and heavy artillery through it too. And that takes time. Enough time for your enemy to dig in, just 10 miles back?

PittTheElder posted:

I thought it was somewhat commonly held that it was new, larger fortifications that drove the need for larger armies, which drove a need for more centralization and bureaucracy in order to generate the huge amount of income needed to field those armies.

FastestGunAlive posted:

But if you already know the airfield is fake, your putting lives at risk with this gimmick strike, in addition to wasted resources to conduct it. You've also just let the enemy know you aren't falling for their deception! Better to deceive the deceiver imo

Smiling Knight posted:

Mil Hist squad, I need your help. 13 year old nephew needs a book for Christmas. He loves WWII, tanks, and building models of WWII tanks. Any ideas of what would be a good book for the guy?

SlothfulCobra posted:

You can't possibly stop youngsters from getting interested in war, sometimes they can be inexplicably drawn to it, and it's too important to ignore, so the best you can do is properly inform them accurately.

OwlFancier posted:

"Lost surprise attack against unarmed merchant ship by shooting self in own periscope with torpedo" has to be the most embarrassing way to die to be honest.

Nenonen posted:

A part of this story that is just as amazing is how this was discovered:


Sometimes a $1 book and some internet cooperation goes a long way.


Amusingly enough, getting hoisted by your own torpetard happened often enough and in many navies:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Tang_(SS-306)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Tullibee_(SS-284)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Trinidad_(46) (a destroyer, not submarine)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-377

And there could be more, but there are many subs that were lost and cause of sinking never revealed.

Then there is this blurp from March 24, 1918


But there's also this article from 1995!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-torpedo-that-thinks-its-a-boomerang-1600329.html

Deptfordx posted:

'On tonights show we're refighting the Invasion of Kislev. One team will be Archeon the Everchosen fighting for the Blood God vs Magnus the Pious's Empire Forces. Over now to our team in the field who will show us all exactly how a Dwarven Steamtank is used.'

Mycroft Holmes posted:

link

SlothfulCobra posted:

At what point do you cross the line from a simple act of civil disobedience to actively organizing tactics to thwart the police and fight back? I know those tactics are what can make the action more effective, but how do you reconcile things with more moderate people who only signed up to do a sit-in and maybe wave some signs when other members are talking about using bike chains to disable lights? Seems like that'd scare people off.

And how do you make "leaderless committees" work without devolving into a mess of people talking against eachother?

Nenonen posted:

DDR's radio, like so many other European broadcasters in the 1980's, sent BASIC programs at night via radio waves as digital buzz that listeners could record on a C-cassette and then load on their personal computer. This has always struck me as interesting, as DDR didn't seem like a place where computers were easily available.

Hogge Wild posted:

Cythereal posted:

As a kid I always wanted to root for the Empire because they're the ones with the giant badass starships.