hogmartin posted:

I've just now found the new thread and haven't read through it all yet, but I will answer your question from back in the dim mists of like two weeks ago (presuming that it hasn't already been answered) because this is like literally the one thing that I'm actually qualified to have an opinion on.

The US Navy's submariners are all volunteer. I don't know about other navies, but in the US you cannot be assigned to a submarine unless you request it. There was a kind of 100-question psych questionnaire* but mostly I guess they figure that if you actually ask to be put on a submarine, you're probably gonna work out. Actually being underway is kind of easy street, you have an 18-hour routine that you fall into. Being back in port is kind of worse because you get to go goof off on liberty but you need to be back inside that HY-80 steel bitch again tomorrow and it's hanging over you. Underway you just do your job, because where are you going to go? It's far more likely that you'll be standing watch with an incompetent waste of skin than with someone who's going to go completely bugnuts and try to crawl his way up the forward escape trunk 250 feet underwater.

I did an effort-ish post back in the old milhist thread about submarine life, I'll dig it up if you care. Your question has probably been answered in like page 14 and I just haven't read to that point yet.

* one of the questions was "I sometimes pretend I am dead and nobody can see or hear me (y/n)".

MrYenko posted:

Boy have I got a thread for you...

HEY GAL posted:

he was frozen, op.

and i don't know if he believed it about himself but everyone around him definitely did, in Quartermaster Deodati's account of Luetzen he mentions quite straightforwardly, "yeah the general-in-chief was at the head of his troops, a musket ball hit him but didn't go through, this happened loads of times, it's normal for him"

edit: general shot, so what

Josef bugman posted:

Has anyone read "The face of battle" I was recommended it as a good introductory book to the idea of what it was like to be part of an actual battle.

sullat posted:

Basically, the way it worked for the Sumerians was that there were a bunch of feuding city-states. Even though they were very similar culturally & linguistically, they were perpetually at odds. Each city-state ruled itself and the farmlands around it. The land and government in theory was controlled by the temples, although in practice there were certainly quasi-hereditary positions and powerful families interested in expanding their own influence within the state. Anyway, each city-state could call upon its own citizens for labor, both for civilian projects and for military adventures. Most of these military adventures involved rolling up to the neighboring city-states and demanding tribute; if they refused you got to fight them (or just steal their crops if they declined to fight). The winner would demand tribute, usually in the form of grain, silver, or labor. Also sometimes, slaves. Then everyone went home. The next year, you demanded tribute from the losers you beat up the previous year... sometimes they paid up to avoid a fight, sometimes you had to fight for it again.

HEY GAIL posted:

hey i was at stralsund all weekend, fun fact: the witstock mass grave and a soldiers' grave from Neu-Brandenburg both evince that soldiers during the 30yw ate more meat than civilians but were in terrible health in other ways, such as parasites and mucous membrane inflammations

Siivola posted:

I've seen an argument made that before the word "spadroon" came to refer to the notorious British 1796 infantry officer's sword, it was used to mean a light cut-and-thrust sword in general. One style of those is called the "Walloon sword", after the distinctive light basket hilt that's said to originate from that area.

Libluini posted:

A Korvettenkapitän called Albert Hopman told Tirpitz 1905 that his plan could not possible work and basically predicted exactly what happened in WWI. In 1912, Admiralstabschef August von Heeringen simulated what would happen if Hochseeflotte and the British Fleet fought each other in a potential war ("Kriegsspiel"). The leader playing the Royal Navy was ordered to play like a wimp, and the leader of the German side was ordered to play like a speed runner, trying to force a decisive battle as soon as possible.

Nebakenezzer posted:

Amerika Bombers 1944: Ragnarocky Road

Finished a new Amerika bomber post. I'm proud of this one because I think my heading titles are good.

WoodrowSkillson posted:

http://www.romanarmy.info/line3_pilum/pilum_volley.html

Topical and super nerdy.

Phi230 posted:

A guy at Waterloo survived 52 sabre cuts, 2 gunshot wounds and was grazed by a cannon ball

He passed out from blood loss and continued fighting after waking up

Disinterested posted:

Slim Jim Pickens posted:

Sad story, but the most decorated military trombone in US history was melted down in 1958, after fund-raising efforts failed to gather enough money to purchase it from the navy.

Stairmaster posted:

Supporting a centaur army would probably be a logistical nightmare

tonberrytoby posted:

One of my favorite science fiction series has most battles take part in hyperspace, which is two dimensional.

Alchenar posted:

This hopefully explains why the history of most warfare isn't 10 guys on each side with full plate mail and repeating crossbows staring at each other.