PYF Historical Fun Fact: (USER LOSETH POSTYNG PRIVILYGES FOR FOUR AND TWENTY HOURS)

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Edgar Allen Ho: Apr 3, 2017; by sebmojo

Actually, we call those people �mainstream western politicians�

# ? Nov 17, 2018 23:15

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# ? Apr 29, 2024 05:35

Brute Hole Force: Dec 25, 2005; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

And that's how Panama was born.

# ? Nov 17, 2018 23:22

NorgLyle: Sep 20, 2002; Do you think I posted to this forum because I value your companionship?

steinrokkan posted:

That's not what tankie means.

A boatie would be somebody who based their ideology around defending gunboat diplomacy.

I will take that challenge.

# ? Nov 18, 2018 00:37

steinrokkan: Apr 2, 2011; Soiled Meat

Tony Snark posted:

And that's how Panama was born.

Actually Panama was born through Train Diplomacy.

# ? Nov 18, 2018 00:42

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

NorgLyle posted:

I will take that challenge.

The Civ V version is thematically appropriate:

quote:

Gain 6 more Influence per turn with City-States you could demand tribute from. Your military forces are 50% more effective at intimidating City-States.

# ? Nov 18, 2018 01:07

Cythereal: Nov 8, 2009; I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Platystemon posted:

The Civ V version is thematically appropriate:

Also, the Civ5 version is exclusive to turning your civ fascist. :v:

It's a really useful policy if you're going for a diplomatic victory as autocracy, and there's a reason the achievement for winning a diplomatic victory as autocracy is dubbed Axis Powered.

# ? Nov 18, 2018 02:44

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Autocracy�s niche in Civ V multiplayer �I�m losing the game and I want to lash out.�

You won�t necessarily win, but you can definitely wreck someone else�s civ.

# ? Nov 18, 2018 05:07

Ghost Leviathan: Mar 2, 2017; Exploration is ill-advised.

Very accurate. And its tenets are mostly built around waging war and being able to ignore your problems.

# ? Nov 18, 2018 05:32

Cythereal: Nov 8, 2009; I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Kinda goes hand in hand with its niche of being the ideology if you've got a big military. Order (communism, for those unfamiliar with Civ5) is geared to benefit civilizations with lots of territory and cities, which are likely to not be particularly well developed. Freedom (western style democracy) caters to geographically small but very populous and heavily developed nations.

Ironic or appropriate, your choice: the most natural early game civic to pair with Order is Liberty, Greco-Roman style early republicanism. Freedom pairs naturally with Tradition, old-style monarchy and oligarchy.

# ? Nov 18, 2018 06:23

Byzantine: Sep 1, 2007

Cythereal posted:

Ironic or appropriate, your choice: the most natural early game civic to pair with Order is Liberty, Greco-Roman style

# ? Nov 18, 2018 06:49

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

Freedom is the ideology of �I�m ahead and wish to continue my cruise to victory.�

Order is the ideology for �I need to fend off a fascist invasion and, if I survive, compete with the Freedom civ.� You�re the underdog, but in that position it�s not self‐defeating like the other ideologies.

# ? Nov 18, 2018 08:31

Say Nothing: Mar 5, 2013; by FactsAreUseless

Tony Snark posted:

And that's how Panama was born.

...A man, a plan, a canal, Panama...

# ? Nov 18, 2018 09:12

Zopotantor: Feb 24, 2013; ...und ist er drin dann lassen wir ihn niemals wieder raus...

Say Nothing posted:

...A man, a plan, a canal, Panama...

A man, a plan, a canoe, pasta, heros, rajahs, a coloratura, maps, snipe, percale, macaroni, a gag, a banana bag, a tan, a tag, a banana bag again (or a camel), a crepe, pins, Spam, a rut, a Rolo, cash, a jar, sore hats, a peon, a canal � Panama!

# ? Nov 18, 2018 11:58

Nessus: Dec 22, 2003; After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!

Zopotantor posted:

A man, a plan, a canoe, pasta, heros, rajahs, a coloratura, maps, snipe, percale, macaroni, a gag, a banana bag, a tan, a tag, a banana bag again (or a camel), a crepe, pins, Spam, a rut, a Rolo, cash, a jar, sore hats, a peon, a canal � Panama!

Holy poo poo.

And yeah I think one diplomatic attache who had watched the Monitor vs. the Merrimack said something to the effect of, "This morning we had 159 top of the line ships. Now we have that one ironclad and that other one we're working on."

# ? Nov 18, 2018 12:42

Biplane: Jul 18, 2005

"A map of The Somme after the battle. Each grid square is 250 square metres. The numbers written in blue are the amount of bodies found within them."

# ? Nov 20, 2018 07:18

ddiddles: Oct 21, 2008; Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm a schizophrenic and so am I

That is hosed.

# ? Nov 20, 2018 07:20

HairyManling: Jul 20, 2011; No flipping.; Fun Shoe

Biplane posted:

"A map of The Somme after the battle. Each grid square is 250 square metres. The numbers written in blue are the amount of bodies found within them."

God drat, the hell that fell upon those in grids 5 & 11 must have been horrific.

# ? Nov 20, 2018 07:30

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

829 bodies in 1.4 acres. :stare:

(Smallest boxes are 83⅓ yards to a side according this page.)

# ? Nov 20, 2018 07:55

aardwolf: Apr 27, 2013

C.M. Kruger posted:

The ships then got taken in and out of service over the years for various times when they were needed such as the War of 1812 and the Barbary Wars.

I grew up in a small rural village in New Zealand and it was a source of much disappointment when I found out these had nothing to do with haircuts. The world became a little less magical.

# ? Nov 20, 2018 09:12

Azhais: Feb 5, 2007; Switchblade Switcharoo

HairyManling posted:

God drat, the hell that fell upon those in grids 5 & 11 must have been horrific.

S4 was clearly the place to be

# ? Nov 20, 2018 10:07

Automatic Retard: Oct 21, 2010; PUT THIS WANKSTAIN ON IGNORE

Biplane posted:

"A map of The Somme after the battle. Each grid square is 250 square metres. The numbers written in blue are the amount of bodies found within them."

My eyes went straight to the 700/800 squares In the lower middle area for some reason. Ben Elton wrote non comedy book about ww1 that imagined what it was like to be in there at that time I think. Can't remember what it was called.

# ? Nov 20, 2018 16:07

tribbledirigible: Jul 27, 2004; I finally beat the internet. The end boss was hard.

Azhais posted:

S4 was clearly the place to be

They didn't find any bodies, likely because anybody there was just a smear of grease.

# ? Nov 20, 2018 18:45

Ben Nevis: Jan 20, 2011

Automatic Retard posted:

My eyes went straight to the 700/800 squares In the lower middle area for some reason. Ben Elton wrote non comedy book about ww1 that imagined what it was like to be in there at that time I think. Can't remember what it was called.

Her Privates We by Frederic Manning is a fictional novel about The Somme by a guy who was in the battle. It's set sort of between charges, but really feels like it nails down what it was like for the foot soldiers.

# ? Nov 20, 2018 19:35

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

In the Kingdom of Travancore women of lower castes had to pay a "breast tax" if they wanted to cover up their breasts. One woman, called Nangeli, refused to uncover her breasts or pay the tax and after the tax man had repeatedly asked her to pay she cut off her breasts and offered them as payment. She later died of blood loss. The "breast tax" was abolished in 1859.

# ? Nov 20, 2018 21:17

the holy poopacy: May 16, 2009; hey! check this out; Fun Shoe

Alhazred posted:

In the Kingdom of Travancore women of lower castes had to pay a "breast tax" if they wanted to cover up their breasts. One woman, called Nangeli, refused to uncover her breasts or pay the tax and after the tax man had repeatedly asked her to pay she cut off her breasts and offered them as payment. She later died of blood loss. The "breast tax" was abolished in 1859.

was there an official Breast Inspector who went around enforcing the tax?

# ? Nov 20, 2018 23:26

Nessus: Dec 22, 2003; After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!

Alhazred posted:

In the Kingdom of Travancore women of lower castes had to pay a "breast tax" if they wanted to cover up their breasts. One woman, called Nangeli, refused to uncover her breasts or pay the tax and after the tax man had repeatedly asked her to pay she cut off her breasts and offered them as payment. She later died of blood loss. The "breast tax" was abolished in 1859.

That was a roller coaster ride of a fact

# ? Nov 21, 2018 00:01

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Straight White Shark posted:

was there an official Breast Inspector who went around enforcing the tax?

If there's a tax there must be a taxman

# ? Nov 21, 2018 10:40

ishikabibble: Jan 21, 2012

Alhazred posted:

In the Kingdom of Travancore women of lower castes had to pay a "breast tax" if they wanted to cover up their breasts. One woman, called Nangeli, refused to uncover her breasts or pay the tax and after the tax man had repeatedly asked her to pay she cut off her breasts and offered them as payment. She later died of blood loss. The "breast tax" was abolished in 1859.

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

Motherfuck.

# ? Nov 21, 2018 11:31

Trabant: Nov 26, 2011; All systems nominal.

Biplane posted:

"A map of The Somme after the battle. Each grid square is 250 square metres. The numbers written in blue are the amount of bodies found within them."

You ~~sank my battleship~~ destroyed generations of my people!

# ? Nov 21, 2018 17:06

Der Kyhe: Jun 25, 2008

Trabant posted:

You ~~sank my battleship~~ destroyed generations of my people!

"French and British Empire run out of eligible male population years before we do" was a completely valid strategy, until the US intervened and messed everything up.

At least if you are an aristocratic Field Marshal from Prussia, to whom anyone without royal ties was in fact, not a human being.

# ? Nov 21, 2018 17:11

C.M. Kruger: Oct 28, 2013

Copying a couple posts from the military history thread since the end of WWI is seldom talked about, or how the war basically ended in the same amount of time as the hellishly bloody Battle of the Frontiers (where France lost 2% of their entire army in one day) that started things:

Trin Tragula posted:

Right, I owe you lot this for auld lang syne, if nothing else.

THE END OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR: A (Short) EFFORTPOST IN TWO PARTS

In the English language, how the First World War ended is often significantly glossed over. It's very easy to understand why; we all know the standard portrayal of the Western Front, it's all about futility and gas and machine-guns and moving the General's drinks cabinet six inches closer to Berlin. If you spend most of your book/movie/whatever establishing all these things about the First World War, then in order to fairly portray how the war was won, you then have to stand in front of your own gigantic landslide with a hand raised, optimistically requesting that it stop.

It makes absolutely no narrative sense, which is why it's also unsurprising that all the best First World War stories end before the Hundred Days. There's no way Blackadder Goes Forth or Valiant Hearts could have gone into 1918, it would have completely undercut the point they were trying to make. This can be easily combined with another wheeze, pioneered by Abel Gance in J'accuse, and since used both by history and fiction, which is to jump seamlessly from muddy deadlock to the post-war dead. For historians in particular, there is also the dangling bait of the Versailles Peace Conference to get stuck into, so why bother with all these inconvenient details when you can get to Clemenceau and Lloyd-George and Wilson and the Italians and the Japanese fighting like cats in a sack?

So the Hundred Days gets ignored and quietly shuffled aside. But the moment when I knew I had to attempt to seriously learn and write about the First World War (and go from having about 10 books on my shelf to about 60, plus God knows how many more in electronic copies), was when I realised that for France, Ferdinand Foch may have been the fulminating dyspeptic idiot of 1912 who trained the French army to believe passionately in offensive � l'outrance and the shell-repelling properties of red trousers; but he's also an absolutely critical positive figure in 1918, both in the things he did physically in his role as the first Supreme Allied Commander, and in the things he did intellectually, by throwing out his own pre-war ideas almost immediately when they were proven to not work, and searching for new ones instead.

There's a similar and striking thing for the BEF, which often gets squashed out of sight by maple-flavoured Anzackery. In 1916, the Battle of the Somme was planned and executed by Sir Douglas Haig as commander-in-chief and Sir Henry Rawlinson as the most important army commander. In 1918, the Battle of Amiens was planned and executed by Sir Douglas Haig as commander-in-chief, and Sir Henry Rawlinson as the most important army commander. That's a seriously hard thing to come to terms with if you want to talk about the war in terms of butchers and donkeys. It doesn't work. Donkeys can't be winners.

So, how was the war won?

IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID

It is extremely hard to overstate how economically hosed the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman empires were by 1918. The painful detail is in Alexander Watson's Ring of Steel. In short: they were fast losing the ability to reliably feed their people, to say nothing of how difficult it was becoming to supply the army. By 1918, Scandinavia had been bullied into closing just about every official trading link with Germany, and a lot of unofficial ones too; by this point they'd lost both the Baltic and the Atlantic. Getting legitimate imports to Germany was all but impossible.

This is a far more important factor than "we're going to run out of men". That might have been a serious problem if the war continues into 1919, and definitely by 1920; but fundamentally it doesn't matter how many men you've got if they don't have anything to eat or fire. One of the major reasons for the Spring Offensive going the way it did was that these elite vanguard steely-eyed Sturmtruppen messengers-o'death would eventually trip over someone's supply depot, find that it was stuffed to the gills with real food and not ersatz bullshit, and immediately drop everything to loot the gently caress out of it. (There's a striking personal account which I can't find again, but it gives the image of some men who had lived in fear of their classical Teutonic iron-disciplined platonic-ideal-of-a-sergeant seeing him come away from one of these places with three chickens stuffed under each arm, and you can guess what happened next.)

The only Central Power which was still capable of giving a good account of itself in mid-1918 was Bulgaria; with good German support they're capable of keeping the Gardeners of Salonika in place, but they don't have the flexibility to do much else. And even they're starting to get sick and tired of this poo poo to prop up the Germans; incidents of open mutiny are slowly rising and the Germans are withdrawing more and more men to plug holes somewhere else.

THE WORLD MOVES ON

In addition to the basic problem of "mans gotta eat", outside a few specific fields, the Germans failed badly at innovating as the war went on. They had the world's best heavy machine gun, in world-leading quantities, in 1914; but by 1918 they had no answer to the new Lewis/Chauchat/Hotchkiss man-portable light machine guns. In 1915 they were merrily using both wires and ground induction to tap the Entente field-telephone networks; in 1918 they had no replacement once the telephone lines were improved. They had no protection to sound-ranging for their guns, no reliable weapon to stop tanks, no appreciation of how dangerous bomber aircraft could now be on rear-area interdiction missions, and so on and so forth. Could go into a lot more detail here, but brevity is necessary if I'm going to get to sleep on time.

(I say "Germans", but of course the other Central Powers suffered from the same problems also. Would love to go into the particular issues with e.g. the Ottoman empire as the Middle East campaign moved inexorably from Eden to Armageddon, but must be getting on.)

THE OTHER SIDE CAN WAR BETTER

Both within and outwith the Western Front, the learning processes that all the Entente armies have been on since joining the war had matured by mid-1918. Some have learned more than others, but they all have a clear advantage over their opponents. The Italians have finally ditched everyone's favourite pantomime villain Luigi Cadorna and replaced him with Armando Diaz, who may not have been a shining military genius, but he most certainly was not a stinking military idiot.

THE loving AMERICANS

Yeah, these people were important too. They were absolutely not important in the same way that they were in another, later war, mind you (consider that it is Foch and not Pershing who gets the big chair, for instance). What they did offer more than anything was incredible peace of mind; their presence allowed Foch as Supreme Commander to plan freely without fear of exhausting limited manpower resources, because by this time next year there's going to be 4 million of the fuckers and we can send them off to die instead; therefore we can be bold and take risks now to put them in as good a position as possible when it's their turn to shoulder the load.

American performance in the war is (unsurprisingly) a Matter of Some Debate. They certainly didn't win the war single-handed (comments about maple-flavoured Anzackery aside, the Canadians and Australians genuinely do have a ~~more convincing~~ less unconvincing claim on that), but when they were called on, they did a surprisingly good job of work, considering that a year previously, everyone involved was either a civilian, a desk jockey, or losing to Pancho Villa at hide-and-seek. It doesn't get remembered as an incredible achievement like it should, because there was another war in which they did even more from a standing start.

That's about all I can think of right now. Grab a cup of tea and I'll get cracking on Part 2, the timeline.

Trin Tragula posted:

THE END OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR: A (Really Short) TIMELINE

We'll begin in earnest on the 1st of August 1918, pretty much exactly four years after the start of the war. Some really important things that happened before then:

Accidental formation of an Allied Supreme Command: This began in late 1917, at least partly as a Lloyd George plot to stitch up Haig by turning off his manpower tap. In true WWI style, many of the people involved in setting it up thought they were just setting up a Combined Allied Reserve, so that if the predicted major German attack happened, forces from all nations could be quickly rushed to the relevant area, and so prevent political ructions of the "you didn't help when we needed it most" variety. Clemenceau's agreement was only secured by a large raft of concessions on the original plan, the most important being that the French representative on the reserve's governing Board should be Ferdinand Foch and not his wet-blanket staff officer Maxime Weygand.

Spring Offensive: The Germans launched a desperate last-gasp offensive to force negotiations before those 4 million Americans could arrive in theatre. They did about as well as they possibly could have done without tanks and with an army that hadn't had a proper cup of coffee or loaf of bread in two years. They might have succeeded either by cutting the BEF off from the Channel Ports, or capturing Paris; they did neither, and while things were very worrying for their opponents for quite a while, in the final analysis they succeeded only in restoring the front in January 1918 to something that looked much more like January 1915.

Intentional formation of an Allied Supreme Command: in March, Foch was given the job of officially coordinating British and French forces in response to the Spring Offensive; about a month later he was formally given the title of Supreme Allied Commander with the authority to give orders to the various allied Expeditionary Forces. It doesn't take Lloyd George long to realise how badly this has backfired on him; now if he takes issue with grand strategy he must take it up with Foch (who he cannot sack) instead of Haig (who he could, except nobody wants Haig's job, which is why he tried to stitch Haig up over reserves in the first place). By May Foch has titular control over the Italian front and de facto control over the men at Salonika.

Strategic planning: For what I believe is the first time in the war, Foch and GQG plan a general offensive on the Western Front with no specific tactical objectives. The German line will be attacked simultaneously in several widely-flung areas. The objective is only to disrupt the enemy line enough so that their entire position becomes dislocated and they must retreat to avoid being cut off by the new, fast, Renault FT tanks, which will be used explicitly as a cavalry-replacement instrument of exploitation. Success will be reinforced; failure will not be; awkward bits will be bypassed where possible; the success of the entire offensive will not be contingent on capturing this one really nasty dugout. The offensive will not end until the men are totally incapable of fighting; when the enemy retreats, they will be attacked again and again and will not be allowed enough time to dig new defensive positions; the front will not be allowed to ossify again.

I will be saying this a lot, but it needs to be repeated over and over again; the end-point, as both Foch and Haig see it, is to put the Germans on the back foot and advance as far as possible before winter, so that the Americans can be set up to deliver the knockout blow in 1919.

Tactical planning: Both the BEF and the French have finally escaped the tactical dead end they were stuck in until the end of 1917, the main feature of which was days-long overwhelming artillery bombardments before an offensive. Now that Renaults and British Whippet light tanks are available, and artillery pre-registration, and rear-area bombing, they're once again going to try surprise. Everyone's now confident that a preliminary bombardment is not required to adequately suppress the enemy's artillery and machine guns. Overflying aircraft will be used to drown out the noise of massed tank engines, and the full range of deception tactics will be used in the run-up to the grand offensive.

Coordination, but not to a fault: again, Foch wants to put pressure on all the Central Powers at once, but is much less fashed about this than, say, Joffre (quarantined at Versailles for the rest of the war, where his penance is to eat enormous meals and listen to Cadorna talk bollocks) was when trying to coordinate joint offensives in 1915 and 1916 that all had to go off at exactly the same time for maximum effect.

Final plans: The BEF and French armies will attack together on the old Somme battlefields. (It's very interesting that we call the Battle of Amiens the Battle of Amiens, and not the Second Battle of the Somme.) After this, another French attack will go in at Noyon, and then the Americans will have a go at shoving the south-east corner of the front away from Verdun. In September there will be a major push out of Macedonia and back into Serbia. The Italians are clearly not ready yet, so their offensive is put back to an unspecified point later in the year. A number of small preliminary attacks will precede the big push.

August 1: About now, the Spanish flu mutates and there are fresh outbreaks in Europe, Africa, and North America. This is the form of the virus that will kill up to a hundred million people around the world; it's the double-six that nobody in the Entente armies planned to deal with while fighting the war, and nobody who tries to do alt-hist thinks about because it's impossible to even guess how it might have gone with a live war in 1919. Burn out or get twice as worse? Who knows.

August 8: Beginning of the grand offensive. The Germans know it's coming, but are surprised by the location chosen. By noon, British tanks are firmly embedded in the German rear, having advanced about 8 miles, and there is a 15-mile-wide gap blasted in German lines. Ludendorff allegedly says his thing about "black day of the German army". The spearhead is the British 4th Army under Rawlinson, with the oversize Australian and Canadian Corps making up two-thirds of his strength. Cavalry and armoured cars carry out successful harrassing operations to keep the enemy on the run.

August 10: The Germans begin a major withdrawal in the Somme sector, but refuse to retreat anywhere else.

August 12: Fourth Army is tiring fast; Foch briefly forgets his own theory of opportunism and lobbies for them to attack again in force, as some Germans are approaching some of their old Hindenburg Line positions; but Haig convinces him that something else is in order instead and slows the pursuit; pressure will be maintained with artillery fire and demonstrations.

August 17: The French 10th Army attacks directly towards Noyon, for so long the corner of the Western Front. As the retreat from the Somme slows, the retreat out of Noyon begins.

August 21: The British 3rd Army attacks towards Bapaume, taking the enemy completely by surprise. Heavy fighting; more retreating. (This is the precise bit of fighting which occurred on the exact Somme battlefields of 1916; they were clean through and heading for Bapaume itself in a few days.)

August 26: The British 1st Army attacks at Arras and Aubers with even more success; the entire north-western stretch of the Western Front (except the Ypres salient) has been dislocated and the Germans are now falling back en masse on the Hindenburg Line.

August 29: The French re-liberate Noyon. Bapaume is entered, but the Germans try to dig in east of the city.

August 31: 1st Army approaches the Wotanstellung, a particularly nasty defensive position guarding the main defences at the Hindenburg Line; Haig urges caution. To the south, Australian troops cross the River Somme unexpectedly and begin to assault Mont Saint-Quentin, a vital observation point and keystone of German defences around Peronne; again it was intended to shield the main Hindenburg Line, which it's done about as well as a chocolate fireguard.

September 1: Haig re-affirms that the goal of this series of offensives is to set up the Americans for 1919.

September 2: The Wotanstellung is attacked and broken into. Bapaume is secured.

September 3: The Germans retreat from the Wotanstellung and Mont Saint-Quentin.

September 10: The French 1st Army is approaching St Quentin and the Hindenburg Line.

September 12: The AEF attacks the St Mihiel salient outside Verdun, catching the Germans as they prepare a withdrawal. Pershing dreams of advancing all the way to Metz.

September 14: The French 10th Army is approaching the Line at Laon. Probing operations conducted reveal the Germans are wobbling badly.

September 15: Widespread contact with the advanced outpost zones of the Line. Plans laid for a mass attack on it.

September 16: The American advance away from Verdun has stalled out badly, but vital lessons in how not to gently caress up one's supplies while advancing have been learned. First day of the Vardar Offensive in Macedonia.

September 17: Breakthrough in Macedonia at Dobro Pole. Faced with the choice of defending Serbia for Germany and A-H, or defending Bulgaria for themselves, the Bulgarians are now seeing the benefits of defending Bulgaria for themselves.

September 18: Vardar Offensive halted for while at Doiran.

September 19: Start of the (mis-named for propaganda reasons) Battle of Megiddo in Palestine.

September 21: Bulgarian forces in Macedonia conducting a general advance to the rear; local forces pursue. Haig considers for the first time that the end of the war might be possible this year, but is still planning to fight into 1919.

September 25: Bulgarian deserters now making their own way to the rear in large numbers. End of the Battle of Megiddo; this total defeat for the Ottoman Army destroys morale among their general staff. Advance begins on Damascus, and then towards Aleppo.

September 26: The French and Americans launch the Meuse-Argonne Offensive against the south of the Hindenburg Line, far from the initial thrust against it two months ago. Prepatory attacks at the Somme.

September 28: Start of the Fifth (and final) Battle of Ypres. They advance six miles, returning to the edge of Passchendaele village in one day. Short-lived military rebellion against the Bulgarian government. Bulgarian delegation travels to Salonika to negotiate an armistice.

September 29: British 4th Army attacks the St Quentin Canal, the strongest point of the Hindenburg Line.

September 30: BULGARIA EXITS THE WAR. The British component of the force is detached and turns to head into Thrace, towards the Bosphorus and Constantinople. The Italians go into business for themselves and head off towards the Adriatic coast to prevent any backsliding on the Treaty of London. The French and Serbians move to liberate Serbia. St Quentin Canal crossed and pontoon bridges established.

October 3rd: Haig receives a memo from Winston Churchill, cautioning him to husband his strength for the decisive offensives of 1920. The German Government resigns. Prince Max of Baden appointed Chancellor as head of a government of national unity.

October 4th: Hindenburg Line totally breached at St Quentin. Australian Corps removed from the line for rest, and as it turns out, will not return. The German government formally requests an armistice.

The German Army subsequently made several attempts to make a stand after retreating from the Hindenburg Line (it took a week more for it to break to the Meuse-Argonne offensive in the south), and failed every time. By mid-October most of the Western Front was in semi-mobile warfare. Better-fed and better-supplied Germans could probably have found somewhere to dig in and resist for a while; but by now they were fresh out of everything, especially morale.

Belgrade was liberated on November 1, and preparations were made for an attack over the Danube; the Italians were well stuck into Dalmatia by this time, and finally got around to launching the Battle of Vittorio Veneto on the 24th of October. By the end of October, Entente forces were 30 miles from the Ottoman border in Thrace and poised to advance on Constantinople. All the Central Powers finally collapsed all together; the Ottoman government signed an armistice on October 30th; the Austro-Hungarian and German Kaisers abdicated their thrones one day apart on November 9th and 10th.

So it came to pass that the German army found itself exiting, pursued by a (Canadian) bear, over the Mons-Conde canal. This is the final irony of the First World War. The BEF retreated from Mons during their first major engagement on August 23, 1914. After 1,541 days of the most unimaginably gruelling warfare, they finally made it back on the morning of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. And then the war ended.

Postscript:

14 November: Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck, who has, since fleeing Tanzania in 1916, run an entire loop through Mozambique; then back into Tanzania; then out towards Zambia; and who is still entirely at large; is given a telegram informing him that the war is over and he should stand down.

25 November: Lettow-Vorbeck surrenders at Abercorn (now Mbala).

# ? Nov 22, 2018 08:44

Suspect Bucket: Jan 15, 2012; SHRIMPDOR WAS A MAN
I mean, HE WAS A SHRIMP MAN
er, maybe also A DRAGON
or possibly
A MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM
BUT HE WAS STILL
SHRIMPDOR

C.M. Kruger posted:

Copying a couple posts from the military history thread since the end of WWI is seldom talked about, or how the war basically ended in the same amount of time as the hellishly bloody Battle of the Frontiers (where France lost 2% of their entire army in one day) that started things:

Copying Trin is cheating, he's the best at World War 1. I learned more about European world history from his Day By Day posts then from pretty much any other source in my entire life.

# ? Nov 22, 2018 15:13

Sulla Faex: May 14, 2010; No man ever did me so much good, or enemy so much harm, but I repaid him with ENDLESS SHITPOSTING

Suspect Bucket posted:

Copying Trin is cheating, he's the best at World War 1. I learned more about European world history from his Day By Day posts then from pretty much any other source in my entire life.

Do you have a link?

e: here it is: https://makersley.com/a-failure-of-oversight/

Sulla Faex has a new favorite as of 16:48 on Nov 22, 2018

# ? Nov 22, 2018 16:37

Suspect Bucket: Jan 15, 2012; SHRIMPDOR WAS A MAN
I mean, HE WAS A SHRIMP MAN
er, maybe also A DRAGON
or possibly
A MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM
BUT HE WAS STILL
SHRIMPDOR

Sulla-Marius 88 posted:

Do you have a link?

e: here it is: https://makersley.com/a-failure-of-oversight/

Haha, yeah, sorry, I was posting on mobile while at work, I basically made that post word by word in the middle of customers.

I did get to read part of it undisturbed, and I was very proud of myself for recognizing Trin's style of writing. I bought both of his e-books, they are great being both Long, and Bite Sized, so you can read for five minutes, or six hours. I just wish the advertisements were in the books too, but licencing and stuff is hard x.x

BTW, Trin's Day-By-Day Ebooks are a must buy if you have any interest in WW1. Trin was a god damned champ for about two straight years about the day-by-day posts, and the books are simply excellent. I hope he gets the spare time and gumption to do the other years, but I understand completely how exhausting it must be. https://makersley.com/buy-the-book/ They are three dollars each you guys BUY THEM

But if you are broke and in need of a WW1 read, I recently found the adventures of the SMS Emden on Gutenberg. AKA, the longest escape ever undertaken. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45878

Hell. Have a Historical Fun Fact to make you read the dang book. The Emden was built for the German Navy in 1906, sister ship the the Dresden. WW1 happened, they were being naughty in the Cocos Islands and blowing up ships and telegraph stations and the like. But nobly naughty, as the Captain Karl von M�ller, and First Officer Hellmuth von M�cke who, while earning several medals, fighting with dash and galantry and blowing up a fair few ships, also was renown by both sides for his care in not involving civilians or non-combatants. Seriously. First Officer M�cke lands on an island with an English telegraph station on the Cocos, and the exchange basically goes

:tipshat:

: Hey, sorry, I gotta destroy this telegraph station. Could you unlock the doors and such so my men don't have to knock them down?
:britain:

: Of course. By the way, we've been reading the latest news, congratulations on your captain's Iron Cross.
:mil101:

His iron what now
:australia:

: Oi mate by the way i'm blaowing up ya ship
:tipshat:

: Oh ding dang. Can me and my forty guys borrow that tiny old sailboat in your harbor?
:britain:

: Um, it's broken and old as bollocks, but sure. Here, have water and other provisions for the journey.
:tipshat:

: Farewell, strangely helpful man

(13 days, 800ish miles, several storms, and a lot of teaching coal stokers to be sailors later)
:mil101:

: Excuse me, this is Sumatra, we are the Neutral Dutch, Why is your tiny ship full of dudes?
:tipshat:

: Greetings sir, just need to make repairs and stock up on provisions. Just going for a sail back to Germany.
:mil101:

: You mad bastard.

(16 more days of sailing and roughness)
:tipshat:

: Our coaling ship! Here to save us!
:newlol:

: Would love to buddy, but look at this giant storm
(two days of fighting storms later)
:tipshat:

: Okay, now we are STEAMING to Yemen! At 7kts an hour through enemy infested waters. Also, it's like 3000 miles away.
:newlol:

: Sick let's go
:newlol:

: Wait how do you get to Germany.
:tipshat:

: Buy camels, train 40 guys who have never ridden before into a sort of dragoon force, ride the length of the red sea, across a gigantic desert called the Middle East, catch every disease, get to Turkey, catch a train or something.
:newlol:

: lol nice try not to get attacked by English backed Bedouin warriors
:tipshat:

: I most certainly will

And then he did and only lost like 2 guys. Read the book.

Suspect Bucket has a new favorite as of 02:48 on Nov 23, 2018

# ? Nov 23, 2018 01:53

Keru: Aug 2, 2004; 'n suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us 'n the sky was full of what looked like 'uge bats, all swooping 'n screeching 'n divin' around the ute.

Ok, that's a really fascinating way to read up on the Great War/WW1 and I'm so glad you had that link. That's me sorted for.... well, 'til christmas at the least.

# ? Nov 23, 2018 02:42

Byzantine: Sep 1, 2007

Keru posted:

Ok, that's a really fascinating way to read up on the Great War/WW1 and I'm so glad you had that link. That's me sorted for.... well, 'til christmas at the least.

Be done by Christmas, eh.

# ? Nov 23, 2018 05:47

Ghost Leviathan: Mar 2, 2017; Exploration is ill-advised.

Suspect Bucket posted:

And then he did and only lost like 2 guys. Read the book.

That's like WW1 Anabasis.

# ? Nov 23, 2018 06:20

Keru: Aug 2, 2004; 'n suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us 'n the sky was full of what looked like 'uge bats, all swooping 'n screeching 'n divin' around the ute.

Byzantine posted:

Be done by Christmas, eh.

I'm glad someone caught that.

# ? Nov 23, 2018 06:57

frankee: Dec 29, 2017

The Mighty Atom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvq514-grRU

# ? Nov 23, 2018 10:04

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 29, 2024 05:35

Trabant: Nov 26, 2011; All systems nominal.

Since we're on WWI, this is coming out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrabKK9Bhds

Could be amazing.

# ? Nov 25, 2018 17:45

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > PYF Historical Fun Fact: (USER LOSETH POSTYNG PRIVILYGES FOR FOUR AND TWENTY HOURS)

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