Milhist Thread: Ok, so get this: we name the army groups 1, 2 and 4...

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Milhist Thread: Ok, so get this: we name the army groups 1, 2 and 4...

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

I think I have finally overcome my deep-seated hatred of stupidity and aristocrats enough to read my first book about WWI

What's the best book (or three) to start out with here?

# ¿ Dec 18, 2020 01:16

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 01:16

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

Cyrano4747 posted:

Since you're already expressing your hatred of aristocrats in addition to the good suggestions above you might want to check out Poilu by thread patron saint Louis Barthas

It's a memoir so if you want the blow by blow of who moved armies where etc you're not going to get that, but if you want a book that gives you a sense of what it was like serving in the French Army you can't do better.

He's also, uh, a little critical of officers. Just a tich.

You understood my question perfectly, thanks for this recommendation I have just started it and it's really my speed.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2020 15:23

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

I had a friend who went to the marines and explained to me that hearing protection was rarely used in any situation, because the thinking was that you would toughen up your ears and get used to the sound of gunshots. I think it would be a better option to be able to serve in the military without permanent damage but apparently this is the sort of thing a pussy rear end bitch thinks.

# ¿ Dec 25, 2020 14:37

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

You can argue that every Italian naval effort was a massive failure since they never had the fuel to sail around. If they wanted to mount a serious attack or blockade of Malta just a few miles away they would not have been able to scrounge up enough fuel, much less anything outside of the Mediterranean. The Regia Marina was more of a symbolic threat.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2020 14:43

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

I would love to renounce my citizenship if another country would accept filthy pandemic-infested American immigrants but I have been turned away repeatedly.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2020 14:47

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

I don't know much of anything about Korea but I have trouble believing anyone would have attempted to throw grenades from airplanes at that point in time. Could he be misremembering some other projectile?

I don't want you to interrogate your grandfather about mundane weapon systems, but I guess I'm more just asking the thread how historians verify some detail like this that is plausible but weird?

# ¿ Jan 3, 2021 18:15

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

I never knew Korea was the most hilarious war.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2021 01:30

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

Jobbo_Fett posted:

WW2 Data

Back in the new year with a new update, a continuation of the German rifle grenades available. We have three different types on hand, starting with a flat-headed hollow charge weapon, followed by a propaganda rifle grenade, and lastly an illuminating kind. How did the hollow charge weapon work? How would it act if it didn't make full contact against its intended target? How does one identify the shell of a propaganda grenade? What's the name for the illuminating star rifle grenade? All that and more at the blog!

Can you try to left align all your text? I lose my mind trying to read more than a sentence or two when every paragraph is centered.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2021 13:32

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

Reading about that Coffman engine starter was so cool, that interwar period when everyone was figuring out mechanics and engines for the first time is really interesting. I love the image of all these fingerless men running around with pockets full of shotgun shells to start their airplane which they would then immediately crash.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2021 13:03

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

Wait a minute, is the USS Hood which Will Riker famously served on named after John Hood? I find this unsettling.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2021 15:08

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

When I was a kid I remember reading about mountain infantry and I immediately assumed they must be the most badass mountaineers in the entire world, like they can all free solo Everest with nothing but a rifle and they all know how to light a fire in the snow with just their nutsack and some leaves.

I got very disappointed when I learned it's really just about saving weight on helicopters and most of them don't even go hiking.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2021 14:51

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

Do you really need to apologize for joking that poland was the actual cause of all the 20th century's problems in the history thread, are people truly that loving dense? Will I get probed for making a joke about the Boeing 737 crashing in the aviation thread because that's next on my agenda this morning

# ¿ Feb 12, 2021 11:46

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

By the time the tank is on fire you have way bigger problems than fire suppression.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2021 13:07

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

Alchenar posted:

Hollywood really needs to make a film about the Nazi underground slave-labour cruise missile factory, but despite being completely real I fear people would reject it as obviously made up.

You probably already know this and it's just a typo, but the V2s were definitely ballistic missiles, not cruise missiles. All the first objects sent into space by humans were explosive rockets made in underground factories under horrific slave labor conditions.

Nothing about the NDSAP economic stuff or bizarre need for living space makes any sense until you realize it was all bullshit and they just wanted millions of people to convert into slaves to truly kick off industrial scale slavery.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2021 21:52

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

If you want to take apart that Merlin engine this is a fun way to kill a few hours

https://store.steampowered.com/app/803980/Plane_Mechanic_Simulator/

# ¿ Feb 20, 2021 13:15

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

You can read story after story about Tiger Is and IIs and Elefants and everything else getting massacred by the USSR's 85mm gun so it's not like they were even that effective in WW2

# ¿ Mar 2, 2021 02:10

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

An old buddy of mine just bought a Bren. He was quite surprised to learn that I already own a bunch of ancient .303 I bought on sale like 15 years ago. Is it weird to own ammo for a half dozen calibers which you also have zero guns capable of shooting?

Anyway I finally get to go shoot it next weekend, I will post pics if anyone cares.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2021 14:13

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

This may be a really dumb question but does modern infantry even have the capability to march anymore? If there was some EMP disaster or whatever and all the trucks stopped working would the 1st infantry even be able to march from Kansas to Minnesota to prevent the Canadian invasion or is there just no plan for that?

# ¿ Mar 3, 2021 13:23

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

Bike trailers work great, but once you're towing over like 200lbs any small hill is a pretty brutal workout.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2021 19:23

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

This guy is just getting better and better at making these videos

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

# ¿ Mar 7, 2021 23:39

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

It's been awhile since I watched Man in the High Castle but a big part of that show is how the rivalries and infighting between generals and admirals is just ten times as bad as it was during WW2 and this causes lots of drama and civilization-wide issues in both Japan and Germany. idk a lot of that show doesn't make sense but it gets really silly and science fictiony in the later seasons so that's fun.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2021 03:46

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

Trying to play Battleship doesn't really work, the theoretical matchup between the IJN and the Queen's Navy would probably be decided by who was able to put more ground based planes into airfields nearby quickly. I don't think the Brits had a capability to win a massive air war that far away logistically though.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2021 15:05

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

The Americans always prioritized sex with teens over torpedo design & testing.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2021 13:20

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

Once we get to the point where the drug cartels engage in open naval warfare with the US Coast Guard then boat armor will have its moment, again.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2021 10:15

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

Ensign Expendable posted:

Winter and swamp tracks

The talk of tanks doing anything on top of snow is 99% bullshit. I'm sure the wider tracks helped with traction going uphill in some limited situations but the idea of the T34 going over some massive snowbank that is deeper than the T34 is tall is just not happening.

Even snowcats, which have a ground pressure of about 1-1.5psi (70g-105.4g/cm2) are too heavy and sink through the light fluffy snowfalls if they are too deep. This is roughly 3x less ground pressure than the T34 supposedly has with snow tracks on. (270g/cm2)

# ¿ Mar 29, 2021 12:38

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

If we are allowed to post our cynical hot takes on the 80s I always remember the first gulf war in the shadow of watching the berlin wall come down on tv just a few months before that. There was this brief moment of thinking ok maybe this poo poo can finally stop followed by oh god why are you just inventing more bullshit war this is just gonna keep happening forever isn't it?

# ¿ Mar 31, 2021 11:31

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

Direct fire mortars are easy to assemble with minimal tools so you see them in almost every insurgency along with simple blowback submachine guns.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Newry_mortar_attack

Not quite as innovative as the food tin shaped charge but they worked... sometimes.

https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2014/10/13/iras-recoilless-improvised-grenade-launcher/

Pryor on Fire fucked around with this message at 13:51 on Apr 18, 2021

# ¿ Apr 18, 2021 13:44

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

Emus are a valid type of military combatant, so if an Emu finally gets Bolsanaro that qualifies as death by combat.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2021 01:24

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

GW put on the flight suit and trotted the banner out as if he were personally responsible for bombing Saddam so that's probably what 70% of the USA misremembers as the real history.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2021 16:06

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

Look they screamed "stop resisting!" at the irish men fair and square. After that it was game on.

# ¿ May 21, 2022 04:09

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

Ensign Expendable posted:

T-34s with gasoline engines

The flashpoint of gasoline (the temperature at which enough fumes are produced in order to make an explosive mixture with the air) is -40�С. The flashpoint for diesel is +40�С. The improved fire safety of diesel engines eliminated practically all fires that arose as a result of tank usage.

I had no idea that gasoline was so much more fire prone than diesel in these WW2 tanks, that is nuts. Were the crews aware of this and did they all hate gas tanks?

# ¿ Jun 13, 2022 16:28

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 01:16

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

Nenonen posted:

Do you drive an internal combustion car? It also runs on either liquid.

No, I fill up my car with liquid antihelium. It annihilates normal matter and generates heat that way.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2022 16:59

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Milhist Thread: Ok, so get this: we name the army groups 1, 2 and 4...