Quote:I was just watching a documentary on D-Day, holy mother fucker, the German machine guns in the pill boxes on the top of the bluffs.

Be happy the Germans did not have crack troops defending those positions.

(November 12, 2018 at 12:48 am)Minimalist Wrote:

Quote:I was just watching a documentary on D-Day, holy mother fucker, the German machine guns in the pill boxes on the top of the bluffs.

Be happy the Germans did not have crack troops defending those positions.

Or many crack troops left in general

(November 11, 2018 at 10:35 pm)Brian37 Wrote: And yes I know Armistice Day was WW1 and D-Day was WW2. But still, how anybody survived either with out some severe PTSD.

It's rather simple, at least in theory: detach yourself from your emotions and get the job done. Why, yes, that is a Hell of a lot easier said than done, especially for someone who feels as much as I gather you do, but for a lot of people, it's a lot easier than you think: If you can think of the dead guys on your side of the battlefield as just some miscellaneous grunts and not, say, Jerry from New York, and the people you're shooting at as "The Enemy" and not human beings like you who just happened to be born into another country, you can pull it off.

This may strike you as callous. That's kind of the whole point.

(November 11, 2018 at 10:35 pm)Brian37 Wrote: I was just watching a documentary on D-Day, holy mother fucker, the German machine guns in the pill boxes on the top of the bluffs.  An AR-15 looks at them and says, "I need to speed up a bit." How the fuck anyone survived that.

R. Lee Ermey (RIP) tests the MG-42.

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(November 12, 2018 at 1:15 am)Rev. Rye Wrote:

(November 11, 2018 at 10:35 pm)Brian37 Wrote: And yes I know Armistice Day was WW1 and D-Day was WW2. But still, how anybody survived either with out some severe PTSD.

It's rather simple, at least in theory: detach yourself from your emotions and get the job done. Why, yes, that is a Hell of a lot easier said than done, especially for someone who feels as much as I gather you do, but for a lot of people, it's a lot easier than you think: If you can think of the dead guys on your side of the battlefield as just some miscellaneous grunts and not, say, Jerry from New York, and the people you're shooting at as "The Enemy" and not human beings like you who just happened to be born into another country, you can pull it off.

This may strike you as callous. That's kind of the whole point.

Never achieved that.

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(November 12, 2018 at 12:48 am)Minimalist Wrote:

Quote:I was just watching a documentary on D-Day, holy mother fucker, the German machine guns in the pill boxes on the top of the bluffs.

Be happy the Germans did not have crack troops defending those positions.

Some of the troops were, indeed, second rate. But some of them were "stomach troops", men with ulcers and the like. Good troops with problems. And sections were occupied by "rest troops", units taken out of the Eastern Front and sent to the Channel coast to rest and reorganize. High percentage of combat veterans in those units.

What if they gave a war and nobody came?

Boru

(November 11, 2018 at 11:03 pm)Tizheruk Wrote:

(November 11, 2018 at 10:35 pm)Brian37 Wrote: I was just watching a documentary on D-Day, holy mother fucker, the German machine guns in the pill boxes on the top of the bluffs.  An AR-15 looks at them and says, "I need to speed up a bit." How the fuck anyone survived that.

And the amphibious armored tanks they sent ashore, if you were the guy inside, you were pretty much fucked because the majority of tanks didn't make it. Pre-testing in calm waters they worked, but the waves that day were high and breached the canvas meant to keep them afloat. They were meant to act as cover for the soldiers but many sank before they could get ashore.

And yes I know Armistice Day was WW1 and D-Day was WW2. But still, how anybody survived either with out some severe PTSD.

Here's really good Youtube series on WW1. It just did it last episode today after 4 years . It does the war week by week as it would have been 100 years ago. It does a lot of other stuff two like evolution of tactics and technology and biographies of people  and nations as well as visiting museums and historic sites . 




The first episode explaining how the war happened 





Rommel became famous in WW2 but his story starts in WW1





The evolution of airplane

There is no way anyone could value Rommel in the 2nd World War considering the monster he supported. But it does explain in part the rise of Nationalism in pre WW2 Germany. He was a master strategist in WW1.

I will say this about Hitler, he basically bit off more than he could chew. He had a horrible strategy that if he just expanded, the conquered lands he could use those resources to continue expanding. Problem just like any system, if you don't take into account the amount of energy going into the system to produce the desired outcome, the gains will be short lived. Lucky for humanity, he made that huge blunder.

WWI trivia question: How many wings does a Trifokker have?

(November 12, 2018 at 10:21 am)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: WWI trivia question: How many wings does a Trifokker have?

4?

Boru

(November 12, 2018 at 9:12 am)Brian37 Wrote: There is no way anyone could value Rommel in the 2nd World War considering the monster he supported. But it does explain in part the rise of Nationalism in pre WW2 Germany. He was a master strategist in WW1.

Well, to be fair, besides being a master strategist, there was the fact that he had a very complicated relationship with Hitler and the Nazi Party that's ambiguous enough that it became plausible to treat him as less a committed Nazi and as much a victim of theirs as a puppet. I suppose that his consistent well-treatment of POWs (for a side that was infamous for its horrific human rights violations) and his being caught up in the 20 July 1944 plot on Hitler's life has quite a bit to do with it.

It's tempting to wonder what would have happened if Rommel defected to a more decent country, but, really, does defecting from one country's military to another's seem like a plausible thing to do? Especially if you expect to hold as high an office as Rommel?

(November 12, 2018 at 10:21 am)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: WWI trivia question: How many wings does a Trifokker have?

All of them?