Mark IV

Keep your kilt on, I'm still at work. If I thought killing you would put an end to that grating broguerel you attempt posting in, I would take vacation days to slaughter you even more quickly. I can't believe I have to register my weapons, while you can run the length and breadth of the internet with a sackful of over-the-counter vowels. Watch your mail.

This would not detract from the idea that Soviet experience with the noisy end of antitank rifles led them to produce their own, would it?

The Soviet designs have nothing in common with the Lahti, which was much more sophisticated, effective, and better-made. I have gotten to inspect, though not shoot, a couple. Weeks: "How many of these superbly built guns [Lahtis] took part in the 1939 Winter War is not known, but some at least played their part in holding off the Soviet armoured threat and perhaps helped the Russian Army to decide on its own policy towards infantry anti-armour weapons." And Soviet forces should also have encountered Marosczeks (and maybe the nice Czech ATRs) in Poland. Anyway, the notion of infantry putting a hole in an armored vehicle with a portable, shoulder-fired, team-serviced weapon was appealing, and proven, in the context of 1941. That this led to the skirt/screen solution, which may, in turn, have proven of value in defeating shaped charge projectiles, does not seem illogical.

AT rifles started by accident in WWI. The Germans had been issued "K" bullets for the standard Mauser and for MGs in 1915, with heavier slugs with tungsten-carbide cores. They were made with special precision ("match grade" in shooting parlance) and were issued for MGs and some snipers. The greater weight, precision loads, and perfect shape of the premium rounds enable long-range accuracy. According to Weeks in "Men Against Tanks", they were used to penetrate the thin metal plates used by sentries in the trenches for protection. It was when the Germans captured two British tanks at Bullecourt in 1917 that it was discovered that they had penetrated the British armor. Infantry were immediately issued 5 rounds each of K bullets for use in the standard Mauser. The Brits also realized this and the Mark IV debuted in June 1917 with thicker and harder armor, which stopped ordinary K bullets. So the Germans began work on the first antitank rifle, a 13mm single-shot based on the Mauser (the Mauser T-Gewehr). Between the wars, it was the Polish who revived the ATR idea in 1935, with the Marosczek, using a huge powder charge necked down to a 7.92 bullet. It could penetrate 3/4" at 300 yds., very good stuff for the day. So the British developed the Boys rifle, the Germans went back into business with Pzb38, and the Finns with the Lahti, probably the best of the bunch. This is what is supposed to have impressed the Soviets so much as to introduce their own ATR. They were the only ones to keep issuing them through the remainder of the war (though the Japanese and others continued using the ones they had). Weeks theorizes that the PTRD and PTRS were the only designs available, and that Soviet factories were busy making "more important guns and tanks". He wonders, as do many, why they never copied the US bazooka. Anyway, the AT rifles in production at the start of WWII were effective enough to penetrate any German tank made at the time, though not always from the front. That would be a good reason to have them. In 1941 they would still have the ability to disable a large percentage of the German tanks and other vehicles used in Barbarossa (infantry are also interested in stopping half tracks and armored cars). So, not so dumb. You use whatcha got. The other benefit to the screens would be pre-deformation of an incoming projectile, as the shape of the round is critical to its ability to penetrate. Flatten out the nose (easy to do at those velocities, twigs will do it) and you seriously hinder its effectiveness.

My last Peng filets were rather smokey. They came with a side of Shermans and a dribble of... well, perhaps I'd best not say, I think he was frightened. I've just ordered some Peng again but it has been a long time coming from the kitchen (understandable... ever try to clean one of those things?). In the mean time, I've been tenderizing the section of the plate where I believe he'll appear. I'll chase him down with a nice Pinot Victoire and post a review later.

Stupid puds. Serfs were useful. The unholy land between "newbie" (fated to be stoned and poked with pointy sticks, driven away with large dogs clinging to their dangly parts, etc., you know the drill) and "squire" (same gig but smaller dogs, congrats lads) is inhabited by- what? Untermensch (i.e., lower than mensch)? Too connotative, perhaps. Fellaheen might work, but only Goanna could find out what it means, and only because he's just received his membership card. They are looking for sponsors in the Peng Thread. They willingly suffer debasement, with the slim hope that if they stick it out (Bauhaus!), they may enjoy universal contempt and derision. They are bimbos. Trollops. Their innermost feelings, not to mention organs, are used to temper fine steel, or at least rusty shards of jagged pipe. The excruciating process of Cessdom must run its Darwinian course, and the weak will be eaten... by those unconcerned with hygiene. A warning from On High about the 8th deadly sin: Tolerance. PS: Elvarse, you suck flak barrels and swallow the cordite like a greedy muzzle brake. I'm not bitter. And I'm not dead yet....

C'mon you lamers, where's my review? Dast I risk the 16 bucks or not? Geez, if I was asking for a video card recommendation there'd be 22 posts and a flame war by now.

So tonight at the local Albertson's (mass food chain) I note they have delved into quality scotch. Among the usual suspects are the "Dew" line of single malts. I have never heard of them and they are suspiciously cheap. There is an Islay Dew, and a Speyside Dew, from a Ewen (or something) distillery in Leith. There is florid but vague prose on the label of each, which is absolutely useless. These gems are $15.99 for 750ml. I don't expect them to win any competitions, but does anyone knowledgeable (i.e., freer with their 16 bucks than me) know whether these are worth the investment? Being conservative, I instead purchased some Dry Sack, some Heineken, and brought them home to meet my old friend Johnnie. Being ecumenical, I have indulged all 3. Obligatory WWII content follows: This investigation has relevance to the simulation of wartime expedients in the production of vital materials under budgetary constraints. DO NOT DRINK THE RESULTS OF THIS STUDY. This is a simulation. Or a reenactment. It's living history. Oral history, in fact....

Have some dam cheese and sit in the shade of that windmill over yonder, pardner. You musta had your finger in that dijk too long. This here's the Cesspool, aka Peng Thread etc., and if you're here for geopolitical insight, ya got the right place. That's what we're about, yup. We also offer free help with algebra homework and driving directions, so thanks for updating our database. What Holland oughta be famous for is the best gin in the world, but the Brits copped your schtick on that one. So that left whores, drugs, and the shoe concession. It is still one of my favorite countries visited, for all the excellent reasons covered here, and more. I hope the Tunisians aren't this sensitive. Most of the EC was bidding to host this next.

I keep looking through killmore's "review" to find anything at all that might be true. The closest I got was: "Soviet system looked so bad it feels like it is actually better to serve Hitler." Actually, quite a few Soviet citizens drew the same conclusion- at first. Turned out they were wrong. A lot of the feel of the movie was what is was like to be an ordinary guy caught up in the death struggle of two completely screwed political systems. Perhaps this was too subtle for some. Charges of Nazi propaganda are best forwarded to the French director (of Quest for Fire fame, one of my faves, a documentary on the Peng thread inhabitants) and the usual hotbed of 4th Reich activism, Hollywood. Geez. Over some heads, or what.

Wait'll you see the coffee shops. Starbucks never has anything from Nepal...

The Penghead? Pengthem?

Saw it, liked it. There were some obligatory scenes and I'm not talkin' 'bout the squad room grope. As for realism, it gave the flavor and the scope of Stalingrad as I've always read about it. The notion that you could make a watchable film of a detailed 500+-page history is ludicrous. This was more like Stalingrad was than anyone else has gotten into 2 hours or so. The PZs looked good, although I was puzzled about the rear of the turret in some quick background shots. I was agitated about the German sniper's apparently whimsical switch to the War Merit Cross, and happy with the ultimate explanation (I was gonna have a hard time with it otherwise... I still have some reservations about a Major, with the Knight's and Oaks, wearing it into battle, but it's a flavor thing...) Tactical Q: Why didn't Harris just blast the scope/action of the sniper rifle when it was laying in plain view? Kill the rifle, kill the man? Bummer about the kid but we had to remind people that the Nazis were Nazis, eh? And the blame was thick with trowel on the adults who put him in the role... either directly, or indirectly, by making the larger-than-life hero of Zaitsev in the first place. Is the irony of a movie making a larger-than-life hero ("for a buck", and the rest of you are volunteer workers?), out of a peasant who was made into a larger-than-life hero for propaganda purposes, lost here? Sorry for those who felt robbed. Overall, I left feeling more like I'd seen Stalingrad for real, than any movie before. Tell me what movie showed it better. The river crossing at the beginning was horribly great. A lot was dramatized, or more correctly, stylized, to try to show the whole grisly scope in the time allotted. The battle scenes sucked? Should have been more elaborately choreographed? The historical choreographers were the commissars and the MG42, and that's not a team noted for delicacy. Shooting war's a big confused hairy mess and triply so in an urban environment. It was only a canvas for the story anyway, and a damned effective one. I doubt the majority of the movie-going public would cheerfully shell out to see German Infantry Tactics faithfully reenacted. If you haven't seen it yet, of course you will, and I hope you make it to the big screen version. Anything less would be a mistake.

Unlike some snobby elitists, I read every word of this dreck, even when unable to respond. I have noted an alarming tolerance for newbie scum, and a distinct tendency toward (shudder) civility. I attribute to this to my reticence. Corrective action follows. Wars: von Schrad burns in Hell. Unfortunately, so do I. This version of an Afterlife makes life seem worth living. If he hadn't been issued a peck of Churchilosauri I'd own the place. elvis is a gamey cheat and rune loves him, which is why he has a brigade of German infantry to stop my handful of sissy Canucks. He also had a couple brigades of Panzers. But not any more. Peng is invisible and must have a monster ambush ready in the last 3/4" of the map (that's 750 milli-inches for you foreigners). Pawbroon just stopped by for his weekly vehicle disposal and disappeared back into the night. He has spent so much time modding that he is no longer able to distinguish fact (CM) from fiction (his viability in this game). meeksters has made a solitary appearance on the map. There will be no viewing of the remains and services were already held. Mortality is not negotiable, you doof. I saw a Valkyrie fly by, laughing her horns off. Goanna the Cheating Foreigner has not really put in his appearance yet either. Most of what he knows about this game comes from Peng. I do not think the Ambush works as well for the Attacker, however. Geier must've mixed up his lutefisk and kimshee again. He is dead or Swedish, but he is nowhere to be found. A default judgment will shortly be entered against him. There ya go. You want balanced reporting, buy US News and World Report. "Cav loves Max". Kinda has a ring to it. This is poll material... "I would rather be stuck in an elevator with ______ because: _____". I was beginning to forgive Aitken's parents but he keeps letting everyone live in his cartoons.

Jake, that's very similar to my rig, and you are gonna love it. The DDR RAM is an excellent way to go. I got the Micron Millenia Max XP with the 1.2 gig TBird, plus the 19" Trinitron and the 64Mb Geforce (also with DDR and TV out). CM is a whole new world! I may need to look into a good WWII flight sim. I have been incredibly impressed with Micron, and I am a crabby bastard...

Jake, that's very similar to my rig, and you are gonna love it. The DDR RAM is an excellent way to go. I got the Micron Millenia Max XP with the 1.2 gig TBird, plus the 19" Trinitron and the 64Mb Geforce (also with DDR and TV out). CM is a whole new world! I may need to look into a good WWII flight sim. I have been incredibly impressed with Micron, and I am a crabby bastard...

http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/000464.html

Meaning no offense, but I find this mindless prattle by a bunch of armchair deer hunters stupid, ignorant, and offensive. As a veteran of the Deer Wars, I have worn our nation's orange in the hell of the northern woods, and may I say as politely as possible that your bizarre fantasies are based on a game, and not reality. It is one thing to move pixellated ruminants around a monitor and quite another to hold your position in a frozen blind when the acorns start dropping. I'm not saying you can't get the flavor of it from books, although that would entail owning some, with actual text and hard covers. But the very idea of actually telling a hunting buddy, "Jones, take that bottle of scotch and stumble into those hemlocks over there" is utterly laughable to those of us who've been there and Seen the Elephant (hey, it was very good scotch). I guess there are 2 different kinds of gamers- those who treat this as a model for hunting reality and those who are stupid as hell. I make no judgments. I just wanted the voice of the only person who knows what he's talking about to be heard.

I don't care to hear rune disparaged in this manner. Meanwhile, in my dull, plodding, workmanlike fashion, I returned your last bit of foolishness within 2.5 hours of receipt exactly two days ago. Courage, lad. Open the file, fill in the form, and e-mail to Lorak, cc:moi. Berli: Haven't forgotten, just a mite busy, though obviously not with elvette. See ya soon.

Finally, a topic I know more about than jasoncawley... I have murdered/harvested lots of deer, with rifle, pistol and arrow (not all at the same time, you ninnies). I ate all the ones that fell over. They are not gamey unless you treat them gamily (do not hug their edges!). When hunting with firearms, attritionist doctrine is the most effective, while the maneuverist approach entails more skill and less cheesburgerage at the end of the day. In archery, however, ambushionist strategies are most effective, since running around waving a bow and arrow makes the deer go "woot! woot!" and I hate that. I have used semi- (not full, dolts) automatic weapons to shoot deer, and my observation is that it doesn't matter how the round gets into the chamber, you're only gonna one shot that matters. This is because deer have the reflexes of a forum moderator with a padlo

Keyword Search: "ostentatious" Delete all else? Yes [ X ] No [ ] Last time I saw that many syllables dedicated to such a bad idea, it was by Marx and Engels...

Guano, you were sent the 04 turn approximately 24 hours prior to this posting, & nothing heard from since (oh, the simple beauty of sequential numbering). Another of your gamey lies revealed. Who knows what "today" means in your geographically perverse world... The Elvine Monstrosity rumbles forward with lots of pyros but little actual damage. Actually most of my wars are just getting going or at an inconclusive midpoint. The singular exception is the peekaboo night-mare with 'Pool frog and intermittently ubiquitous Pawbroom, whose resurgent elan has turned this little war into something very interesting. I actually had Something, which he thinks is a MkIV, resist 4 point blank hits (I mean, under 50m) from an M8. As we know that to be impossible, he should deduce by now that it is the dreaded JumboSturmchurchillIX, ausf. K, so just put down that TD and back away... the fun thing about this one is guessing which direction he'll come from next. How many here are aware that the term "jarhead" derives from the practice of issuing orthopedic helmets to those soldiers most resistant to training? It occurs to me that I have never had a war with the cannon-cocking Berlikasomthing and I'm not sure how such an oversight is possible. Since I am already overcommitted I may as well extend an insolent gesture in his direction, difficult to describe in print, but suggesting martial incompetence, low morals, and bemused empathy for his family members. Name your terms.

I have to agree with the Horde of Rodents about relative levels of victory. It's one thing to have the game math declare you the victor, quite another to finish with a fighting force that would last another day (or hour) in battle. That said, I will speak for the "I'd rather win" point of view. I hate losing squads. I hate seeing my little Mark-you-know-whats burst into flames. I can't stand it when arty slams into my troops, especially those miserable 14" rounds. And I utterly despise losing games. It has (ahem) happened. I still enjoyed the games. Sort of. Usually, the closer the outcome, the greater the wellspring of resentment at continued losses, and the more likely I am to fight to the last cartridge. Still, it's hard to enjoy a victory that is so marginal that you know you were destroyed as an effective fighting force.

Pull the trigger! LOL, you'd better get arsed in a hurry, there will be a lot of demand for these.