Ales Dvorak

From Billy Joel:"Take a song like 'We Didn't Start the Fire.' It's really not much of a song ... If you take the melody by itself, terrible. Like a dentist drill.
I agree.
This one is more melodic.
 
 

The war must really be a stalemate, what with there being talk of aliens here now...

You're quoting Tass, a Russian state-owned news agency. Of course it's not true.

For peaceful purposes only!
There's also the classic "Breakfast Bazooka / Between Meal Mortar" at 4:15 of this longer video.
They say you never hear the sugared snack with your name on it...

From an historical point of view, the Allied Tactical air support in WW2 was more directed against line of supplies and enemy units in movement than against tactical defending positions on the battlefield. So it's not surprising that its effectiveness is not wonderful in the frame of CM WW2 games!

Supposedly these were used in Italy. I've watched plenty of WW2 stuff, but never heard of this. Very ingenious, and looks like it would work good to transport a squad so surprised so obscure.
 

Is that a kid-sized toy rifle used for 'training' Little Oktobrists or sumfink? (the colour leads me to suspect it might be)
Because if not, then stick that beauty on a skewer and roast it rather than rely on the logistics chain.

I’m sorry, but that was f’king disgusting! There’s no reason for showing vids of soldiers burning to death! When we show those, we become desensitized to them still being human beings.

Footage from an airsoft game, unfortunately 😉

Anyone noticed cannabis at 0:06 - 0:10?

Anyone noticed cannabis at 0:06 - 0:10?

Anyone noticed cannabis at 0:06 - 0:10?

Hey, aren't you the one that says we can walk and chew gum a the same time 😀

I'm afraid at the end there will be more: "Hey! I ordered a cheeseburger"

I'm afraid at the end there will be more: "Hey! I ordered a cheeseburger"

Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre also.

Ugh, a very quick wiki search comes up pretty quick that the actions of some sub-units of this division agains Polish civilians, on more than one occasion, were criminal.  Of course Canada held a “totally-not-cover-our-a$$es” commission back in 1986 and found the Division as innocent as lambs.  This was seriously political as we were coming under a lot of pressure for harbouring war criminals back then and surprisingly we held a commission and found we were not.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_Waffen_Grenadier_Division_of_the_SS_(1st_Galician)
For our European readers/posters let’s just be really clear - Nazi as a brand = Evil in North American thinking.  No Grey Areas, no “hey wait a minutes” or “what about context”.  Anyone in North America who thinks Nazi = Ok, is immediately labeled a Nazi/white supremacist.  
Any further discussion of this will no doubt drag this thread down a rabbit hole we do not want to go down, so I recommend we tie off “Nazi, let’s think about it” early.  The fact that Canadian parliament invited in a veteran of this Division, in the middle of a visit from the Ukrainian president, is a screw up of epic proportions.  Even if all this guy did was guard the mess and is totally innocent, his attachment to this formation should have raised flags and put the brakes on this whole thing.  It’s link to this war is that Russia is making IO hay on this entire issue, which is doing exactly zero favours for Ukraine in the longer term.

This.
 
p.s.
The 14th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division (Galizische Nr. 1) (14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (galizische Nr. 1)) was a Waffen-SS division founded in April 1943 from Ukrainians, which was present in Slovenia in two different periods. Initially (February–March 1945), it primarily operated in the area of Lower Štajerska (some units also in Gorenjska and Dolenjska); then it retreated with other units (in April and May 1945) across Lower Styria to Austria, where it again clashed with Slovenian partisans. The primary combat and combat support units were: the 29th, 30th and 31st Waffen-SS Grenadier Regiments, the 14th Waffen-SS Artillery Regiment and the 14th Waffen-SS Field Replacement Regiment

I know it's almost heresy to say on these forums, but as we are now halfway through September and Ukraine is still quite far from Tokmak, and Tokmak is quite far away from the sea of Azov, I've begun considering the offensive a failure.
Of course I can't say for sure. I'm no military expert, and I don't have access to much information. Maybe the Russians are close to breaking point and collapse. Hopefully they are. But the front line is just not moving very much.
Ukraine has been fighting hard and taken heavy losses, and still only have very few gains to show for it. The Verbove penetration is only about 10x10 kilometres and even though it's now two weeks since the Russian line was claimed to be penetrated, the front line has barely moved since then.
But I'm not writing this to start another debate about whther the offensive has failed or not.
I'm thinking about what will happen if it has indeed failed. Just for the sake of the argument, let's say autumn rain and mud arrives and Ukraine is still barely halfway to Tokmak. What happens then?
I'm guessing both sides would try to struggle on through autumn and winter, but mostly the war would be in pause. How does the situation look next spring, then, both militarily and on the political level?
For all the talk about whether the Russian people are fed up with the war, how about Western voters? When I look around here in Denmark, it seems the war has gone from a matter of great urgency to just background noise. I think that a failed offensive would lead many people in the west to conclude that this was is not really winnable.
Before, there was this sense that since Ukraine had beaten Russia so badly in the beginning of the war, with Russia at full strenght and Ukraine armed with pitchforks and home-made molotovs, surely the Ukrainian counteroffensive would be a great success now that Russia has been mauled and Ukraine has been supplied with some of the best weapons NATO has to offer. Yet that's not what we see. And I think that's a sobering thought for many.

My guess the Boer war and WW1?
Am I right....
 Am I Am I....
 
DARN TOO SLOW.... Doh!!!
 

Are you serious?

Yes but that picture would appear to be not one of them
 
Maybe it's just an illustration of one 😀 

Very well put.
One thing to add: one reason why Germany and Japan were treated so well by the allies was that they were needed vs Russia and/or China. Without that, I guess the willingness to forgive would have been a bit less.
The willingness of Ukraine to forgive Russia or Russians will pay out in good PR in the West, which translates to money or things like EU membership.
Ukraine has managed to stay the 'good guy' in a horrible war. When the war ends, it needs to stay that for its own future.
That will be a very hard thing to do - not to pay back what the bastards have done to you. But the West is not in this war, we are only observing. And the West will judge Ukraine by its own standards, which are not adjusted by having been into that war.
Winning the war is only halfway to peace.