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Gpig

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Posts posted by Gpig

  1. And why so much effort was generated to deny all those ports to the Allies. They were blown to bits, jammed up with scuttled ships, and secreted with long-delay-explosives (like Cherbourg, Naples, Antwerp etc.).

    So important to see Rail bridges getting blown up, Belarus railways being ****ed with, and the attention given to the RF's convoys.

  2. Based on Alex Kershaw's book about his experiences as a company commander from up through the Italian "Boot" (including Anzio), Southern France and into Germany with the 157th regiment.

    Was a really good read. The movie looks like it has added an entire dramatization that was absent in the book. The whole "dirty dozen/band of brothers" angle has been manufactured.

    Still, if it stays mostly true to the book it should be a compelling visualization.

    Youtube trailer

     

  3. Based on Alex Kershaw's book about his experiences as a company commander from up through the Italian "Boot" (including Anzio), Southern France and into Germany with the 157th regiment.

    Was a really good read. The movie looks like it has added an entire dramatization that was absent in the book. The whole "dirty dozen/band of brothers" angle has been manufactured.

    Still, if it stays mostly true to the book it should be a compelling visualization.

    youtube trailer

     

     

  4. Re-reading Company Commander, by Charles B. MacDonald. This time I'm revisiting all the locations on google earth. Adds a crazy appreciation.

    Finished The Liberator, by Alex Kershaw, which was is not unlike Company Commander and also quite good.

    Two of my favourite books about the Canadians in WWII are,

    - South Albertas, A Canadian Regiment at War by Donald E. Graves, and,
    - No Holding Back, Operation totalize, Normandy, August 1944, by Brian A. Reid

    I'm curious if anyone can recommend a good book regarding the strategic operation and tactical responses (from any nation) to the ISIS apocalypse that befell the middle east these last 6 years?

    Cheers,
    Gpig

  5. I agree that Apocal knows what he's talking about. I took care to differentiate between "conflict" and small scale engagements in my blatherings. :)

    How about the Spanish American war for a conflict?

    From Wikkipeida:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Model_1892-99

    "According to contemporary, perhaps sensationalized accounts, the Krag's complex design was outclassed[1] by the Spanish Mauser during the Spanish American War, and proved ill-suited for use in tropical locales such as Cuba and the Philippines. American soldiers found themselves unable to match the volume of fire displayed by the Spanish 1893 Mauser rifle, with its box magazine that could be fully reloaded with clips, and a high-velocity, flat-shooting 7mm cartridge which was quickly dubbed the 'Spanish Hornet'. During the American assault on the strategic Cuban city of Santiago, a small force of 750 Spanish troops armed with Model 1893 Mauser rifles defended positions on San Juan and Kettle hills. The attacking force consisted of approximately 6,600 American soldiers, most of them regulars, armed with the then-new smokeless-powder Krag-Jorgensen rifle and supported by artillery and Gatling gun fire. Though the assault was successful, the Americans soon realized that they had suffered more than 1,400 casualties in the assault. A U.S board of investigation pinned the blame on the superior firepower of the Spanish Model 1893 Mauser rifles, although modern analysis has determined that many of the casualties were due to superior Spanish fortifications on the high ground. With the Krag's replacement with the Mauser-derived M1903, the rifle is tied for the shortest service life of any standard-issue firearm in US military history (1892–1903)."

    Gattling guns usually make up for any differences, I imagine.

  6. Thank you Mr. Emrys, that's where I was meaning to go.

    Albeit a pre-modern conflict, and that there were many more rifles among the native warriors is not in doubt, there is some evidence that Custer was not only outnumbered but out-gunned.

    Was there not also some battles (or A battle) between the British and the Zulu wherein a choice of rifle was disastrous? Or was it an ammunition problem. Can't recall...

    It's an interesting topic you pointed out, Apocal. "At any rate, I can't imagine a single conflict in the modern era that was decided by the choice of rifle."

    I'd be curious to know where else that might be a factor.

    I think for small scale engagements there would be many. Like the Wagon Box fight

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagon_Box_Fight

    or the Fetterman massacre:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Cloud%27s_War#Battle_of_the_Hundred_Slain.2FFetterman_Fight

    Gpig

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