I just talked with my kids about this the other day when we were talking about the end of WW2.
Give me a mind-blowing history fact
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Last: 5 hrs ago by Tanker123
Patton took over a beleaguered US Army in N Africa. The Americans had not won a single battle. I believe he had one week to prepare for his first battle. His forces took on a large German armor and tank formation. He used infantry and tank killers and defeated the German force. He was innovative as hell.
I heard it was because he read a book.Tanker123 said:
Patton took over a beleaguered US Army in N Africa. The Americans had not won a single battle. I believe he had one week to prepare for his first battle. His forces took on a large German armor and tank formation. He used infantry and tank killers and defeated the German force. He was innovative as hell.
The projectile from the sabot round the M1 tank fires is a Uranium Depleted dart that weighs around 20 lbs. It is around 1.24 inches in diameter. Does anyone know the velocity of the round?
3-4,000 meters/second?
early 747-100's made before 1981 had up to 1000 pounds of depleted uranium in them as ballast.
Aldous Huxley (author of Brave New World) wrote a short book called "The Doors of Perception" which was an autobiographical account of him taking Peyote. It was the influence of why Jim Morrison named his band "The Doors".
Jabin said:
3-4,000 meters/second?
Not that fast. 1 mile per second.
Thanks for the correction. I got a tour of the testing facility near Socorro NM years ago and remembered that it was a lot faster than a rifle bullet, but age and the years seemed to have added to its velocity in my mind!
No sweat. I have PTSD, thus my memory can be very poor. I watched a whole Vikings Season twice. I talked with a physics professor about the sabot round. He said the amount of energy or joules of the projectile is astronomical due to the velocity of it.Jabin said:
Thanks for the correction. I got a tour of the testing facility near Socorro NM years ago and remembered that it was a lot faster than a rifle bullet, but age and the years seemed to have added to its velocity in my mind!
When the sabot round hits an enemy tank, then it instantaneously creates innumerable amount of spall which are metal splinters that will fly through the turret at great speed. The spall will liquify the tank crew. The science of killing humans gets better over time.
I will illustrate the superiority of the M1 tanks over enemy tanks in Desert Storm. The Iraqi tanks were outclassed by the M1s. Sometimes the Iraqis did not know they were being attacked until their tanks were being destroyed. There were several cases of Iraqi tank rounds bouncing off the M1s. If our range was 4,000m and their range was 3,000m, then we could fire from the ranges of 4,000m to 3001m with very little risk of being hit. That is called Stand Off Distance.
This is how the Sabot round turns enemies into a fine mist | We Are The Mighty
The Germans would fear Patton the most because he knew how to win battles. In Sicily he executed two amphibious landings to flank the Germans. They wanted nothing to do with him and fled to the port to escape the Americans. In Europe he used fighters in front of his army to give him superb intelligence in order for him to attack the Germans in a manner of his choosing. I don't remember if he used the fighters to Fix the Germans. Fixing means decisively engaging the Germans, so they could not escape the area of engagement.Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:I heard it was because he read a book.Tanker123 said:
Patton took over a beleaguered US Army in N Africa. The Americans had not won a single battle. I believe he had one week to prepare for his first battle. His forces took on a large German armor and tank formation. He used infantry and tank killers and defeated the German force. He was innovative as hell.
Lone Gurka sentry fights off a force of 15-30 Taliban fighters.
The One-Man Gurkha Army: The Stand of Sgt. Dipprasad Pun | September 2010 - YouTube
The One-Man Gurkha Army: The Stand of Sgt. Dipprasad Pun | September 2010 - YouTube
I played rugby in Baghdad against a British team that was maybe half Gurkhas. Holy **** can those guys hit.
Sapper Redux said:
I played rugby in Baghdad against a British team that was maybe half Gurkhas. Holy **** can those guys hit.
Who won?
I attended a several month-long army school. We had foreign officers. Some of them were professional military men. Some could care less. I still remember the obese LTC from Egypt. He did not give a rats ass about the training.
One morning we played soccer against the foreign officers. The fat LTC was like Pele against us. Needless to say, we sucked and lost to those heathens.
They won. Half our team had never played rugby before. Most of us playing as fowards had, however, so it got a bit chippy. Good time in a bad place.
The Spanish Armada survived English culverins (new heavy guns) and the speediness of English ships, but wrecked because they did not know to compensate for the Gulf Stream.
Hannibal crosses the snow-covered Alps with upwards of 70,000 - 90,000 warriors, thousands of horses, immense supply chain, and dozens of elephants. His army encounters an impassible precipice. His engineers use chemistry to reduce an immense cliff and make it passable. How Hannibal Mastered Chemistry to Cross the Alps (youtube.com)
Some ancient passports were way cooler than our current ones.
I've tried writing this one three times but it's really hard to condense. I'm going to try it again.
I went down a Roma/Gypsy rabbit hole a last week and it was interesting.
The Romani people are of very mixed ancestry. According to their own oral tradition, (but it varies in some stories), their ancestors once came from Hindustan. The linguistic evidence has indisputably shown that the roots of the Romani language lie in Central India. More precisely, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Sanskrit and Prakrit. Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Early Romani originated in Indian subcontinent. Another genetic study shows that Turkish Roma are related to the Changar tribe from Pakistan of Punjab.
The main hypothesis is that they left the Punjab region of Northern India either as nomads or victims of unfavourable circumstances, such as war or natural disaster. Some theories state that the Roma population arrived in the Principality of Wallachia (the southern part of today's Romania) as free people, but they were soon enslaved by the princes of Wallachia and Moldavia, who needed a workforce.
It's been said that they also brought valuable crafting skills and items with them, such as Indian ironworks, and that they were talented musicians. The first evidence of their presence in contemporary Romania comes from the 13th century,
The English term gypsy, together with the Spanish gitanos, emerged from a mistake by Europeans who believed Roma had come from Egypt.
Roma who arrived in Wallachia and Moldavia in the second half of the 14th century were forced into bondage and slavery for five centuries. Ending in 1856 and 1864, (IIRC)
In the middle of the 19th century, there were half a million slaves on Romanian territory: 7% of the population.
I went down a Roma/Gypsy rabbit hole a last week and it was interesting.
The Romani people are of very mixed ancestry. According to their own oral tradition, (but it varies in some stories), their ancestors once came from Hindustan. The linguistic evidence has indisputably shown that the roots of the Romani language lie in Central India. More precisely, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Sanskrit and Prakrit. Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Early Romani originated in Indian subcontinent. Another genetic study shows that Turkish Roma are related to the Changar tribe from Pakistan of Punjab.
The main hypothesis is that they left the Punjab region of Northern India either as nomads or victims of unfavourable circumstances, such as war or natural disaster. Some theories state that the Roma population arrived in the Principality of Wallachia (the southern part of today's Romania) as free people, but they were soon enslaved by the princes of Wallachia and Moldavia, who needed a workforce.
It's been said that they also brought valuable crafting skills and items with them, such as Indian ironworks, and that they were talented musicians. The first evidence of their presence in contemporary Romania comes from the 13th century,
The English term gypsy, together with the Spanish gitanos, emerged from a mistake by Europeans who believed Roma had come from Egypt.
Roma who arrived in Wallachia and Moldavia in the second half of the 14th century were forced into bondage and slavery for five centuries. Ending in 1856 and 1864, (IIRC)
In the middle of the 19th century, there were half a million slaves on Romanian territory: 7% of the population.
El Paso Salt War
There are more reputable sources than Wiki but wanted to provide a synopsis:
There are more reputable sources than Wiki but wanted to provide a synopsis:
Quote:
The El Paso Salt War, was an extended and complex range war of the mid-19th century that revolved around the ownership and control of immense salt lakes at the base of the Guadalupe Mountains in West Texas. What began in 1866 as a political and legal struggle among Anglo Texan politicians and capitalists gave rise in 1877 to an armed struggle by ethnic Mexican and Tejano inhabitants living on both sides of the Rio Grande near El Paso against a leading politician, who was supported by the Texas Rangers. The struggle reached its climax with the siege and surrender of 20 Texas Rangers to a popular army of perhaps 500 men in the town of San Elizario, Texas. The arrival of the African-American 9th Cavalry and a sheriff's posse of New Mexico mercenaries caused hundreds of Tejanos to flee to Mexico, some in permanent exile. The right of individuals to own the salt lakes, which had previously been held as a community asset, was established by force of arms.
One source indicates 230 Gurkha trainees were recruited from about 25,000 applicants. The selection process is so rigorous that they get the best of the best. Some families borrow tens of thousands of dollars to subsidize the training for the selection process, but less than 1% will be recruited. The Life-Changing Journey Of Being Selected As A Gurkha | Forces TV (youtube.com)
p_bubel said:
I've tried writing this one three times but it's really hard to condense. I'm going to try it again.
I went down a Roma/Gypsy rabbit hole a last week and it was interesting.
The Romani people are of very mixed ancestry. According to their own oral tradition, (but it varies in some stories), their ancestors once came from Hindustan. The linguistic evidence has indisputably shown that the roots of the Romani language lie in Central India. More precisely, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Sanskrit and Prakrit. Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Early Romani originated in Indian subcontinent. Another genetic study shows that Turkish Roma are related to the Changar tribe from Pakistan of Punjab.
The main hypothesis is that they left the Punjab region of Northern India either as nomads or victims of unfavourable circumstances, such as war or natural disaster. Some theories state that the Roma population arrived in the Principality of Wallachia (the southern part of today's Romania) as free people, but they were soon enslaved by the princes of Wallachia and Moldavia, who needed a workforce.
It's been said that they also brought valuable crafting skills and items with them, such as Indian ironworks, and that they were talented musicians. The first evidence of their presence in contemporary Romania comes from the 13th century,
The English term gypsy, together with the Spanish gitanos, emerged from a mistake by Europeans who believed Roma had come from Egypt.
Roma who arrived in Wallachia and Moldavia in the second half of the 14th century were forced into bondage and slavery for five centuries. Ending in 1856 and 1864, (IIRC)
In the middle of the 19th century, there were half a million slaves on Romanian territory: 7% of the population.
So, Dracula is Indian. Got it
Now do their descendants, the Irish Travelers
They are bad assed little brown men... We had retired Brit Mil as security in Iraq. To watch them exercise/train with their khukuri is like watching a very deadly ballet.Tanker123 said:
One source indicates 230 Gurkha trainees were recruited from about 25,000 applicants. The selection process is so rigorous that they get the best of the best. Some families borrow tens of thousands of dollars to subsidize the training for the selection process, but less than 1% will be recruited. The Life-Changing Journey Of Being Selected As A Gurkha | Forces TV (youtube.com)
Kind of like the Tuskegee Airmen. They selected only the best of the best. I wish we had a Gurkha Regiment or two.Rabid Cougar said:They are bad assed little brown men... We had retired Brit Mil as security in Iraq. To watch them exercise/train with their khukuri is like watching a very deadly ballet.Tanker123 said:
One source indicates 230 Gurkha trainees were recruited from about 25,000 applicants. The selection process is so rigorous that they get the best of the best. Some families borrow tens of thousands of dollars to subsidize the training for the selection process, but less than 1% will be recruited. The Life-Changing Journey Of Being Selected As A Gurkha | Forces TV (youtube.com)
Not exactly an accurate recounting of the Battle of Sicily.
in actuality, the Germans did not "flee" from Patton.
they executed one of the most brilliant fighting withdrawals of the entire war, crossing the Straits of Messina back to Italy even though they had been badly outnumbered by Montgomery and Patton.
in actuality, the Germans did not "flee" from Patton.
they executed one of the most brilliant fighting withdrawals of the entire war, crossing the Straits of Messina back to Italy even though they had been badly outnumbered by Montgomery and Patton.
The B-24 was relatively slow/not as renowned as the B-17/B-29 etc., but it could take a real beating.
Talk about a rough day at the office, though.Quote:
A B-24 Liberator B Mk VI of No 37 Squadron RAF after being hit by a pair of 1000lb bombs dropped by another B-24 during a mission over Italy, 1945. Remarkably there were no serious injuries to the crew.
B-17s regularly returned to base with pieces shot up or even off.
Reminds me of one of my favorite Puzzlers.
RAY: This puzzler comes from none other than Colonel Larry Hildebrand, USAF retired.
It was a dark and stormy night at a secret airfield somewhere in England during WWII. The Royal Air Force had summoned one of England's most noted mathematicians to help them solve a problem. German anti-aircraft fire based on the ground was inflicting heavy losses on the Brits. Their planes were being shot down right and left. The RAF had to do something to diminish their losses.
Clearly, they could put armor plating on the bottoms of the fuselages and the wings, but there were several problems with that idea. Their range and their ability to carry bombs would be considerably reduced because of the additional weight.
TOM: They had to be very selective!
RAY: A nameless mathematician crawled underneath the planes and looked at where the bullet holes were on the underside. They were all over the place as you might expect -- in the wings and the fuselage, and seemingly distributed randomly on the undersides. He studied hundreds of planes, took pictures, drew a number of sketches -- and then he made his recommendation.
The question is, what armor plating, if any, did he recommend putting on these planes -- and why?
RAY: This puzzler comes from none other than Colonel Larry Hildebrand, USAF retired.
It was a dark and stormy night at a secret airfield somewhere in England during WWII. The Royal Air Force had summoned one of England's most noted mathematicians to help them solve a problem. German anti-aircraft fire based on the ground was inflicting heavy losses on the Brits. Their planes were being shot down right and left. The RAF had to do something to diminish their losses.
Clearly, they could put armor plating on the bottoms of the fuselages and the wings, but there were several problems with that idea. Their range and their ability to carry bombs would be considerably reduced because of the additional weight.
TOM: They had to be very selective!
RAY: A nameless mathematician crawled underneath the planes and looked at where the bullet holes were on the underside. They were all over the place as you might expect -- in the wings and the fuselage, and seemingly distributed randomly on the undersides. He studied hundreds of planes, took pictures, drew a number of sketches -- and then he made his recommendation.
The question is, what armor plating, if any, did he recommend putting on these planes -- and why?
I recall this discussion before. I won't spoil your question, but the answer is almost counterintuitive
I'm quite curious about this. I recall this story but don't recall any details.
I'll post the answer in a couple of hours.
Given a little thought, everyone should understand that
you are happy with the planes coming back with holes -
but planes that didn't come back need investigation.
you are happy with the planes coming back with holes -
but planes that didn't come back need investigation.
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