from the if-it's-silly-but-it-works,-it's-not-silly dept.
Here's a story of the interestingly designed tanks that helped the Allies win on the D-day beaches of Dieppe. Tanks designed by an unconventional thinker (but who wants to think conventionally?). This is the story of 'Hobart's Funnies'. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160603-the-strange-tanks-that-helped-win-d-day
On 19 August 1942, Allied armies put their plan for an invasion of Occupied Europe to the ultimate test – by landing troops on the beaches and trying to capture a French port [Dieppe].
The landings were a disaster.
In less than 10 hours, more than 60% of the 6,000 British, Canadian and American troops who landed on the beach were either killed, wounded or captured. All of of the 28 tanks which came ashore alongside them – essential if the troops were going to be able break through the German strongpoints – were knocked out. Many were stranded, unable to move on the loose shingle, and picked off by anti-tank guns.
The failure of the Dieppe landings provided many lessons. Trying to capture a heavily defended port was likely to fail, commanders realised. Troops would have to land on sandy beaches, and their tanks would have to be able to make their way across these beaches and punch holes through the seawalls or other concrete obstacles the Germans had built up.
One man, it turned out, had a solution. And two years later, his fleet of highly specialised – and often bizarre-looking tanks – would be one of the major reasons why the D-Day landings were a success.
My personal favourite: the Sherman DD swimming tank. Or as the Americans discovered, the Sherman submarine.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08 2016, @08:23PM
Great story. More please.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday June 08 2016, @11:30PM
One of the best shows i've seen is the BBC's/James Burke's show 'Connections'.
One episode is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v9WoIB_XQE&list=PLA50AB7N5S7f0KKWIQ-OIRlbuI40Ggao- [youtube.com] (it seems the BBC is doing a lot of 'take downs' on this series, especially the 1st series/season (the best, in my opinion).
Worth watching every episode, one way or another.
He takes you through history, from one discovery/invention/action to another, piecing together the puzzles of need and science.
(How did we get to the point where we can fly 200 tons of cargo anywhere in the world? Because Timothy J. Buttfrack in Eastern-South Nowhere found a stone that left a mark of THIS colour when gold is rubbed against it, which told you the gold you are being given in trade for your cow is REAL gold, not a gold/silver amalgam. From there, .......square sail/lateen sail...... pine tar/coal tar/copper bottom ships...... compass....... a 'glory' as seen from the top of Ben Nevis........)
Totally brilliant, IMHO.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @02:58PM
You can get all three Connections series, plus The Day The Universe changed from Netflix if you have their DVD-by-mail subscription. One of the first things I did after I got mine. Each series is 5 DVDs or so, but totally worth it if you're a fan.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @01:23AM
Yes, thank you. This tank history nicely compliments the novel I've been reading -- Nevil Shute, "Requiem for a Wren". Much of the story is a flashback, to the southern coast of England in the buildup before D-Day. The characters see all sorts of odd tanks, a wide variety of landing craft, and repair different kinds of ordinance. Excellent read, like all Nevil Shute books, although the language of the period might offend tender minds.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08 2016, @08:31PM
BBC: The propaganda service that believes WW2 is still being fought.
You see this at least once a week on the British Propaganda Corporation where they 'celebrate' victories against the evil 'Nazis' that it is not even funny.
They celebrate their third-class technology against the much superior German one. And don't forget the weekly propaganda articles celebrating Jewish hate-mongers and how they hatched their criminal plans to 'kill' Nazis. As if Nazis can only be killed and are somehow not human. They were more human than any of their adversaries and proved that till the very end. They showed mercy (to the point of stupidity) and followed Geneva conventions on POWs To. The. Letter.
So remember history and how wrong, immoral, lying, shameless and criminal the BBC and their friends have always been.
(Score: 2, Funny) by tractatus_techno_philosophicus on Wednesday June 08 2016, @08:37PM
Sources, please?
No moral system can rest solely on authority. ~A.J. Ayer
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday June 08 2016, @09:15PM
Surprisingly the beeb isn't at bbc.co.uk its rebranded (recently?) to bbc.com
Unlike OP I'm pretty cool with the BBC. You can't get good coverage of Germany on DW or America on VOA or the corporate propaganda channels or Russia on RT. Thats just a given. So naturally its going to be total shit show WRT UK WWII coverage, how could it not be. BUUUUT the bbc is pretty good at non-local stuff, just ignore anything they say about the UK. Especially any of their propaganda about brexit or any of that.
There is a weird exception to the aura of failure in that the "World at War" documentary miniseries from the BBC about 40 years ago is a pretty awesome documentary. Think of all the cliches about bottom tier American style filler documentaries and toss them all out, because BBC's WaW rocked. Well worth the effort to torrent to whatever as appropriate.
(Score: 1) by tractatus_techno_philosophicus on Wednesday June 08 2016, @09:31PM
There is a weird exception to the aura of failure in that the "World at War" documentary miniseries from the BBC about 40 years ago is a pretty awesome documentary.
I'm glad you brought this up. I've watched said documentary and enjoyed it thoroughly. I make a point of looking for books and documentaries written or produced as close to actual events as possible. Though not always a solid way of finding accurate information, it at least gives you better insight into the pervading frame of mind present at the time. Someone recalling an event from first-hand experience is generally more reliable than some wanker with a political agenda trying to spin history into suiting their cause.
No moral system can rest solely on authority. ~A.J. Ayer
(Score: 4, Funny) by RamiK on Wednesday June 08 2016, @09:31PM
The quality of neo-nazis has fallen drastically. In the good old days of stormfront, people knew not to make stupid claims that can be dismissed with just point to the Nuremberg trials or linking to something like Kommandobefehl [wikipedia.org].
Seriously, we should make a fundraiser or something... What would the Internet be without the joy hate and racism gives to millions of trolls? A cesspool of free porn and lolcat memes. *shudders*
compiling...
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08 2016, @10:50PM
stupid claims that can be dismissed with just point to the Nuremberg trials or linking to something like
For a long time now our opponents have been employing in their conduct of the war, methods which contravene the International Convention of Geneva. The members of the so-called Commandos behave in a particularly brutal and underhanded manner; and it has been established that those units recruit criminals not only from their own country but even former convicts set free in enemy territories.
[...]
Orders have indeed been found in which the killing of prisoners has positively been demanded of them.
[...]
This order does not apply to the treatment of those enemy soldiers who are taken prisoner or give themselves up in open battle, in the course of normal operations, large scale attacks; or in major assault landings or airborne operations. Neither does it apply to those who fall into our hands after a sea fight, nor to those enemy soldiers who, after air battle, seek to save their lives by parachute.
What a way to incriminate yourself and lose credibility, jew scum. And for Nuremberg trials to be taken "seriously" is seriously funny. There was no justice or truth in the Nuremberg Monkey Courts.
The quality of neo-nazis has fallen drastically.
The number of full-time jews hired by the Jewish Internet Defense Force [wikipedia.org] is quite high and are continually being funded with money extracted from goy.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @01:47AM
"incriminate yourself" -> disprove oneself\yourself (no laws were broken)
"jew scum" -> Jew scum (nationalities, ethnicities and religions take a capital letter)
"And for" -> As for
"Nuremberg Monkey Courts" -> Nuremberg Kangaroo Courts (Unless you're a Texas senator and it's 2013)
"The number...are quite high" -> is quite high (should agree with the singular subject)
"extracted from goy" -> extracted from Goy (same as before)
And remember children, only YOU can prevent Nazi functional illiteracy.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @01:58AM
Everyone does not speak English as their mother-tongue. And everybody does not have a Masters in English literature.
"jew scum"
Here, jew does not deserve to be capitalized, just as rat does not need capitalization. Its a pest. A disease.
(Score: 3, Funny) by kurenai.tsubasa on Thursday June 09 2016, @02:54AM
Make neo-Nazism Great Again™!
I jest! I jest! MNGA? You can't really even pronounce it. And it looks too much like “mangina” to go on a hat. Er… wait, forget that part.
Yes, start cranking out the Make neo-Nazism Great Again™ hats!
(My sense of humor may be set too far towards morbid. I'll check it into the shop.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @02:09PM
You have to localise it a bit. Make American Neonazism Great In Nevada Again.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Wednesday June 08 2016, @10:18PM
Having a bit of trouble, are we, sir?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday June 08 2016, @10:20PM
And a great big sieg heil to you sir!
Informative? Really?
(Score: 3, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday June 08 2016, @11:32PM
They showed mercy (to the point of stupidity) and followed Geneva conventions on POWs To. The. Letter.
Except for this time [wikipedia.org]
Oh, and this time [wikipedia.org]
There's this one too [wikipedia.org]
To the letter you say?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @01:43AM
Malmedy massacre (84 dead):
Allegedly, the SS troopers suddenly opened fire on the prisoners. ... Accounts of the killing vary
"Allegedly" being the operative word and "Accounts of the killing vary".
Le Paradis massacre (97 dead):
led them across the road to a wall, and machine-gunned them. Ninety-seven British troops died. Two survived, with injuries, and hid until they were captured by German forces several days later.
Prisoners' stories will say they were "massacred and blah blah", but anyone with some critical thinking skills with dismiss this story as hoax (two survived magically with injuries and were captured so they could give evidence in court after the war, years later). Those limeys had to have been criminals who did not deserve to be sent to POW camps. The code of conduct was very strict for the German troops. There was no code of conduct for the British, Americans, French terrorists, Russian Bolsheviks and their Jewish masters.
Regardless, many SS officers were appalled by the massacre; some reportedly challenged Knöchlein to a duel
Do you have reading skills? Did you see that no one approved of the summary trial?
Wormhoudt massacre (80 dead):
Several British prisoners were able to escape ... After a couple of days, Fahey and several others were found by regular German Army medics and taken to hospital. Their wounds were treated before they were sent to prisoner of war camps in occupied Europe.
Which means it was not carried out according to any set plan. Who sends survivors of a massacre to a hospital and then to a POW camp? This shows the story is entirely made up.
it was specifically soldiers of the 2nd Battalion under the command of then Hauptsturmführer Wilhelm Mohnke
[...]
Mohnke strongly denied the accusations against him, telling historian Thomas Fischer, "I issued no orders not to take English prisoners or to execute prisoners.
In 1988, after a campaign by British MP Jeff Rooker, the case was reopened but a German prosecutor came to the conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to bring charges.
So you see, there is no evidence any of the above happened as the victors like to tell. It was made up and show trials were conducted for the media.
And a total of 84+97+80 = 261 is not a huge number for an entire war, you know. I am sure quite a few Germans were murdered by the Americans, British, French terrorists ... and don't forget the Russians. There is a video clip of one incident where dozens of German youth were gunned down by Americans after they surrendered.
Should I start linking to the systematic massacre and destruction of German cities and towns by the Allies both during and after the war?
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday June 08 2016, @11:53PM
Great, SoylentNews is actually infected by neo-nazis, and I mean in the plural too since someone modded this guy up. Nice group of people here. Maybe I should just go back to the green site.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @12:15AM
They are just a vocal minority, it bothers me too but then the lurkers pop up and you realize its not so dire. Probably half of them are trolls anyway, and its best to point out such crazy Inst ad of letting it sit there on its own.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @02:05AM
They are just a vocal minority, it bothers me too
Does it now?
Are you comfortable with Jews on the forum constantly telling you how you are responsible for their "manufactured" holocaust, and that you should keep paying them big money (perpetually) to keep them from telling you of how horrible the holocaust was?
Do you like being fed lies? Are you comfortable with them? Do they taste good?
...
Or do you want to wake up?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @01:54AM
neo-nazis
As if the term means something. As if there is something negative connected to that. As if National Socialism is something bad. As if the writer is retarded.
Maybe I should just go back to
Yes, you should go to forums where members of the Jewish Internet Defense Force are present in large numbers who can tell you what to think. Reality is so hard and thinking is even harder.
They will show you who the enemy is and you will carry out their orders like attack dogs, shredding each other to bits until there is no one left to defend you and your future from the Jewish vermin.
But there is also a chance that your children will be smarter than you and someday think you were a loser who worked for the enemy and harmed his own kind.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @05:57PM
As if the old site didn't have trolls... and probably it's one guy to begin with.
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Wednesday June 08 2016, @09:00PM
Reminds me of a definition of "think tank": a place where people think about tanks.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anne Nonymous on Wednesday June 08 2016, @09:02PM
Apparently the Sherman DD was a sort of "sink tank".
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Wednesday June 08 2016, @09:15PM
TFA says it was "designed to resist waves as high as 30 cm." I would imagine that plopping a tank into the sea could generate a wave as high as that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08 2016, @09:29PM
2m waves off Omaha; sent them in anyhow.
(Score: 2, Funny) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday June 08 2016, @11:14PM
A tank with bright headlights that they could turn on and off would be a "blink tank".
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @04:31AM
Ethanol farted in it: stink tank.
(Score: 3, Funny) by deimtee on Thursday June 09 2016, @02:15PM
A tank infested with small lizards would be a "skink tank"
No problem is insoluble, but at Ksp = 2.943×10−25 Mercury Sulphide comes close.
(Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Wednesday June 08 2016, @09:22PM
"Tanks in Hell: A Marine Corps Tank Company on Tarawa" by Oscar E. Gilbert published about a year ago.
No point putting in an amazon link, you goofs can figure it out yourselveses.
I think I heard about it from one of my grognard podcasts or rss feeds or something.
Anyway pretty good book. Nothing to do with d day or euroland but machines are machines and other than the water in the pacific was warmer, not too different. From what I remember of the book if you avoided drowning or getting the thing stuck, the next thing to kill the tank was seawater vs electronics. But if you got it on shore, it was quite handy at clearing the island. The islands being small, the tank only had to work a couple days/hours to be combat effective unlike euroland where theoretically landing on D-Day was just the start of a long road trip to downtown Berlin, theoretically. Losses in the pacific were rather high, like 80% to 90% of tanks, but the few that made it on shore were quite handy.
Its an interesting book, VLM approved.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08 2016, @09:23PM
They outta sue the Swiss Army Knife bastards for patent infringement. Or something. Wait, when did they come up with the knife?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08 2016, @09:34PM
It's like Firefox: you use it because of all the addons it has available.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday June 09 2016, @09:42AM
The article makes a passing reference to Bovington in Dorset, which is the site of a very good tank museum [tankmuseum.org].
If you're interested in military history and anywhere near the south coast of England this summer, it's worth a visit.
If your wife / kids don't fancy spending a day looking at tanks, then tell them the following day you'll take them to Monkeyworld [monkeyworld.org] which is practically next door and also a great day out.