Rusty's Naval/Military History thread

[Unorthodox]

^^^

Big reason the 2nd cavalry has been approved to get a "lethality upgrade" specifically designed to combat other light armored vehicles while maintaining the speed advantage our cavalry relies on.  They're being equipped with 30mm canons for the European mission instead of the anti-personnel weaponry they were equipped with for the sandbox. 

The whole point of the M1126 base is to outfit it for the enemy you are preparing to fight.   They can be turned into mini tanks with the MGS attachment, even. 

[Rusty Edge]

I'm currently reading a sort of WWI memoir. It was supposed to be about sniping, but it has many digressions, and not much about sniping. I'll decide if I want to give it an entry when I finish.

[Lord Avalon]

Just finished watching an interesting documentary I recorded on the Smithsonian Channel about Gordon Welchman, "The Codebreaker Who Hacked Hitler" (   @ sensationalist title). He worked with Alan Turing at Bletchley Park and also played an important role in the work there - traffic analysis was key in breaking the enigma code, and he came up with an important modification to Turing's "Bomb," which enabled it to check possible enigma solutions in parallel, reducing time of a Bomb run from days to hours, or even minutes (crucial, as codes changed every day at midnight) - as well as at MITRE during the Cold War.


He wrote a book late in life, "The Hut Six Story," and got in a lot of hot water with the US intelligence community, which was very pissed about his revealing secrets they thought he shouldn't have. He was very shocked, thinking it was important that the public know what was done to help win WWII. While he was never prosecuted, he couldn't do any publicity for his book, and it didn't sell. He also lost his job at MITRE.


Traffic analysis was important even before the code was broken. It showed that British troops were surrounded in France, so they evacuated at Dunkerque before the noose was pulled tight.

[vonbach]

Traffic analysis was important even before the code was broken. It showed that British troops were surrounded in France, so they evacuated at Dunkerque before the noose was pulled tight.

Heh. You mean Hitler let them go out of misguided Chivalry.

[Buster's Uncle]

Crushed by Ice: Ships from 1871 Whaling Disaster Possibly Found
http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=17369.msg85709#msg85709

[Rusty Edge]

I'm currently reading a sort of WWI memoir. It was supposed to be about sniping, but it has many digressions, and not much about sniping. I'll decide if I want to give it an entry when I finish.

The book was called "A Rifleman Went to War" by Herbert W. McBride. He was an American outdoorsman,with itchy feet, and managed to live and work in the western US and Canada for his early life. He normally joined "the legion" , which was a term used after militia and before national guard. They were competitive shooting clubs, of a sort.

When the war started he joined a Canadian regiment. He was assigned to a machine gun troop, and became an officer at the front, got invalided out, joined the American Army, and wound up training.
He had lots of stories and opinions, and he tends to digress a lot.


He knew a number of western legends, including Bat Masterson, and the consensus of their wisdom from involvement and observation was that the most important thing to do in a gunfight was to remain calm. Excited guys often emptied their pistols without hitting anyone.

He believed the Canadians had the best approach to basic training, which was teach them how to shoot and march in close order, then have them practice, practice, PRACTICE. That's what they needed to know how to do most.  He thought that the British approach of regional and community regiments was the best. It enabled people to fit in quickly, trust each other, and have historical expectations to live up to. 

He believed in the American soldier, because of his personal initiative, but felt him hampered by high command.

He thought the .45 ACP was superior to revolvers for one simple and compelling reason. There was no comparison when reloading at night. 

He said the best training for WWI sniping was stalking woodchucks. 

He liked the Colt machine guns the best, because they were air-cooled and had a heavy barrel, making them accurate and reliable. Well, he said he preferred the German Spandau machine guns and Mauser sniping rifles.

Supplying a machine gun is quite a job during a battle. A shooter, a feeder, the four other guys from the crew loading cartridges into the belts, and ten infantrymen to carry cases of ammunition to them. Also, keeping water in the jacket was a problem.

He said the big guns were a waste of men and money. The effective ones were the 3 inch/75mm class. That proved prescient, because that's what was mostly used in  WWII.

He had a lot of issues in the early days of telescopic sights. He tended to prefer a sniper and a spotting partner with a powerful telescope. He said the thing to do for choosing the location for a machine gun nest was to sight it behind the lines on higher ground for a commanding view, but  well in front of whatever landmark  an artilleryman would aim for. Then fire obliquely rather than directly in front of yourself. When testing the accuracy at a particular distance, always use a mud puddle or a section of brick. That way, your spotter can tell where you hit, but enemy observers can't tell where your shot came from.

[Rusty Edge]

I just re-read "The Bravest Man", the story of Medal of Honor holder Dick O'Kane and the U.S. submarines in WWII in the Pacific.

In the context of all of the sniper stories I've read between readings of this book, there are many similarities between submarine captains and snipers. Planning approaches, ambushes, and escapes, technical proficiency, ( including estimating speeds and distances) and nerve. Also, the importance of changing tactics, rather than fighting in a habitual and predictable fashion. Dangerous work, and likely to be subjected to torture if captured.

[Rusty Edge]

The USS Milwaukee's sister ship, the USS Fort Worth, is also out of action. According to the article, the problems are similar, but have distinctly different causes.

http://dailycaller.com/2016/01/22/second-navy-combat-ship-goes-down-because-someone-forgot-to-check-the-oil/

[Buster's Uncle]

Medieval Shipwreck Hauled from the Deep

[Buster's Uncle]

Hey Rusty - this is a bit aside from your usual historical focus, but we host the web's only dedicated site about Edgar Allen Poe's favorite actress, Anna Cora Mowatt: http://alphacentauri2.info/AnnaCoraMowatt/Anna%20Cora%20Mowatt%20--%20Main%20Page.htm

Actually, we're interested in selling the book on Mowatt linked at the bottom of each page -Dr. Taylor is retired and has no money coming in- and her publisher suggested finding things like history podcasts or something online that would be interested in interviewing the author.  I do not admit that I think driving traffic to those pages would help the domain's search engine ranking and be ultimately good for this forum...

So, if you think of anywhere history-oriented we ought to put a word in, it would be helpful...

[Rusty Edge]

Nothing comes to mind, and I've been thinking about it most days since this was posted.

I gave up on podcasts years ago, due to hearing issues.

I haven't had a good experience with history forums for that matter. Basically the dwellers tend to say- "It's already been talked about and explained  before, but I won't help you find the original thread" .

When I posed "what if's" they say "it happened the way it happened. No point in discussing this."

I'll give it some more thought.

[Buster's Uncle]

Site of 1503 shipwreck tied to Vasco da Gama found off Oman

[Buster's Uncle]

The Plagues That Might Have Brought Down the Roman Empire

[Unorthodox]

what's with the inverted head?

[Buster's Uncle]

I do not know.  That's the (Byzantine) Basilica Cistern built in the reign of Justinian.  Probably googling Basilica Cistern would turn the datum up.