Capitaine Vengeur

Beware, drinking beer can indurate your meat...

On 7 May 1954, General Vo Nguyen Giap's Vietminh troops overran the core and last remnants of the fortified camp the French had dug in the basin of Dien Bien Phu, 200kms away from their supply bases, in an attempt to lure, pin, and exhaust the Vietminh battle force far away from its own bases. The usual duality of the Fox and the Hedgehog. But this time, the old sly fox Giap was the winner. During the past two months, outnumbered legionnaires, French and Vietnamese paratroopers, North African tirailleurs, outperformed artillery and a handful of M24 light tanks, had hotly clashed with 4 infantry and 1 artillery VM divisions for the control of the fortified hills surrounding the camp (referred as Eliane, Dominique, Huguette, and other feminine names). Giap's losses in this direct confrontation had been terrible, before he rather opted for suffocating these strongholds into a thick network of trenches. The French camp's airstrip had been neutralized since the first days of the assault, and the impressive VM Flak all around the basin made very expensive all attempts to drop supplies or reinforcements. Except for some lucky interventions during VM assaults, the scarce air supports from fighter-bombers failed in their CAS missions and in destroying the perfectly dug-in and concealed VM artillery. No white flag was hoisted by the end of the battle: the defenseless camp was simply overrun. The last isolated stronghold, Isabelle, on the Southern end of the airstrip, fell on 8 May, i.e. just in time for the opening of the Conference at Geneva, for which Giap had urged on his attacks on early May, and which sealed the partition of Vietnam. Of the about 11,000 prisoners the Vietminh had taken at Dien Bien Phu, only 3,000 were given back alive. Virtually no wounded or Republican Vietnamese prisoner did survive. This battle was a key moment in the history of decolonization of the World's second-biggest Empire. And it prepared the quagmire in which the United States would get stuck for a decade, believing that money and technology could do better than old-fashioned European colonialists. True, in 1968, the Marines at Khe Sanh could avoid the fate of the French at Dien Bien Phu; and the Peace Accords at Paris were less humiliating than what the French had to sign at Geneva. But finally in 1975, it all ended with one more victory for Giap...

I still own an old (1985) classic boardgame by Avalon Hill, Flight Leader, giving the following Turn values for these planes, ranging from A to E (A= the best): Mig-21BIS - - - - - B Mig-23 MLD- - - - D Mirage IIIC- - - - - B Mirage F1C- - - - B F-15A- - - - - - - - B F-18A- - - - - - - - A F-14A- - - - - - - - B F-4E- - - - - - - - - C F-8C- - - - - - - - - B F-100C- - - - - - - C Lightning- - - - - - B Tornado ADV- - - B SAAB DRAKEN- - B SAAB VIGGEN- - B Kfir C-7- - - - - - - B On A, you would find the F-86, the F-16, the MiG-15 & -17, the MiG-29 (the Su-27 is B)... On E, you would find the F-104, the MiG-25 & -31, the Yak-25, the Tu-28...

File Name: Malta 1942, a campaign for WoA File Submitter: Capitaine Vengeur File Submitted: 02 May 2014 File Category: User Made Campaigns The first half of 1941 had been a hard time for the Allied defenders of Malta, when the Luftwaffe could devote several of its best units to pound the island, sink any ship within nearby waters, and decimate the small fighter force of outperformed Hurricanes. As Germany turned its attention Eastwards with Operation Barbarossa, the RAF could recover, then take a more offensive stance, putting threatening pressure on the Axis convoys to Libya, and even striking targets in Sicily. Nonetheless, by the end of the year, as the operations East were getting stuck in the Russian Winter, it was decided to move again large numbers of Luftwaffe units to the Mediterranean Front, in order to eliminate the RAF striking force, and to bend the Maltese morale under the weight of bombs. As the valiant defenders of Malta were to face this renewed enemy effort, the Axis leaders began to meet and plot an invasion of the island by air and sea, intended to remove once and for all this thorn from their flank. By the end of April 1942, this Sword of Damocles over Malta would have a name: Operation Herkules.. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Malta 1942 : Malta now with 100% more Spitfires !! This is my third campaign for Wings over Africa, the free add-on by The Dev A-Team that enables you to re-enact the air war over the most legendary battlefields of the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations. In this mod, Baltika had already provided campaigns over Malta covering the epic years 1940 and 1941. This 11-months-long campaign, running from December 1941 to November 1942, completes a trilogy, encompassing some of the most dramatic moments of the siege, when Malta was the closest to be dominated in the air before Spitfires were finally delivered, the closest to be strangled with Allied supply convoys repeatedly decimated or driven away, and finally the closest to be doomed as the Axis leaders planned very seriously for Summer 1942 the naval and aerial invasion of the island, codenamed Operation Herkules. Four additional downloads will be required to play this campaign (the links are included in the ReadMe file, registration at Capun Skunkworks needed). The modified files provided here allow several flyable units to display their original markings, and activate some Sardinian and Tripolitanian bases and targets on the Tunisia map as soon as the beginning of the campaign. A French translation of the campaign texts is also included. Flyable planes (including scheduled upgrades during this long campaign): British RAF/FAA : Hawker Hurricane Mk.I & Mk.IIb Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vb Bristol Beaufighter Mk.I & VI Bristol Beaufort Mk.I Bristol Blenheim Mk.IV Martin Maryland Mk.I & Baltimore Mk.I (reco) Fairey Albacore Mk.I German Luftwaffe : Messerschmitt BF-109 F-4 & G-2 Messerschmitt BF-110 C-4 Junkers Ju-88 C-4 night fighter Junkers Ju-88 A-4 (bombers & reco) Junkers Ju-87 D Italian Regia Aeronautica : Macchi Mc.200 'Saetta' Macchi Mc.202 'Folgore' Reggiane Re.2000 'Falco' Reggiane Re.2001 'Ariete' Junkers Ju-87 B 'Picchiatelli' Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 'Sparviero' Choose your side! As a British, Commonwealth, or American volunteer in the RAF, serving in "the fighter pilots' paradise", make sure that the sacrifices already consented by the tenacious Maltese population, and by the brothers-in-arms who fought before you, won't have been vain. As a German pilot veteran of the easy playground and hard conditions of living of the Soviet Front, take your part in Rommel's glorious epic by neutralizing the stubborn rock that cripples the Afrikakorps' supply lines. As an Italian patriot, protect Sicily against the odious raids perpetrated by the English air pirates from Malta, and prepare the capture of this invaluable floating bolt on behalf of the King. Click here to download this file

Thrawn is in the Top 3 of my favorite StarWars characters. And actually, the others also come from the SW Expanded Universe, which is a vein of ideas. Yet, if they put Yuuzhan Vongs in these sequels, I'm not going to like them, this is one of the very few eras of SW EU I definetely can't stand. And I am not of those who disliked the prelogy, absolutely not. I even enjoyed Episode III as a sort of space opera Othello (with Palpatine as Iago, one of Shakespeare's strongest characters to me); yet clearly not the SW style, lacking the usual humor and tongue-in-cheek characters.

Do they also plan to dig up and zombify Alec Guiness and Peter Cushing?

China is still The Empire of the Middle. And militarily speaking, they still don't give a damn about what happens out of their Middle. But their Middle also includes Tibet, Taiwan, or the Spratly Islands. God help us if anyone puts a finger in their Middle.

RIP. And tribute to the man...

This year marks the centenary of the beginning of what was once called 'The War to end all wars', before becoming simply World War One. But accidentally, it is also the bicentenary of another war that scorched as well the soil of Northeastern France exactly 100 years before, a war that already saw big armies maneuver and fight at heavy costs down there, yet with a swifter, less bloody and more decisive conclusion. During Winter 1814, in the plains of invaded Champagne, Emperor Napoleon could play the cat and mouse for weeks facing three big armies, inflicting several humiliating setbacks to a Coalition in overwhelming numerical superiority in spite of more than half of his troops being completely green, and leading what many historians consider as his most brilliant campaign ever. Yet he was finally deceived Eastwards while the Coalition forces converged on Paris. After hot fighting at 1 to 5 on the hills and at the gates, Paris fell on 31 March, 200 years ago this day, for the first time since four centuries, but also the first time in a very infamous series (1814, 1815, 1871 and 1940, with a close miss in 1914). Maybe also the further Western battle Russian armies have ever given. On 6 April, Napoleon abdicated. Just a stage exit for Boney however, for I suspect that next year, the Brits will celebrate as loudly as usual the bicentenary of the German victory at Waterloo.

Well, the re-enactment of this week-end was a noisy and smoky success, with some 600 players (from France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Rep., Poland, Russia, etc) with perfect uniforms and equipment. I may add some pics later, but the TV report is quite telling (link below, at 08'42" – after the damned ads!). I may have looked ecstatic enough among the crowd, for I have been interviewed by the regional TV channel! (link below, the jerk with glasses and shabby beard, at 09'34") If you don't speak French, well so, it's better you don't understand the dullness I uttered. http://pluzz.francetv.fr/videos/jt_1920_champagne_ardenne_,100289386.html

Does a demiurge have birthdays?! I thought Him eternal !

"I find our lack of gas disturbing."

As today's lesson about stupidity of prejudice, I'd like to report this funny anecdote I have just heard about Léopold Sédar Senghor, first President of independent Senegal, and one of the most illustrious Black poets and cultural thinkers in French language. As a member of the French Academy, Senghor was invited to a congress in France, where he was to pronounce a very awaited speech. Before that, his neighbour at table happened to be an old-fashioned senile MP who didn't know him, but who, surprised at seeing a Black man there, thought him the average African savage. Showing Senghor's plate, he asked him: "This, good?". "Yes. This, good." Senghor replied. The old jerk insisted: "This, good food?". Senghor again patiently replied: "Yes. This, good food." Then Senghor was summoned for his speech. There, he pronounced a most impressive piece of anthology, a blazing proof of his sharp spirit and extensive culture, beginning in Latin and ending in Greek... Under a thunder of applause, he came back to his table, sat next to the dumbfounded idiot, and asked him with a large smile: "This, good talk?"

Sorry, but the fighting will was clearly on Blücher's side, not half on Wellington's. After Blücher had been driven off and personally injured at Ligny two days before Waterloo, the so-called 'Iron Duke' was ready to re-embark and abandon his Dutch allies behind, before he learnt that Blücher was still in the race, and more eager to fight than ever. Also, knowing the psychology of both leaders, I can't but agree with what wrote a French witness and memorialist (either Cap. Coignet or Gen. Marbot, I can't remember which one). He criticized Napoleon's decision to try to shake and dishearten Blücher first before crushing Wellington, saying in these terms that the Emperor had picked his targets in the wrong order: "Had Blücher had but two battalions at hand, he would have sent them to support Wellington. On the other hand, Wellington would have never marched to help Blücher before having gathered his whole army to the very last battalion."

Hey, who ever thought that the Tommies could keep on fighting with just tea and biscuits ?!

Have to wonder why such things never happen in the Swiss or Finnish Armies... Suicide by professional weapon, yes, mass killing of uniformed colleagues, never. Why?

Fortunately, no swimmer but a fool would have the idea of bathing in these cold brown waters of Tyne !

Several celebrations have been organized this Winter all around Champagne. This week-end, I shall attend a minor re-enactment at my native city of Reims, where the Emperor had scored his final success on 13 March ("The last smile of Fortune"). One of the most telling places about both the centenary and bicentenary celebrated this year, is the godforsaken lengthwise plateau at Craonne. On 7 March 1814, on this difficult narrow ground, Napoleon could snatch a costly indecisive victory over an outnumbered yet dogged Russian force fighting a delaying battle (20-25% casualties for each side, the bloodiest battle of the campaign). A first obelisk was inaugurated in March 1914 for the battlefield's centenary, while Europe was still at blissful peace. It was destroyed as soon as September 1914 during the first combats that scorched this plateau for 4 years, as one of the hottest parts of the Western Front. A new monument was erected after the War, uniting a 'Marie-Louise' (Napoleonic young conscript) and a 'Poilu' (WW1 grunt) in the same movement, and bearing the big title '1814-1914' that summarizes quite well the story of that cursed plateau – and of whole Champagne, highway of invasions.

Very interesting thread! Keep on !! My father was born in 1941, too young to even understand what a war is, yet his mother told him that at the age of 2, he saved her life. In Summer 1944, the German armies were retreating across the plains of Champagne, demoralized, exhausted, permanently strafed by Allied warplanes. In my parents' village, a lonely German soldier bursted into my grandmother's home. He seemed either drunk, nervously exhausted, or mentally shocked, but anyway, he was about to shoot her. The noisy intrusion had my father cry, and my grandma embraced him, even while threatened. The beast may have been a father too, for he bursted into tears and fled. I have no direct account from my grandma, deceased before my own birth, and my father's version itself is a second-hand account. But I find the story quite moving.

The bastard should be jailed in Miami and have a talk there with some Floridan patriots among the wardens. And every taxpayer in the country should also be allowed one lash.

Condolences, Dave. I hope his grandchildren will keep the best loving memories of him. Brain cancer stole two of my grandparents before I could know them.

Fine viewing Snailman, with a casting of steel (without pun!). It had me give a new try to "T-34 vs Tiger". Yet it is somewhat wasted by the ridiculous excess of armored things exploding in flames. Russian 'Ghollivudh'!

Happy birthday, Boss !! Hail to the chef !

Every village needs its idiot. This one should be easily replaced, alas.

Long before I got 42, I had to remove beard because it was getting fleckered with white areas even faster than temples and neck, and had me look much older. Chin is still spared by the white plague. And fortunately, the "some other places" still look like what they were in their twenties, in all regards...