Capitaine Vengeur

I think of some other unpleasant French words inspired from the German... La schlague (from the German schlagen = to strike) is the name for the stick used to beat subordinates or pupils, or for the punishment itself. Typical Prussian discipline... Le reître (from the German Ritter = rider) refers to a rude, arrogant, violent military; it dates back to the Wars of Religion (16th Century), when the soldiers criss-crossing France, scourge to the unfortunate peasant and his daughters, were often German mercenary horsemen hired by either side. To the same era of wandering bands dates back le chenapan (= rogue), coming from the German Schnapphahn (= grab the cock). Fisematanten also reminds me of an amusing English etymology. In rural Western France, women have worn for centuries a hairdress called quichenotte, covering their cheeks. It could have come from "Kiss me not!", when this hairdress was useful to preserve their virtue from promiscuity with the King of England's boorish soldiers, present for long in this area during the Middle Ages.

I wonder when was the last pilot before to die flying a Dreidecker? RIP to the man...

A once occupied country like mine has mostly retained words like "Verboten" or "Ausweis"... A country of musicians, philosophers, scientists and car builders could have let a better legacy abroad...

KGB vs teddy bears, it reminds me of an old joke... The Moscow Police has found the body of an unknown murdered woman, and the only clue on the crime scene was a teddy bear. The experts of scientific police do their best, but just can't find any lead. As a last resort, the teddy bear is entrusted to a veteran KGB officer. After only one hour, the KGB man comes back and states: "The teddy berr belonnged to the woman's daughterr. Herr name is Katia, she is 2. The Murrdrerr is the husband. They live at 741, Komsomolski Prrospekt... After a mute open-mouthed moment, the police officers dare to ask: "Incredible! Comrade officer, how could you find all of this out?" And the KGB man replies with a cruel grin: "The teddy berr... sponntanioussly komfessed..."

I had already heard UK's story involving the Queen (Victoria?) and one of her ashamed coachmen, this pretending to have been a true story...

The French usually say "DCA" (Défense Contre Avions). The term has been used in orders of battle from 1930s to that day, but I don't know if it was used during WW1.

Perhaps also flying OFF with the hope of shooting down and filling with lead Infamous Hermann before the Putsch of Münich, or Bruno Lörzer the unquestionable Nazi, or cousin Wolfram the air terrorist... Or even perhaps strafing the Austrian corporal into his trench and changing History...

Christopher Browning's "Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland" (1992): one of the most scaring readings ever...

RIP Dominic Santini...

The Netzah Yehuda Battalion: Reluctantly removing black hats, to better serve the Chosen State. Closed on saturdays.

Job is a human NEED !!! Damn, God did not give us hands to open beer cans and enjoy porn ! Er, well, not only...

" All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. It's at the moment just after that everything screws up. "

Someone here Born on the Fourth of July?

Happy birthday, old rider !

Seems that two pilots could soon be transferred to a new unit in charge of watching the penguins migrations over Amazonia !

For comics lovers, here is a fine Belgian work about an ordinary, though brave Lancaster crew flying night missions over Berlin in Summer 1943, with many hints about their lives, habits, hopes and fears, pre- and post-mission rituals... "Les Sept Nains" by Marvano (Dupuis 1994) should be available by now in English translation at Cinebook (below) ...

1000 more, and you get a Triplane !!

MazelTov !!!

... For he's a jolly good fellow, and so say all of us ...

Mechanic: 2nd from the left... Same for the Balloon Service picture...

Besides, it could be a fine trial for the New Iraqi Army: fighting and possibly winning at last a honorable war, helping to sweep away the last and stinkiest remnants of the cursed Ba'ath era, cementing the army around a first deserving feat...

On 4 June 1942, the Japanese carriers launched their first strikes in order to seize the atoll of Midway, but unexpectantly, had to face there the warned U.S. carrier fleet in a decisive battle. First, they successfully ravaged the defenses of Midway and bled the first attack waves sent against them, destroying several squadrons of torpedo-bombers in the process. But at dusk, following a legendary, incredible twist of situation, four of the six fleet carriers that had struck Pearl Harbor were sunk or aflame. The tables had turned once and for all in the Pacific, as the Americans, beaten and beaten again before, would never lose again their hard-earned initiative. Napoléon once wrote: "At war, victory goes to the general who makes the least mistakes." Indeed, during the battle, the Americans accumulated some expensive blunders and errors of judgement they could not afford; but the Japanese negligences and consequential toll to arrogance and overconfidence proved to be lethal for the Empire. The Americans also benefitted from some strokes of genius: the Thach Weave perfected by LtCdr John Thach succeeded in compensating the Zero's overwhelming superiority in battle, and in overcoming the Zero myth, while the trick used by Cdr Joseph Rochefort to find out that the Japanese objective codenamed AF was actually Midway, became legendary in the history of the intelligence services.

File Name: National counters & revised OB (ground battle) for ODS File Submitter: Capitaine Vengeur File Submitted: 02 June 2012 File Category: User Made Campaigns This mod provides you with a batch of colorful, reduced-size counters, devoted to each of the nationalities present during Operation Desert Storm, 1991. Besides having a more attractive map and less confused stacks, you can also find more easily the units you're after. As a rule, the counters with rectangular national flags and brigade/division/corps devices show the ground units, while the counters with roundels concern the air units. Also, I propose here a improved order of battle concerning the ground units only, that I feel closer to the actual strengths and positions of both belligerents' units at the time of the launching of Operation Desert Sabre – even if still imperfect. Active nations of the Joint Muslim Forces, that were absent in the original version, can now take their part of the job on the Allied right wing. The disposition of the strategic nodes has been revised as well to include the added positions of ground troops, and also to re-enact at best the actual swift “left-hook” Allied offensive. On first move, Allied mobile units have opportunities to bypass the Iraqi first lines, and stacked units have several possible axes of attack. Through testing, it seems to work quite efficiently, with a quick collapse of the Iraqi right wing during fixing battles against the tougher, denser and deeper left wing in Kuwait. Click here to download this file

Grab the bastard!