Capitaine Vengeur

God bless the globalization: "Through one door may close here, two more will assuredly open: one in China, one in India..."

I thought that once knocked down, Berthold had been strangled to death with the neckband of his own Blue Maw he wore at the moment, thinking he could impress the rioters? Anyway, an infamous death from compatriots' hands, indeed... So many great pilots died in the years following the Armistice, from suicide (mostly Germans), bad wounds, Spanish flu, or accidents (like brother Lothar von R)...

Best wishes for the best outcome...

And what next? The Vietnamese tourist boom converting the infamous 'Hanoi Hilton' into a Helltown Hotel? "Enjoy the subtle Far Eastern reveille with bamboo sticks lashing your feet!", "Win the happy morning contest about who has the most weevils in his breakfast rice ball!"...

Happy birthday, whatever your planet, whatever speed your time passes...

Who ever said Americans have a very short History !?

Nice display, inspiring pride and enhancing home. Congrats for valuable service done...

Agree. So pitiful so see what was nicknamed "the Cross of the Brave" at Napoleon's time, awarded to Sarkozy's taylor! True, a real feat to make the Magyar dwarf presentable, but otherwise, 64 millions face palms!...

Triple V device for Vamping Vicious Vixen?

The Purple Heart was not re-established before 1932 (200th anniversary of George Washington), I suppose the medal was awarded retroactively in adequate quantities to any US soldier who had been allowed to wear Wound Chevrons before that year, replacing these. Why Private Carroll didn't receive it, I don't know. A decease before 1932 could be an explanation, but I hope it is not the actual one concerning this pleasant young man... Rather, have a look at the Wiki article about the Wound Chevron, which says that after 1932, some Army personnel (professional soldiers, I suppose) chose to keep the chevron on their uniform rather to claim the PH Medal instead. The same article, also, has a link to the short-lived Army Wound Ribbon (not attributed after 1917), which looks strangely close to the ribbon added to the Verdun Medal!?

No 75th Division fought within the AEF (numbers 43 to 75 were not attributed). The Cross of Lorraine on the shoulder sleeve badge was the 79th Division's insignia. The 79th Division didn't fight at St-Mihiel, but some sectors of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive still fulfill the French criteria for having fought in the Verdun sector. And this commemorative medal can be attributed to any Allied soldier having fought in this sector between August 1914 and November 1918, not only during the hard days of 1916. So, actually, many American soldiers having fought at St-Mihiel or in the M-A Offensive may have been awarded this medal. About the ribbon, it matches with no French decoration but the Verdun Medal, but with a center vertical white strip added, for which I can't find any satisfying explanation, nor any other cases for other medals.

First step to George Orwell's Newspeak impoverished pidgin... Er, the second one actually, after the SMS pidgin...

Happy birthday !! Cheers !!

The Kuwaiti anthem should praise the Emirate for the drunkest and/or most illiterate ceremony organizers in the World !

As combatants of WW1, why not also seeing the Angels of Mons in the clouds? Angels of Mons

I just don't want to think about the numbers of morons shot down by an unseen enemy while watching at the pretty faces in the clouds! Check your six, damn!! :angry2:

Fine advert for the business. If I had a dog and lived in or around Newcastle, well, now I know where I would buy my darling's stuff...

About La 317e Section: Director Pierre Schoendorffer has just died today at 83. A veteran of Dien Bien Phu, among the 1 out of 3 who survived the Viet POW camps, and the Academy Award winner 1967 for Documentary Feature for The Anderson Platoon

Don't say there isn't also a parallel between the Oliphaunts of the Battle of Minas Tirith, and the TB-TT of the Assault on Hoth. Both scenes of courageous attempts to fight these monsters advancing line abreast are critical moments of the movies, the individual successes on close attacks by Legolas and Luke can even be matched.

The authentic footages of Kamikaze attacks are to me the most stunning pictures of WW2. These few antiquated, overloaded crates, falling from the clouds or grazing the waves, facing countless tracks of blinding dots, smoking bushes of exploding light shells, forests of geysers, desperately trying to reach their own obliteration, to fulfill beliefs that will stay for ever imprvious to the Western understanding... Spirit versus matter; we can see today which side has prevailed. I find these footages a hypnotic effect; many poor American sailors frozen on their legs, unable to run while seeing the death aiming at them, may have had the same last impression. The second most stunning pictures of WW2 to me are the incredible footages recorded by the valiant German pilots attacking the huge combat boxes of Flying Fortresses over Europe. Countless incoming tracks of deadly .50 slugs hatching the pure sky from the one side, just two aimed tracks from the lens's side drawing a dotted line of fire and fragments from an engine to another one, and a maimed giant falls. These guys had guts, and more than one survived just long enough to see them repaint his own cockpit... For a while, "Memphis Belle" may have been my favourite war movie, but I felt quite disappointed by a more recent viewing.

Mah, following this path, it could soon be illegal to have your girlfriend give you some good pampering while you drive smoking a big joint behind your purple glasses! Er, is it already?...

Movies about bitter sieges, battles fought without any slight hope of survival: "The Alamo", "Zulu", "Letters from Iwo Jima", "Fortress of War"...

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xd8oz7_film-les-croix-de-bois-combat-1ere_shortfilms The purple passage is the main assault, that requires few translation. I still find the making and effects outstanding for an European film produced in 1931. Almost all of the older actors and extras were true veterans of WW1, and it can be felt seeing the men flattening themselves under the shelling...

YEAH, JESUS SAVES !!! HALLELUJAH !!!

Imagine the interviewer really pulls out a revolver, puts three bullets into it, spuns the cylinder, points it at the job-seeker's face and pulls the trigger. It does not go off, and the interviewer asks: "Would you rather I pull the trigger again or spun the cylinder again first?" Strangely enough, the job-seeker just quietly replies: "And what if a bullet had really been shot and had repainted the wall behind me?" The interviewer answers with an equal composure: "Well, er... Let's just say I didn't have to ask both of your predecessors... No please, don't look at the wall behind you. Don't."