Capitaine Vengeur

I've just bought and watched last week "Fortress of War" (Russia) and "Passchendaele" (Canada). I've liked the first one, the second not that much...

Is it a real ejector seat?

Most of the best French war movies rather target WW1: - A very long engagement : unorthodox investigation about a past strange episode in the no man's land - Capitaine Conan : incursion on the forgotten Balkan Front with unruly skirmishers - Joyeux Noël : Christmas fraternization in the no man's land - to be watched in original version for the priceless international casting

When an interviewer points a revolver at you, it's probable that your cover is f**ked up and your infiltration mission has failed. Time to think about your cyanide capsule.

I just hope that one day, we'll be able to use bulls**t as a source of energy. Some inextinguishable veins do exist. Oh yes they do!

Happy birthday !!!

Don't sit on that !!!

A real hunter in the heart can do with whatever he has. The first airmen of WW1 used to throw bricks or rusted chains on the cockpits of the enemy planes they flew over, or to let barbed wire hanging below to scratch the wings of canvas aircraft. Alexander Kazakov got his first kill by ripping the wings of an enemy Albatross with a hanging anchor (but missed by few to be driven down to the ground by his victim!). During WW2, following Heinz Knoke's example, German pilots used to maul the tight formations of heavy bombers by flying over them and throwing bombs with a short delay, with some noticeable results during the first tries. During the Campaign of Belgium, May 1940, there was a weird occasion when a Belgian Fairey Battle was pursued for a while by a German Dornier 17 thinking himself a fighter, and driven down by the frontal MG 17 fire.

The constant of any hierarchy, anywhere, anytime: Those above looking down can't see but scum... Those below looking up can't see but assholes...

If it is Tupolev or Ilyushin, I ain't. Definetely.

Bastards yesterday, liars and cowards by now. And morons too, the list gets longer. Even Huggy Bear can lie in a more convincing way...

Last thought of a prisoner: "When I think my ******* lawyer chose this prison because it was asbestos-free!!"

Hey, that's just some accusations I have heard about Hermann Graf, 212 kills, excluded from the Association for former Jagdflieger for admitting German war crimes before a Soviet commission... Wow, could it happen HE is your grand-uncle!?

You have to speak German to be shocked when recognizing the original Nazi version, as for what I know, the HW-Lied has been parodied in countless anti-Nazi political or burlesque versions, keeping the music but changing the German lyrics. If not speaking German you could confuse the Nazi content for completely anti-Nazi lyrics. Are these other versions also forbidden in Germany, just because using the HW-Lied music? By the way, Olham, I'd like some advice regarding German military music. I plan to update my Medals Pack for First Eagles, refreshing for instance the Reich's musics with "Preussens Gloria" as an intro, and "Die wacht am Rhein" as a mission success music. Does the second one reflect an "acceptable" level of nationalism regarding WW1? Or definetely not?

The tank is now kept in M. Gorczynski's barn, the villager from Flesquières who had investigated for long and fully invested in private excavations to recover it, a WW1 fanatic. It can be visited only in private planned groups. The excavations started on November 18 ended on November 20, 1998, on the 81st anniversary of "Deborah"'s destruction. The poppies wreath that can be seen on the tank's rear had been put down on that day by the contemporary commander of the Royal Armoured Corps, who had especially made the trip as soon as the tank was authenticated. The director of the Bovington Tank Museum also attended the intimate ceremony. "Deborah" may be the last surviving tank of the Battle of Cambrai.

Yep, just the famous old banking communism: "What is yours is mine, what is mine is mine."

http://www.scharnhorst-class.dk/scharnhorst/history/scharncerberus.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Dash http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Donnerkeil Editorial in The Times of London: "Vice Admiral Ciliax has succeeded where the Duke of Medina Sidonia failed. Nothing more mortifying to the pride of our seapower has happened since the seventeenth century. [...] It spelled the end of the Royal Navy legend that in wartime no enemy battle fleet could pass through what we proudly call the English Channel."

As a child, I often went wandering (for some times, each week-end) on the Plateau de Craonne, once one of the hottest and most pounded spot of the Chemin des Dames. Between the 2nd and 3rd Battles of the Aisne, some limited offensives, and the long attrition war on this ridge, the place may have seen millions of shells fall. No wonder that thousands of them were duds, or even lost in action before they could be used. I remember a place lining our usual trail in the woods, where several rusted shells, about one dozen each time, were casually stored. From one outing to the other, their numbers, sizes, and shapes changed, so I suppose I could see each time the new harvest for one or a few weeks from the surrounding area! Anyone could have picked up as many shells as wanted - but without the guarantee that these "souvenirs" be fully neutralized! I remember of various shells, even heavy mortar shells, but no hand or rifle grenades, which were probably more carefully stored. Which kid could resist playing with a rusted frag grenade? In 1919, 120,000 hectares (300,000 acres) of French soil were classified "Red Zone", areas with too many bodies, unexploded shells or unsecured rubble, which couldn't be used for agriculture, pasture or settlement ("the flattened grounds", a writer called them). Less than 10 years later, due to influence of local representatives and the memory of war softening, the superficy had been divided by more than twenty. No wonder that many fields returned to mechanized agriculture with deep plowing could give some lethal surprises. In the first decades after the War, many countrymen died that way in the département of Aisne, where Craonne lies. In my present province of Normandy, the danger rather comes from the unexploded big Allied air bombs from WW2. Even in the heart of my once heavily pounded city of Le Havre, it can happen from time to time that a full district be evacuated, to let the experts neutralize a RAF 1000lbs dud exhumed on a building site.

One can find very strange things when digging in some parts of Northern France. This Mark IV "Female" has been exhumed in 1998 at Flesquières. It was numbered D.51 "Deborah" (2nd Lt F.G. Heap), D Battalion, Tank Corps. It was knocked out in the village on November 20, 1917, during the Cambrai Offensive, with 4 crewmen killed out of 8 (identification in cooperation with the Bovington Tank Museum). The tank had been buried by the Germans outside of Flesquières after they recovered the village in March 1918 (Michael Offensive). "Deborah" has been classified as Historic Monument in 1999 (it seems only 5 other Mark IV still exist in the World, but in better shape of course).

TOGA ! TOGA ! TOGA !

Leutnant Prünen ?

Vote for April Fools' Day... Trusting in the fool's luck...

It reminds me of the opening scenes of "Letters from Iwo Jima" and "Taegukgi"... Less than one century ago, and it looks like a spot of archaeological excavations for Gallic artefacts!

A link to my guided visit of the original Mistral (in 2009), posted on this site. I don't think the hangar may be large enough to host many Hinds. http://combatace.com/gallery/album/456-bpc-mistral/

"Sniff? Oink Oink?"