Capitaine Vengeur

Looks like "Borat at OK Corral"! Hi, Kazakstan!

On May 10, 1940, the German armies launched a massive onslaught on expectant France, neutral but expectant Belgium and Luxemburg, and completely unexpectant Netherlands ("Fall Gelb" or "Yellow Plan"). The swift fall of France which followed within only a few weeks was actually one of the most stunning surprises of the War, including for the Germans themselves at that time. It completely reshuffled the cards, as Britain, expecting to stay the rather quiet rear base she had been for all of the four years WWI lasted, was suddenly now to fight alone with the Channel as the frontline. The same day, Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of the UK, and pronounced his famous speech promising "sweat, blood and tears". Something of a prophecy... The same day, the German paratroops drops on the Netherlands proved the value of the new concept of tridimensional warfare, while the airborne attacks on the roof of the Belgian fort of Eben-Emael, said to be impregnable, proved for the first time the value in battle of the all-new HEAT charges.

During the whole maneuver from Sedan to Dunkirk, the German generals, all of them had known WW1, expected with anxiety for a large-scale French counterattack on their exposed flank. Ending August 1914, the French army was beaten, exhausted, disheartened, and hopelessly retreating; but in September, as the Germans almost touched Victory, she suddenly launched a completely unexpectable counter-offensive that froze the front for more than 3 years. It was "The miracle of the Marne". This time, the aborted local counterattacks stayed bogged down into counter-orders and chaos. Before this surprising "Blitz" victory, the German staff was not that confident about his new mechanized toy (Poland being not considered as a real test). After that, they almost thought that Guderian could drive on water.

The "Cannae" maneuver is a double envelopment (used at Kiev 1941, for example). Here, it was more of a reedition of the "Austerlitz" maneuver: let the enemy mass his reserves against your right wing, then blast his center with your own elite reserves (a good defensive ground, but depleted of forces). The brilliant point about this strategy was that it left the Allies uncertain about what would follow: will they drive on Paris? envelop the right wing? the left wing?

This May 10, a Dutch Fokker G.1 bomber was the first of the five kills General Theo Osterkamp (32 kills during WW1) scored during WW2. As a WW1 airman, he was very surprised of the destructive effect of his 20mm guns.

The harsh and frustrating claims system can be very immersive for some air services. It was for the French, who needed an examinable wreckage or at least two ground witnesses (no amount of air witnesses did ever bother) to have a claim confirmed. It had some influence on some aces' scores: - René Fonck: 75 confirmed out of 127 claims - Georges Madon: 41 confirmed out of 105 claims - René Dorme: 23 confirmed out of 70 claims (some 40 of his unconfirmed seem almost certain) - David E. Puttnam: 9 confirmed out of 24 claims when flying for France (4 confirmed out of 5 claims when flying for Uncle Sam) Very frustrating, indeed.

Oh, I remember another one: "Within ten years, you won't recognize your cities!" (Chancellor Adolf Hitler to the german people, 1933)

Impressive, numerous, various, colorful, ... Russian!

Quite intelligent. The French only took about 1200 POWs during their whole short war, kept them for themselves, and had to free them when they capitulated. And one of them was Werner Moelders, no less, who was to make a real slaughter during the Battle of Britain !

I would have bet three nails to see him stand up and walk...

How many Freudian psychanalysts have you enriched?

I've been born and grown up in Rheims, where the Capitulation Room can still be visited. It was set in the SHAEF building, located there in Rheims since February 1945, and the War Room can also be visited. The SHAEF was established in a college where Eisenhower had been kind enough to let half of the buildings to the teachers and pupils (in the same conditions, the Germans would probably have requisitioned the whole lot). A sheet on a building at some distance indicates where Eisenhower has lived for several months. I've heard that Eisenhower selected this place because it was the only one with a golf ground nearby, and he couldn't start a day without practicing some holes.

There can't be martyrdom neither ultimatum for release if nobody is able to say at any time if he is either alive or dead, and if so, where his grave is. Make him simply... vanish!

Fabrication of a new martyr is on its way. It would have been better to keep him for life in a secret place (far side of the Moon - style), he would have been forgotten much sooner.

Well so, you seem to be the proof that the Military doesn't need any cybernetical research to create an "Universal soldier" or even some evolved brainwash, as they'll ever find guys next door like you to have the job done. Give them a shiny weapon, tell them "The bad guys are there. Kill them and come back to report", and they'll do. No touchy-feely thoughts, and probably not that there's a WHOLE lot of different between any of them... and yourself.

The unquestionable success obtained during the large-scale offensive "Linebacker II" should have had a great political weigh during the negotiations in 1973. Unfortunately, the US politicians wasted it, being too hurry to close their cases and move out.

I don't think that the F-14 would have weighed much if the restrictive RoEs were not lifted. The A-10 could have been a fine asset to prevent the PAVN to gather a large armoured force and use it in the open, a larger force than the embryo seen during the Easter Offensive. But I think that the main improvements could have been new AIM-9 missiles, as Fubar said, and mostly, new AWACS aircraft like the E-3 Sentry, as many of the US air casualties seem to have been shot down in ambushes from the clouds by GCI-guided air Congs. Anyway, I don't think that the war could have still lasted for such a long time. If the Soviets kept clever enough not to openly get involved, they would have left the US internal political situation go rotten by itself. You want hypothetical disaster scenarios? Imagine a 5th column made of refractory conscripts and deserters not wanting to die in Bambooland, much more dangerous and trained than the pleasant long-haired marijuana smokers. Provided no sign of withdrawal ever took place, imagine the election of the first self-claimed Socialist President in 1976, taking advantage of Hoover's death!

The problem is that it all works exactly as for "normal" warfare (I mean: endangering your own life and accepting possibility to kill other human beings speaking another language, and probably as unsure as you are about what they are here for): if you don't do it for your conscience, you won't do it for a medal. The measure seems to be expressly directed towards the medias.

If true, a very clever idea anyway. Even if clearly looking like a hoax, it could be possible. In my job, I often have to control many containers, some of them coming from Iran or Venezuela for example, and changing ships at my place. Can somebody give me the exact full load weight from which I could recognize such a passing container?

A happy May 1 they then celebrated in Hanoi, for sure...

Perhaps an admirer of the Babel Tower has wanted to build the tallest car park out of the same mud bricks...

The "crappy pic" aspect makes it look like the dream of a drunk flight sim addict. Accidentally, I sometimes have the same...

I think that the warnings we can hear come from wingmen who have a tally on you, either you're flying a single- or a two-seater. I'd like the RIO's warnings as a bonus concerning your own angles you can't see by yourself as the front crewman, either you have valuable wingmen or not (if all of them are downed, for instance!) Concerning the sentences, I was just imaginating what a helpful RIO could tell you about a targetted bandit. Just imaginating. The hand gets to the modders.

I had read the narrative from one of the USAF F-4 pilots involved in Operation Bolo (I don't remember which one). He said that he was admiring about his RIO constantly twisting his own neck in impossible postures to detect any threats or opportunities. Actually, in TK's or other sims, I'd have found it nice that on two-seaters, the RIO doesn't seem to be an ornamental dead ballast. I'd have found it immersive to hear from time to time his voice warning you about oncoming threats in your 5 or 7, or indicating what does a targetted plane having just evaded from your own visual range ("The bastard keeps on turning", "He's diving", "He climbs like hell"), or just congratulating or shouting on you (like in Il-2).