Capitaine Vengeur

By the time Iraq gets a rliable Air Force, all of those cadets will become four-star generals ! Meanwhile, the Iranians could perform reconnaissance missions over every Iraqi airbase. God, they could even do it at 100ft high in inverted flight, hands off ! Just a little more humiliating, if webcasted on Youtube...

One of the many and few spoken-about collateral victims of the attack. This one at last won't stay anonymous to us.

But which Europe?...

The Danube is threatened to be polluted by massive amounts of highly toxic red waste down to its estuary. The Black Sea won't become another Red Sea, indeed, but it shall be a continental-scale environmental disaster.

AFGHAN CORPORATION : You have two cows. You beat them for not being bulls, prohibit them from going out of the cowshed (or if so, only hidden under a tarpaulin), throw stones to them if they dare to look at the nearest bull, and beat them again for being too traumatized to give milk. IRANIAN CORPORATION : You have two cows. You neglect their milk but patiently harvest all of their methane, and try to convince the methane brokers that it is for your own personal domestic use. ISRAELI CORPORATION : You have two cows. You take advantage of a dubious outdated 3000-year-old title deed to gather an extensive rich pasture out of former anecdotally or marginally inhabited lands (allegedly), and wonder why a large herd of skinny cows outside are looking aggressively at your legitime pasture and cattle. (oops, turns a little political...)

Some of my favourite Quit-complaining-about-your-job! pictures:

HONG KONG CORPORATION : You have two cows. You get a fine for breeding cattle in a flat. NORTH KOREAN CORPORATION : You have two cows, and almost no fodder. You indoctrinate both of them all day and night long, starve one of them and scarcely feed the other one, instructing her to keep a watch on the starved one. You soon suspect her to plan to betray you, and plan to purge her later. ORWELL CORPORATION : You have never had cows. Nobody has ever had cows. Cows have never existed.

This one I have included in the Württemberger panel of my Medals Pack, of course, as the highest award for repeated feats (equivalents: Militär-Max-Josef-Orden in Bavaria, or Militär-St-Heinrichs-Orden in Saxony, that I also use for Prussia). This is a military-only decoration, as she doesn't need the word Militär, and doesn't have the crossed swords often added for military use on many other German dual-purpose crosses. Neither Boelcke nor Richthofen were Württembergers, but they were exceptionally awarded this coveted cross. Her most famous Württemberger recipient was of course Erwin Rommel, who earnt it after the splendid rush forward of his elite Württemberger battalion after the breakthrough at Caporetto, October 1917.

"Do you eat oysters, Antoninus? And do you eat snails?" (Spartacus, 1960). A tasty boy at that time, indeed.

Massive Ordnance Penetrator... Ffff... I thought it was the name for a sextoy !

On The Aerodrome website, you can compare for many aces the date when they received a decoration, and the dates for each of their kills. You can see for example that Gerhard Fieseler, the Storch's father, earnt this Prussian Verdienstkreuz after his 13th kill, before he finally became a Leutnant. You can also see that some brave NCOs had been granted this cross before their first kill, probably for feats noticed before they were transferred to the Luftstreitskrafte. I have used it much during my researches for the Medals Pack I released for First Eagles (for which I had not retained this cross, selecting only the awards for officers; planning to add a Bavarian panel, I won't include the Tapferkeitsmedaille either, the Bavarian counterpart for this Prussian Verdienstkreuz). During my researches, I have not found any air hero who had received the Order of the Crown of Württemberg, on any grade. Some information about that point, Olham?

I would never go out and pay to see a comic as poorly dressed and shaped as this Mr Mamadoujihad. Even Woody Allen would look like a Brummell close to him !

"Military medicine is to medicine what military justice is to justice and military music to music." Well, a thought from 19th century, I think. Many things have changed since. Safe for music.

Thank you very much. I'm completely new to conversion to/ from SFP2, and to the associated Knowledge Base. It shall be an excellent training ground.

It seems that a model exists somewhere for the F-84E Thunderjet, but I just can't find it on this site or another (the E model, J35-A-17D with stretched fuselage, not the B/C neither the G). Can somebody help me?

I had given up the Japanese sci-fi anims since my childhood's favourites (Goldorak, Ulysses 31, Captain Future...), and rediscovered this universe in my late twenties only. I never buy mangas, read only those I can borrow from the local public libraries. Since then, I've enjoyed sci-fi or alternate future mangas like Gunnm Last Order, The Legend of Mother Sarah, Ghost in the Shell (both the manga and the anim), Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (both the manga and the anim), and some other future wars mangas read since long and whose names I can't remember, but appreciated at that time. Nowadays, I focus on more "serious" and contemporary mangas like Zipang, The Summit of the Gods, or Les Gouttes de Dieu (Kami no Shizuku, I know no English name, a welcome ode to French wines). I also like Jap anims when I can find a good one. I enjoy the oniric universe of Miyazaki, and have felt interested in some limited way in the latest Summer Wars.

I like the look of the picture. "Aoh, Jarvis, is that the button to warm my tea?" At last, a good thing he has replaced this damned silver spoon in his mouth with an Intercom.

On September 15, 1940, the Royal Air Force repulsed one of the more massive onslaught from the Luftwaffe over the skies of Southeast England, in an effort that proved to be decisive on Hitler's decision to postpone the invasion of the British Isles. 60 German agressors and 26 RAF fighters were shot down that day (13 RAF pilots KIA). This day has been chosen to be commemorated as the Battle of Britain Day in the UK. On September 15, 1950, General McArthur launched a massive landing at Incheon, not far away from the crucial network of Seoul, vital for the North Korean Army ventured deeply on the South Korean soil. A risky gamble that proved to be profitable, but poorly exploited afterwards. It was the biggest invasion by sea from the end of WW2 to that day. Saddam hussein expected a bigger one in February 1991, but has been deliberately deceived. One defensive victory for the last square of Freedom facing subjugated Europe, one offensive victory for the first military reaction of UN forces to a rogue state. Ten years exactly from one occurence to the other. I think this day has something special. Happy 70th and 60th commemorations to both.

Gone with the Wind...

9 years ago that day, I was coming back from my parents, a 6-hour-long drive. Browsing the radio channels, I heard this damned thing, too unbelievable to be believed. Browsing again and again, hearing that again and again. First reaction: another stupid Hollywood movie to be released, pfff... Second reaction, later: another Orson Welles-style bad joke, so far away from april's Fool? Not funny at all! Third reaction: still sceptical, but vaguely worried. Then at home, hurried to the pictures and saw... that: Kamikaze Boeings over Manhattan, clouds of flames tearing the towers of glass, desesperate people making the last decision of their lives while trying to escape the flames, and the final act, in the same time expectable and unable to believe, two proud and mortally wounded giants collapsing in turn, with their shroud of ashes covering the maimed City of New York... Welcome into the 3rd Millenium ! Three days before, I had come back from a tour in Greece, where I had met some British and Americans. The Americans had a longer stay and were planned to come back home on tuesday 11. I suppose they have been seriously delayed due to the interruption of any flight.

I've read the stats for Iwo Jima. Seven of the thirteen posthumous awards of the MoH to Marines there were granted for the same feat : throwing themselves on grenades to protect their fellows. Only one more received it still alive, crippled. Something of a miracle. Accidentally, seven to one seems to be the same rating today. But no medal will ever match the life-long personal gratitude from the buddies whose young lives have been saved by these braves. Bad luck here for the boy Giunta tried to save.

Well, by the way, a French town of Condom actually exists (no etymological link known with the rubber thing). Will her citizens be prohibited to say where they live by this system banning any sex-related word?

Fine. Can you still declare you are living in ill-named places like Dyke Avenue, Fartburg, Gee Spot ou Wino Valley (possibly misspelt) without being banned from the Net? (in addition of bearing coarse laughs from immature people!)

Don't put sharks into your soup... But don't swim into their soup either !

British composure and Russian fatalism have dug the grave for Hitler's frenzy. I remember this tale of an English (Londoner?) shopkeeper who placed this sign on his store during the Blitz: "Open as usual". When a bomb finally blasted his shop, the sign became: "More open than usual". The Londoners were lucky to have a deep Underground network, alas that wasn't the case for all other attacked cities in Britain. In 1944, the Blitz got its second wind with Hitler's Vergeltungswaffen. I'd like to pay tribute to a compatriot from my city of Le Havre, Jean Maridor, a Free French pilot (Sqn 91) who shot down 11 V-1s. On August 3, 1944, he was killed in this 11th attack, disintegrated while firing at the flying bomb at point blank, just before it could crash on Benenden School (Kent).