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Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

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Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#91

Post by mellavora »

gattilorenz wrote: post #52
tgv wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do make such jokes. Not about WW1, though. But the reputation of the French was heavily tainted by their failure to check Germany in the interbellum and the Vichy regime.

Then I hope that you have plenty of jokes about the country whose prime Minister came back from Germany "with peace for our time" in 1938 :)

Yes, a misleading statement, but also one which bought the British valuable time to build up their military.

It isn't clear that Chamberlain believed what he said, politicians are sometimes cleverer than they appear.

Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#92

Post by londons_explore »

jsmcgd wrote: post #84
adev_ wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am currently born near to Verdun > The amount of shells fired at the battle of as Verdun is so extremely high that you find layers of shells everywhere On the first onslaught on the city, it is estimated the German fired around 2 millions shell on Verdun in two days . [1] It is hard to imagine by today living standards the hell that people lived there. > The land is literally filled with shells, bullets, scrapnel e…

2M shells in 48 hrs is 11.5 shells a second.

But if you design a factory to make shells quickly, each production line can probably do 1 shell per second (they're not so different from big bullets, and those are made very rapidly).

11 of those lines and you can be keeping up that rate forever.

Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#93

Post by dudul »

bluetomcat wrote: post #7
usrusr wrote: post #3

Lego depicting war is so depressing... (well, except for Lego Star Wars of course, somehow that seems to pass both the corporate and my personal "no way toys!" filters)

As far as themed sets go, Lego has been consistent in promoting aggressiveness in the last 30 years. Police chasing the bad guys to put them in a prison cell, pirates wanting to plunder the treasure, ninjas riding heavily-armed aircraft.

The switch that I really regretted was the move from "open play" to "good vs bad".

When I was a kid I had a ton of castle sets. They were pretty much "neutral". Various factions doing their thing, some a bit more shady sure, but you could set up whichever story and alliance you wanted. In early 2000 it turned into humans vs ugly trolls. I felt like so much was taken away from kids by doing that.

Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#94

Post by Steve44 »

jsmcgd wrote: post #84
adev_ wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am currently born near to Verdun > The amount of shells fired at the battle of as Verdun is so extremely high that you find layers of shells everywhere On the first onslaught on the city, it is estimated the German fired around 2 millions shell on Verdun in two days . [1] It is hard to imagine by today living standards the hell that people lived there. > The land is literally filled with shells, bullets, scrapnel e…

2M shells in 48 hrs is 11.5 shells a second.

I watched a documentary a little while ago which described the sound as a constant drum-roll during these barrages.

I don't have sound at the moment but think https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hscEoupkqv4 is something similar. The scale of these attacks is mind boggling.

> A barrage like this is referred to as "drumfire" by veterans to describe artillery that is so constant, unceasing and uninterrupted, that it sounds like drums. Others say that it sounded almost like a sea. It is agreed that it was impossible to hear individual shells, due to the sheer amount being fired.

>

> A video to describe the sheer scale of WW1 artillery barrages and how they may have sounded. It may also help to convey the experience of shell shock (PTSD) a WW1 soldier may have developed. Although this video pretends to be the experience of an artillery barrage, a true artillery barrage especially on this scale cannot ever be felt in the same way through a demonstration as the world would shatter, pressure and concussive forces would be felt throughout the entire body with each blast, and the noise would be so extremely violent and loud that anyone would have their ear drums ruptured.

Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#95

Post by benj111 »

holoduke wrote: post #57

Every year I visit various ww1 battle sites in northern France and Italy. We walk through endless farm lands to find information about certain events. We often stumble upon ammunition and steel scrap. The land is literally filled with shells, bullets, scrapnel everywhere. Some are still live and just brought to the top of the soil by farm tractor machinery. The amount of shells fired at the battle of as Verdun is so…

Yes I went as a teenager. We were warned not to buy souvenirs as live grenades were known to have been bought in the past. But you could still see chalk lines in ploughed fields where the trench lines had been and even in some of the memorials there were signs warning you to keep out of the wooded bits. And some of the memorials are massive, and just covered in names.

Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#96

Post by chrisseaton »

gattilorenz wrote: post #51
throwaway894345 wrote: post #26

For anyone interested, Battlefield 1 is a world war 1 game available for every platform, and it’s one of the best games in the franchise! It’s about 6 years old now, but still active and stupidly cheap. I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest or even casual curiosity in WWI.

There's an upcoming game, Isonzo, that is a continuation of Verdun, and will probably be quite realistic (Battlefield 1 is fun, but very... Creatively based on WWI) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYv8KyNRFQM&ab_channel=IGN

Obviously people weren't jumping off blimps, and the pace is higher than it is in actual warfare (but that's in all games) but apart from that I thought it had pretty historically accurate settings isn't it? (I haven't actually played it.)

People think World War 1 was all trenches and mud, but it wasn't. There was action in Africa and the Middle-East as well.

Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#97

Post by [deleted] »

scubbo wrote: post #36
cyberpunk wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one in Europe makes such jokes, the French fought like lions. Of course, our friends across the pond also think state healthcare is communism, and republicans are “literally” nazis so, I wouldn’t truck too much with such statements.

(Ignorant) English people absolutely make jokes about the French being militarily incompetent and prone to surrender, in the face of significant evidence[0] - "France is the most successful military power in history". Source: am English, am attempting to become decreasingly ignorant over time. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_France EDIT: Wait, crap, I forgot Brexit. I guess your statement remain…

[deleted]

Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#98

Post by InCityDreams »

holoduke wrote: post #57

Every year I visit various ww1 battle sites in northern France and Italy. We walk through endless farm lands to find information about certain events. We often stumble upon ammunition and steel scrap. The land is literally filled with shells, bullets, scrapnel everywhere. Some are still live and just brought to the top of the soil by farm tractor machinery. The amount of shells fired at the battle of as Verdun is so…

"...scrapnel everywhere...".

The correct term is 'shrapnel', but your 'scrapnel' means so much more.

/'Scrap', being the root of the word.

Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#99

Post by panick21_ »

cyberpunk wrote: post #19
dylan604 wrote: post #4

"The Battle of Verdun showed the strength and determination of the French, and revealed to the world the chaos and destructiveness of modern war." Based on the jokes from WWII, they must have not recovered that tenacity in time. "We have these gently used WWII French rifles. They've only been dropped once"

No one in Europe makes such jokes, the French fought like lions. Of course, our friends across the pond also think state healthcare is communism, and republicans are “literally” nazis so, I wouldn’t truck too much with such statements.

> No one in Europe makes such jokes, the French fought like lions.

You clearly have never been to Switzerland.

Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#100

Post by panick21_ »

meigwilym wrote: post #83
cyberpunk wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one in Europe makes such jokes, the French fought like lions. Of course, our friends across the pond also think state healthcare is communism, and republicans are “literally” nazis so, I wouldn’t truck too much with such statements.

Many Brits still do I'm afraid. It's a sad irony to see 'Dunkirk Spirit' being rolled out at a time of crisis, despite it being a rout of the British army. It was a logistical triumph, which no doubt allowed the British army to live to fight another day. But I also consider Dunkirk Spirit to be about standing helplessly on a beach while being machine gunned by German pilots, while 30,000 Frenchmen die, guarding your…

> despite it being a rout of the British army

The Allied Army was surrounded because of a Break threw in the South. The British Army could literally do absolutely nothing and they don't do anything to lose the overall battle.

In fact British keeping minimal organization alive and managing even limited counterattack had a strong effect German planning.

And then of course despite massive help by the British Pétain essentially stabbed them in the back.

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