The fact that this extraordinarily obscure question had such a thoroughly researched and intricately detailed answer almost restores my faith in Internet forums.
What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)
61–70 of 159 posts
Re: What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)
#62[flagged]
I’m so scarred by LLMs that I wonder if I’d ever be able to trust it.
Re: What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)
#63That's a meme? I've never seen that photo before in my life and I'm pretty aware of most memes.
Most of them? Are you sure?
https://www.reddit.com/r/MemeEconomy/comments/egxfws/12880_m...
Re: What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)
#64Re: What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)
#65Re: What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)
#66The fact that this extraordinarily obscure question had such a thoroughly researched and intricately detailed answer almost restores my faith in Internet forums.
Helps that it tickles a few things that people in subcultures get very nerdy about: military topics, WWII, etc.
Re: What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)
#67When I toured Jacques Littlefield's Tank Ranch they had, what I believe to be, this exact tank. They told the story of how it had been lost in the river and sat there and they went to see if it was still there and arranged to get it removed and returned to California where they restored it.
If someone was so motivated, they could probably go back to the internet archives of the auction that happened after Jacques died to find a picture of both the restored tank and its providence.
Re: What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thus the joke… It’s a play on words, and the involuntary nature of service in the German military at the time.
For some value of 'joke'.
Fair, but it’s a meme thread. My initial thought was.
Pioneer: O panzer of the lake, why are our uniforms white? Panther: They must be easy to spot.
But, I tried to reach past the pun and failed.
Re: What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)
#69This entire deep dive is great. I feel compelled to call out this heroism:
> 1st Lieutenant de Wispelaere had prepared the bridge for demolition ... De Wispelaere immediately pushed the electrical ignition, but there was no explosion... Wispelaere now left his shelter and worked the manual ignition device. Trying to get back to his bunker, he was hit by a burst from a German machine gun and fell to the ground, mortally wounded. At the same time, the explosive charge went off.
Re: What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)
#70Germans pioneers wore white uniforms? That sounds like the worst possible colour for digging ditches, recovering tanks or camouflage (if it isn't snowing). Why would they do that? Did Hugo Boss do the design?
> Did Hugo Boss do the design?
I'm not saying that you're saying that, but there is a persistent meme that Hugo Boss designed the Nazi officer uniforms, or maybe is was the SS, or it was the whole Wehrmacht. This lends a certain mystique to the Nazis and cements the notion that they were somehow extra sharp. Aesthetic forbidden fruit. I don't like that, not in the least because it's not correct. The uniforms for all the Nazi arms of the state were designed by party insiders. Boss didn't even start designing men's tailored suits until after the war.
This is not to exculpate Hugo Boss, but to knock the shine of fancy suits off of the nazis. Hugo Boss had been selling ready made menswear since 1923, joined the nazi party in 1931, and won contracts to produce the uniforms much the way FEDS Apparel makes the USDA branded polo shirts [1]. In fact, he produced the uniforms using slave labor. He's guilty as sin.
someone with better citations saying the same thing with more details seven years ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/78ho4c/comme...
[1] think of these dorky (no offense to the dorks who keep our milk free of pathogens) polos or windbreakers when you think of the nazi uniforms https://www.fedsapparel.com/collections/us-department-of-agr...