The most mindless slaughter in human history.
Lego Battle of Verdun [video]
101–110 of 158 posts
Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]
#102Earlier 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…
Claiming its the most successful in history is nonsense.
France was the most populated and richest country in Europe for a very long time.
Despite this, what one could consider natural French territory, Belgium and Netherland France never managed to hold for a significant amount of time.
And then they decisively lost the global great power struggle against Britain despite France being much richer and having larger population.
France is constrained by pretty natural frontier boarders that when looking the Medieval Kingdom of 1223 and modern day France, it doesn't seem like its the most amazing achievement.
Specially considering its German neighbors, for 1000 years were far more fractured, and France never managed to really take full advantage of that situation.
Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 :)
Not to mention that the main reason why French army underperformed in the war is that lots of resources were spent on Maginot line as spending them on a potentially offensive things would upset the British
This is an old theory that doesn't hold up at all. The Maginot line was a good investment and worked as intented. And it was by no means as large an investment as people claim.
Where they failed is in terms of their officers, command&control and training. The French Generals made some horrible mistakes and never managed to recover.
Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> Yes, a misleading statement, but also one which bought the British valuable time to build up their military.
This is not really the case. The most important things the British could do against the Germans was the Blockade. And the Blockade was available at literally any time since WW1.
And the Germans were already in full buildup, they delay between 1938 and 1939 helped the Germans far more then it would have helped the Allies. Not to mentioned it took out the Czech military.
Specially since its only when the Germans invaded Prague that the British really started the buildup.
And in the end, the British army was kind of useless in the Battle of France, since the breakthrew happens in Verdun and the British were in Belgium.
Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
The British Army ran faster than the French to the sea but the joke is always on the French. It's also a very anglo-saxon joke…
A British route is not even in the same league as compete national capitulation.
Had the channel not been there, the UK would have surrendered like the French…
Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]
#106Earlier 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.
France lost an awful lot of men in WW1, however they could not do it alone. The allies almost lost the war with the Ludendorf offensive in spring 1918, however the USA saved the day when the expeditionary force got to two million soldiers in the summer of 1918.
> The allies almost lost the war with the Ludendorf offensive in spring 1918
Not really. Those offensive were very unlikely to win the war. They look more impressive on a map then in reality. He really had no strategic plan, its was basically 'Lets attack and hope for the best'.
Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
It's not enough to produce them, you also need to get them close to the front. The logistics of transporting millions of tons ammunition outside of normal trading routes should not be underestimated
Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
It's not enough to produce them, you also need to get them close to the front. The logistics of transporting millions of tons ammunition outside of normal trading routes should not be underestimated
Stockpiling those shells for a "huge burst" at the start of a battle is more than possible though.
The main issue today, is such stockpiles are easily found by recon (satellites, airplanes, drones), and then blown up by enemy artillery / rocket artillery.
Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I was a child, Lego was explicitly and deliberately pacifist in outlook. I remember reading that the colour palette was determined in part by this philosophy - green, grey and brown were verboten, the latter colour completely absent and the first two existing only in limited plate form. Of course manufacturing cost limitations made a restricted set of colours sensible anyway. As a preventative, this was not enti…
When were you a child? In the late eightees, I happily played with Lego that had grey swords for knights in grey castles, and pirate themed stuff with brown guns, and cannons that were grey and brown. Lots of green base plates, too.
still have the green dragon sitting on my desk, with red wings and mouth fire. I guess that was early 90s stuff though
Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]
#110Interesting. I was going to complain about the use of the leather "Pickelhaube" helmets on the German side there, but looks like the Stahlhelm was only introduced during the battle of Verdun in 1916 (hence the name M1916). Those Pickelhaube helmets would have been covered with textile in the same color as the uniforms though, and without the characteristic spike (for obvious reasons in trench warfare). The iconic black one was mostly for staff officers and parades in those days (and police).