What have you been watching?

One strange thing about the series the lead transport formation drops their troops way off the lead plane gets hit with sprained and the officer gets killed in the cockpit the pilot panics and hits the switch for the jump lights. The men jump the other planes follow as well but the following flights fly thru and under the chutes, that didn't seem right did we screw up and the formations got stepped down instead of up like how many guys got run down by our own planes. Also damn so many men killed by trigger happy sentries like the dolts never even yelled a challenge and just start shooting and then realize they shot before making sure the target was friend or foe. Pacific too dudes would break off leave their position for late night business and get shot trying to get back to their foxhole I can see that with the Japanese doing night attacks a lot plus the Japanese kept bombing and shelling the troops at night to rattle them and keep them awake. Sleep deprivation causes loss of efficiency and awareness. I think we did the same in later wars also as a form of psychological warfare. Anyway I thought that scene was a bit odd but was it something that actually happened. I never read anything about that but that the groups got dropped all over many in the wrong areas many because the transports were flown by pilots that were just transport pilots and not trained for drop missions and mistaked their drop zones or pathfinder flares. I not sure how they miss the flares as I read the pathfinders used special colored flares many panicked from the intense flak in some areas and lost track of their position and just dropped their loads where they thought they were. But what about the gliders some of those guys must have known they were off but without a tow your going down just hope you find a good landing spot. The tanks and other armor looks authentic like the 251 looked right not a modified m3 half track and the stub and marker, thought it was interesting the 101 is supporting a British tank column of Sherman's and cromwells I always though the Cromwell was a strange tank with those huge rivets on the turret. Also still watching dogfights on YouTube love the animation of aerial dog fights just wish I had more wildcat models I have one f4f wildcat and two f4f fm2s now according to my book the fm was just inches longer and had a taller tail wondering if I can rework one of my fm back into a early wildcat, plus my old revell kit has a two piece wing I'm hoping to rework it so I can have it in folded position, be kewl to do a carrier scene.

 

Why deny? To save $$$. This nation has been doing this since post-American Revolution.

Don't want to pay benefits? Don't go to war.

But war makes $$$ for a few people. Since WW II, it's not about winning anymore.

Just borrowed a 2 DVD set on Winston Churchill from the Library.

 

Yeah during Vietnam they say lots of people were making money the munitions manufacturers the aircraft companies and lots of people were in aerospace lots of jobs building fighters, transports, tanks, guns, missiles,, then the war ended, contracts were cut back or canceled entirely and thousands out of work. Moreno Valley sprang up as a aerospace contractor set up out there, they closed and Moreno had mass forclosures and the housing values dropped like a rock. Yes it is unfortunate that money is the bases for everything and yes the government all governments look for ways to save money lots of time to the expense of the service men. Like Clinton got us back in the black by freezing all military spending. They couldn't even get spare parts, they say sixty percent of all equipment was out of service and those in service were kept so by taking parts from those out of service. Had a friend telling me they had a bunch of guys sneak into one of the repair yards and steal parts they needed to keep their ship operational. Isn't that just crazy. If an enemy wanted to attsck us then we would have been pretty messed up. Also the middle defense around the pentagon and capital it was old but still manned and operational. Clinton had it shut down to save money it could have shot that plane down before it hit the building but who knows the military was so confused they might have kept those guys on stand by till it was too late. Although after Obama I really don't see the problem with money when they printed far more than our gold reserve. Which they say devalued our money all though the dollar has regained in many parts of the world.

 

Watched a show about the Mary rose an early ship of the line commissioned by Henry the eight they raised it and preserved it I'm actually amazed how much is left and all the stuff they found on board. I think it's the starboard side that's mostly preserved as the mud and silt buried it and kept it from completely rotting away so it weird like half a ship like someone sheared off the other half exposing the inner decks. They were never sure why it sank they know she heeled over too much and the gun ports were open and went below the water and that caused her to take on water and roll over. But the don't know why she heeled over so much. They say the French claimed the hit her and caused damage and that she was already heavy from water taken on from battle damage and that's why she rolled over so far. Maybe as the study the wreck maybe they find evidence of what really happened.

 

Another show about diving around I think it was around midway and they found the remains of a Brewster they since the recovery of that Finnish Brewster there's been renewed interest but there was little left of it the engine landing gear parts I think they said they found the guns but from the underwater pics there seem to be little left of the fuselage and wings . Too bad would have been a great find if they could have found a midway plane nearly intact. Other than museum mock ups are there any f2a3s anywhere. I read the navy was so unhappy with them that when the war was won they sent them straight to the scrap yards and forgot to save one for the naval museum, is that right. We lost so many planes in training missions in the drink and later recovered. Could there be one under the waves waiting to be found and recovered??They don't make one in my scale but I want to get the mark one Brewster series and covert a f2a2 to a a3 I think it shouldn't be too hard, but I'll see when I really get one or maybe try with my Japanese one a F toy mini kit the mark one would be better as they make the ventral window separate and clear like it should be the f toy is molded solid any painted silver to look like a window. Many early navy Planes had a small window on the floor to help carrier landings I think the wildcat in later production had them removed to speed up production I think it said. The wildcat was slower that the Japanese aircraft but the armored cockpit really protected our pilots and allowed them to do things the Japanese could not and our more rugged construction. We could dive faster and sustained more hits. I watched this thing that they found out the light construction also was more acceptable to compressibility and the controls locked up more than our planes so we developed tactics for defeating the zero and its frail construction was easily shredded by our fifty cals. The fifty is another amazing engineering still considered a valuable weapon after almost a hundred years we're getting close wonder if the military will have a special celebration for the hundredth should be 2027 isn't it??

 

The Brothers in the Pacific was more horrible to me as the Japanese soldiers and civilians were ready to die and kill US soldiers while in Europe the cruelty of battle was less cruel.

 

Haven't watched the cable in months started going down and been watching AHC, history channel, Smithsonian and military channel and SyFy. Watching the greatest raids the over head looking infrared animation in black and white is kewl you see the men running crouching and sometimes fall. The Campbell town raid was terrible so many men lost I don't understand why didn't they install aux tanks on the deck that fed into the main tanks and drained off first so by the time they got to the French coast the tanks would be drained. They say most of the motor boats were lost due to gas cans being punctured and setting the boats on fire like only three boats out of twenty survived that's a really bad ratio. Then the commandos losing there boats were stranded and fought their way to the city. Most were later captured but a few make it to Spain an amazing four hundred mile journey. Then d day our rangers get screwed up when the navy cocksmen don't account for current drift and end up off course. Like isn't that why the navy was tasked with the sailing and wouldn't they be briefed or aware of the currents. But the Rangers still make it and complete their mission again with high losses but their hang on and hold. The cgi is getting so good I told my nephews one day they make a movie that's totall computer generated and no live action actors at all. Save millions just on actor salaries. Like tag movie where some guy writes a program for cgi and a movie agent producer creates the perfect actress but the news keeps pushing for an interview he figures he can't hid it any longer so releases a statement she's retired and joined a nunnery in another country and puts the hard drives and software in a chest and dumps it at sea, but the news calls it a mysterious disappearance and people reportedly saw him load the chest on his boat and come back without it. He's arrested and charged with murder so he breaks and tells the truth but no one believes him so he recovers the chest but the sea water has destroyed everything. But the computer had some residual files and enough of the program that he is able to recreate the program has a tape made where he has the girl say she went into hiding because she was pregnant and the baby was his and that they want to raise there baby in peace it makes him famous and they drop the charges. It was a crazy movie but maybe the writer saw that cgi in the future could take over and movies could be or would be made by computer programs. Maybe more old movies will be remade with better accurate effects.

 

Watched some of enterprise 360, lol Mac had the tremor movies one thru six, missing seven. Watched one thru three one night and the others three another night. I was always disappointed that the enterprise was not made into a museum, after surviving so many battles and battle damage. She was with us from the beginning and was there to the end. Some bar save some pieces of her and has the displayed some preservation group was trying to get him to give the stuff he has for some kind of museum but the owner said no way no one did anything to save them back when. That was some years ago wonder if the bar still there and has the parts.

 

Had an appointment with my neurologist did a brain scan I must had looked bad I felt weak and drained not sure why but next thing I knew I was put on a gurney and whisked to fountain valley regional hospital. They did blood tests and ct and after about three hours said I was fine and I could go home by that time I felt ok but was hungry and thirsty I had asked for something earlier but they said I had to wait for the lab results I'm so glad they can do that in a few hours and not days like not all that long ago. At least I was able to go to the bathroom on my own and get in and out of my chair and on and off the bed for the CT. Got home raided the fridge and made a cup of coffee with French vanilla. Wish we had more mocha creamer yum yum ok not good for me but it's just a few table spoons. Not like a can or bottle of soda read HFCS is really bad for me and people in general drinking things with HFCs is a direct cause of obesity. The sugar isn't burned up by the body readily it's turned into glucose and stored in the fatty cells as the type of glucose is do broken down by the body easily. Says to drink sodas with real natural sugar or natural sweetners like Splenda and sestiva. But I looked online had to find and really expensive maybe I'll stick to the powder mixes that mimic soda flavores just to see how they really taste. Stupidly the tech took off my glasses and forgot to give them to me, I think I may of passed out at the doctors and when they took me to the hospital my glasses got missed placed. I was thinking of getting a new pair but wanted to have the frames cleaned and the plastic parts replaced as they were titanium a gift from my optometrist. That was three years ago so a new prescription would be good. I'll try to post pics of the tanks I'm working on at least the KVs and SU152

 

Found more of the dogfight series on m4uhd

 

The Doolittle Raid in WWII.
A four parts documentary.
PART 1

 

Been watching Iwo Jima and some other John Wayne movies and watched jimmy Stewart in strategic air command love the shots of the bombers when hobby craft the b47 and b36 got the rb36 with gremlin fighter and a rf84. Then academy came out with a b47 the spruces are identical rumor was they used the hobbycraft kit to make a copycat mold I don't know but every thing looks identical except they make an improvement on the wings. Hobbycraft forgot to mold on the vortex generators and give you a decal to try to simulate them I want to either glue on strip plastic to fix that or get another academy kit and use they wing then build the other kit and give it to my nephews.

 

Lol, there's lots of good stuff on YouTube been watching the worlds greatest tank battles. The battle for France the French really took a pasting. The British had a rather small force and the number of tanks was not very impressive like I mean the British say they sent their whole tank forces but the number was rather small I guess the depression really cut short the finances to build a large tank force and the air arm having budget limitations only built a small number of spits and built lots more hurricanes as they were much cheaper to build and faster to construct the air arm knew the spit was better but they were concerned ith numbers and no other country had a plane that was superior or they had thought but a British office had reported the danger of the 109 having been observed possible in Spain? After Dunkirk they put their war industry on full production they had a year of highest production efforts but they were not able to maintain or ever achieve sure again as workers were just unable to keep up the pace and production fell off a bit. The US supplying all sorts of aircraft let them concert rate efforts on planes they valued most and other types of war equiptment small arms, field and anti tank guns like the 17 pdr they had left most of the 6 pdr production to the US as they could build them faster and in larger numbers. They kept trying to build better tanks but were also getting huge numbers of Sherman's from the US as well as rations and every other type of war equiptment jeeps, trucks, etc. too bad they didn't come out with spgs with the 95 or get a bunch of m7s in time for the battle of France and had been able to shell that line of 88s that would have really got the Germans the Matilda's were pretty near wiping out the German tank force by themselves but couldn't deal with the 88s effectively they couldn't even get within effective range and we're getting knocked out like clay pigeons.

 

You tube has a bunch of John Wayne movies and found eldorado on mu4hd been looking for that one. It's one of James caans early pictures. I think it's strange eldorado and rio bravo have an almost exact plot and story line. Watched big jake one of my favs seen it dozens of times. Mcklintock is another fav of mine it's his most humorous movie. I wonder if Patrick would have made it into films without his fathers influence. Ethan his youngest son last I heard was living in Las Vegas managing a museum in his fathers name. They had him on pawns tars to authenticate a rifle supposedly owned by his dad or used by him in a movie. He said the gun looked like one he used and knew the guy who supposedly signed the certificate so called the guy and the guy said he never authenticated any such gun. That he was sorry but the papers were forgeries. The guy was really disappointed to hear that saying he paid fairly high for it. If I was him I'd would have called the police and other authorities if he could still track them down and maybe get his money back and who knows get them for other counterfeit items. Sadly he should have called the authentication group,to verify if it was real as collectables are counterfeited all the time. The double gold eagle is highly sought a bunch flooded the market some years back. Some experts were like there's far too many on the market the coins were beautiful great in most collections they analyzed the gold it was too pure for the time period they track it down to the Middle East the collector coin sold for far more than the gold value. They figured someone casted the coins they sold them for a huge profit on the collector market most likely had contacts here to flood the market from. Most collectors said the coins are so good they don't really care if they are the real,thing as they look great in their collections but I wonder what that would do to their value if counterfeit you'd think then it's reduced to its gold value not collector value not sure was they are worth these days since gold is still like four times higher than back when this happened. I wonder if it was a small group or country backed trying to raise money I think there was a rumor it was coming from Iraq or Iran as both were fighting each other and needed funds. However I don't believe they had any proof that either was involved they were just high suspects at the time.

 

My favourite John Wayne movie is "The Cowboys" - When a gold rush deprives farms and ranches of all their working men...Wayne has to recruit children to help him drive his cattle to market...A long way. Each boy is promised a hefty pay packet at the end of the drive...
Hollywood hired some child actors and taught them to ride...they also hired some child rodeo champions and taught them to act...Such a compelling and brilliant story from an elderly Wayne.

 

That's a favorite of mine too hated Bruce Dern for awhile after that for shooting John Wayne the way he did in the movie. I liked they used most of the boys in the tv series. The series did ok for a couple of seasons then I guess the writers just couldn't keep coming out with good plots after awhile. Like Star Trek the show was a roller coaster with a lot of ups and downs as the scripts were taken from submitted scripts from fans and amature writers so there was no real consistency. Bruce Dern was a cruel mean jackass in the movie guess he did his part you really hated the guy. I really liked John Wayne in the classic the badman and the Angel. In the quiet man mareen Ohara when she was supposed to slap him was really going for it JW out of reflex or something blocked the strike and mareen broke her wrist they had to get a special brace put on so they could continue filming. Lol, bet a bunch of people were surprised about that including Wayne and Ohara.

 

I just finished watching the “old” movie, Dunkirk that was made in 1958, and for back then they did a very good job, especially with the evacuation by the British Navy and private boats and the strategy used by the German Army and the British. They strafed a column of refugees with the Stukas, killed some and dropped a lot of bombs on the soldiers on the beach where it was bloody. Of course, some original footage was used as was the norm for back then. But I really liked it and it was in black and white. It is/was free On Demand with the free war movies on my Comcast cable. Not quite up to the latest version (I think 2019?) but quite entertaining non the less. Not too many recognizable movie stars but I remember Richard Attenborough.

 

You tube has a bunch of kewl movies been watching things like old scifi movies and John Wayne and Shirley temple. Kronos, the thing, crawling eye, etc, Iwo Jima, horse soldiers, McClintock, rio lobo, more, lil colonel, littlest rebel, Susanna of the Mounties, etc. more WGTBs/worlds greatest tank battles, sabaton. Still like the older stuff like charge of the light Bridgade Errol Flynn, the horsemen. The hose charge scenes are fantastic the charge of the light Bridgade a number of horses were hurt and killed, the horsemen groups accused them of the same but they had the humane society on hand during shooting and the HS reported not abuse of any kind. Like there's lots of scenes of stumbling horses but they were not tripped like the old movies they would set trip lines to make the horses fall and many stunt men would get injured or killed as well. Stunt work in old Hollywood was very dangerous as many were hurt on the job and a few even killed. Like in Ben hur, Charleston Heston was almost killed in a stunt that went wrong but luckily he was fit and young enough that he was able to save himself and they kept the scene in the picture.

 

Been watching dogfights on YouTube it detailed how during Vietnam how our missiles would malfunction so much. Released and just drop away a complete dud or fire away and just fall apart, exploded short of the target and lots of other problems. I remember how the papers were criticizing the government saying they were wasting millions of dollars on a worthless weapon that failed more than 60 percent of the time. It forced a congressional investigation into weather the contractor was performing to the limits of the contract. The sparrow was new and as time went on it got better but no missile is 100 percent but I think they got it from 67 percent failure to about 30 percent eventually. Also our aim dogfight missiles were really bad but again they have been improved over the years lots of countries have based their dogfight missiles on our design I read something saying even the Russians got a hold of some of our missiles and backward engineered copies of them. Maybe the next step will be high energy weapons like lasers and particle beams missiles will probably be used for mass firing to break up large enemy numbers or large aircraft like transports and bombers. Who knows what the military has cooking as they say we have laser weapons and energy weapons but most still experimental as for lasers there either too short ranged or the longer range red too big and heavy for a fighter or until they build a newer compact and lighter one. I wonder if they will try to adapt a shield for war planes and I wonder how far they have gotten with that plasma shield technology.

 

Saw a programme on the air war in Vietnam a while back (Air Warriors?). It said one of the problems with ordnance was they were using an old type of arming device used in WW2, rather than contact fuses; they depended on the slipstream screwing them into place to arm the bomb as it fell. Trouble was, no-one had considered the fact the slipstream might do exactly the same thing as the aircraft was in flight and the bombs were still mounted. They lost a lot of aircraft before the problem was solved. There was footage of a squadron of Skyhawks en route to a target when one of the wingmen just exploded and crashed.