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Was artillery as intense during battles as tv and movies about world war 2 suggest?

Discussion in 'Counter-Battery Fire' started by OpanaPointer, Feb 1, 2022.

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  1. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer I Point at Opana Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    The Worst World War wins the barrage game because the lines were often static. I spent a week with a French EOD team once back in the day. They were collecting unexploded ordnance from both war. The shells would go deep, then the annual freeze would push them toward the surface. Mostly into farm land. Farmers would collect the shells and leave them at "the usual place" wherever that was. Le EOD would safe them and move or explode them in situ. There may still be a lot of those still undiscovered. Bad when a tractor plows into one. Had to use my medic training once. Wasn't sufficient.
     
    OpanaPointer, Jun 23, 2023
    #41
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  2. USMCPrice

    USMCPrice Idiot at Large

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    That's because Britain starts the shit, calls upon its "chicks to help the mother hen". Then shit goes south and the US has to step in and pull the chestnuts out of the fire.

    When the shit is deep, Britain wanting to buy all the war making materials they can get. Then when their treasury runs low, want the US to provide it on credit. Then they beg for the US to send troops. Once, the situation is resolved, they whine that the US came in late, claim they didn't do much and were not critical to the victory and complain about the debt owed for the war material they were begging for, and claim the US are war profiteers. Happened in WWI and in WWII.

    In WWI, Australia suffered 61,527 military deaths from all causes. Canada suffered another 64,996 military deaths. These deaths were stretched over the course of four years (1914-1918). The US was only engaged for less than six months (5 months 15 days), from 28 May 1918 to 11 November 1918 and suffered 116,708 military deaths. American manpower broke the Germans backs, suffering in less than six months, very nearly as many casualties as Australia and Canada combined lost over four years.
    British hubris was one of the main reasons the US was so isolationist leading up to WWII. Why get involved in another European War when our sacrifices 20 years earlier were scoffed at and belittled. A lot of fathers that had gone off to fight the Hun's didn't want their sons to do the same.
     
    USMCPrice, Jun 23, 2023
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  3. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer I Point at Opana Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    upload_2023-6-23_20-10-47.jpeg
    LyricFind
    Songwriters: Garth Brooks / Joe Henry
    Belleau Wood lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

    Oh the snowflakes fell in silence
    Over Belleau Wood that night
    For a Christmas truce had been declared
    By both sides of the fight
    As we lay there in our trenches
    The silence broke in two
    By a German soldier singing
    A song that we all knew
    Though I did not know the language
    The song was "Silent Night"
    Then I heard my buddy whisper
    "All is calm and all is bright"
    Then the fear and doubt surrounded me
    'Cause I'd die if I was wrong
    But I stood up on my trench
    And I began to sing along
    Then across the frozen battlefield
    Another's voice joined in
    Until one by one each man became
    A singer of the hymn
    Then I thought that I was dreaming
    For right there in my sight
    Stood the German soldier
    'Neath the falling flakes of white
    And he raised his hand and smiled at me
    As if he seemed to say
    Here's hoping we both live
    To see us find a better way
    Then the devil's clock struck midnight
    And the skies lit up again
    And the battlefield where heaven stood
    Was blown to hell again
    But for just one fleeting moment
    The answer seemed so clear
    Heaven's not beyond the clouds
    It's just beyond the fear
    No, heaven's not beyond the clouds
    It's for us to find it here

    Garth Brooks is a big Country & Western singer.
     
    OpanaPointer, Jun 23, 2023
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  4. CAC

    CAC Ace of Spades

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    You know I was stirring mate…We don’t love the Poms either…
     
    CAC, Jun 23, 2023
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  5. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer I Point at Opana Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    "If we're not giving you shit we don't like you."
     
    OpanaPointer, Jun 23, 2023
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  6. Aitor

    Aitor Guest

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    Well, this does nor happened on ww2 but on Spanish Civil War

    The Franco army make fire from air and sea (Baleares Cruiser) to civil people that were trying to scape from Malaga 3000-5000 people died on the road.

    In the 70’s many was normal to find bones when repairing the road.


    Málaga–Almería road massacre - Wikipedia
     
    Aitor, Jul 3, 2023
    #46
  7. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer I Point at Opana Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    The pinnipeds drew all kinds of support so we got to listen to BUFFs raising hell a few miles off. That was seriously loud enough for me.
     
    OpanaPointer, Jul 3, 2023
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