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Gatorubet

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by Gatorubet

  1. Why do you hate 12?
  2. So - we’ll never know?
  3. Well, as tank Commander, he would be Oddball. Upper left hatch. I have not been able to find a picture where they had a standard 50 Cal mounted in the back, and I never asked dad about that when he was alive. But then, my dad was shot twice in separate incidents trying to close the hatch under fire (basically flesh wounds that he did not think serious enough to leave his crew), so maybe he just didn’t wanna sit outside the tank and take rounds.
  4. that is so freaking awesome. I appreciate you sharing that photo of the ninth armored uniform previously
  5. Yup. My dad‘s M43A (76W) was made in Detroit, and it (and its Ford engine) drove from France through Belgium and across Germany, only to be driven into Czechoslovakia when the war ended. They were extremely reliable and easy to fix and get back into action. And more importantly, they would fit on rail cars and be able to cross every bridge and tunnel from the Midwest to the East Coast until they could be loaded on ships and dropped in Europe. We built almost 50,000 Sherman tanks by 1946. We had thousands of replacements just sitting around, waiting to be pushed to the front lines to replace any put out of action by German armor or panzerfausts..
  6. Second from left is thinking: < What did he mean, “We will take that hill!?” …I don’t do hills. My scooter barely goes up the ramp at Costco if it’s too elevated…”>
  7. Zaloga is the man. I will definitely listen to that. The 75 high explosive shell was superior to the 76 shell, which is why many armored divisions did not want to switch to the 76 rounds. Like you say, the primary role of a tank was infantry support, and they were not designed to engage German tanks. The advantage of the 76 caliber was supposed to be the superior armor piercing capability. What annoys me about people dumping on the Sherman being a bad tank is that there was an armor piercing round that could pierce a panther mantlet 9 or 10 football fields away - but the powers that be wanted to hoard titanium for use in aircraft - and so it was only until late in the war that tanks got one round each. Which is all to say that the tank’s cannon was not as bad as it’s reputation (if they had only allowed it to use the damn ammunition that would work best). And even with the bad ammunition Shermans and tank destroyers put the hurt on German armor at Arracourt. Sherman speed and its faster turret traverse were assets. And tanks who are attacking always suffer losses to tanks who know the other guys are coming, and have the range established and are in a hidden position able to fire first.
  8. I volunteer to take those worthless items…
  9. Many years ago, I donated a Nazi flag that was signed by my father and the other men of his 9th Armored CCB tank platoon that helped take the Remagen Bridge. it was difficult to let that part of my family history go, but having a Nazi flag hung up somewhere in my home didn’t seem to be a good idea, and even if it is sitting in a drawer at the museum and nobody sees it for decades - it is being preserved and cared for by curators for future generations - so I think it was the right move.
  10. Last Friday night, I was at the 25th anniversary gala of the World War II museum, formerly the D-Day museum. It was cool having dinner with all those war birds overhead. There was a Sherman M483E9 in the corner next to my table. What an odd duck. While later than the E8, it did not have the E8’s horizontal suspension that led to the nickname “easy-8” (because of the better ride), and for some reason still had a 75 mm canon instead of the 76 that should’ve been installed in the late 1944 timeframe. The three American Sprit awards went to three men who were essentially the creators and driving forces of the creation of the D-Day museum back when they were collaborating with Stephen Ambrose. It was great to hear their stories and to honor them for creating such a wonderful gift to future generations. I’m only sorry that our nation waited until many of those brave men had passed before they opened the museum. I welcome you to come to New Orleans and visit the museum and to support it. There’s a good chance that federal funds they were receiving may be cut off in future.
  11. Haha! You idiots fell for it. Musk is such a genius that he is countering Europe’s refusal to buy Tesla cars for backing far right German politicians by having Trump say that he was really giving a Nazi salute. You fell for it. Of course Musk wants this out there you sheeple. Just like Trump wants it out there that he will not fire a person who gives a Nazi salute, but will put him in charge of tearing apart the government. You stupids can’t see this is all part of a planned operation to make us think they are incompetent racists. If you weren’t so blind, you could see how this benefits them both.
  12. I’m not particularly interested in your opinion that it is all staged, but I am interested in your opinion where you seem to insinuate that there won’t be massive fallout from the slap fight - staged or not. assuming we agree that Trump is the kind of guy who has no problem letting Musk say that he’s got the goods on Trump’s pedophile behavior and Trump hid it - which we don’t agree - are you so positive that the bat shit crazy conspiracy QAnon people won’t run with it? That billions of dollars in stock losses are a nothing burger? That musk dumping on the big beautiful bill has not a single chance of making one senator or representative change their position? I will shorten this: is it your position that this slap fight has caused no serious problems for musk, Trump, the Republicans - or the world’s perception of our fucked up leadership?
  13. OK, Valentine…
  14. When defending against horrific, defamatory accusations, most savvy public relations pros know it’s best to start out by repeating the allegations.
  15. Odd. Our conservative poster friends are not showing up to participate in this discussion.
  16. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania….. ”Wait - you mean to tell me that Trump put that man he now says is crazy in charge of firing all those people maintaining the federal lake campsites that are closed - and that is why my MAGA FISHING WORMS 4 PATRIOTS shop went under!!!??? Trump says he’s like an idiot - but he bankrupted our whole county when Trump put him in charge? Now that I lost everything I own, I’ll at least be able to get Medicaid for my diabetes meds.”
  17. It is nice to see that Elmo‘s political shenanigans will not reflect poorly in any way on Tesla‘s profitability… …. Said no shareholder derivative suit attorney ever.
  18. I think this makes sense. And in a way, given that Ukraine took a year and a half to set up with the plan before implementing it, Russia could take a year to prepare an enormous fuck you to Ukraine and refer to that timeframe if and when it occurs. And actually, I expected the Russian Talking Heads to be more aggressively threatening everyone with death than what they are saying on TV. Instead of agreeing that a large part of the third leg of theirnuclear delivery triad arsenal was destroyed, they focused on giving the message that Russia has all these secret wonder weapons that will destroy an NATO in the near future. That sounds a hell of a lot like Adolf’s promises to the German people late in the war.
  19. this brings back unpleasant memories from the high school era - when I had a weekend job mopping dirty floors at an RV site
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