Youtube comments of (@neutronalchemist3241).

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  119. So, for mistakes, let's start with the title. First of all: "betrayed" implies a moral judgment that, in this case is completely out of place. Austria-Hungary broke the Treaty of the Triple Alliance by unilaterally attacking Serbia (see art. 7 of the treaty, it was allowed only by mutual accord), so Italy and Austria were no more allies since 28/07/1914. It remained the question of the compensations (See Art. 7 again. Even the German mediators considered the position of Austria-Hungary unreasonable on that point) and, over that, war was declared to Austria-Hungary on 23/05/1915. Second: why "German Empire"? I know that Germany is more famous, so better suited for a title, but the question here was between Italy and Austria-Hungary, not the German Empire. The German Empire at that point was only someone that decided to back up Austria-Hungary, and unilaterally declared war on France and Belgium in the weird belief that it would have made a war with Russia easier to win. There was no part in the Triple Alliance stating that the others had to follow it in such a folly. However, ITALY DID NOT DECLARE WAR TO GERMANY, it did only in August 1916, after Germany put Italy under economic sanctions and German soldiers began to show up on the Italian front. So the real question is: why you wrote a title stating something that didn''t even happen? As for the content: the main part of the video is dedicated to a not-so-related Italo-Turkish war of 1911-1912, nothing to the real content of the Triple Alliance Treaty, and almost nothing on the negotiations of 1915 (see for example the mission of Von Bulow)?
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  171. You are welcome, and thank you for the video. Knowing Gucci's book without having seen the rifle he was talking of, I was very curious about it. Seeing the rifle, it's easier to understand his reasons. IE, Gucci talks specifically of the barrel. The reason of the conversion is mainly to reuse the existing barrels (that are left untouched) as well as the receivers (that have to be remachined), the stocks (that have to be slightly reworked), and the magazine. At the cost of a new bolt, a recoil spring, and some minor parts. But Carcano barrels have been designed for a bolt-action rate of fire. Gucci, talking of a generic rifle's barrel of his time, says that it's internal reaches 450° after 80 rounds of rapid fire, and says that it has been estimated that the barrels of the converted rifles, due to the more rapid fire allowed by the semiauto operation, would have been worn out after about 2000 rounds. So there is little sense in using a less than optimal rifle to reuse a thing that is however destined to wear out quickly. We can make a similar consideration for the stock too. To save the receiver-barrel assembly, the shooter has the recoiling mass of the receiver directly ahead of his eye, and above his thumb. Although that's not really dangerous, it's surely discomfortable. the situation could be improved with a new stock, with the receiver a little farther from the shooter's eye and a more pronounced pistol grip that moves the thumb away from the receiver. But, that way, you don't save the existing stocks any more. Ecc... ecc...
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  214. +Freeman Matthews The law that ban "military" calibers from civilian use is not made to not allow civilians to use "too powerful" rounds. .40 S&W is legal, .357mag is legal, .44mag is legal, 10mm is legal, and so on. The law is intended to not allow military personnel to privately purchase ammos for their issued weapons. However, sorry, but Michele had not been accurate. 5 rounds restriction is for hunting rifles only. The limit for semiauto pistols is 15 rounds. The limit for sporting rifles (that comprehend "black rifles" like M4, AK47 and so on) is 29 rounds (STANAG magazines modified to accept 29 rounds instead of 30 are legal). BTW, .223 Rem is legal. Knives of every dimensions are legal, if there is a reason to carry them. You can carry a machete in a forest, not at the stadium. You can carry a folding knife almost everywere. To carry firearms outside your house or workplace, you must have one of three kind of permission: 1) hunting licence. You can carry hunting rifles and ammos, the rifles have to be unloaded during transport, until you are in a place where hunting is permitted. 2) sporting licence. You can carry every kind of rifle and pistol and their ammo to and from a range. Weapons have to be unloaded during transport. 3) defence licence. You can carry loaded pistols. This kind of licence is harder to obtain than the former two (that are pretty easy, they only requires a bit of paperwork, a medical examination, a payment and the attendance of a single theoretical and practical lesson at a range). The kind of licence does not restrict the kind of weapons you can purchase. Weapons are not required to be disassembled during transport in any case.
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  294. Historically they didn't inflict those casualties. And this has little to do with using the phalanx correctly. The phalangites were not using the sarissas incorrectly. Flat terrains are not so common in Greece. If you can accept battle exclusively in flat terrains, and cannot move from there, you are going to lose anyway. Some centurion (not "the Roman Commander") did so, and, the fact that some centurion did so talks of the fact that they were frustrated, not frightened for the losses. As already said: "In all the engagement between the phalanx and the developed (not early time) legion, at first the phalanx advanced, because the legion couldn't break through a perfectly formed phalanx, but the legion suffered negligible losses. Then something happened, and at that point the legion adapted and slaughtered the phalangites". Fact is tha the phalanx needed TOO MUCH THINGS going its own way. Had the Generals maintained control and kept the Phalanx stationary then the battle would have been inconclusive in the best case, OR the legion would have outflanked the phalanx (you must keep contact with the enemy to prevent it to manuver, and that was important for the phalanx, since the legion was faster and easier to manuver). I've not talked of "Greece". However Rome used a fraction of his forces in the Macedonian wars, and the legionaries at that time were conscripts as well. However, as said, having a cavalry so dominant that it could dispatch the enemy cavalry, then regroup and invest the back of enemy infantry WAS NOT A GIVEN, it was not like the others didn't know the horses. To the roman cavalry was not requested to be so dominant, it was enough for them to keep the other occupied (a goal that you can accomplish even with an inferior cavalry)
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  298. So, for mistakes, let's start with the title. First of all: "betrayed" implies a moral judgment that, in this case is completely out of place. Austria-Hungary broke the Treaty of the Triple Alliance by unilaterally attacking Serbia (see art. 7 of the treaty, it was allowed only by mutual accord), so Italy and Austria were no more allies since 28/07/1914. It remained the question of the compensations (See Art. 7 again even the German mediators considered the position of Austria-Hungary unreasonable on that point) and, over that, war was declared to Austria-Hungary on 23/05/1915. Second: why "German Empire"? I know that Germany is more famous, so better suited for a title, but the question here was between Italy and Austria-Hungary, not the German Empire. The German Empire at that point was only someone that decided to back up Austria-Hungary, and unilaterally declared war on France and Belgium in the strange belief that it would have made a war with Russia easier to win. There was no part in the Triple Alliance stating that the others had to follow it in such a folly. However, ITALY DID NOT DECLARE WAR TO GERMANY, it did only in August 1916, after Germany put Italy under economic sanctions and German soldiers began to show up on the Italian front. So the real question is: why you wrote a title stating something that didn''t even happen? As for the content: the main part of the video is dedicated to a not-so-related Italo-Turkish war of 1911-1912, nothing to the real content of the Triple Alliance Treaty, and almost nothing on the negotiations of 1915 (see for example the mission of Von Bulow)?
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  309. ​ @jmiquelmb  Many people talk of "most something" when trying to find a justification for their very personal beliefs. Actually that only the elites were literate (and used this as a "weapon" to keep the lower strata subjugated) is the old school, represented, IE, by W.Harris. Most modern historians refuted that view, exactly for what I said. There are too many surviving inscriptions specifically destined to the lower classes and/or written by them. Even the bricks were often numbered to mark their pre-planned place in the construction (many Roman buildings were "prefabricated"), but that means that the bricklayer could read numbers. In middle age, graffiti were the exception, and they were different kind of graffiti. Mostly left by people that were evidently educated to record their passage somewere. In Rome, like in the present world, graffiti on the most trivial matters were the norm. Martial wrote "There’s no place for a poor man to think or rest. Schoolmasters disturb life in the morning, the bakers at night, the coppersmiths hammer all day". Street schools were so diffused that the lessons disturbed people like the other artisanal activities. Harris counters these arguments by citing the poor quality of the graffiti, noting that quoting (or more often misquoting) Virgil’s Aeneid on a tavern wall does not make a man literate. Maybe, but it makes him able to read and write. That's the key. When stating that in ancient Rome the "literacy rate" was "only" from 10% to 20%. Scholars refers to something else than the simple ability to read and write. The ability to read and write at an elementary level (what Petronius in the Satyricon called the ability to "read stone letters") was MUCH more diffused.
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  483.  @SevCaswell  First, to counter the "100 years" argument. Around 140 AD Marcion of Sinope wrote his own "single" gospel, largely copying that of Luke. It' wouldn't have made sense to copy a text that was less than 10 years old. The muratorian fragment (the original dated around 170) estabilishes the canon on the basis of the antiquity of the writings, saying, IE, that the Shepherd of Hermas was too recent to be included in the canon. The Sheperd had been composed in the first half of second century at the latest. It wouldnt have made sense to include in the canon the four gospels if they had been written in the same years. The Papyrus 52, a fragment of John's Gospel, is dated at around middle second century. Since the fragment is separated from the original autograph by at least one copy, the date of composition of the Gospel of John cannot be later than a few years before the production of P 52 ; this date must be further moved back to allow the original work to spread from the place of composition of the gospel to that of the production of P 52. In this case P 52 would confirm the traditionally accepted date for the definitive redaction of the Gospel of John, the end of the 1st century. Note that in John's gospel is already reported that many others had written about the life of Jesus. Papia of Hierapolis wrote about the gospels in the years 95–110 AD, stating that Mark was an interpreter of St. Peter. So Mark's gospel was already old and well known in his time. The author of Luke's gospel is largely considered to be the same of the Acts of the Apostles. Not only the Acts described a church in it's infancy, that was no more relevant in second century, but they end before the inprisonment of Paul (around 64 AD). There are not many explanations for the abrupt end of the Acts other than the author could no more write after that date.
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  634.  @Paladin1873  Fact is that almost all the rifles, SMGs, LMGs, HMGs etc... that are not ambidextrous have the charging handle on the right side, M1 Carbine included (maybe because right handed shooters doesn't find it so convenient to place it on the left side?). To say that Beretta's charging handle is: "bassackwards" when is exactly where the same M1 carbine have it... "intuitive" in weapons is a WAY overused word. People are supposed to know their weapon and there is no rule, or intuition, "forward for fire, rearward for safe". The safety is bigger, more easy to operate (especially with gloves), to see and to remember than that of the M1 carbine. The push button magazine release of the M1 Carbine is supposed to be used with the right hand tumb when at the same time the shooter is pulling out the magazine. Those are two completely different movements to do at the same time. With the paddle lever of the Beretta carbine, you only have to grab the magazine to activate the paddle. It's ambidextrous and simpler, so nothing had been " flubbed". You can see in the actual video that the magazine doesn't need to be "rocked" at all. It goes straight in and out. You are tinking of the M14, not of this gun. A peep is what you want, not necessarily what's better. Many rifles have no peep sights. To judge the sight picture without having handled the rifle makes no sense at all. Many successful rifles/AR have the rear sight further forward than this one. An open notch sight MUST be placed further forward than a peep sight.
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  665. Actually that would be the most useless part. Much of those old designs required handfitting, because the admitted tolerances were so that, in a batch of supposedly identical parts, the right ones had to be chosen and coupled for the weapon to work. Worse, there was the "cascade matching" problem. When you took, IE, three parts that matched toghether, because they were all at one end of the tolerance scale, and then there was no fourth part that matched with them, because it should have been beyond the scale. It was a so common issue that, for the Winchester .224 prototype (the competitor of the AR15 in the CONARC competition) Winchester explicitly stated that they designed their rifle so that it couldn't happen. And we were in the late '50s. It was still a severe problem for the M60 MG. Modern CNC machines can't work like that. so the modern designer has to come out with his own completely different, set of admitted tolerances. Not to say that steel of the original composition is often unobtanium. The REAL problem is that most of those designs were not that great to begin with. Even the most successful ones, (IE, the M1 Carbine, to say one) were good FOR THEIR TIME. But the eventual purchaser of a modern repro would expect form it MODERN reliability and durability, otherwise "This is shit! The manufcturer scammed me!". For the designer of the repro, it's like a nightmare. To him is like designing a completely new weapon, with the adjunctive constraint that he can't chose the solutions he KNOWS will work flawlessly. He has to keep it consistent with original solutions that he know work "so-so". That's why modern repros mostly dont' have part interchangeability with the originals.
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  673. Is not lying, is claiming, and every faction in WWII overclaimed heavily. Unfortunately, the "natural" overclaiming of all the WWII air forces was inflated in the Luftwaffe by the absence of a confirmation system in the second part of the war, and by the "experten" system, that gave huge incentives to the pilots to exagerate the claims, cause, in a very difficult situation, where the pilots had to fly until their death, the pilots with more kills got the best of everything, starting with the aircrafts. It was a matter of survival. Actually the "experten" system affected the German war effort in several ways. IE, from the German pilots' logbooks, we see that they shot down a disproportionately high percentage of fighters. In the German +100 pilots' killing lists, bombers are near to non existent. Of Marseille's 152 credited killings only three were bombers. While Rommel's supply lines were mauled by British bombers, Marseille was shooting down exclusively fighters. Why? Cause to shoot down a bomber was more difficult and dangerous, and it still counted as "one". That not means that the "+100" German aces were not exceptional pilots. They were. And that not means that they did not shoot down much more aircrafts than any other. They did. And there are good explanations for that. We heard them in the clip. Target rich environment. A lot of combat mission flown. And the simple natural selection. Germany manufactured a huge number of fighter aircrafts, and instructed a lot of pilots. A lot of newbies were shot down in their first mission, but few "superpilots" emerged. Only, you have to keep in mind that those lists were claimings, not actual killings.
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  674. Well, no. There is no way to "fully confirm" a claim. "Fully confirmed" means only that, when he claimed an aircraft, the allied lost an aircraft, not necessarily of the same kind he claimed, roughly at the same time in the same place. Problem is that he had not been the only one that claimed a kill in that engagement. IE, there had been 1 allied fighter shot down for 4 claims. So, if you give it to Prillers, three other pilots overclaimed. So, who was lying? An example. On 18 December 1939 (when the confirmation system of the Luftwaffe still worked), the RAF decided to mount a raid on the German fleet at Wilhelmshaven and orders were drafted for 24 Wellington bombers to carry out the raid. 9 aircraft from 149th Squadron, 9 from 9th Squadron and 6 from 37th Squadron were selected to "Attack enemy warships in the Schillig Roads or Wilhelmshaven. Great care is to be taken to ensure that no bombs fall on shore". While 24 Wellington's took off, 2 from 149th Sqn returned to base early leaving 22 to carry on. The bombers managed to successfully fly over the German Fleet, but their orders about bombing German soil caused the abortion of the raid, as the leader decided the ships, tied up in port, where too close to shore to be bombed. After they turned for home, the German fighters attacked. The ensuing massacre saw the shooting down of 10 Wellingtons, nearly 50% of the attacking force, however the German pilots claimed 34 victories. Over 150% of the total attacking force. After that, since the confirmation process was still working, OKL pruned this down to 26 "confirmed" kills, still more than the total of the enemy aircrafts. So. For example, if Josef Prillers had been in this engagement, and claimed up to 10 kills, Someone that compared his claims with the actual RAf losses could only conclude that it was possible, cause the RAF lost 10 aircrafts. But that's possible only if none of the other pilots hit anything, and all of them lied about their acievements. And that's not realistic. When you compare the claims of the German +100 pilots wit the actual recorded losses of the Allies, that's exactly what happens. The kills were generally (but not always) actually possible, but only assuming that other 100 German fighter planes present on the site, were doing nothing other than occupying space. Cause you have to assume that all the Allied actual losses were inflicted by a single pilot. And that's not realistic. Why this happens? It's cause, in a frantic, swirling battle, it wasn't hard to ASSUME your shots had caused the fatal damage. You make your run, score solid hits, flash past at 300mph+, when you turn you see a 'plane fall out of the sky, It MUST be yours, and your wingman confirms it, as he sees the same thing, and, even if he had not seen it, he confirms it anyway, cause he is the guy that works with you.
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  715.  @henochparks  Had you really read that report, you would have known the wound had been measured on the scalp, the skin that cover the skull bones, not the bones. but obviously, other than not knowing what you are talking about, you read only conspiracy sites. And buy anything. So, again, there's no limit to your idiocy. I asked " With what kind of instrument the diameter of this hole thad been measured?" (not what kind of super-duper-best-in-the-world instruments you THINK the Bethesda hospital owned), because, obviously, to measure a fraction of millimeter, you need an instrument capable to measure a fraction of millimeter. The hole in the scalp (not the bone, the skin over it) had been described at being 6X13mm (not 6.1X12.9mm, or 5.9X13.1mm, but 6x13mm) so, if the killing didn't happen in a bubble of improbability where bullets leave holes of only exactly round numbers, it's evident they were not measuring fractions of millimeters (despite the super-duper-best-in-the-world-oh-my-god-how-fantastic instruments you THINK the Bethesda hospital owned). But, further: "As for the wounds caused by rifled weapons, the size of the wound is not always helpful in determining the caliber or type of weapon (pistol, revolver, rifle). In fact, the size of the wound can be misleading (Fig. 8-2). The diameter of the wound may be smaller, greater or equal to the diameter of the bullet. Therefore, one must give a guarded opinion about the caliber of the bullet from the examination of the wound (Fig. 8-3)." (Abdullah Fatteh "Medicolegal Investigation of Gunshot Wounds", Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1976, p. 84) So, if you know nothing about forensic, as it's evidently the case, why are you typing like an idiot, again in capitals like an idiot? (easy answer)
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  794. First of It had been Austria-Hungary that broke the Treaty of the Triple Alliance by unilaterally attacking Serbia (see art. 7 of the treaty, it was allowed only by mutual accord), so Italy and Austria were no more allies since 28/07/1914. It had not been Italy that left it. So no "betrayal" included. Simply Austria-Hungary decided a course of actions that would have broken the treaty it had with Italy, and so exposed itself to a war with the same country (it was no secret that there were many unfinished business between the two powers). Even more refusing to agree on the compensations required by the same Art.7 of the Treaty. Even the German mediators stated that the Austrian position (they were not willing to give Trento to the Italians, even if they would have obtained Belgrade in exchange) was unreasonable, and their wavering positions (Austrian foreign Minister Berchtold was initially willing to concede a part of Trentino to Italy, only to be contraddicted by the new foreign Minister Stephan Burián when he took office on 13/01/1915) were undermining the efforts of the German diplomacy and the Italian neutralist politicians. Then: Why the "German Empire"? The question here was between Italy and Austria-Hungary, not the German Empire. The German Empire at that point was only someone that decided to back up Austria-Hungary, and unilaterally declared war on France and Belgium in the strange belief that it would have made a war with Russia easier to win. There was no part in the Triple Alliance stating that the others had to follow it in such a folly. However, ITALY DID NOT DECLARE WAR TO GERMANY, it did only in August 1916, after Germany put Italy under economic sanctions and German soldiers began to show up on the Italian front.
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  818.  @Paladin1873  Maybe you mean "I have never heard a right-handed shooter praise a right-side charging handle, but I have heard many complain about it." Obviously those that speaks are those that complain. Those that are fine with it take it for granted.IE the Beretta ARX100 has switchable charging handle. How many right handed shooters have switched it to the left side to you? On military rifles, made thinking to right-hand shooters, the charging handle is on the right side for two reasons: 1) A right hand shooter mantains the alignment of the rifle with the left (forward) hand, so better mantain the alignment of the rifle, and use the most able hand to reload. 2) If the right hand is reloading, there is no risk of the shooter pulling the trigger until the operation is complete. Infact, when you say "forward for fire, rearward for safe" you are not talking of "intuition", you are talking of what you are used to. For someone that don't practice regularly, "forward for fire, rearward for safe" and "forward for safe, rearward for fire" are completely indifferent. Motion memory are formed through practice, and soldiers practice with their weapons. For someone used to the AK-47, the AR-15 controls are awkward at first, and the AR15 was not a thing in 1957 anyway. The safety on the M1 Garand and on the M14 is "forward for fire, rearward for safe", but at the same time is easy to engage, but not easy to disengage (to push forward that little lever with the trigger finger is really not natural). Many shotguns have a cross-bolt safety but, when a cross-bolt safety shows up on rifles or pistols, many complains about it, not because it doesn't work as well as a lever safety, but because it's not what they are used to.
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  862. sharebear421 German confirmation process, and only in theory, required a witness, that could be the wingman of the same pilot that claimed the victory. Decisely not the higher confirmation standard of the war (IE, the Soviets did not considered the witness of the wingman. Not that this saved them from overclaiming). That was in theory, since, in practice, some units habitually submitted unwitnessed claims and these made it through the verification process, particularly if they were made by pilots with already established records. An example regarding Marseille's JG 27. Those are all "confirmed" kills, since, at that time, the Luftwaffe confirmation process still worked. 12 Oct 1941 Allied losses: 2 P-40's were shot down, 1 crashed on landing, 1 crashed inside Allied lines. Luftwaffe: 4 kills were awarded, 2 to Marseille, 1 to Sinner & Franziket. German overclaiming 2:1. 30 Oct 1941 Allied losses: 2 P-40's and 1 damaged Luftwaffe: 4 kills awarded, 3 to Schulz, 1 to Schacht. German overclaiming 2:1 22 May 1942 Allied losses: 1 P-40 shot down, 1 missing and 1 crash landed at base. Luftwaffe: 5 kills awarded. German overclaiming 2,5:1 1 June 1942 Allied losses: 1 P-40 shot down, 1 damaged Luftwaffe: 3 P-40's awarded, 1 Hurricane awarded despite not being present. German overclaiming 4:1 3 September 1942 Allied losses: 2 P-40's shot down, 1 crash landed at base. Luftwaffe: 6 kills awarded, 3 to Marseille & 3 to Stahlschmidt (including a Spitfire, not present). German overclaiming 3:1 5 September 1942 Allied losses: 2 Spitfires shot down, 1 P-40 shot down and 1 damaged Luftwaffe: 9 Kills awarded, 4 (All P-40) to Marseille, 2 to Stahlschmidt and 3 to Rödel. German overclaiming 3:1 15 September 1942 Allied losses: 6 Kittyhawks (of which one shot down by "friendly" AA fire: Lufwaffe: 19 kills awarded. German overclaiming more than 3:1.
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  1016. ***** Really not. Probably you don't understand English very well. There were no US troops in Italy at all at the time of the Battle of the Solstice, and only one regiment operated in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, they fought gallantly and conquered one machineguns' nest, but it was really a marginal action in a battle where millions of men were involved. Moreover, you have to consider that, for every allied soldier in Italy there was more than an Italian soldier on the Western Front helping French and British. A total of 100.000 Italian soldiers, an entire corp (the 2nd), operated on the western front. They. for example, fought the second battle of the Marne, stopped the German Attempt to encircle Reims, and took part in the general offensive that repeled the Germans east of the Meuse in october 1918. All in all, your point of view seems very peculiar. You seem to take pride in the fact that many Slavics fought for the Empire, then in the fact that, in the end, they decided to betray the Emperor and deserted. In the same time, you seem to mock who fought the Empire for the entire lenght of the war, winning it in the end, like they fought the Empire for the previous 100 years, winning their nation on the battlefield. One might think that the Slavics that were under the Empire have to be at least a bit grateful to the Italians, for having kicked their asses so hard to convince them to stop being Franz Josephs' bitches, flee form the battelfield, and leave the same Italians to give them a nation. Instead what one has to read? Whining and more whining.
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  1017. Today it can seem strange, but, in the first half of XX century, to design a detachable magazine that was at the same time so cheap to be discarded on the field, and so well and consistently built to not cause feeding problems was really an issue. The BAR and the BREN were plagued by jammings caused by defective magazines, and those had been built by countries that had not raw materials shortages. The British actually designed a fixed magazine for the BREN, loaded with two 15 rounds clips (they didn't adopt that, but it was really awkward compared to the Breda one). So, in 1924, FIAT came out with a LMG design (FIAT 1924) that had a fixed magazine on the left of the weapon, loaded inserting a 20 round clip (similar to that of the subsequent Breda) from the right. In exchange of a little time lost in recharging, all the feeding problems were avoided. The flaw was that, to load a MG inserting a clip from one side, the gunner, or the servent, had to expose himself a little, and, laterally pushing the weapon, they can move it, loosing the line of sight. So the Breda had the subsequent evolution. By tilting the magazine, in exchange of a little more time lost in recharging, the gunner could load the gun (and change the barrel, for that matter) without changing position at all. In the end, ten years later, at the start of WWII, it was an already outdated design, but it was actually not that bad. There is a tendency, on the net, when a weapon had some defect, tho extremize them, concluding that "it's the worst gun ever made!", "I would have rather fought naked than carrying that piece of junk!" and things like that. But those are modern days shenanigans. The contemporaries of the weapon, those that had to fight them daily, and reuse the captured ones, thought it was not that bad. From Tactical and Technical Trends (the magazine of the US Intelligence) No. 7, Sept. 10, 1942 "Use of Captured Italian weapons" : "Breda Light Machine Gun: The Breda light machine gun is similar to the British Bren gun. It is mechanically superior to the Bren gun under dusty conditions. It requires only one man to service it as compared to several for the Bren gun. It has a slightly higher rate of fire than the British weapon. Its disadvantages are that it has no carrying handle, cannot be fired on fixed lines, and has no tripod mounting". Mind that, to use 4 spare barrels (the number the Italians deemed to be necessary after having used the gun in combat), you have to fire at least 800 rounds in quick succession. So much for the gun not being capable to really provide automatic fire.
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  1024. In the Trentino offensive THERE HAD NOT BEEN ANY SURPRISE, if not in the scale of the operation. The Italian high command begun the preparations for the defence of the Trentino in the second week of March (suspension of the transfer from Trentino of the brigades "Ivrea" and "Sicilia", and sending in the brigade "Valtellina"). In the first week of April three new brigades were sent in the sector, then the 9th division was transferred at Bassano, the 10th at Schio, 10 alpine battallions and 6 mountain artillery batteries at Marostica. 6 batteries of 149mm guns, 6 of 105mm, 3 mechanized batteries of 102mm cannons and 3 batteries of heavy howitzers were put in reserve on the Tagliamento river. At the end of April the 44th division was transferred from the Albania to Desenzano, and further 7 divisions (27th division, X and XIV Corps) were put on reserve on the Tagliamento. In his visit in Trentino of late April, Cadorna was there to inspect the preparations for the incoming battle. The real difference between Cadorna and Brusati is that Brusati wanted to held all the ground his troops conquered in the first weeks of war. Cadorna, judging the Trentino sector not so important, only wanted to held the third line of defense. So why the Austrians advanced so much? Well, they did not actually. In many sectors the preparations had not been actuated very well, but, in an offensive like that, it was almost granted that the first line of defense would have been overrun. The artillery preparations almost always made them not defensible. Only the second, and more often the third line of defense could be held (the lost ground would have then be taken back with counterattacks). But in mountain warfare the placement of the lines was dictated by the ground. First and second line could be so close to not be really distinct, the third could be really far away. The tactic to stop a large scale attack was to fix the wings of the attacking army, so progressively narrowing the line of advance, and putting he advancing formations progressively at risk to be hit at the flanks, and that was done. The Austrians overrun the Italian third line at Asiago, but they did it only there. At that point, the Trentino offensive was over, and the Austrians rethreated almost to the starting line to avoid to be counterattacked while being so exposed.
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  1286.  @zoiders  You are not a WWI veteran, so you can stop talking down to people "from the field". Yours are no more than armchair guessing. Metallic link belts and magazines won, sorry. Canvas belt became obsolete. Metallic and canvas belt are not the same. There were no metallic belts in WWI. Magazines are still used. Canvas belt are not. The FIAT-Revelli magazine was a way to have a 50 rounds magazine in an era where simply staggered 50 rounds magazines would have been unreliable. A belt doesn't work everywere. A canvas belt easily collect mud and get wet. wetting the ammos too and mantaining them wet Storage and transport of canvas belts requires special attention. Refilling canvas belt in the field requires time and precision. Much more time and much more precision than refilling magazines. Canvas belt are damaged quite easily, and are easily subject to stretching or shrinking due to the weather. All the simplicity of the belt is paid in terms of complexity of the gun, since a cartridge has to be extracted backwards form the belt, then rised or lowered out of the way of the belt, then pushed into the chamber. A cartridge only has tro be pushed out of the magazine or strip. Belts require much more time to be changed than magazines or strips. To discard a damaged belt that causes feeding problems costs all the ammos in it. A damaged magazine or strip costs less ammos. Canvas belt are so problematic than even the advent of synthetic fibers, that would have solved some of their problems, didn't manage to save them from becoming obsolete.
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  1465. 1. Doctrine. The Italians wanted a major engagement, so didn't want to divide their fleet in smaller sections to defend the Adriatic coastal cities, even more so because the Austrian actions didn't make substantial damages. The Austrians instead formed raid parties for rapid actions against them, that's why they were usually in numerical superiority in those early actions. 2. Amnesia of the author. Some situation not so favourable to the Austrians had been omitted. IE: a) contemporary to the initial Austrian raid on the Adriatic coast of Maj. 24 1915, the Italian destroyer Zeffiro penetrated in "Porto Buso", destroyed the ships present, bombarded the installations and captured the Austrian garrison (11 dead, 48 captured). It probably made more damages alone than the entire Austrian expedition. b) In the morning of Dec. 29 1915 the Austrian light cruiser Helgoland and four destroyers attempted to force the port of Durazzo. Welcomed by a new coastal battery they didn't know the existence of, attempting to manuver to avoid the fire, they ended on a minefield. The destroyer Lika, struk by two mines that caused the explosion of the magazines, sunk immediately with the loss of 71 men. The destroyer Triglav, struk by a mine and crippled, was abandoned by the crew and later sunk. c) In 1916 The Regia Marina finally commissioned the kind of ship more fit to operate in the Croatian coast, the MAS. In june 1916 begun the operations of the MAS boats against the Austrian ports, with the sinking of several transport ships. etc...
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  1489.  @nanashipersonne4151  Unfortunately Korra is the only thing in the show that works. It's all that's around her that doesn't. None of her team GROWS. So Mako, Bolin and Asami are boring characters. Also the villains never grow beyond being cartoonishly "bad guys". Their ideas may have had some merit, but they are only extremists. While, in ATLA, team Zuko and Team Azula were part of the family. You knew MANY things about their lives, and why they acted like they did. Even Jet was written better than the best villain of LOK. The worse is in the first book. Where the chi-blockers are only an army of faceless minions, led by a masked guy that only in the final episode is revealed to be a never heard before brother of another character (who was revealed to be a bloodbender, son of anoter bloodbender we've never heard before, three episodes before). It cant' be shallower than that. Why should we care of those guys? The setting is static. ATLA was a road movie. LOK is centred aroud a city. If you don't like it, so bad. There is not going to be another setting in the next episode. LOK lacks balance. In ATLA 2/3 of the strongest team for most of the show was composed of non-benders. In LOK bending superpowers (lightningbending, lavabending, metalbending, bloodbending, fire propulsion...) are cheap, and non benders don't have a chance. That also doesn't make sense. During the 100 years wars, to be a strong bender was a death-life decider. Why peacetime benders should be so much stronger? Etc.
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  1545. Italians also had gas masks first than Caporetto. The gas attacks were normal on the Italian front. The infantry masks weren't effective vs the phosgene, and the use of that gas (for the first time on the Italian Front) by the Germans had a part in the breaktrough, but it wasn't only the phosgene. The gas was useful only to pass the first line of defense. But on the Italian front, at that time, too many soldiers were simply stuck on the first line, while the second and third lines of defense were less effective (a weakness already seen during the 1916 Austrian offensive on the Asiago Plateau). And the units were too dependent from the central command, for orders, as personal initiative was discouraged. Diaz's staff adressed all those problems. and finally gave up with the entire trench warfare, adopting instead tactics of mobile defense, with indipendent small units allowed to move and call for the support of the artillery. Practically an anticipation of IIWW. As for the tactic used by the Austrians on the Battle of the Solstice, mind that it came after months of failed attempts to repeat Caporetto's success on Mt. Grappa. They needed to try something different. As for the location of the attack. The problem of an attack trough the mountains was still the same correctly outlined by Falkenhayn in 1916. On a map it seemed easy, but was only an illusion. On the ground it was a logistic nightmare. Once reached the Po valley, the attackers would have faced an army able to move for internal lines, with excellent roads and railways. The Attackers instead would still have to be supplied through alpine trails. In practice, the attackers would have reached the plains only to have their backs to the wall.
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  1565. The original Glisenti load was almost identical to the original 7.65 Parabellum load (since, like the 9mm Parabellum, it derived from that cartridge, but the designers of the MBT, differently from those of the DWM, didn't took advantage of the larger case to enhance the load), so, 1/4 less than the 9mm para load (literally, 3.3 grains Bullseye is a good 9mm glisenti load, and 4.4 grains Bullseye is a typical 9mm para load). However, during WWI, 9mm Glisenti loads had been enhanced, since the cartridge was primarly used in the Villar Perosa SMG, and blowback SMGs are pretty strong actions. For example, USCco, during the war, made for the Italian Army a batch of 84 million Glisenti cartridges loaded with 4 grains bullseye, that's only 10% less than a typical 9mm para load. Those "hot" cartridges were not especially marked, and were in the Army magazines, so, a 9mm Glisenti pistol made in the '20s had to be safe to shoot them too. So, what happens if you tries to shoot a load that's 10% hotter than what the pistol is designed to handle? Nothing extraordinary. We are still in the safety margins of any pistol design. When the Beretta designers declared that the pistol could handle a 9mm para cartridge (obviously not +P or +P+, that didn't existed at that time), they were not mad or irresponsible. Simply YOU ARE PUTTING UNNECESSARY STRAIN IN AN ACTION THAT WAS DESIGNED FOR MILDER LOADS, and that is 90 years old too. In the long run, you'll almost surely have some damage in the action. Most likely in the slide. Moreover, if the recoil spring has weakened with time, you'll probably have some overpressure problem with the cases, and even some case head failure.
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  1592. ***** Unfortunately there is an attitude between commentators of military equipements, being them "experts" or not, that could be described as "if there is something different to what we are used to, then there has to be something wrong in it". That "wrong" was rapidly "theoretically" identified, and then passed from a commentator to another as a "fact". An example is the manlicher clip fed system for rifles. Almost every description of it's efficiency contains a statement like "the bottom opening for the discharge of the spent clips was prone to let debris and dirt enter in the mechanism". Unfortunately, the only real-life comparative study of the efficiency of this system VS the closed magazine (the observations of Vladimir Grigoryevich Fyodorov, the designer of the Fedorov Automat, on the battlefields of the Russo-Japanese War), showed the exact opposite. On the winter battelfields, frozen mud and snow rapidly get stuck into the magazines of the Moisin Nagant, quickly rendering them single shooters, while the passage of the clips kept the action of the Steyr Manlicher clean and functional as repeaters. All in all the Chauchat was an exceptional design. A design that permitted to produce 262,000 of them during the war in a partly invaded country, VS only 50.000 Lewis Gun produced in both UK and US. As a single soldier, maybe I would prefer to have a Lewis Gun in my hands, but as an army (and as a soldier too) I would greatly prefer to have five times more LMGs on the frontline.
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  1762.  @timmedcalf1357  Strange "think" indeed, since ACE publicly released a statement to the press accusing the COR to not have honor or respect for the host country. That because the COR prefers to race by the rules. Again. Since any change of rules is not neutral, the host can cautiously explore with the teams the possibility to change them, with anyone agreeing with the change, as it had been done with the wind limit. But, if there is not that possibility, if one of the teams feels to be damaged by the change in any way, then rules are rules, and the proposal shouldn't even be publicly mentioned. Instead of accusing of unsportmanship the ones that prefer to run the competition by the existing rules. THAT'S WHAT ACE PUBLICLY DID. None entitled Tina Symmans to give people patents of "honor showing". So: 1) Tina Symmans has no ground trying to postpone what COR36 is organizing. ACE is a logistic organizer and not the event organizer of the Prada Cup; 2) Tina Symmans, has insulted Luna Rossa team and COR36 to be dishonest and much more. See her childish statements released 5 mins before today's press conference; 3) Tina Symmans knew since November 2020 that in case Level 3 is lowered to Lever 2 the races had to re-start immediately without delay. The races could have restarted today and did not due to ACE fault. Could have restarted tomorrow and that's not possible due to ACE fault. Races are scheduled to be restarted on Saturday with 48 hours of delay unless, according to some rumours, something else will happen tomorrow to further postpone the races, due to ACE fault; 4) Tina Symmans should know that her own government is allowing citizens, residents and tourists in Auckland and New Zealand to walk without masks, eat in restaurants and do a normal life with the famous social distance. Masks are mandatory only in public transportations; 5) Tina Symmans should know that her own government is allowing sporting competitions to be held without problems; 6) Tina Symmans instead can not ensure that Level 3 is not going to come back again, after Friday 26th further postponing the Prada cup; So Tina Symmans can go kick rocks. Who behaves like that does't deserve any further communication.
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  1866.  @justforever96  As already said, loading belts "was a backline activity". If you believe Germans loaded their MG belts in first line, you should check your brain (or, better, having it checked by someone with a functioning one) before talking of the intelligence of others. As for logistic, as already said: "the Volkssturm was armed with a pletora of different weapons, that had different spare parts and would have required different training that none could give to the militians." The idiocies you are "sure of" are your business only. Simply the Germans had grandiose (that was quite usual for them late in the war) plans to distribute HUGE quantities of rifles to the militia. For that quantity, convertion was convenient, and so they started to convert. But that quantity was also completely unrealistic given the conditions of their industry. "For one and half million rifles, ammo availability would have been a problem. For 15.000, 50.000 or even 200.000 rifles, there were plenty of ammos already available. Better issuing a repeater with 400 rounds and call it a day (hardly a Volkssturm militian would have survived enough to fire all of them anyway) than issuing a single shooter even with 10.000 rounds." "you don't also want to be digging out warehouses of captured enemy ammo and distributing it to units all over a chaotic front with the limited transport you have left." So, you already dug into those very same warehouses FOR THE RIFLES, and ignored the crates of million rounds sitting there already packed and ready to be transported. Then, "with the limited transport you have left" you carried the rifles to arsenals to be converted to single shooters, so consuming THE LIMITED INDUSTRIAL CAPACITY YOU HAVE LEFT, to make a single shooter out of a repeater. Then "with the limited transport you have left" you carry those single shooters to "a chaotic first line" WITHOUT SPARE PARTS OR TRAINING FOR THE GUNSMITHS, believing they could be good for something, instead of taking the rifles, the ammos for them, and simply delivering the rifle along with the ammos. Now, let's see what the Volksturm really had. On 15 January 1945, for example, the Volkssturm in Gau Bayreuth had a total of 1,148 rifles Model 1888 ( needed obsolete 8mm "88 patrone" cartridges), 1,265 rifles Model 1898 (from World War One), 543 Karabiner 98k, 5 Gewehr 43 (semi-automatic rifles), 17,562 Italian Carcano rifles, 1,974 French captured rifles, 64 Russian rifles (Mosin-Nagant), 1 Romanian rifle, 34 Dutch rifles, 129 Belgian rifles, 134 Czech rifles, 13 Polish rifles, 2 British rifles, 34 Austrian rifles, 173 9mm pistols, 2,038 7.65mm pistols, 982 6.35mm pistols, 1 Italian pistol, 19 French pistols, 25 Belgian pistols, 3 MPi 40, 2 MG 13, 4 MG 34, 2 Polish machine-guns, 2 Czech machine-guns, 1 French machine-gun, 1 Austrian machine-gun, 2 Czech heavy machine-guns, 1 mortar 5cm, 1 mortar 8cm, 1 French gun, 4,436 pieces Panzerfaust, 690 grenades Eierhandgranaten, 720 grenades Stielhandgranaten. So, surprise surprise, not talking of all the OTHER calibers. Only the Volksturm of a single German region of 2.2 million people had more Carcano rifles than the entire production of converted rifles of Krieghoff and FNA Brescia. So, surprise surprise, the Germans dug into those warehouses in search of ammos after all. So, surpsise surprise, to add a logistic supply line of converted 7.92 Mauser single shooter Carcano rifles to the already existing and vastly preponderant supply line of 6.5 repeater Carcano rifles, only complicated the German logistic. Who would have told?
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  1875. NGSW is DOA. It's adoption is far from "inevitable". BTW The M14 was the choice of the Ordnance corp. Like the XM7 is. The M16 was an oddball side project of the CONARC, like this is of the AMU and the IWTSD. The Army didn't "didn't back down". To the Army was given the M16 because, with the Springfield Arsenal closing down, there was no way to manufacture enough M14 up to spec., so the Ordnance Corp had to accept the M16. The soldiers didn't hate 5.56, they weren't happy with the M16, because it was unreliable, and it was unreliable because the Ordnance Corp hated it (it wasn't their idea) and ACTIVELY sabotaged it. Once solved the issues (M16A1) none missed the M14. Because the lighter rifle that allowed to carry more rounds was what ANYONE wanted. Everyone happy? No. Nobody came out of Vietnam asking for a heavier, longer M16 with more complicated sights that’d be a bitch to clean and maintain. Nobody. Yet, what'd the Ordnance Corp prepare for them? The M16A2, a rifle optimized for Camp Perry matches. And then what happened, when the Infantry saw the M4 carbine, which was only ever supposed to be this thing carried by support troops, to make their lives a little easier while performing manual labor under arms? Yeah; none of said “supporting arms” saw their M4s up until the early 2010s. Infantry instantly grabbed every one of those things they could put their hands on and discarded the M16A2. Because the lighter rifle that allowed to carry more rounds was what ANYONE wanted. The Ordnance Corp lives in the mith of the lone "one shot, one kill," long-range rifleman, not in the reality where 99.9% of the rounds shot in battle miss the target.
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  2158. The reasons why Falkenhayn advised against the Trentino offensive were pretty simple. In his own words, anyone that had seen a map of Italy's northern border would have been tempted by such a move. But it was only an illusion. To reach the plain was not impossible, but, even after having done that, the army would have still to be supplied through those same mountain trails that made the preparation of the attack so difficult. The defenders otherwise, would have been supplied through the roads and railwais of the Po valley. In the end, the attackers would have reached the plain only to find themself with their backs to the wall. As for Cadorna, I'm starting to wonder why this channel, when there is to say something about him, decides to leve all pretenses of historical accuracy in order to make him look as a bigger idiot than his counterparts on the western front? In the Trentino offensive THERE HAD NOT BEEN ANY SURPRISE, if not in the scale of the operation. The Italian high command begun the preparations for the defence of the Trentino in the second week of March (suspension of the transfer from Trentino of the brigades "Ivrea" and "Sicilia", and sending in the brigade "Valtellina"), In the first week of April three new brigades were sent in the sector, then the 9th division was transferred at Bassano, the 10th at Schio, 10 alpine battallions and 6 mountain artillery batteries at Marostica. 6 batteries of 149mm guns, 6 of 105mm, 3 mechanized batteries of 102mm cannons and 3 batteries of heavy howitzers were put in reserve on the Tagliamento river. At the end of April the 44th division was transferred from the Albania to Desenzano, and further 7 divisions (27th division, X and XIV Corps) were put on reserve on the Tagliamento. In his visit in Trentino of late April, CADORNA WAS THERE TO INSPECT THE PREPARATIONS FOR THE BATTLE. The real difference between Cadorna and Brusati is that Brusati wanted to held all the ground his troops conquered in the first weeks of war. Cadorna, judging the Trentino sector not so important, only wanted to held the third line of defense. So why the Austrians advanced so much? Well, they did not actually. In many sectors the preparations had not been actuated very well, but, in an offensive like that, it was almost granted that the first line of defense would have been overrun. The artillery preparations almost always made them not defensible. Only the second, and more often the third line of defense could be held (the lost ground would have then be taken back with counterattacks). But in mountain warfare the placement of the lines was dictated by the ground. First and second line could be so close to not be really distinct, the third could be really far away. The tactic to stop a large scale attack was to fix the wings of the attacking army, so progressively narrowing the line of advance, and putting he advancing formations progressively at risk to be hit at the flanks, and that was done. The Austrians overrun the Italian third line at Asiago, but they did it only there. At that point, the Trentino offensive was over, and the Austrians rethreated almost to the starting line to avoid to be counterattacked while being so exposed.
    2
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  2166. For the first part, Yes. From the beginning of the war, until the Austro-German offensive of nov. 1917 he was in the small village of Martignacco, near Udine, at less than 20km from the front, and he often visited the first line. He was in fact closer to the front not only of any other Chief of State, but of many generals. IE Svetozar Boroević, that, among the many nicknames earned during the war ("the lion fo the Isonzo, ecc...), had also that of "the absent general", since he spent the war at Postojna, 30 km from the front. For the second part, despite the attempts of depicting him as a particular kind of idiot (even plainly lying, IE talkig of the Battle of Asiago as a "surprise attack" when there had not been any surprise, and the Italians begun to prepare the defence since mid March. In his visit of the sector at the end of April, Cadorna was not there for a pleasure trip, he was inspecting the preparations for the incoming battle) Cadorna was not really any worse than his counterparts on the western front. Someone exonerated Haig after the Somme? After Passchendaele? After Cambrai? At the end of the war he was deemed as a great general. Criticisms begun only in the late '20s, and he still has defenders. Cadorna was stubborn, and not particularly brilliant, but battles, on the Italian front, tended to be breif and furious affairs. He was partly justified thinking "if next time I manage to deploy more men and more guns, I'll break through". On the western front, were battles were less intense, but lasted for months, a general could not really think that, on a certain day, he was using more men and guns than the day before, or the day after. And still they sent wave after wave of soldiers to die for a daily gain of few yards of land. Every week of the battle of the Somme, or of Verdoun, count as an Isonzo battle.
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  2223. In the Trentino offensive THERE HAD NOT BEEN ANY SURPRISE, if not in the scale of the operation. The Italian high command begun the preparations for the defence of the Trentino in the second week of March (suspension of the transfer from Trentino of the brigades "Ivrea" and "Sicilia", and sending in the brigade "Valtellina"). In the first week of April three new brigades were sent in the sector, then the 9th division was transferred at Bassano, the 10th at Schio, 10 alpine battallions and 6 mountain artillery batteries at Marostica. 6 batteries of 149mm guns, 6 of 105mm, 3 mechanized batteries of 102mm cannons and 3 batteries of heavy howitzers were put in reserve on the Tagliamento river. At the end of April the 44th division was transferred from the Albania to Desenzano, and further 7 divisions (27th division, X and XIV Corps) were put on reserve on the Tagliamento. In his visit in Trentino of late April, CADORNA WAS THERE TO INSPECT THE PREPARATIONS FOR THE BATTLE. The real difference between Cadorna and Brusati is that Brusati wanted to held all the ground his troops conquered in the first weeks of war. Cadorna, judging the Trentino sector not so important, only wanted to held the third line of defense. So why the Austrians advanced so much? Well, they did not actually. In many sectors the preparations had not been actuated very well, but, in an offensive like that, it was almost granted that the first line of defense would have been overrun. The artillery preparations almost always made them not defensible. Only the second, and more often the third line of defense could be held (the lost ground would have then be taken back with counterattacks). But in mountain warfare the placement of the lines was dictated by the ground. First and second line could be so close to not be really distinct, the third could be really far away. The tactic to stop a large scale attack was to fix the wings of the attacking army, so progressively narrowing the line of advance, and putting he advancing formations progressively at risk to be hit at the flanks, and that was done. The Austrians overrun the Italian third line at Asiago, but they did it only there. At that point, the Trentino offensive was over, and the Austrians rethreated almost to the starting line to avoid to be counterattacked while being so exposed.
    2
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  2233. Blair Maynard The MG42was arguably the most advanced MG of WWII. This is WWI, and had to be compared with other MGs of WWI. However, the MG42 was usually fed with a 50 rounds belt. The job of a defensive MG in WWI was: 1) the enemy artillery barrage begins. You have to rapidly dismount the MG and take cover. The Villar Perosa was light and apt for this. 2) the enemy artillery barrage ends. You have to rapidly redeploy the weapon, cause the enemies are already running at you. The Villar perosa is light and apt for this. 3)The enemies are approaching, not from were they wants, but through obligatory passages that had been opened through the barbed wire, or through mountain trails. You have to aim at those. But the enemies are not idiots. Any of them is visible only for few instants. In those instants you spray a short burst at them and saturate that position. The Villar perosa has an high rate of fire, and is apt for this. In defense, the Villar Perosa acts as a long-range shotgun. As for the offensive role. From 1916 to 1918. the Villar Perosa was not "good" or "bad". It was THE ONLY ONE. It was, and by far, the best thing around for the SMG job, whithout any competition. Infact the Austrians copied it, double barrel, tripod and all. They didn't thought it could have been done better. Cause it was already the best. But if you prefer to jump into an enemy trench with a bolt action rifle, your choice. I'll go with the SMG, even if it's not perfect. Besides, 2 seconds for a 20m trench are an eternity.
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  2244. Sorry, but it's MrOpellulo comment, like any generalization, to be ignorant and misleading. In the Italian army, like in any of WWI there were stubborn idiots that knew nothing of the modern warfare, and there were intelligent and prepared generals (Etna, Capello, Reghini, the firsts that comes in mind). Cadorna was stubborn, and not particularly brilliant, but it was not really worse than his western counterparts. Yes, he fought 11 battles using the same tactic, and still expecting it could work. But battles on the Italian front tended to be brief and furious affairs. He was at least partly justified thinking "if next time I manage to assemble more men and guns, I can break through". He never gave up to the mindset of the war of attrition. On the western front, were battles were less intense, but lasted for months, there was not even that justification. At the Somme, or Verdun, a commander couldn't reasonably think that he was using that day more men and guns he had used the day before, or he would have used the day after. And still they sent, day after day, thousands of men to die for a daily gain of a yard of land. Every week of those battles counts as an Isonzo battle. And still on 31 jul. 1917, they begun the Battle of Passchendaele with exactly the same mindset of 1915. As for the "barbaric conditions", contemporary observers often noticed that trenches and soldiers on the Italian front tended to be cleaner than on the western front (and that high officers tended to spent more time in first line with their soldiers than their westen counterpart). As for the discipline, summary executions were much more usual among the French. In 1934 an investigation of the newspaper "Le Crapulliot" found that between 1914 e il 1918, 1.637 french soldiers had been executed, (compared to only 675 official death sentences). The Italians had 770 death sentences, and about 50 summary executions after Caporetto.
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  2380.  @antonw-uw4ov  So you are a French and own a gun? No, because you are reading a wikipedia page. So You are pretending that your pretended gun ownership modified your brain so that now you are better than others at reading wikipedia pages about laws of places you don't know? That's why I'm not answering to your requests about my personal infos. Because what you pretend to get from yours is funny enough. First of all, I have to remind you that, to you, the purchase of the Benelli instead of an AR15 was due to different regulations for the two rifles. My reply was that the Benelli and the AR15 were purchased AT THE SAME CONDITIONS. Now you are stating that in France "both an ar15 and benelli mr1 is in category B, which means..." ...that they are purchased AT THE SAME CONDITIONS. And that already invalidates your entire argument. Then, again, your statement: "in most countries in Europe you do have to belong to a sport shooting club to own a military style semi auto, and the clubs generally require you to compete regularly to get a membership and to keep it". My reply: "a licence for sporting purposes is a licence that allow you to buy and own the rifle, and to bring it to a range WHEN AND IF YOU WANT TO DO THAT. Nobody forces you to attend a range. YOU CAN SIMPLY KEEP THE RIFLE IN YOUR CLOSET IF YOU WANT." In France, to have an autorization for "tir spotif" the shooter must be older than 18 (12 if he's really a competitive shooter), have attended at least 3 shooting sessions with an instructor, have a medical certificate and a licence of the "Fédération française de tir" (€60,00/year for an adult) . The shooter then receives a 5-year authorization to purchase and own Category B firearms. This autorization allow him to buy and own the rifle, and to bring it to a range WHEN AND IF HE WANTS TO DO THAT. Nobody forces him to attend a range. HE CAN SIMPLY KEEP THE RIFLE IN HIS CLOSET IF HE WANT. Notice that, if the shooter really competes, the required age is only of 12. In Czech Republic there is a theoretical and practial exam to obtain a licence for that matter but, once you have it, nobody forces you to attend a range. YOU CAN SIMPLY KEEP THE RIFLE IN YOUR CLOSET IF YOU WANT. etc. etc.
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  2532. It's an often repeated mith. The Littorios almost always fired few shots at extreme ranges. Had they hit something, it would have been by far the longest range hit in history. Only in two occasions they fired more shots. At Gaudo the Vittorio Veneto was steaming at 28 knots and trying to hit, from 23 to 26 kms distance, two light cruisers that were entering and exiting smokescreens and only manuvering to not be hit. At that time it had been already amply demonstrated that it was practically impossible to hit a ship that was only manuvering to not be hit, even at far closer distances and with far more rapidly firing guns (see the battle of the Espero convoy) if not firing thousands of shells. The second battle of the Sirte had been fought in a storm, and the Littorio had been the most accurate ship of both parties in that occasion. The pictures taken by the Brits at Gaudo show, for Vittorio Veneto's salvo, a consistent single turret spread of 1.7% of the distance. Any navy of the time would have considered 2% acceptable to good in action. US Navy obtained 1.1% single turret spread, but that was in tests, with the ship standing still and not steaming at 28 knots, after years of peacetime tuning, with delay coils already installed (Littorios had them installed in winter '42-'43) and with slower shells (for a simple geometrical reason, flatter trajectory shells, all things equal, will show wider horizontal spread. That has little IRL effect since ships are not just horizontal targets and the flatter trajectory reduces the vertical spread - that's why flatter trajectory is preferred in rifle shooting - and reduces the error in distance and bearing, by reducing the flight time). Richelieu shown a 2.1% single turret spread in tests (four guns in it's case) still in 1948, after delay coils had been installed, and that was considered acceptable.
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  2547. That's pretty interesting. It has to be noted that Pirrhus, a refined and valued Hellenistic commander, faced a very "fresh" legionary model. The Romans had just adopted it, in the Samnitic wars, that had just ended when the Pyrrhic war begun. At that time, the Romans used the manipulary system as a way to fight frontal battles on rough terrain. there was not really a tactical use of the maniples. On the other side, having noticed that, in Italy, battles were not fought only on plains, Pyrrhus adapted the phalanx, intermixing the squares of phalangites with the more mobile formations of his Italic allies. As a result, Pyrrhus generally managed to inflict to the Romans more severe losses that he suffered, but not to gain a decisive victory, and his losses were less replaceable. Hannibal, that was an admirer of Pyrrhus, noted this weakness, and he made sure to fight vs. the Romans only "annihilation battles", where the entire enemy formation was destroyed for little cost of his own. If there was not that possibility, he preferred to concede a limited defeat that to gain a costly victory. Unfortunately (for the Hellenistic rulers) Hannibal "trained" the Romans to use their maniples tactically. To move them sideways, to encircle, to make faints and ambushes. As a result, when the Romans, right after the second Punic war, clashed with the Hellenistic rulers in Greece and middle east, it seemed a clash between professionals and amateurs. The phalanx could still held its own in a pure frontal battle, but too many things had to go its way for it to work and, as soon as something got wrong, it ended in a massacre. And those were still Republican Roman armies. A militia of citizens. In the last clashes, when the post-Marian reform professional Roman army clashed with the last phalanxes in the east, the legionaries won with ridiculous ease.
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  2659.  @bluelemming5296  All is relative. According to Santarini, the OTO 351/50 of the Littorio were anyway more accurate than the 38 cm SK C/34 of the Bismarck at normal engagement distance (someone extended the study to the Sharnhorst, obtaining even worse results). So why the Bismarck hit the Hood and the Prince of Wales? Because it fired, from 18.500m to 15.000m distance on targets that were not trying to evade. The same moment the POW steered to break the contact, the Bismarck ceased to hit anything, even if the target was at less than 16.000m distance, and quit firing at only 18.500m distance. In the same engagement, the Hood did not hit anything at all, even firing several salvo at less than 20.000m distance and, according to the same Santarini, the POW shown a marginally better gunnery than the Bismarck, but not enough to change the outcome of the clash. Mind that, having the fastest muzzle velocity than any WWII battleship gun, all things equal, the 381/50 should have a larger horizontal dispersion for purely geometrical reasons (firing two shots with a given error in vertical angle difference, the fastest shell with the flatter trajectory will fly more between the two horizontal drop points), but that has little practical effect, since ships are not only horizontal targets (the same Santarini, IE, calculated that the Hood was a vertical target three times larger than an horizontal one) and the same flatter trajectory of the fastest shell reduces the vertical dispersion (other than the error in bearing, by reducing the flight time).
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  2754.  @drewberg1361  The US, not the allies, determined the intermediate rounds availabe were "inadequate", because they wanted a full blown cartridge despite everyone else knew full blown cartridges, even the existing 6.5 ones, couldn't fire controllable bursts in rifle-sized weapons. They knew it since the '20s and already developed their AR accordingly. Once determined that nonsense, the US imposed the decision to the NATO allies, even triking FN, to which they offered the adoption of the FAL by US in exchange of supporting the 7.62 NATO. You said: "the US were the ones primarily testing it in actual combat rather than theory". That's false. The AVT 40 (full blown cartridge) was used operationally and the Soviets determined it was not viable WAY before the US used the M14 operationally. The STG44 (intermediate cartridge) was used massively, with almost half a million samples built, and it was impressive enough that the Soviets built the AK47 after it. If the US decided to ignore other's FIELD experiences, it's only their fault. Anyone can invent a ballistic goal an intermediate cartridge can't reach and estabilish it as a "minimum requirement". That's what the US did. The .223 Remington has nothing special, it was not adopted following ANY competition but only due to war needs. Actually ballistically is a quite inefficent round, with a poor sectional density that makes it loose speed faster than other intermediate rounds. "Supersonic at 500 feet"? Are we talking of a pistol round? It's a goal so low to be ridicolous other than being completely arbitrary. The .280 British was already consistently supersonic at 500m (not feet) even if fired by a short barrel, and faster than the .223 from 400m on. so it exceeded those "ballistic goals" before someone invented them.
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  2764.  @drewberg1361  Maybe you didn't read, or understood, "rifle sized". Full blown cartridges being controllable in 10kg MGs is not exactly a wonder. Those are in active military service because, surprise, the ballistic marvel you described, the .223 Rem, is not that great of a cartridge in the MG role so, once adopted it, the 7.62 was still needed for MGs, demonstrating that all the need of the infantry rifle cartridge to be supersonic at ranges were no infantry rifle were used for was not that important in the end. Lessons that other learned before pretending to issue select-fire rifles in .308 win. But the US didn't listen. A demonstration is not a trial. The Winchester prototype was was publicly demonstrated in oct 1957, only five months after the first demonstration of the AR15, the Winchester prototypes with the modifications required arrived at Fort Benning in July 1958, were tested, and the report of the tests was released in september of the same year. The AR15 was praised for reliability and the Winchester rifle for accuracy, but both were deemed to be inferior to the M14 anyway. Wound ballistic was not even taken into account. Your opinion. Surely the Soviet didn't rush, in replacing the 7.62X39 since its still in service. But the .223 Rem was introduced as an answer to the 7.62x39 and the 5.45X39 as an answer to the .223 Rem. Had the US troops in Nam already had an intermediate cartridge when they encountred the 7.62X39,, they would have introduced the .223 Rem in response to... what exactly? Because of 2/3 the recoil of a .308 Win (or less in the early iterations) while at the same time exceeding all the ballistic nonsense you are obsessed with. The .280 Brit is controllable in full auto, the .308 Win is not. What round was better for a select-fire weapon was a no-brainer, but you are reasoning like Colonel Studler did " THE .308 HAS MORE POWAH! YEAH! GO WITH MORE POWAH!", with the result of adopting the shortest lived infantry rifle in US history. You are not even taking the weight of the rifle into acount.
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  2909.  @geordiedog1749  I'm sorry that this is proving so problematic for you, emotionally. Your "moral supremacy" kicked in long ago. It kicked in already when you decided to start talking about "moral supremacy" instead of facts and telling people they were "cherry picking" when they talked about episodes YOU specifically mentioned without any selection. Not having even noticed that simple fact demonstrates YOU were enough emotionally involved to ignore facts, or in bad faith. Choose one. I suggest you to learn to differentiate facts from narrative (especially dubious moral narrative that, in your view, should change facts) and quit trying to adapt the first ones to the second. Then you found a history book that tells at Sirte 1 the Brits DIDN'T flee the battle. DIDN'T end up on an Italian freshly laid minefield they didn't suspect the existence of, (but maybe they CHOSE to end on it). DIDN'T lose two ships and 830 seamen and DIDN'T have to retire the rest of the Malta Strike Force, In exchange for the the Regia Marina not having a single casualty? You found an history book that tells at Sirte 2 the Brits DIDN'T have several ships badly damaged (The Kingston and Havock had been effectively lost) in exchange for no damages for the Italians. DIDN'T leave the merchants on their own. Then DIDN'T have the convoy almost entirely destroyed? I'm curious to know who wrote them. What you consider "decent" is an opinion of you (and, if you consider decent the narrative above...). Vincent O'Hara is surely an historian and just told Pedestal had been a defeat. James Sadkovich is surely an historian and called it a disaster. Jack P. Greene is surely an historian and called it an Axis victory. If Pedestal had been a "strategic success" for the Brits, then how PQ 17 hadn't? More ships get through, and PQ 18 followed at only 2 months distance. The strategic outcome of PQ17 had been than most of the shipment dind't arrive where it was expected to,. The strategic outcome of Pedestal had been that most of the shipment didn't arrive where it was expected to and several warships had been sunk or badly damaged as well. Involving "strategic victory" is like saying "but in the end the Allies won the war". Maybe people want to discuss stuff without seeing it polluted by laughable moral considerations used to change obvious facts.
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  2953. Actually the ZB vz.26 was one of them. The others were the Brixia 1930 ( https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5f/df/b0/5fdfb00e25648c59171c2db4d4b03a5a.png ) and the FIAT 1928 ( https://i.pinimg.com/originals/99/d7/f5/99d7f5ddb17e0ca743a53f338cc79cc1.png https://i.pinimg.com/originals/32/18/14/3218147f1d0a8d4d411f07ffdeb7ff21.png ). In 1932 the Terni arsenal LMG put in a single weapon all the best features of the various entries of the previous selection ( no oiler thanks to the Brixia 1930 mechanics; Breda 1930 tilting magazine, barrel change, bipod, barrel shroud and pistol grip; FIAT 1928 stock and barrel; http://www.archeologiaindustriale.org/cms/fucile-mitragliatore-modello-terni/ ) In1937 Scotti introduced another "Breda 1930 lookalike", retaining the style of the barrel and the general ergonomy but with his patented gas operation and a vertical detachable magazine ( http://alternathistory.com/files/resize/users/user32336/%20%D0%BF%D1%83%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%B5%D1%82%20%D0%A1%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%82%D1%82%D0%B8%20%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BB.%207.7%20%D0%BC%D0%BC-700x327.jpg it was aquired in few hundreds of samples and used as a tank weapon first than the introduction of the Breda 1938), and the Scotti naval antiaircraft rifle, an assault rifle in all but name ( https://i.pinimg.com/originals/71/6f/8e/716f8e33be4f124274a6de9457462b65.png there were versions with buttstocks). But at that point the Breda 30 had already been selected, and the improvings were not considered worth to revert a decision taken only few years before.
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  3001. ? Actually the rifle is very simple. Apart for the burst mechanism, that's an added part, not required for it to work, the parts count is the lowest it could be, and the field strip can be made in seconds without tools, that was not a given at that time. To have access to the gas chamber and the gas ports (that's the thing that requires cleaning, there is not actually much that could happen to the piston and op rod) you only have to remove the muzzle cover. To inspect the recoil spring, you can remove it from the trap door. To remove the bolt you only have to remove the dust cover and the rear buffer ("when the dust cover is off, it just slides out") and it comes out from the rear of the receiver. It isn't needed to remove the receiver from the stock. The bolt is made of just five parts, included one that doubles as charging handle. The trigger group is very simple too. Like almost every bolt action rifle up to then, and several semiauto rifle after then, this rifle is simply not made to have the trigger group and the receiver removed often from the stock (that's why they were secured with screws). While the parts that require cleaning, and/or have to be replaced more often (for the second case, almost universally the recoil spring and the firing pin) are very easily reachable. An M1 Garand, for example, is made with a completely different philosopy. The rifle can be easily disassembled, but is not really field-strippable. To reach the firing pin, you have to completely take the rifle apart (and have several small parts flying around you).
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  3025. The bolt handle doesn't serve as a locking lug. It's several mm distand from the rear bridge's face. Actually the Carcano barrel, bolt and receiver were made out of Czech "Poldhutte compressed steel" that were better regarded than Krupp steel at the time. That's why Carcano rifles had been converted to fire far more powerful ammos than the 6.5 it was originally designed for without any problem. This is from Dave Emary, Horandy's chief ballistic expert: "The materials used in the Carcano are excellent. These rifles were made from special steels perfected by the Czechs, for which the Italians paid royalties. If you have ever tried doing any work on a Carcano receiver you will find out just how hard and tough the steel is. The Carcano has also received a reputation as being a weak design. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Italians made a small run of Carcanos early in WW II chambered for 8 X 57 JS. The Germans rechambered some Carcanos to 8 X 57 JS late in WW II. These rifles were also proofed for this cartridge. The CIP minimum suggested proof pressure for the 8 x 57 JS cartridge is 73,500 psi. I hardly call this a weak action. The best case I can make for the strength of the Carcano was a personal experience attempting to blow one up for a hunter safety course video. I was asked by the Department of Game and Fish of New Mexico about 12 years ago to help them with this. At the time I was one of the ones ignorant about the Carcano, believing it to be a weak action and easy to take apart. Well, the morale to this story was a full case of Bullseye failed to do anything significant to the action or barrel. We finally had to fill a cartridge case with C4 explosive and detonate it to get anything that looked like what we wanted."
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  3072.  @tylerstevenson8085  At this point I don't know if you can think. What "the majority" has to do wit the topic now? The majority of trade is made with, and the majority of travels are done in, the immediate proximity. That means that trading and traveling outside the immediate proximity is impossible? The majority of what you eat is not pepper. That means pepper doesn't exist? I already said, we were talking of seafaring capability in Roman times, not if you could navigate the entire route from te city of Rome to India. Egypt was Empire too. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE THE STARTING POINT OF THE VOYAGE WAS AS LONG IT WAS IN THE EMPIRE. To keep on argumenting that Rome is in the Mediterranean, so part ot the trip from India to specifically the city of Rome had to be done overland, at this point, is beyond stupid (it was even at the start, really). So stop being beyond stupid and using dumb arguments. Majority of trade between Rome and India was made by sea. Is "by sea" even if the goods were disembarked at Mios Hormos, on the Red sea, shipped on the Nile to Alexandria, and then put on another ship to Rome. Or if they didn't reach the city of Rome at all. THE EMPIRE WAS NOT ONLY THE CITY OF ROME. The original comment was about the supposed inability of the Romans to navigate the ocean. In reality Romans happened to navigate the ocean. When Egypt was not part of the empire, the same route was followed by someone else. The goods were transported mainly BY SEA anyway. Yeah. The problem is EXACTLY that, with "Rome" you mean only the city. Otherwise you had not came up with that nonsense of " a completely sea bound route from India to Italy was impossible" (and so? What it has to do with the ability of navigating the Ocean?)
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  3094.  @michaelsommers2356  After I provided the source, you stated: "That does not show that the Italians stopped using Enigma." Your statement makes no sense. Of what "that" are you talking about? Do you know the source? Evidently not. So how can you talk about what it shows or not? The Italian Navy didn't use Enigma at all. It adopted the C38m since 1940. In three years of war, before the armistice, only few hundreds of C38m messages had been decrypted by Ultra, most of them after several days and of no military value. IE the one relating to the loss, in December 1941, of a bag of shirts destined for the Governor of the Aegean, Admiral Campioni, message regularly noted by the British after a week of cryptoological efforts. Better results the Brits had with the C35, used by the Regia Aeronautica, but with no practical value, since: "The time span between the interception of C35/38 traffic in the Middle East and his Typex encryption averaged 36 hours. They were followed by '50 hours on average' for radio transmission from Middle East to the United Kingdom, with the addition of other 4 hours between the receiving station and the Admiralty and further 4 hours from the latter to the decyphers". At that point, the value of every message of the Aeronautica had long expired. For the really important messages, the Italian Navy used manual cyphers, There were 14 kinds of them. Ultra managed to decypher some of the messages encrypted with the minor ones, but never broke the two really important ones during the war (SM16 and SM19) and completely gave up in 1942.
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  3189.  CipiRipi00  We'll never know if the Bismarck hit the Hood EVEN ONE SINGLE TIME. It was well known that the initial salvoes of the British ships were often off by kilometers. In the clash with the POW, opposed to a BB that had HUGE teething problems, that reduced it to a single working gun, the Bismarck received worse damages that it inflicted. None ever said that the POW had good groups. BB cannons had to be TESTED, for LONG to obtain good grups, and the POW was completely new. The best groups are NOT the tighter ones but the ones that give the best probabilities to hit the target AT LEAST with a shell for every salvo at the optimal fighting range. IE Analyzing the results of the battle of Leyte Gulf, the US Navy concluded the Japanese had not understood how dispersion worked. Their salvoes were so tight that the inevitable error in estimating bearing and distance of the target made so that they were all misses. Fact is that the Italian BBs NEVER had an enemy BB at less than 25 km, so any comparison with the battle of the Denmark Strait, fought from 20km to 15km, is completely useless. In the battle of Gaudo, that's the one cited to "prove" the scarce accuracy of the 381/50, the Vittorio Veneto, steaming 28knots, fired on a couple of light cruisers, that were laying smoke screens and steering to not be hit, not at 15.000m, but from 23.000m to 26.000m. At that distance the Bismarck didn't even TRY to fire at a much bigger target that was not steering. It had been already amply demonstrated that, even at much shorter distances, and with much more rapidly firing guns, it was practically impossible to hit a target that was only manuvering to not been hit, if not firing thousands of shells (see the battle of the Espero convoy).
    2
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  3736. Thanks to you for the kind reply :) The BAR was not really an LMG. It wasn't apt for firing in prone position, it wasn't apt for sustained fire (there was a reason if the Italians carried two spare barrels for the Breda 30, and then enhanced them to 4 spare barrels. How much the thin and fixed barrel of the BAR would have lasted in the same conditions?), it was difficult to field strip and clean, and, if not cleaned properly, it jammed easily. The only really improved version, with a quick detachable barrel and an effective bipod, was adopted by the Swedish only in 1937. It has to be noted that, to use 4 spare barrels, you have to fire at least 800 rounds in quick succession. So much for the gun not ben capable to really provide automatic fire. That said. To not be misunderstood, the Breda 30 had really been, all in all, a less than satisfactory weapon. And the Italians would have done better adopting the ZB vz. 26. (that they tried). But there is a tendency, on the net, when a weapon had some defect, tho extremize them, concluding that "it's the worst gun ever made!", "I would have rather fought nacked than carrying that piece of junk!" and things like that. Reality is that the weapons was actually not that bad, and the contemporaries, those that had to fight them daily, and reuse the captured ones, thought it was not that bad. From Tactical and Technical Trends (the magazine of the US Intelligence) No. 7, Sept. 10, 1942 "Use of Captured Italian Weapons" : "Breda Light Machine Gun". The Breda light machine gun is similar to the British Bren gun. It is mechanically superior to the Bren gun under dusty conditions. It requires only one man to service it as compared to several for the Bren gun. It has a slightly higher rate of fire than the British weapon. Its disadvantages are that it has no carrying handle, cannot be fired on fixed lines, and has no tripod mounting.
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  3838. Sam Moon "I cannot prove" So it's not a "fact". What's a "fact" is that the Germans came up with an official accuracy test required (after having zeroed the rifles, so the Germans were expecting to not find the captured rifle to be even properly zeroed) on captured rifles (so on rifles that have been already iussued) to accept the rifles to be used by their soldiers. That shows that they didn't trust the Soviet quality control. An official acceptance test would not have been required, if only seldom samples wuld have been out of tolerance. "it is fact that the Germans tested EVERY piece of captured equipment they intended to use". So what's the official acceptance test, to say one, of the Scotti 20/77 (renamed 2cm Scotti by the Germans)? To test a weapon, to simply see if it works, and to have an official acceptance test to pass are two different things. "It is not my invection" "the majority were out of tolerance and 'discarded'" Your invenction. "you said the percentage was 'good'" An official acceptance test would not have been required, if only seldom samples wuld have been out of tolerance. Instead you said it's a "fact" that those that needed reconditioning, "wasn't a significant number" Where are your sources? "This line confirms to me you're just making stuff up; "Germans had not th(sic) tooling to make that rifle" You're kidding, right? The Germans absolutely had the tooling to produce whatever small arms they wanted" So you are stating Germans produced SVT 40? Good to hear. You have a source stating it, right? Otherwise it's another invenction of your.
    1
  3839. Sam Moon "Did I say the Germans produced SVT-40s, or did I say they had the ability..." Do you really read the comments first to answer to them? The "ability" and the "tooling" ARE DIFFERENT THINGS. The tooling are the machinery and facilities required to specifically produce something, not the ability to make them. It's obvious that the Germans had the techical knowlege to manifacture SVT40, or M1 Garand for that matter, but they didn't made the tools to do so, so they had not the tooling. "Also, I said I cannot prove a negative" You clearly stated it was a "fact" that the rifles that needed reconditioning, "wasn't a significant number". It's a positive statement, that, if true, can be proved. Were are the sources of that "fact"? What's that "not significant" number? It's not that you "cannot prove a negative", is that you stated to be a "fact" something that you don't know. And are now stating that the fact that you don't know the number is a proof that it was small. Sorry, but ignorance is not proof. What's a "fact" is that the Germans came up with an official accuracy test required (after having zeroed the rifles, so the Germans were expecting to not find the captured rifle to be even properly zeroed) on captured rifles (so on rifles that have been already iussued) to accept the rifles to be used by their soldiers. That shows that they didn't trust the Soviet quality control. An official acceptance test would not have been required, if only seldom samples would have been out of tolerance. "Here, I'll even show you..." ...that you are good at googling "1384/42-AHA/In(VII)". Learned something?
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  3886. Actually, when this MG had been adopted (1930) the only design around that was really demonstrably better was the ZB vz. 26. Today it could seem strange, but, in the first half of XX century, to design a detachable magazine that was at the same time so cheap to be discarded on the field, and so well and consistently built to not cause feeding problems was really an issue. The BAR and the BREN were plagued by jammings caused by defective magazines, ant those had been built by bountries that had not raw materials shortages. The British actually designed a fixed magazine for the BREN, loaded with two 15 rounds clips (they didn't adopt that, but it was really awkward compared to the Breda). So, in 1924, FIAT came out with a LMG design (FIAT 1924) that had a fixed magazine on the left of the weapon, loaded inserting a 20 round clip (similar to that of the subsequent Breda) from the right. In exchange of a little time lost in recharging, all the feeding problems were avoided. The flaw was that, to load a MG insrting a clip from one side, the gunner, or the servent, had to expose himself a little, and, laterally pushing the weapon, they can move it, loosing the line of sight. So the Breda had the subsequent evolution. By tilting the "fixed" magazine, in exchange of a little more time lost in recharging, the gunner could load the gun (and change the barrel, for that matter) without changing position at all. In the end, ten years later, at the start of WWII, it was an already outdated design, but it was actually not that bad. There is a tendency, on the net, when a weapon had some defect, tho extremize them, concluding that "it's the worst gun ever made!", "I would have rather fought naked than carrying that piece of junk!" and things like that. But those are modern days shenanigans. The contemporaries of the weapon, those that had to fight them daily, and reuse the captured ones, thought it was not that bad. From Tactical and Technical Trends (the magazine of the US Intelligence) No. 7, Sept. 10, 1942 "Use of Captured Italian Weapons" : "Breda Light Machine Gun". The Breda light machine gun is similar to the British Bren gun. It is mechanically superior to the Bren gun under dusty conditions. It requires only one man to service it as compared to several for the Bren gun. It has a slightly higher rate of fire than the British weapon. Its disadvantages are that it has no carrying handle, cannot be fired on fixed lines, and has no tripod mounting. Mind that, to use 4 spare barrels (the number the Italians deemed to be necessary after having used the gun in combat), you have to fire at least 800 rounds in quick succession. So much for the gun not being capable to really provide automatic fire.
    1
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  3918. *There could be, and had been used, multiple phalanxes. The pikemen had always more columns cause they came from different places, and, like for the oplite phalanx, the unity of a column depended from the fact that its members came from the same place and thrusted each other. Furthermore, among the Swiss, every column was free to decide wether to attack or rethreat. The coordination was scarce. *To have different kind of soldiers into the same formation is not necessarily an advantage. If you have not enough pikemen to keep the enemy infantry at bay, and not enough swordsmen to fight them in close quarters, it will end in a slaughter anyway. Furthermore, phalangites had swords as well, and they had been easily defeated. *The legion evolved a lot during the years as well. But, until the advent of firearms, I don't see advantages in the pikemen squares over the legion. *Is like saying that, since a AA station can shoot down an attack helicopter, while a tank will have a hard time versus it, the AA station will easily win versus the tank. It doesn't work that way. The pikemen squares evolved exactly to counter the cavalry, but they generally never fought vs other kind od organized infantry. Legions instead fought vs many kind of organized infantry. Pikemen would have been nothing new to them, only a variation of the Oplite-Macedonian phalanx they knew well. And, as said, there is the military engineering to take into account. At the Bicocca the Swiss were defeated mainly by the mere presence of a sunken road transverse to the battlefield. To make better obstacles would have been child play for the legionaries. That's my opinion.
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  3919. *Pike squares put togheter men of the same origin. For this cause, often there had been competition, and not cohordination, between the Swiss columns on the same battlefield. *Gauls too fought in close formaftions of spearmen. Formations of spearmen were nothing new for the Romans. They saw it before. *Is not a question of numbers, but of numbers for the same area. In a certain area there could be only a certain number of men. Too few pikemen, and the enemies will find their way to fight in close quarters, and at that point the pikemen will be only an hindrance. Too few swordsmen, and they will not make any difference. If combined formations would have been ALWAYS an advantage, the Romans would have kept the hasta between their squares, or the phalangites would have kept the oplites between theirs. They didn't cause it was not an advantage. *I never said the Romans were invincible. I said: "That doesn't mean that the Roman victory would be a given fact, obviously. Even the Romans had their bad days. But, assuming both the formations to have a capable commander, one that know how to get the best from his men, to me the legion had more possibilities." *Infact, once other organized infantries begun to appear on the battlefield, initially copying the Swiss (cause they were then the only example of efficient infantry available) the pikemen square formation begun to change, incorporating more and more other kind of soldiers (cause heavy cavalry was no more the primary threat) and resembling less and less a pikemen square, until the ones that remained more faithful to the original formation had been the first to be throughly and repeatedly beaten. It doesn't seems a demonstration of strenght of the pikemen squares vs other forms of infantry. *The phalanx could too. There is simply a trade-off between lenght of the spear and number of lines of soldiers employed, and so the effectiveness of the defense, and time employed to change formation. After the harquebuses became the main infantry weapon, the pike remained in use only to protect them from the cavalry charges. It had been abandoned as soon as the bayoned was invented, and a musket with a bayonet is a short spear. So short spears and no shields are the best formation ever? No. Simply shields were useless vs firearms. And, as said, there is the military engineering to take into account. A battle vs a legion is not only a battle vs shield and short sword. It's a battle vs a military system that in no time could build fortifications, trenches, traps, and make a terrain impracticable for the enemy. Historically the pikemen squares did nothing similar, and did not cope well with natural or artificial obstacles. Thanks to you.
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  3920. The civilizations that relied on the shield-spear combination , almost always used a variation of the "shield wall" tactic, with the two opposite formations in close contact, pushing one vs the other, the shields locked, and the spear used to hit in the spaces left between the shields. It's a formation that doesn't need much training to be effective. It only needs it's memebers so thrust eachoter (infact it was good for the citizens of the same city-state, ot the inahbitants of the same fiord). On the other hand, this formation is not very deadly. The slaughters se saw in the Greek wars almost always happened during the cavalry's chase after one of the two formations was broken. The Romans used the shield offensively. Their shields were not locked, but used to hit the enemy, or cover his field of view. In this case the gladium gives to the soldier more possibilities. He can instantly decide to hit the enemy's foot, or the leg, ot the shoulder, every square inch of bare skin, without having a long rod behind him to hinder his movements. Furthermore the gladium's blade can't be grabbed if the thrust fails to hit, and the gladium is lighter than the spear, so it's wielder can hit faster and more times first to be tired. This way of fighting was much deadlier. A legion was not a pushing machine with a secondary thrusting capability. To go against a legion with the idea of pushing it back was like to go against a chainsaw with the idea of pushing it back. On the other hand, this kind of formation needs much more training to be effective.
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  3943. To me the original ZB vz.26 was superior to the BREN, cause the BREN had to use rimmed cartridges. I think a shorter barrel VB vz. 26, with a 25 round magazine in 6.5 Carcano would have been the perfect LMG for the Italians in WWII. That said, the Italians used the Lewis gun in WWI, it was not like they didn't know it. The Lewis Gun was a good weapon for WWI, but it was not by chance that everyone of its users, bar one, phased it out of first line use first than WWII (and it was not by chance that 20-25 round magazines was the norm for WWII LMGs). The Lewis gun was heavy, it didn't have a quick exchange barrel, it was extremely sensible to the slightiest trace of dirt, it jammed easily and jammings were very difficult to clear, it was difficult to field strip and clean, to replace the pan magazine required the servent to expose himself, since it had to be made while looking at the weapon from above. Even in WWI it had been noted that it was more an ambush weapon, when it could fire from at least partially protected positions, than a real attack weapon. Unforunately there is a tendency, on the net, to sanctify some weapon and to damn some other only on the base of often repeated rumors, and regardless of what the contemporaries (those that had to DAILY use those) thought of them. From Tactical and Technical Trends (the magazine of US Intelligence) No. 7, Sept. 10, 1942 "Use of Captured Italian Weapons": "Breda Light Machine Gun". The Breda light machine gun is similar to the British Bren gun. It is mechanically superior to the Bren gun under dusty conditions. It requires only one man to service it as compared to several for the Bren gun. It has a slightly higher rate of fire than the British weapon. Its disadvantages are that it has no carrying handle, cannot be fired on fixed lines, and has no tripod mounting. Was the Breda 30 the best, or among the best WWII LMGs? Surely not. But it get the job done, and, on the field, the differencies with other designs were very limited. MInd that, to use the four spare barrels the Italians deemed necessary for the Breda 30 after having used it in combat, you have to fire at least 800 rounds in quick succession. that was what the Breda was capable of. Try it with a Lewis Gun, or a BAR for that matter.
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  3950. Blair Maynard "I didnt start the MG42 comparison" It was a comparison of kind of intended use. The intended use of both was that of point weapons. A lot of bullets on a little space in a short time. Not long bursts. "The lesson of the MG42 is that "higher rate of fire is not always better". According to Wikipedia, the MG42's main drawback was ammunition consumption." The Italians manufactured 836 million Glisenti rounds for 14.564 Villar Perosa manufacutred. More than 28.000 rounds for barrel. It seems that they were prepared for the consumption. "If the MG42 gunner chose to use the 50-round belt "pods"..." The standard lenght of the MG42 belt was 50 rounds. It could be lenghtened by linking several belts. But, again, you are comparing what's arguably the most avdvanced MG of WWII with WWI weapon. "he would have to change magazines once every 50 rounds, while the Villar-Perosa gunner has to change magazines twice every 50 rounds." Please, The 50 rounds drum of the MG42 was only a can that contained a 50 rounds belt. In order to change the drum the gunner had to: remove the spent drum, open the new drum, attach the new drum to the MG, open the action of the MG, extract the end of the belt from the drum, place the end of the belt on the action, close the MG. It takes MUCH less time to change a pair of magazines, and you have not a spent belt hanging from the MG while you are running. But, again, you are comparing what's arguably the most avdvanced MG of WWII with WWI weapon. "Sure it would be a GREAT gun to defend narrow passages when a large number of troops try to get through at the same time, and you have the ability to spread or an angle your shots so that you arent putting all the bullets into the first person, but a Lewis gun would also be pretty useful there too" And a Maxim, and a Schwartzlose, and a MG08, and a Hotchkiss... Have I said that others MG are useless? But the Villar Perosa has it's advantages. It's lighter, it's easier to manufacture and service, it's thougher (with the shield, the weapon is practically invulnerable to rifle-caliber projectiles), and its ROF makes it a point weapon. "AND the Lewis gun..." The Lewis gun was a very good LMG, but the Lewis Gun was heavy, expensive, sensible to dirt, It's drum was difficult to change (see vintage and modern clips. The servent can't really replace the drum while remaining in prone position. In the end, again, it was easeir and faster to replace a pair of magazines) its low ROF makes possible for the soldiers in the trench to return fire. The Lewis gun was really more apt for ambushes, when the gun could be placed in partially covered position, than to run on the battlefield and clear trenches.
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  3981. The weapon that had been submitted to the army, the weapon that had been tested, the weapon that had been adopted and the weapon that had been fielded, was an infantry weapon. the shielded "variant" was the only variant when the weapon was adopted, and is the only shown in the manual. That the weapon was unsuited for ground use is your opinion. Not knowing who you are, I'm inclined to think that, between you and Col. Conso, the one that's ignorant about basic infantry combat isn't Col. Conso. That "the weapon was very obviously not good in ground role" is, again only your opinion. The people so quickly "realized that such high ROF was counter productive in a ground combat" that the MG-34 was designed to have 1000 rpm ROF and, after two years of war exprience, his replacement was designed to have 1200 rpm ROF. What you call "the obvious thing", that's to put a single Villar Perosa Barrel on a Moschetto TS stock, could have been done after six month from the first deployment of the weapon, if indeed it was felt necessary. But it wasn't. Other modifications had been implemented (IE, the tubular mag retainer was replaced by a conventional spring release, the shield was discarded, a bipod was added...), but not that. Cause, mind this. THERE WAS NOTHING BETTER AROUND. When the guy with the Villar Perosa, after throwing a couple of offensive grenades into the enemy trench to stun the enemies, came over the edge with the machine gun in his hands to finish them, he didn’t find the guy with the MP18 waiting for him. Cause there was not any MP18, or anything similar. What he had in his hands was incredibly better for that role than anything the enemy had (and infact the Austrians copied it, DOUBLE BARREL AND ALL, first with the Frommer Stop M.17 and then with Sturmpistole M.18 THEIR FIRST SUBMACHINEGUNS WERE COPIES OF THE VILLAR PEROSA). After having adopted the Villar Perosa, the Italians took almos three years to develop the OVP18 and the MAB18 (that, as said, were nothing more than a single Villar Perosa barrel mounted on a Moschetto TS stock) not cause the Villar Perosa was unsatisfactory, but cause it was so satisfactory that they produced more than 14.000 complete MGs, so almost 30.000 single barrels, without feeling the urge to modify it.
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  3982. Infact, a substantial number of Villar Perosa remain, in various museums or privately owned. there are weapons more produced, more recently, that are harder to find. For the others. At the beginning of 1918, the first samples of MAB18 were distributed among the troops. Suddenly the main users of the Villar Perosa, the Arditi shocktroops, found that there was a weapon more suited for the attack role than the Villar Perosa was, and began to insistently demand that their Villar Perosa were replaced with MAB18. The Villar Perosa literally went from being a perfectly fine and advanced weapons, to being obsolete, in a matter of weeks. So, at the end of the war, the Italian Army had this stockpile of obsolete MGs, and had to figure out what to do with them. Many were simply too worn out to be of any use (the Italians produced something like 836 millions of rounds for them, so more than 57.000 rounds for weapon, or almost 29.000 rounds for barrel), and were destroyed. Other were stored, and were destroyed some year later (the Army is not a conservation institute. When something is useless it's simply scrapped). Many of them were disassembled, the barrels separated, and transformed in OVP18 SMGs. There were so many of them infact, that Beretta was not able to do so that the more advanced MAB18/30 was adopted by the army. The OVP 18 was still in use at the beginning of WWII. When, finally, the army adopted the further improved MAB38, the main part of the OVP18s were assigned to colonial troops, and ended their life in Libya and East Africa. Many were captured by the British, but, being substantially obsolete, and charged with a round that was not easily available, they had not interest in them and simply discarded them. So, the main part of the Villar Perosa, turned in OVP18s simply rusted out somewere in Africa. Is not that I believe it was an effective weapon. Simply it was. Sorry, I think that you have not enough knowledge of the operations on the Italian front in WWI to deal with the subject.
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  3983. Infact it had been a widely produced weapon that was more effective than what was available at the time. As I said. I dont' think you know much of the course of operations on the Italian front on WWI. To sum up the prformances of sereval armies over several years with a single word is pointless, for how much internetian commenters like to do that, especially when they know nothing about what they are talking of. To think that a single fielded weapon could change the course of the war is... naif to say the least. In WWI casualties, the part of the lion was that of the artillery. To an artillery shell is indifferent if the target has a Villar Perosa or his bare hands. To use a SMG in attack, you have to come to see the enemy first. While you are running through the no man's land, what you have in you hands is indifferent. Stalemates on WWI were related mainly on wrong tactics. Even when the necessity of specialized shock troops had been recognized, those of all the side of the conflict were instructed, when they conquered an enemy trench, to wait there for the regular troops to relieve them, trying to repel the counter attacks in the meantime. That obvioulsy led to huge losses to conquer few palms of land that often can't be taken for long. That situation lasted until late 1917 (when different tactics started to be used) and is not changed by the presence of a SMG. Armies are not equipped with a single weapon. They usually have a mix that includes some exceptional weapon, some good one, some mediocre, and some abysmal, and, obviously, numbers counts. IE the French, among the major powers, had probably the worst long rifles of the war, but they managed to field an incredible number of Chauchat LMGs, and had a very good HMG in the Hotckiss. Italians, for about two years, had the only SMG of the war, but they fielded a comparatively small number of HMGs, and even less LMGs (also cause the Villar Perosa did part of the LMG job). So, even if the Villar Perosa, for some time, had been a very good weapon, the overall equipment of the Italian Army was not so exceptional. "and when arming oneself..." So it's very strange that the Austrians, after having seen the drawbacks of this weird Italian idea, instead to made the oh-so-obvious improvements, decided to field the second SMG of the world, and to make it identical to the first, with a SMG composed of two indipendent barrels. But obviously that's cause the Austrians were idiots, that didn't knew how to fight like Iono Sama.
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  3985. "The state Austria was" means nothing. To make a SMG like the Villar Perosa need double the resouces than to make a single barrel MG. So it's very strange that the Austrians, after having seen the drawbacks of this weird Italian idea, instead to made the oh-so-obvious improvements, decided to field the second SMG of the world, and to make it identical to the first, with a SMG composed of two indipendent barrels. Why the Austrians would have want to "increase the number of weapon with similar capability" if there was a so obvious way to make a better weapon with half the resources? Evidently cause it was not so obvious. And they initially didn't copy the design in the sense you mean. The Sturmpistole M18 (1918) was a Villar Perosa copy in 9mm Steyr, but the Frommer Stop M17 (1917) was a copy in the sense that it was mounted, had double barrel, ecc, but the action was original, so they designed it from scratch to have a weapon that could function like a Villar Perosa (and only later they resorted to completely copy the Italian design, probably cause it worked better). So, in the end, your is not common sense. You are only guessing about things you dont' know. It's interesting however how you come from asking "sources" to stating as matter of facts some misinformed guessing. "And a single weapon like SMG wasn't much of an effect on the war? Maybe, maybe the Germans with their MP18..." Infact they won WWI, didn't they? You are using an example that contraddict your tesis. "But the most telling testament..." Please. Is like saying that, since none copied the P51-D, that's a demonstration that the P51-D sucked. Spare me this nonsense, and avoid arguing with your straw men only to write something. Even a troll should mantain some dignity. None said that the Villar Perosa was the best SMG of WWI, and I clearly stated that the design was obsolete at the end of it. But it had been an efficient and effective weapon during it, and infact, during it, it had been copied.
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  3986. The Frommer Stop M17, like it could function in full auto with a 25 round mag in a double barrel configuration, could have functioned the same way mounted on a single stock, obtaining double the weapons with the same resouces. Why the Austrians would have want to "increase the number of weapon with similar capability" of the Villar Perosa if there was a so obvious way to make a better weapon with half the resources? Evidently cause it was not so obvious. What is obvious is that they spent resources to have an equivalent of what their enemies had, cause they thought it was good. Ahhh... so, if your reasoning does not applies. you change the terms of it, going from "copied" to "distributed" (usually for free. What a sign of success...). Had the Italians gave avay their Villar Perosa for free at the end of WWI, you can take for granted that someone would have accepted them. But, in the case of the Villar Perosa, there was still a way to use it in contemporary warfare. And that was done. Dont' make a fool of yourself. The P-51s were given away so freely by the US precisely cause they knew they were rapidly becoming obsolete, and were happy to get rid of them. Besides, US gave enough P-51 to equip a relevant part of an Air Force to few countries (many had very few samples of them) what for the others? Why none tried to copy it, if it was so good? Why none tried to produce P-51s for those countries that have had only four or five samples from the US, if it was so good? Again, cause the P-51 was rapidly becoming obsolete. It can't be used in it's original role of fighter, and could only be used to fill the gap in ground attack role until it was phased out. And that of P-51 was only a case among many. Many optimal WWII designis had not been nor distributed nor copied (FW 190D? TA 152?). Simply, everyone knew that, for how much they had been good during the war, they were obsolete at the end of it. Infact the only WWII aircrafts that had been copied after it were the Me-262 (Sukhoi Su-9-11-13) and the B-29 (Tupolev Tu-4), that were the last technologies developed into it. The Cavalier Mustang really demonstrates that none really wanted a P-51 after WWII. That the only idea of using it in it's original role of fighter was laughable (they, again, tried to sell it for ground attack). And even the one to use it against low-tech guerrilla fighters, by then, was frowned upon to say the least. In general, it had been a utter failure, with only 21 samples build, most of them given away by the US to Bolivia for free. None said that the Villar Perosa was the best SMG of WWI, and I clearly stated that the design was obsolete at the end of it. But it had been an efficient and effective weapon during it, and infact, during it, it had been copied. "Something that's good..." And that's the "law of Iono Sama for what's good?". Sorry, but it does not apply outside you head. There had been many succesful, efficient, and even ground-breaking tecnologies that simply disappeared after something better had been developed.
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  3988. Again. To demonstrate that the Villar Perosa was good there is the fact that it had been made in substantial numbers, it's use increased constantly thorughout the war, and it had been copied by the enemies. Those are facts. To demonstrate that it wasn't good, you have brought nothing other that figments of your mind. -To decide to ignore facts is your choice. -Your statement on ROF is simply false. Modern SMGs, assault rifles and MGs have generally higher ROF than LMGs and MGs of the past, and just inferior (when they are inferior) than those of the Villar Perosa. -General statements, often refuted, about "1st iteration" doesn't demonstrate anything. The Villar Perosa had been made in substantial numbers, it's use increased constantly thorughout the war, and it had been copied by the enemies. Those are facts. To ignore them only to keep on discussing is your choice. It's obvious that you know nothing about ballistic and about the Glisenti cartridge. To use a 9mm para beyond 100m is a "questionable action" cause it's difficult to aim, especially with an handgun, not cause the bullet isn't dangerous. At 400m a 9mm Para still delivers an energy comparable to that of a .32 ACP at the muzzle. Are you implying that a .32 ACP at point blank isn't dangerous? With a FMJ bullet is an energy sufficient to completely go through a human body. The MAB38 in 9mm Para was widely know to be lethal still at 500m. Even a .22 LR can inflict serious wounds at 400m. As for the cartridges, the 9mm Glisenti used in the Villa Perosa is in the same ballpark of the milder commercial 9mm Para loads. The ones that USCCo made for the Italian Army (89.460.000 of them during WWI) were charged with 4gr bullseye. Many reloaders use that charge for their 9mm Para and 45 ACP rounds.
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  3989. "Being a fanboy..." Unfortunately, you continue to write without knowing anything about the topic. A ROF in excess of 1000 rpm is more common today than in WWII, when 500-600 rpm were the norm, and the 1200 rpm of the MG-42 (that continues to have been used extensively and effectively with 50 rounds belts) were exceptional. IE, the FAMAS F1 had been made with an average ROF of 1050 rpm. When the French designed the refined G2 version, they INCREASED the ROF to 1150 RPM. Cause they thought it was useful. And the FAMAS uses a 25 round magazine. And again. None said that the Villar Perosa was the best SMG of WWI. That's only a straw man you built. I clearly stated that the design was obsolete at the end of it. But it had been an efficient and effective weapon during it, and infact, during it, it had been copied. "and sure.. 9mm Glisenti" Unfortunately you keep on writing without knowing anyting about ballistic. it's raher funny however that you keep asking me to "go find" something, when you are incapable to find anything besides uninformed guess. The 9mm Glisenti is a subsonic round. It comes out from the muzzle being just subsonic. The 9mm Para is a supersonic round. It comes out from the muzzle being just supersonic (with conventional loads. Sometimes subsonic loads are used in 9mm Para, to enhance accuracy). For the rest, they are identical. For subsonic speeds, the drags increases with the cube of the speed. But, when an object goes transonic, due to compressibility, the drag increases up to ten times that figure. For that reason, supersonic bullets rapidly loose speed, until they become subsonic, and, from that moment, their speed decreases much more slowly. A 9mm Para (124 grains, fmj) become subsonic in the first 30m of its trajectory. From that moment it has the same speed, and trajectory of a Glisenti bullet. What a 9mm Para does at 500m, a 9mm Glisenti does at 470m. Try better. At the end of the day, everywere outside your head, the Villar Perosa had never been designed having aerial warfare in mind. It had been designed from the start as an infantry weapon, and had been used in that role with success, infact it had been made in substantial numbers, its use increased throughout the war, and it had been copied by it's enemies.
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  3990. Oh, dear. Someone keep writing of things he don't know only to reply. Obviously the Germans did not know what they were doing when they designed a 1200 rpm MG. The French did not know what they were doing when they designed a 1050 rpm assault rifle,and upgraded it to 1150 rpm in its second iteration. The Czechs did not know what they were doing whan they designed the 1150 rpm Skorpion Evo 3. The Koreans did not know what they were doing when they designed the 1100 rpm Daewoo Telecom K7. The Russians did not know what they were doing when they designed the 1000 rpm PP-91 KEDR, and so on... Despite all the first hand accounts, they had been terribly ineffective weapons. Cause Iono Sama says that high ROF is ineffective and undesidered, and only him knows weapons. Unfortunately, in the real world, you know nothing about what you are writing about. Weapon designers and militaries that commissioned them are not fools, and know their job FAR better than you do. "And oh please, you don't seriously..." Sorry, but ignoring reality is non going to bring you anywere. A 9mm Glisenti bullet is still lethal at 300m. A 9mm Para is still plenty dangerous at 500m (to write "DEFINITELY" in capital letters does not make you any more believable, it only shows more clearly that you don't know anything about ballistic) A 9mm Glisenti bullet effectiveness only fall 30m short of a 9mm Para one. To aim at that distance is possible, and, as already said, those sights were not intended fo precision shooting. So you are arguing over nothing. "No one bothered..." Except the ones that had to fight agains it, and that you are conveniently ignoring. Pretty funny indeed. Again. None said that the Villar Perosa was the best SMG of WWI. That's only a straw man you built. I clearly stated that the design was obsolete at the end of it. But it had been an efficient and effective weapon during it, and infact, during it, it had been copied. "Wait what's that? Chauchat was made a lot as well? oh.. it was bad? What? they used it just because they got nothing else like it but the weapon was terrible?" No. It was not. That's only another demonstration that you know nothing of what you are talking about. The Chauchat, in its original calibre, was a reliable weapon, and it had been an INCREDIBLY effective design. Federov designed it's Federov Avtomat after being impressed by the volume of fire the Chauchats could deliever. It's effectiveness was exactly in ease of manufacturing. In a partly occupied country, the French managed to build FIVE TIMES more Chauchat than the number of Lewis Gun that UK and US made in the same time. On a one-vs-one basis, the Lewis Gun was a better design, but, five versus one, there was not comparison. Sorry, but real world works differently than into your head.
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  3993. "Disprove? the other way around, since the weapon had no..." The fact that you don't know somethind is not a proof that it didn't exists (It seems is more a proof of the contrary though). "and i already see it from the beginning that you completely avoid touching anything regarding effective range with Villar Perosa, and rightfully so" Sorry, but in the real world I adressed completely the argument. The fact that you are incapable to understand anything of ballistic and so keep on taking your uninformed guess as "proof" (calling them "common sense") doesn't change the facts. "Oh so you want argue..." I have mentioned plenty of SMGs. The fact that you keep ignoring them, raises the doubt if you are doing it for your convenience or cause you are not so good at reading too. As said: "A ROF in excess of 1000 rpm is more common today than in WWII, when 500-600 rpm were the norm, and the 1200 rpm of the MG-42 (that continues to have been used extensively and effectively with 50 rounds belts) were exceptional." And, again. None said that the Villar Perosa was the best SMG of WWI. That's only a straw man you built. I clearly stated that the design was obsolete at the end of it. But it had been an efficient and effective weapon during it, and infact, during it, it had been copied. Again. That an high ROF makes a weapon ineffective is a thing that exists only in your head. A ROF in excess of 1000 rpm is more common today than in WWII, when 500-600 rpm were the norm, and the 1200 rpm of the MG-42 (that continues to have been used extensively and effectively with 50 rounds belts) were exceptional. Besides, even a weapon with a defect could be very good. the M1 Garand had been a very good, even exceptional. weapon, despite the fact that none used an en-blok clip to feed a semiauto rifle after it, and despite the fact that it could have been better using a magazine. "Or what? perhaps you'd like to suggest..." You keep on being plagued by mental issues, since I already adressed the topic of how the weapon had been used, both in attack and in defense.
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  3994. "but of course" I have mentioned plenty of SMGs. The fact that you keep ignoring them, raises the doubt if you are doing it for your convenience or cause you are not so good at reading too. You came up wit the nonsense that a high ROF is alone a thing that makes a weapon ineffective. Reality is that a ROF in excess of 1000 rpm is more common today than in WWII, when 500-600 rpm were the norm, and the 1200 rpm of the MG-42 (that continues to have been used extensively and effectively with 50 rounds belts) were exceptional, and a single unwanted charateristic isn't enough to say that a weapon is ineffective, even a weapon with a defect could be very good. the M1 Garand had been a very good, even exceptional. weapon, despite the fact that none used an en-blok clip to feed a semiauto rifle after it, and despite the fact that it could have been better using a magazine. "with the effective range of 9mm Glisenti with the effective range of 9mm Glisenti... which u constantly like to claim..." Sorry, but in the real world I adressed completely the topic. The fact that you are incapable to understand anything of ballistic and so keep on taking your uninformed guess as "proofs" (calling them "common sense") doesn't change the facts. You can keep on believing that a 300m sight had been placed on that weapon as a joke, or cause, like the Germans, the French, the Czechs, the Koreans, the Russian, and so on, the Italians did not know what they were doing when they designed the weapon. Reality is that all of them were much more competent than you. "A soldier using a Villar Perosa..." Had an SMG in his hands, to clear a trench or stop an assault. The alternative was a bolt action rifle. The SMG was more efficient. Infact it had been copied. "And of course... you would not touch..." Sorry, but in the real world I adressed completely the topic. You came up wit the nonsense that a high ROF is alone a thing that makes a weapon ineffective. Reality is that a ROF in excess of 1000 rpm is more common today than in WWII, when 500-600 rpm were the norm, and the 1200 rpm of the MG-42 (that continues to have been used extensively and effectively with 50 rounds belts) were exceptional, and a single unwanted charateristic isn't enough to say that a weapon is ineffective, even a weapon with a defect could be very good. the M1 Garand had been a very good, even exceptional. weapon, despite the fact that none used an en-blok clip to feed a semiauto rifle after it, and despite the fact that it could have been better using a magazine. About touching something. You can try to adress the fact thet the subsequent MAB 18/30, that fired the same cartridge, had adjustable sights up to 500m.
    1
  3995. "sure you did, including machine pistol as well, but you totally won't touch their ROF right?" I have mentioned plenty of SMGs and reported the rpm of all of them. The fact that you keep ignoring them, raises the doubt if you are doing it for your convenience or cause you are not so good at reading too. "you address that the weapon..." You came up wit the nonsense that a high ROF is alone a thing that makes a weapon ineffective. Reality is that a ROF in excess of 1000 rpm is more common today than in WWII, when 500-600 rpm were the norm, and the 1200 rpm of the MG-42 (that continues to have been used extensively and effectively with 50 rounds belts) were exceptional. Anyway, even a single unwanted charateristic isn't enough to say that a weapon is ineffective, even a weapon with a defect could be very good. the M1 Garand had been a very good, even exceptional. weapon, despite the fact that none used an en-blok clip to feed a semiauto rifle after it, and despite the fact that it could have been better using a magazine. About adresing something. You can try to adress the fact thet the subsequent MAB 18/30, that fired the same cartridge, had adjustable sights up to 500m. "but you can't... " I plenty adressed both the topics. The fact that you keep ignoring them, raises the doubt if you are doing it for your convenience or cause you are not so good at reading too. "What's next?" Not much really, since you are incapable to bring new topics, and keep on repeating the old nonsense I already adressed. A ROF in excess of 1000 rpm is more common today than in WWII, when 500-600 rpm were the norm, and the 1200 rpm of the MG-42 (that continues to have been used extensively and effectively with 50 rounds belts) were exceptional. "You've been making total sense so far indeed... trying to justify..." Unfortunately for you, I don't have to "justfy" anything. You claimed that High ROF means that a weapon is ineffective, and you brought nothing to justify that claim. Instead there are many examples of successful designs with high ROF. "and 9mm Glisenti being effective..." The fact that you are incapable to understand anything of ballistic and so keep on taking your uninformed guess as "proofs" (calling them "common sense") doesn't change the facts. You can keep on believing that a 300m sight had been placed on that weapon as a joke, or cause, like the Germans, the French, the Czechs, the Koreans, the Russian, and so on, the Italians did not know what they were doing when they designed the weapon. Reality is that all of them were much more competent than you. To aim at that distance is possible, and, as already said, those sights were not intended fo precision shooting. So you are arguing over nothing. About adresing something. You can try to adress the fact thet the subsequent MAB 18/30, that fired the same cartridge, had adjustable sights up to 500m. "Did you think that with Villar Perosa's rate of fire you could..." The fact that you are incapable to understand anything of ballistic and so keep on taking your uninformed guess as "proofs" (calling them "common sense") doesn't change the facts. You can keep on believing that a 300m sight had been placed on that weapon as a joke, or cause, like the Germans, the French, the Czechs, the Koreans, the Russian, and so on, the Italians did not know what they were doing when they designed the weapon. Reality is that all of them were much more competent than you. To aim at that distance is possible, and, as already said, those sights were not intended fo precision shooting. So you are arguing over nothing. "did you seriously think... that because a weapon had a sights that indicates..." The fact that you are incapable to understand anything of ballistic and so keep on taking your uninformed guess as "proofs" (calling them "common sense") doesn't change the facts. You can keep on believing that a 300m sight had been placed on that weapon as a joke, or cause, like the Germans, the French, the Czechs, the Koreans, the Russian, and so on, the Italians did not know what they were doing when they designed the weapon. Reality is that all of them were much more competent than you. To aim at that distance is possible, and, as already said, those sights were not intended fo precision shooting. So you are arguing over nothing. "WOW, i guess the Thompson..." The fact that you are incapable to understand anything of ballistic and so keep on taking your uninformed guess as "proofs" (calling them "common sense") doesn't change the facts. The .45 ACP has a slightly worse ballistic coefficient than the 9mm bullet of the 9mm para and 9mm Glisenti, so it loose energy first. But there are no dubt that a .45 ACP bullet is dangerous at 500 yards. The actual distance precision shooting record with a Colt 1911 (8 hits out of then aimed shots at a 36" bullseye, with iron sights) is of 600 yards.
    1
  3996. "Might want to do something about copy..." Since you only manage to reiterate topics I already adressed, is much simpler this way. "So because someone..." Is pretty funny how first you didn't know a pistol bullet was effective at long distances. Once I told you the probele was that, for you, it was impossible to aim at that distances. Now that I told you that its' possible with a weapon much more difficult to ain than a SMG on a support (a pistol with iron sights), you return back to your previous nonsense. The fact that you are incapable to understand anything of ballistic and so keep on taking your uninformed guess as "proofs" (calling them "common sense") doesn't change the facts. You can keep on believing that a 300m sight had been placed on that weapon as a joke, or cause, like the Germans, the French, the Czechs, the Koreans, the Russian, and so on, the Italians did not know what they were doing when they designed the weapon. Reality is that all of them were much more competent than you. To aim at that distance is possible, and, as already said, those sights were not intended fo precision shooting. So you are arguing over nothing. About adresing something. You can try to adress the fact thet the subsequent MAB 18/30, that fired the same cartridge, had adjustable sights up to 500m. "You have a very interesting definition of effective" It's obvious that you know nothing about ballistic and about the Glisenti cartridge. To use a 9mm para beyond 100m is a "questionable action" cause it's difficult to aim, especially with an handgun, not cause the bullet isn't dangerous. At 400m a 9mm Para still delivers an energy comparable to that of a .32 ACP at the muzzle. Are you implying that a .32 ACP at point blank isn't dangerous? With a FMJ bullet is an energy sufficient to completely go through a human body. The MAB38 in 9mm Para was widely know to be lethal still at 500m. Even a .22 LR can inflict serious wounds at 400m. As for the cartridges, the 9mm Glisenti used in the Villa Perosa is in the same ballpark of the milder commercial 9mm Para loads. The ones that USCCo made for the Italian Army (89.460.000 of them during WWI) were charged with 4gr bullseye. Many reloaders use that charge for their 9mm Para and 45 ACP rounds. "All you've been doing with SMG..." ...Is demonstrating to you that the fact that an high ROF makes a weapon ineffective is a thing that exists only in your head. A ROF in excess of 1000 rpm is more common today than in WWII, when 500-600 rpm were the norm, and the 1200 rpm of the MG-42 (that continues to have been used extensively and effectively with 50 rounds belts) were exceptional. Anyway, even a single unwanted charateristic isn't enough to say that a weapon is ineffective, even a weapon with a defect could be very good. the M1 Garand had been a very good, even exceptional. weapon, despite the fact that none used an en-blok clip to feed a semiauto rifle after it, and despite the fact that it could have been better using a magazine. It's replacement... Again. None said that the Villar Perosa was the best SMG of WWI. That's only a straw man you built. I clearly stated that the design was obsolete at the end of it. But it had been an efficient and effective weapon during it, and infact, during it, it had been copied.
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  3997. "They are all also much more competent than you..." They are. Infact It's not me that is questioning their work without knowing anything of the topic he is writinga about. It's you. "which they will state clearly NONE of which are of course foolish enough to claim maximum ballistic range" To claim that 400 or 500 m are the maximum ballistic range only further demonstrates that you know nothing about ballistic. You can keep on believing that a 300m sight had been placed on that weapon as a joke, or cause, like the Germans, the French, the Czechs, the Koreans, the Russian, and so on, the Italians did not know what they were doing when they designed the weapon. Reality is that all of them were much more competent than you. To aim at that distance is possible, and, as already said, those sights were not intended fo precision shooting. So you are arguing over nothing. About adresing something. You can try to adress the fact thet the subsequent MAB 18/30, that fired the same cartridge, had adjustable sights up to 500m. "You also seems to have a case of selective attention..." The fact that an high ROF makes a weapon ineffective is a thing that exists only in your head. A ROF in excess of 1000 rpm is more common today than in WWII, when 500-600 rpm were the norm, and the 1200 rpm of the MG-42 (that continues to have been used extensively and effectively with 50 rounds belts) were exceptional. Anyway, even a single unwanted charateristic isn't enough to say that a weapon is ineffective, even a weapon with a defect could be very good. the M1 Garand had been a very good, even exceptional. weapon, despite the fact that none used an en-blok clip to feed a semiauto rifle after it, and despite the fact that it could have been better using a magazine. "Best SMG of WW1?" I already suspected that you are not fully capable to understand what you read. None said that the Villar Perosa was the best SMG of WWI. That's only a straw man you built. I clearly stated that the design was obsolete at the end of it. But it had been an efficient and effective weapon during it, and infact, during it, it had been copied. "But oh no..." Unfortunately for you, this topic had been already fully adressed. The fact that it was possible to do better does not imply the SMG was ineffective when it had been used in any place that isn't your head. None said that the Villar Perosa was the best SMG of WWI. That's only a straw man you built. I clearly stated that the design was obsolete at the end of it. But it had been an efficient and effective weapon during it, and infact, during it, it had been copied.
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  3998. "LOL, and did you think i did not see that edit..." Another thing that exists only in your head. None said that the Villar Perosa was the best SMG of WWI. That's only a straw man you built. I clearly stated that the design was obsolete at the end of it. But it had been an efficient and effective weapon during it, and infact, during it, it had been copied. "Oh boy, you might have a hard..." It takes two to tango. You have something for being owned evidently. "And unlike say a Garand..." It was you that kept saying nonsense about the ineffectiveness of the weapon basing that on the fact that it had some charateristics that had not ben used after it. Reality is that an unwanted charateristic isn't enough to say that a weapon is ineffective, even a weapon with a defect could be very good. the M1 Garand had been a very good, even exceptional. weapon, despite the fact that none used an en-blok clip to feed a semiauto rifle after it, and despite the fact that it could have been better using a magazine. The Villar Perosa instead was the first SMG, so there was not "plenty" of others to confront it, but in it had been copied by the second, so it's charateristics were evidently not considered a hindrance, and were even envied. "except you just did" You should really do something for your mental issues. None said that the Villar Perosa was the best SMG of WWI. That's only a straw man you built. I clearly stated that the design was obsolete at the end of it. But it had been an efficient and effective weapon during it, and infact, during it, it had been copied. "And of course... until now..." ONly in your head the fact that it was possible to do better means that the weapons was uneffective when it had been used. Reality is that an unwanted charateristic isn't enough to say that a weapon is ineffective, even a weapon with a defect could be very good. the M1 Garand had been a very good, even exceptional. weapon, despite the fact that none used an en-blok clip to feed a semiauto rifle after it, and despite the fact that it could have been better using a magazine. The Villar Perosa design was obsolete at the end of WWI, but it had been an efficient and effective weapon during it, and infact, during it, it had been copied. "You can also keep dreaming..." Your mental issues continues to play tricks to you. I clearly stated that the Villar Perosa was not a saturation weapon.
    1
  3999. "Sure, we'll just pretend that..." It's nota question of "pretend". None said that the Villar Perosa was the best SMG of WWI. That's only a straw man you built. I clearly stated that the design was obsolete at the end of it. But it had been an efficient and effective weapon during it, and infact, during it, it had been copied. "Villar Perosa is not a saturation weapon you say" I said from the start the use it was destined. "And yet you obviously focused on claiming..." It had been you that, not knowing anything about ballistic, questioned the sights on the weapon. You can keep on believing that a 300m sight had been placed on that weapon as a joke, or cause, like the Germans, the French, the Czechs, the Koreans, the Russian, and so on, the Italians did not know what they were doing when they designed the weapon. Reality is that all of them were much more competent than you. To aim at that distance is possible, and, as already said, those sights were not intended fo precision shooting. So you are arguing over nothing. About adresing something. You can try to adress the fact thet the subsequent MAB 18/30, that fired the same cartridge, had adjustable sights up to 500m. "Are you suggesting that they fired the weapon in an accurate firing..." as already said, those sights were not intended fo precision shooting. So you are arguing over nothing. "And so it's a weapon not meant for saturation..." Infact the MG42 was not meant for saturation, and had a very high ROF. We have already adressed the topic. "Which incidentally you kept claiming that it is not a flaw" I don't need it. Only in your head a single flaw makes a weapon ineffective, so you are desperately search for one. Reality is that an unwanted charateristic isn't enough to say that a weapon is ineffective, even a weapon with a defect could be very good. the M1 Garand had been a very good, even exceptional. weapon, despite the fact that none used an en-blok clip to feed a semiauto rifle after it, and despite the fact that it could have been better using a magazine. The Villar Perosa instead was the first SMG, so there was not "plenty" of others to confront it, but in it had been copied by the second, so it's charateristics were evidently not considered a hindrance, and were even envied. "Instead you tried to claim "unwanted charateristic isn't enough to say that a weapon is ineffective" so you DO recognize that the ROF on it was in fact a flaw," No. I'm telling you that only in your head a single flaw makes a weapon ineffective. Reality is that an unwanted charateristic isn't enough to say that a weapon is ineffective, even a weapon with a defect could be very good. the M1 Garand had been a very good, even exceptional. weapon, despite the fact that none used an en-blok clip to feed a semiauto rifle after it, and despite the fact that it could have been better using a magazine. The Villar Perosa instead was the first SMG, so there was not "plenty" of others to confront it, but in it had been copied by the second, so it's charateristics were evidently not considered a hindrance, and were even envied. "And then you tried to use Garand ... this during a time when basically every single other rifle in service, all used clips..." It had been you dthat come up with the nonsense that, if the subvsequent weapons had been done differently, than the previous one had to be ineffective. But that's true opnly in your head. Reality is that even a weapon with a defect could be very good. the M1 Garand had been a very good, even exceptional. weapon, despite the fact that none used an en-blok clip to feed a semiauto rifle after it, and despite the fact that it could have been better using a magazine. When the Villar Perosa was used, there was not "any other SMG". It had been the first, and the second was copied from it. So it's charateristics were even envied. "the ROF is not an issue, using MG42..." I have mentioned plenty of SMGs. The fact that you keep ignoring them, raises the doubt if you are doing it for your convenience or cause you are not so good at reading too. A ROF in excess of 1000 rpm is more common today than in WWII, when 500-600 rpm were the norm, and the 1200 rpm of the MG-42 (that continues to have been used extensively and effectively with 50 rounds belts) were exceptional. Anyway, even a single unwanted charateristic isn't enough to say that a weapon is ineffective, even a weapon with a defect could be very good. the M1 Garand had been a very good, even exceptional. weapon, despite the fact that none used an en-blok clip to feed a semiauto rifle after it, and despite the fact that it could have been better using a magazine. "in order to justify..." Unfortunately for you, I don't have to "justfy" anything. You claimed that High ROF means that a weapon is ineffective, and you brought nothing to justify that claim. Instead there are many examples of successful designs with high ROF. "If the weapon is "efficient"..." ...it had been made in substantial numbers, its use increased throughout the war, and it had been copied by it's enemies.
    1
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  4088.  @marvelfannumber1  Sorry, but numbers are relevant in history. And the temporal distance between the events is FUNDAMENTAL. It's not like history is independent from the time, and time is counted with numbers. As already said, I don't need a "counter point". That the Ottoman Empire would not have existed without the fourth crusade is not an "argument", is an unsupported statement, and the "numbers" you dislike so much are there to say that the correlation is not so sure as you like to believe. I have not to prove that you are wrong. You made a statement ("the fourth crusade caused the rise of the Ottoman Empire") your is the burden of the proof. You said "Venice really shot themselves in the foot with that whole 4th Crusade thing, a pretty shortsighted powergrab which both created and destroyed their naval empire." Reality is that Venice was still holding part of the gains of the 4Th Crusade when the Republic was ended not by the Ottomans, but by Napoleon. The naval empire too was not destroyed by the Ottomans. Venetian naval strenght continued after the one of the Ottomans reached its peak and declined. Infact, while they needed allies to win at Lepanto, the Venetians single handedly won almost all the naval engagements in the subsequent Cretan War. What ended the Venetian naval empire had not been the confront with the Ottomans, but the shift of the balance of trade towards the Atlantic, and so the marginalization of the eastern mediterranean. Venice didn't got weaker compared to the Ottomans (to whom they could still seize the Peloponnese at the end of 17th century), but compared to the other European powers.
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  4089.  @marvelfannumber1  Your statement: "Well using data would be relevant if we were either having a math-focused conversation, or if we were having an economic conversation, maybe even a political conversation. But in a historical conversation? Using numbers and dates as your primary argument is just not very valid of a counter point." Sorry, but numbers are relevant in history. And the temporal distance between the events is FUNDAMENTAL. It's not like history is independent from the time, and time is counted with numbers. What I said to you FURTHER is that the Ottoman Empire would not have existed without the fourth crusade is not an "argument", is an unsupported statement, and the "numbers" you dislike so much are there to say that the correlation is not so sure as you like to believe. I have not to prove that you are wrong. You made a statement ("the fourth crusade caused the rise of the Ottoman Empire") your is the burden of the proof, so YOU can't ignore numbers. That said, The Byzantine empire lost Anatolia, and big or small parts of it, several times before the 4th crusade. The Ottoman Empire raised because of the 4th Crusade, or because of the Empire being unable to ward it's borders? There wouldn't have been a series of wars with it's neighbours without the Crusade? The Empire would have had 100 Years to "repel the Turks" or to decay? Or to exhaust itself in border wars anyway? You took too many things for granted. You built an ucronia, and now like to believe it would have been real. But it doesn't work like that. Then, after having talked of straw men, you built one. My statement: "Reality is that Venice was still holding part of the gains of the 4Th Crusade when the Republic was ended not by the Ottomans, but by Napoleon". Are you able to read? "PART". Was Venice still holding part of the gains of the 4th crusade when the Republic was ended by Napoleon? YES. As said: The Ottomans started to be a issue for Venice 200 years after the sack of Constantinople (and initially they were a minor one, see the Battle of Gallipoli, that the Venetians won easily in 1416). Venice was still holding parts of the gains of the 4th Crusade still 500 years after the sack. To have eliminated one of the intermediaries (so to have better prices and higher profits), annexed a good part of its wealth, and being still profiting of the operation after HALF A MILLENNIUM seems like AN HELL of a business. What financial plan predicts positive outcomings for five centuries? That the Ottomans stripped Venice of much of the gains of the 4TH Crusade, STARTING ONLY 200 YEARS AFTER THE SACK and and had not stripped all of them STILL AFTER FURTHER THREE CENTURIES means that the investment had been INCREDIBLY PROFITABLE FOR AN INCREDIBLY LONG TIME. The Ottomans never "dominated" Venice, sorry. They very slowly eroded the gains of the 4th Crusade, but ANY YEAR ANY OF THOSE GAINS LASTED, IS A YEAR OF PROFIT. If the profits are diminishing, that doesn't mean that the ones already gained disappear. It's like saying that the entire Byzantine Empire had been worth nothing, because it ceased to exist. BTW, from "having an influence" to be "part of the territory" there is a BIG difference. I'm sorry for the "Ottoman historians". That Venice needed the help of the Holy League to win at Lepanto in 1571, but single handedly won almost all the naval engagement in the Cretan War (1645-1669), being able to several times blockade the Dardanelli for months is a fact. The naval strenght of the Ottomans declined first than the Venetian one. What ended the Venetian naval empire had not been the confront with the Ottomans, but the shift of the balance of trade towards the Atlantic, and so the marginalization of the eastern mediterranean. Venice didn't got weaker compared to the Ottomans (to whom they could still seize the Peloponnese at the end of 17th century), but compared to the other European powers. Don't worry. your refusal to use "numbers" in your supposed "historical analysis" gave me the impression that your knowledge is at "romance" level.
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  4099. It's an often repeated mith. The Littorios almost always fired few shots at extreme ranges. Had they hit something, it would have been by far the longest range hit in history. Only in two occasions they fired more shots. At Gaudo the Vittorio Veneto was steaming at 28 knots and trying to hit, from 23 to 26 kms distance, two light cruisers that were entering and exiting smokescreens and only manuvering to not be hit. At that time it had been already amply demonstrated that it was practically impossible to hit a ship that was only manuvering to not be hit, even at far closer distances and with far more rapidly firing guns (see, IE, the battle of the Espero convoy) if not firing thousands of shells. The second battle of the Sirte had been fought in a storm, and the Littorio had been the most accurate ship of both parties in that occasion. The pictures taken by the Brits at Gaudo show, for Vittorio Veneto's salvo, a consistent single turret spread of 1.7% of the distance. Any navy of the time would have considered 2% acceptable to good in action. US Navy obtained 1.1% single turret spread, but that was in tests, with the ship standing still and not steaming at 28 knots, after years of peacetime tuning, with delay coils already installed (Littorios had them installed in winter '42-'43) and with slower shells (for a simple geometrical reason, flatter trajectory shells, all things equal, will show wider horizontal spread. That has little IRL effect since ships are not just horizontal targets and the flatter trajectory reduces the vertical spread - that's why flatter trajectory is preferred in rifle shooting - and reduces the error in distance and bearing, by reducing the flight time). Richelieu shown a 2.1% single turret spread in tests (four guns in it's case) still in 1948, after delay coils had been installed, and that was considered acceptable.
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  4147. A 1st century 9000 men (to keep the numbers even with the English at Agincourt, even it it would have been a very little army for Roman standards) strong Roman army would have been equipped with 90 carroballiste, capable to throw a 132cm long projectile to 650m, so they would have had the range advantage even vs the English longbows. Almost every legionary would have been equipped with a 400m range (so on par with a longbow) capable sling. The 1st century lorica segmentata was a very good protection against projectiles (it had been said that it had been deeloped to cope with Parthian composite bows), much better than anything the average English longbowman had (they were not unarmored, but the quality of protectioon varied wildly). Romans used several times the anti cavalry "square" formation (it was round in their case) using the pila as spears. Horses doesn't crush into dense packs of spears bristling infantry. Long pikes obviously were an advantage but, in medieval history, several times infantry formations less disciplined than the Romans, and without Swiss pikes, resisted to cavalry charges (IE at Legnano). Medieval knights had the advantage that usually they fought vs. very undisciplined militias, whose formations were very easy to disrupt. Mind too that most depended on the time too. Had the Romans some hour to build even very simple fortifications, even only the stimuli and campus liliorum (field traps for cavalry), the cavalry charge would have been complitely neutralized.
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  4329. Studies performed after WWI concluded that the infantry bolt action rifle had been the least useful among all the weapon issued to infantrymen. Pistols, hand grenades, even knives and showels had been more effective. The recomendation for the Italian Army was to switch to "automatic muskeets" for all the infantrymen bar designated marksmen. So the Terni arsenal developed the Terni M1921 along with an intermefiate power round for it https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/raigap/40496274/928974/928974_original.jpg The rise od fascism, economic considerations, and the conservatism of the Army prevented its adoption, but the Army still wanted a semiauto rifle in a full blown cartridge, since that was anyway a big improvement over the bolt action rifle (enemies rarely show up one at a time at 1.5 sec. distance, to give you the time to operate the bolt and realign). The bolt and trigger assemblies of the Scotti rifle are actually simpler than those of a Carcano rifle (that's a very simple bolt action). Yeah, there is the gas piston, but the increase of complexity is negligible. Already in 1915, Maj. luigi gucci noted that, in adopting a semiauto rifle for the army, the price of the rifle was, in the end, marginal if compared to the price of the ammos for it (then, the price of a brand new semiauto rifle, not a conversion was estimated in 60L, that of a single Carcano cartridge was 0.1L, so a semiauto rifle costed like 600 cartridges). Belt fed LMGs in the '30s were not a thing (the first one was adopted in 1938). Even the MG34 and MG42, when used in the LMG role, had many limitations (IE to change a 50 rounds belt requires more time than to change a pair of box magazines, so limiting the practical ROF). It required several decades after WWII for the concept of "general purpose machine gun" to impose itself, and it's not a definitive victory (see the Marines replacing the M249 with the M27).
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  4331. IE Col. Edoardo Versè "Impiego tattico delle unità di fanteria dotate del nuovo armamento". Already in the “T batallion” model of 1918 the infantry rifle was relegated to a secondary role, while the MGs and SMGs had the main one (the end of the war stopped the implementation). Simply the infantry rifle was not used by shock troops, IE the Arditi, during the attacks, used SMGs, hand grenades, knives, pistols, but not rifles. While in defense it had a marginal effectiveness in respect to machineguns. “Semantic” is to point to an HMG and say “that’s an LMG”. It’s not, it remains an HMG. “Semantic” is to say that the “MG34 was a 100% mature design in 1934” (probably because it has a “34” in the name). It was not until 1938. The Madsen LMG weighted 9.07 kg, the Chauchat weighted 9.07 kg. The SIA 1918, adopted the same year of the MG08/18, weighted 10.7kg, and had a quick exchange barrel already. Those were not “unreasonably modern standards”. Garand started to develop his rifle pretty late, took a wrong turn, had to change caliber, took another (minor) wrong turn and so had a pretty long development. But already the Carcano semiauto conversion of 1912 was deemed to be serviceable. Other projects had been hampered not by the technology, but by unreasonable requests of the military (muzzle blast actuated instead of gas actuated, possibility to be used as bolt actions…). I never bashed machineguns. You are again talking like the Garand was the only semiauto rifle ever made, and yes, “logistic considerations” includes the fact that, after WWI, there were shitloads of bolt actions available. To say that the Scotti is not an example of something the way it was, but it would have been having the gas piston in another position is utter nonsense. Scotti produced a perfectly serviceable LMG in 6.5 Carcano, using the same gas system (it was used as tank gun until it was replaced by the Breda 38 in 8mm Breda) The short stroke gas piston was perfectly feasible even with WWI metallurgy, it was only a question of thinking of it.
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  4343. Both the MG34 and MG42 are mainly delayed blowback actions, with a secondary help by the short recoiling barrel, and the Vickers unlocks the barrel from the bolt way before the barrels stops, allowing the bolt and the barrel to start to separate slowly. None of them is a pure short recoil design. Like that of an handgun, or that of the Breda M30. They have a short recoiling barrel, a bolt, AND some other system (two piece bolt with the parts recoiling at different speed, toggle, ecc...) That's revealing in itself. A pure short recoil action is simpler than the systems used in MG34, MG42, Vickers and so on. Why had they to complicate the designs, if a pure short recoil action can work flawlessly? Cause it doesn't work so flawlessly, so you have to invent something to make it work. Obviously gas operated MGs can have extraction issues, and lever delayed blowback can have them, and simple blowbacks can have too. The fact that pure short recoil actions and long bottleneck cartridges doesn't match well doesn't mean that only short recoil actions can have extraction issues. But in those cases is really question of bad tuning. The HS 404 is a "gas unlocked recoil operated" design. The gas doesn't cycle the action, but simply unlocks the bolt, and then the residual pressure of the gasses in the barrel cycle the action. It's not impossible to make a similar design work without oiling the cartridges (The Scotti action worked the same way, only with the bolt rotating instead of tilting, and only the Mod. X rifle required oiling, while all the MGs didn't), but to find the perfect timing to open the action (when there is enough pressure in the barrel to cycle the action and not enough to damage the cases) is more difficult than in a straight gas-operated weapon.
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  4381.  @flightlesschicken7769  Another childish attempt to difert form the subject. Again, I said: ".30 carbine can be fired in a pure blowback gun of acceptable weight." If you assumed it was a full auto gun it was your fault not mine. Again there are other systems than the weight of the bolt to slow down the fire rate of a gun if needed. You didn't provide any source. Also you shown that "you clearly don't understand physics" since, contrary to what you considered a physical necessity, the Winchester 1907 rifle (amply used in WWI) that was, hear hear, a pure blowback rifle and used the .351 Winchester Self Loading cartridge that is, hear hear, a SUBSTANTIALLY MORE POWERFUL ROUND than the .30 carbine (1900joule vs. 1300joule of energy at the muzzle) was slightly lighter than a M3 Grease Gun (despite being a fully stocked rifle) and substantially lighter (900g less) than the Thompson M1A1, two SMGs in .45 ACP. Besides, the Winchester 1907 rifle had been modified by the French to fire in full auto in WWI. It fired at perfectly reasonable 600-700 RPM. Had you known more of the subject before typing you would have known that many versions of the Thompson had been made, from 600 to 1500 RPM. the M1A1 fired at perfectly reasonable 600-700 RPM (what an "absurdly large firerate"!). I can explain you how it's possible for the automatised Winchester 1907 and the Tommy gun to have the same fire rate despite the comparatively lighter bolt of the Winchester 1907 ("comparatively" means that it was lighter in respect to the power of the cartridge) if you want to understand a little physics for a change.
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  4383.  @flightlesschicken7769  Your is a faith not a source.Your faith had been already disproved by the fact that the Winchester 1907 rifle (amply used in WWI) that was, hear hear, a pure blowback rifle and used the .351 Winchester Self Loading cartridge that is, hear hear, a SUBSTANTIALLY MORE POWERFUL ROUND than the .30 carbine (1900joule vs. 1300joule of energy at the muzzle) was slightly lighter than a M3 Grease Gun (despite being a fully stocked rifle) and substantially lighter (900g less) than the Thompson M1A1, two SMGs in .45 ACP. Have you other means to prove your faith is right? The Winchester 1907 had been a Police departments' favourite well into the '30s, many samples are still around and in working order despite being over 100 years old. Your theoretical considerations, based on a very superficial knowledge of physics, that mistake guessing for necessities, do not match reality. Because you see plenty of new designs in .30 Carbine too, doesn't you? To know why blowback is less suited to fire .223 Rem or 7.62X39 in comparison with the .30 Carbine and .351 Winchester, you should learn something about the magical world of chamber pressure. I can teach you if you want to understand a little real physics for a change. Besides, many good, very good and even exceptional actions are no more used for a reason or another (I can provide examples if you are interested in learning something). To be a good design it only needs to safely going bang and reliably cycling, and it did both. Many samples are still existing and working. To decide if a firearm can safely operate with normal loads, it doesn't fire thousands, and not even hundreds, of proofloads. You understood that this video was about a 4 pounds carbine in 9mm didn't you? Tons of perfectly safe and lighter 9mm carbines had been made. How can you pretend to be taken seriously if you try to extend the problems of a faulty design to another one that you don't know?
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  4385.  @flightlesschicken7769  Aaaand you are still here. Not that there had never been any doubt. It was not really that difficult to guess that all that you wanted to have is the last word. You are (conveniently) mistaking PSI with CUP and mixing them. Saami max pressures for .30 Carbine and .351 SL are 40.000 cup and 45.000 cup respectively so, surprise surprise, .351 SL, other than being a SUBSTANTIALLY MORE POWERFUL ROUND worked at a HIGHER PRESSURE. I'm glad you finally decided to learn something. Let me introduce you to the magical world of chamber pressures and how it relates to blowbacks. In a blowback system, the base of the cartridge starts moving backward the same moment the bullet starts moving forward. Is largely that initial movement that allows the entire action to work. But, since the walls of the cartridge are stuck to the chamber by the same pressure, the integrity of the cartridge, until the pressure into the barrel drops to safe level and the cartridge can be entirely extracted, depends, other than the weight of the bolt: 1) on the capacity of the brass at the base of the cartridge to stretch without rupturing until the pressure drops to safe level, 2) on the pressure that, if low enough, can allow some backward movement of the brass (the lower, the better), 3) on the same pressure that tend to cause the rupture the cartridge (the lower,the better). So, the higher the pressure, the more difficult is to use a blowback action, because an higher pressure narrows the margin in which the base of the cartridge initially moves enough to cycle the action, but not enough to have a case rupture. That happens largely INDIPENDENTLY FROM THE POWER OF THE CARTRIDGE. Low pressure rouds can have high power, but generally pay for this by being bigger. Modern propellants and metallurgy allowed to have very high pressure cartridges in respect to those of the late 19th early 20th century. .223 rem and other modern cartridges are generally high pressure cartridges, even the ones that produces moderate energy, and that leaves a more little margin for safely operate a blowback action. That's not the case of the .30 carbine, that worked at lower presures than the .351SL that was safely used in a blowback rifle that weighted less than a .45 ACP SMG. Please. Really you want to be taken seriously with arguments like "N***s would have done it"? With a completely different, bottleneck, cartridge? That's not even close to be a demonstration of anything. N***s didn't make a simple blowback handgun for the 9X18mm Ultra. It had been done after the war. They didn't make a simple blowback handgun for the 9X19, but used, ordered and paid the Astra 600. The Winchester 1907 had been a Police departments' favourite well into the '30s, many samples are still around and in working order despite being over 100 years old. We were talking about .30 Carbine not other cartridges used in WWII in other rifles. How many powers used a similar cartridge DIRECTLY DERIVED FROM A CARTRIDGE SPECIFICALLY CREATED FOR A BLOWBACK ACTION during WWII? My source is backed by reality, your faith is disproved by that. The Winchester 1907 rifle (amply used in WWI) that was, hear hear, a pure blowback rifle and used the .351 Winchester Self Loading cartridge that is, hear hear, a SUBSTANTIALLY MORE POWERFUL ROUND than the .30 carbine (1900joule vs. 1300joule of energy at the muzzle) and that OPERATED AT A HIGHER PRESSURE (45.000 cup vs. 40.000cup) was slightly lighter than a M3 Grease Gun (despite being a fully stocked rifle) and substantially lighter (900g less) than the Thompson M1A1, two SMGs in .45 ACP. Have you other means to prove your faith is right? I appreciate Ian, but don't believe something just because Ian says it. He's mostly right, but i've noticed many mistakes over the years, and others did as well.
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  4386.  @flightlesschicken7769  Again, I didn't search for you, did I? For me this discussion could have very well not even started. The .30 carbine had been developed starting form the .32 Winchester Self Loading cartridge used in the Winchester 1905 rifle that was, hear hear, a pure blowback rifle. The subsequent Winchester 1907 rifle (amply used in WWI) that was, hear hear, a pure blowback rifle, used the .351 Winchester Self Loading cartridge that is, hear hear, a SUBSTANTIALLY MORE POWERFUL ROUND than the .30 carbine (1900joule vs. 1300joule of energy at the muzzle) and that OPERATED AT A HIGHER PRESSURE (45.000 cup vs. 40.000cup). The Winchester 1907 rifle was slightly lighter than a M3 Grease Gun (despite being a fully stocked rifle) and substantially lighter (900g less) than the Thompson M1A1, two SMGs in .45 ACP that had been used in WWII (and the M3 for decades later). So what exactly prevents the .30 Carbine from being fired in a blowback firearm of reasonable weight? Are you sure you are looking at the right rifle? The 1907 had a merely 2" longer barrel than a M1 Carbine (actually longer barrels are worse for blowbacks, because it takes the bullet more time to exit from them) and THE ACTION IS REALLY SHORT. The magazine is right in front of the trigger and the action doesn't extend behind the trigger. Do you think the buttstock is part of the action? No, they are not nearly equal. 53.000 psi (max C.I.P pressure for .351 SL) is not "nearly equal" to 62.000 psi (max C.I.P. pressure for .223 Rem). Even not counting that blowback actions don't cope well with bottleneck cartridges and, again "the N***s didn't do that" IS NOT AN ARGUMENT. N***s didn't do a lot of things. The argument is: The .30 carbine had been developed starting form the .32 Winchester Self Loading cartridge used in the Winchester 1905 rifle that was, hear hear, a pure blowback rifle. The subsequent Winchester 1907 rifle (amply used in WWI) that was, hear hear, a pure blowback rifle, used the .351 Winchester Self Loading cartridge that is, hear hear, a SUBSTANTIALLY MORE POWERFUL ROUND than the .30 carbine (1900joule vs. 1300joule of energy at the muzzle) and that OPERATED AT A HIGHER PRESSURE (45.000 cup vs. 40.000cup). The Winchester 1907 rifle was slightly lighter than a M3 Grease Gun (despite being a fully stocked rifle) and substantially lighter (900g less) than the Thompson M1A1, two SMGs in .45 ACP that had been used in WWII (and the M3 for decades later).SO WHAT EXACTLY PREVENTS THE .30 CARBINE FROM BEING FIRED IN A BLOWBACK FIREARM OF REASONABLE WEIGHT? Please, you didn't state facts, but guessings at best. You asked why blowback is not used on modern cartridges of moderate power, and I answered you. If you don't understand pretty simple explanations is not my fault. Modern cartridges are mainly high pressure cartridges. In a blowback firearm, energy mainly affects the required minimum weight of the bolt. Pressure narrows the window of usability of blowback actions (the higer the pressure, the narrower the window from when the bolt is too heavy to reliably cycle the action to when it's too light to safely do it) until other factors (material of the cartridge, presence of dirt, moisture, lube, ecc...) become too relevant. Even not counting that blowback actions don't cope well with bottleneck cartridges (I can explain you why if you want). 7.62x39 is not only a bottleneck but a heavily tapered cartridge. I can explain you why that doesn't cope well with blowback actions if you want.
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  4416. The front sight on the barrel shroud, or the rattling barrel, are those problems that exist only in tabletop reviews, when the reviewer knows that the weapon is "bad" and has to find some reason for it to be bad. None noticed them being problems in 60 years of use of the MG42/MG3. ALL Modern general-purpose machineguns have a single optic, mounted on the receiver, how do they cope with barrel change? https://blog.1800gunsandammo.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/fn-762-minimi-4.jpg The oiler was a minus. but it wasn't strictly needed, and many gunnenrs didnt' use it. Simply, already during WWI, it was noticed that, whit automatic weapons, it was all peaches and dandelions until you could use brass cased ammos but when, due to war shortages, you had to use steel cased ammos, extraction was a lot less granted. However, despite the oiler, allied reports praised the behaviour of the weapon, compared to the BREN, in dusty conditions. The heavy bolt, so with a greater inertia, star-shaped to give the dirt somewere to go instead of locking the mechanism, were plusses. To use more than 20-25 rounds for magazine in WWII meant to be in search of problems, and it was a REAL problem to manufacture magazines that were, at one time, so cheap to be discarded on the field and so consistently manufactured to not have feeding issues (it was a problem still for the US in the '50s, that's why the M14 has the stripper-clip rail, and that was the US Army). Even the Brits tried a fixed tilting magazine for the BREN (it had not been adopted in the end, but it was much more awkward than the Breda one). The reduced volume of fire was not really a problem. A BREN gun was supposed to fire a magazine a minute in normal battle conditions. At the start of the war it was allowed an "emergency" rof of seven magazines/minute. during the war, due to battel experiences, that was reduced to four magazines/minute, and advertising the gunners that, in those conditions, the barrel had to be changed after ten magazines, and the entire provision of the squad was of just 20 magazines.
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  4491. A Mary Sue is a central character that isn't challenged by the plot. It doesn't count how powerful he is, or if he is the centre of the universe. A charcter can legitimately be the centre of the universe (IE think of Harui Suzumiya) without being a Mary Sue. That's why Goku (and I'm not really a Dragon Ball fan) isn't a Mary Sue (Dragon Ball's problem is, if anything, repetitiveness). In his case, the plot is specifically made to challenge him. It doesn't count how powerful he is. There are always characters that are as, or more, powerful. It doesn't count if he gets power-ups. Power ups are legit in his universe (that's specifically stated) and many characters get them. It doesnt' count if he generally wins. Not only that's true for many heroes (plot armour doesn't make Mary Sues), but, contrary to many of them, we know that he can loose (it happened several times) or even die (it happened several times). And that's why Rey IS a Mary Sue. SHE'S NOT CHALLENGED BY THE PLOT. It doesn't count if she's a girl. She gets out of troubles simply by showing to possess abilities that she shouldn't logically have without any explanation (is like Goku suddenly becoming smarter than Bulma in building mechanisms). Or getting gratuitous power-ups that simply decided to happen at the right time without the need for any training. She doesn't need to train, she doesnt need to do anything. The universe seems to conspire to make her look awesome without any real effort. First than Rey, the most famous example of sueish canon character was Stat Trek TNG's Wesley Crusher (so much that, for a long time, to indicate a male Mary Sue the expression "the Wesley" had been favoured over "Gary Stu" ), so much for the sexism of the trope.
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  4503. 7:34. Because Jesus' birth stories are very different in Mattew and Luke and, not wanting to give priority to a version instead of the other, Mark's author decided to write only events that were reported identical in the other two. 7:50 Because the apparitions of resurrected Jesus are very different in Mattew and Luke and, not wanting to give priority to a version instead of the other, Mark's author decided to write only events that were reported identical in the other two. If an author that had access to Mattew and Luke wanted to compile a "manual" of actions SURELY made by Jesus, he would have made Mark. So it can be Mattew (traces of "aramaicisms" in the writing. Likely written by a Medioriental Jew that used Greek as a second language); then Luke (poetic expansion of Mattew written in a very good literary Greek, probably by someone that used Greek as first language) that heavily used Mattew, but had access to other sources as well, and sometimes decided to give priority to them (that's what he said in the first passage after all); then Mark (latinized Greek, likely written in Rome) that decided to write a syntetic collection of "real" stories on the life of Christ having access to the first two. As for the "fatigue" I can only talk of the only example given. Luke didn't place that event IN Bethsaida. He only said Jesus was directed towards the city of Bethsaida. He kept on expanding just after having talked of the deserted place (he's the only one reporting of the people being divided in groups of 50), so it doesn't seem he was fatigued at all.
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  4508.  @schutzanzug4518  Your argument doesn't make any sense, and reveals a fundamental ignorance of war customs. The "person who came out" revealed his alignment the moment he started shooting. To not be recognisable as a combatant before starting to shoot IS A WAR CRIME. so, by your own reasoning, the Russians committed YET ANOTER WAR CRIME. "probably" is just your guessing. As already said, if there had been, there, on the ground, with the machine gun, keeping the "surrendered" at gunpoint, a NATO soldier, professional and perfectly educated on international war conventions, at the very moment when the Russian had come out firing, I expect he would have pulled the trigger, only to release it in one of the following two cases: 1) when he was sure that none of the enemies could move anymore. 2) because the belt had ended. If the machine gunner managed to kill all of them before any of them had the time to move, well done, he had been efficient. "execute" is just your guessing. As already said, if one, like the Russian soldier in the video, comes out shooting, then the whole enemy unit is supposed to have feigned surrender and set up an ambush. You are in battle, and It's not like in battle you're looking for which enemy is shooting at you and which one hasn't started yet. At that point you have to look solely at the safety of YOUR unit. Especially since the "surrendered" had not yet been searched. If you fear hell, then then why you are trying to water down not one but two war crimes, while at the same time inventing others?
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  4524. the MG42 is a recoil operated weapon, but is not a purely recoil operated weapon, like a semiauto pistol, where there is a single piece bolt that recoils at the same speed of the barrel until the barrel stops and the bolt continues snatching the case out of the chamber. The wedge that pushes out the roller is both part of the striker and of the bolt carrier, as the bolt carrier is in direct contact with it during recoil and, when the wedge shaped part recoils in respect to the bolt head , pushed by the rollers it pushes back the bolt carrier too. The iternal spring around the striker (bolt catch) wasn't generally present in wartime MG42s, it had been introduced very late in the war only to adress cases of out of battery shots caused by the rebound of the bolt carrier. It only serves to provide to the bolt carrier a "soft landing" when the action closes. There are several models of it, some of them doesn't load the locking wedge at all (so working purely by inertia). As for the Breda 30, I would not have adopted it. It was not that poor of a design, but it was not easily improvable, and there were better designs to start from, transfering in them the good features of the M30 (essentially, the quick exchange barrel). IE the Brixia 1920 (a rather unfortunate HMG, but a good base for a LMG), or the SIA 1918 (a scaled up Villar Perosa, but a good base for a lever delayed LMG, it already had a two piece bolt with the rear one recoiling faster due to inclined surfaces, but the rear bolt-striker was really too light compared to the front part). Waiting a couple of years, they could have adopted a gas operated LMG based on the Breda PG instead.
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  4572.  @BobSmith-dk8nw  I saw that clip. But I read wartime reports as well. The Allied ones. So the ones that could compare the Breda 30 to the Allied weapons their soldiers were used to. The Brits reused the captured Breda 30, wrote manuals for the Allied gunners issued with them, and wrote intelligence reports. The magazine had never been mentioned as a problem, and not even as a curiosity. At all. The reason is the one i mentioned. The magazine didn't limit the practical ROF in respect to other LMGs (real LMGs, better to not even talk of the BAR, forced into a LMG role without even having a detachable barrel. Mind what Ian mentioned. After the first battles the provision of spare barrels of the Breda 30 was enhanced from 2 to 4. That meant that the Breda faced the real problem to fire more than 600 rounds continuously in battle). You could fire 6 Breda 30 magazines (so 120 rounds) in a minute reloading the magazine while it was attached to the weapon (the practical ROF was actually indicated in 150 RPM). And that practical ROF was needed only in dire emergency. Because the squad had not enough ammunitions to sustain it for long anyway. Battles don't last five minutes. BTW, the M1919 had the same problem of the BAR. If you didn't want to overheat it, your ROF was limited to 60 rounds a minute. The faster you decided to shoot, the sooner you'll have to stop to cool-off the weapon. simply, if the US had a problem with their weapons, they could throw more weapons to the problem.
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  4573.  @BobSmith-dk8nw  They had two, one to use, and a spare in case the first one was damaged. The magazine was normally loaded with the stripper clips while attached to the weapon. Fact is that to load them that way "wasn't a problem" at all. The magazine didn't limit the practical ROF in respect to other LMGs. The BAR had been originally designed for walking fire. That kind of fire proved to be impractical already in WWI. In WWII a LMG was needed, but the BAR was what was in the US Army inventory, so they used it. FN modified it into a viable LMG, but the US Army preferred to keep it as it was for the sake of interchangeability of parts. The weapon was unfit for the task, and there were reports about BAR gunners often taken out of action, waiting for their weapon to cool off but, as said the US could simply throw more BAR to the problem. It's obvious that having 50% more weapons solves a lot of problems, but having 50% more good weapons would have solved more. The M1917 was an HMG (47 kg with the tripod). It was not portable. It was heavier than a Breda 37 with tripod. Also, as noticed during WWI, water jackets were prone to be pierced by bullets and splinters or damaged otherwise (especially using short recoil actions, that requires the barrel to move). That's one of the reasons none designed new water cooled MGs after WWI, but they had been replaced by quick exchange barrels. obviously, if all you have is a water-cooled MG, you use what you have. As said, If you didn't want to overheat the M1919, your ROF was limited to 60 rounds a minute. 450-500 rpm was the cyclic ROF, and yes it was regulated to be like that, like for any rifle caliber MG in WWII. There is no problem to obtain a cyclic ROF of around 1000 RPM in a rifle caliber MG. It's more difficult to limit it and, to obtain that, several "tricks" were used (heavier bolts, longer travel of the bolt, machanical rate reducers...). The long travel of the striker of the Breda 30 is meant to reduce the ROF to what was deemed as optimal too. The M1919 couldn't be intentionally overheated because it fired from a closed bolt, so the moment it overheated, it cooked off an entire belt if the gunner didnt' intentionally jam it (notice that the Brits modified their M1919s, used in flexible mountings on aircrafts, to fire from an open bolt, the US Army never did it). Equipment in general is not intended to be damaged. To intentionally damage it was a way to work around the problem, while a quick exchange barrel would have solved it. As said, if the US had a problem with their weapons, they could throw more weapons to the problem. Others were not so lucky and so, to use subpar equipment, was more damaging for them. To change the barrels of BARs and M1919 was an armorer's job. It wasn't done on the field. It would have required to completely disassemble the weapon while scorching hot.
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  4574.  @BobSmith-dk8nw  Making appreciations on your interlocutor isn't doing you any favour. Fact is that armours for the water jackets had been made, armours for barrels haven't. Heavy water jackets had been replaced with heavy metal barrels in MMGs after WWI. A water jacket is a way bigger target than a barrel, it's way easier to damage, and, if you have a quick exchange barrel damaged, you can simply replace it. It's quite obvious that any piece of equipment can be moved. But MMGs are not made for that, and so to try to use them like that had limits. Both LMGs and MMGs had a role in WWII. Soviets had the DP-28 and the Goryunov. Italians had the Breda 30 and Breda 37. Japanese had the Type 99 and Type 92. It's not that the US were special in this regard. Weapons are designed for a role, and the role the BAR had been designed for was marching fire from the hip. It shown its limits in every other use (it's not that it doesn't work. It's that it could have been made better for any other role). Unfortunately marching fire from hte hip had shown to be impractical already in WWI. The way the Marines used the weapon was the way they worked around the problem, thanks to the fact they could have more of the weapons. But more of good weapons would have worked better anyway. Simply M1919 barrels were not changed on the field during battles. It was an armorer's job. Squads had not spare barrels, and they were not supposed to dismantle a scorching hot weapon under fire with small parts lying on the ground. If you have to dismantle a weapon under fire, something went wrong. Overheated closed bolt MGs cook off belts because of their very same mechanics.The fact that other kind of failures can cause the same problem doesn't change this fact. If you burnt out you barrel, something went wrong either. Equipment in general is not intended to be damaged. To intentionally damage it was a way to work around the problem, while a quick exchange barrel would have solved it. See "working around the problem". Yes, people in the army tend to know how to use the tools they were given. Being them LMGs without quick exchange barrels, or LMGs with clip-fed magazines. See "logistics". FN modified The BAR it into a viable LMG in 1932, but the US Army preferred to keep it as it was for the sake of interchangeability of parts. The limitations of the BAR became evident only once they had been used in combat, and, at that point, it was too late. You can change the engine in an already designed airframe (the P-51 had been designed for the V-1710), not the action of an already designed MG.
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  4661. It doesn't work like that, sorry. "To ensure the safety of end-users, this Regulation should provide for a limited derogation for portable batteries from the removability and replaceability requirements set for portable batteries concerning appliances that incorporate portable batteries and that are specifically designed to be used, for the majority of the active service of the appliance, in an environment that is regularly subject to splashing water, water streams or water immersion and that are intended to be washable or rinseable." So not the smartphones, since they are not "specifically designed to be used, for the majority of the active service of the appliance, in an environment that is regularly subject to splashing water, water streams or water immersion". Also: "This derogation should only apply when it is not possible, by way of redesign of the appliance, to ensure the safety of the end-user and the safe continued use of the appliance after the end-user has correctly followed the instructions to remove and replace the battery". Gopro cameras have removable batteries and higher waterproof standards than any cellphone, so good luck in demonstrating such an impossibility. And: "Where the derogation applies, the product should be designed in such a way as to make the battery removable and replaceable only by independent professionals, and not by end-users." So "independent professionals" (and not only the firm's technicians) should be able to replace the battery ANYWAY. NO sealed batteries and NO "blackbox" devices than only the manufacturer can open.
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  4840. I intervened on the "armour single matter". Only the Italian warships laid down for a very limited time in the '20s had comparatively light armours (even if not that light as often believed. The armor of the Trento class was not that different from that of the Admiral Hipper class, and way heavier than that of the French Suffren class for example). The ships laid down in the '30s usually had heavy, and sometimes super-heavy armors. From the relatively unarmored Colleoni and the super armored Duca Degli abruzzi, only 5 years passed. BTW that of the barrel wear was a non-issue. all the major Italian WWII naval guns, from 120 to 381mm had a quick-exchange internal barrel, that could be replaced without dismantling the gun from the cradle (and so the armor of the turret. All the main guns of any ship could be renewed in a pair of days of work in port (the time required to supply the ship after an action anyway) instead of the several weeks rquired to replace the main guns of another battleship design. Admiral cattaneo HAD been a fool. The instructions for navigating by night in hostile waters strictly prescribed to put the capital ships BEHIND the screen of the destroyers. Had the Italians navigated that way, with the approaching of the destroyers the British would have had to choose, or firing on them (and so only sinking the Pola, already doomed, and maybe a pair of destroyers, but loosing the other cruisers) or waiting for the cruisers (and so risking to be spotted by the destroyers at torpedoing distance and with the battleships standing still, practically a suicide).
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  4841. That of the "uneven weight of propellant charges" is only a tale. the 381/50 never really shown excessive dispersion issues. The only source stating the excessive dispersion of the 381/50, and imputing the cause to the excessive tolerance of the projectiles was Adm. Iachino that, for many years after the war, wrote a series of books on the behaviour of the Italian Navy and his own during WWII ("Gaudo e Matapan. Storia di un'operazione della Guerra navale nel Mediterraneo (27-28-29 marzo 1941)", A. Mondadori, 1946. "Le due Sirti. Guerra ai convogli in Mediterraneo", A. Mondadori, 1953. "La sorpresa di Matapan", A. Mondadori, 1957. "Tramonto di una grande Marina", A. Mondadori, 1959. "Il punto su Matapan", A. Mondadori, 1969). Unfortunately Iachino was a partial source, since he had an obvious interest in blaming the materials. His point of wiew was quite isolated right after the war, with the other witnesses and tecnicians (IE Adm. Emilio Brenta, Chief of the Operations of the Italian Navy in WWII and Capt. Glicerio Azzoni, ballistic expert and chief designer of the refurbishment of the Garibaldi after the war [Azzoni Glicerio, “Distanza efficace di tiro nei combattimenti diurni”, Rivista Marittima, Maj. 1949]), negating the existence of the problem. Unfortunately, contrary to Iachino, those other voices had no interest in debating for long on a topic that, at that time, seemed to be completely secondary, so Iachino remained the most respected source and, in 1971, Adm. Giuseppe Fioravanzo, in his "L'organizzazione della Marina durante il conflitto" written for the Historical Office of the Italian Navy copied entire passages of Iachino's "Tramonto di una grande Marina", so making his thesis "official", and such remained for more than twenty years. Only in the second half of the '90s, with a renewed interest in the topic, someone bothered to search original datas and documents, "discovering", for example, that the 381/50 fared well in tests, or that the Littorio fired tight and accurate salvos in the first battle of the Sirte, firing from 29.000 to 32.500m, what's the explanation? Obviously the shells used in tests had to be of better quality, and the Littorio ones casually were of a particularly good batch. An explanation given to save the, at that point well known, "truth". It doesn't explain however that, in the first battle of the Sirte (17 dec. 1941), the Littorio opened fire at 29.000m cause, In the Battle of Cape Spartivento (27 nov. 1940) Adm. Campioni already did the same thing with the Vittorio Veneto, not respecting the maunal on the use of the Italian artilleries (that stated that the fire had to be opened at max. 22.000m with decent visibility and at max. 26.000m with good one), and then reporting that the action "confirmed the observation, already done in tests, that, with the Littorio class battleships it's possible to effectively open fire at 29km if the visibility allows it". So the same Vittorio Veneto fired in action like on the tests. It seemed that the 381/50 fared pretty well in every occasion with the only exception of Gaudo, and that single poor performance discredited the gun forever. But the Vittorio Veneto guns really had a poor performance at Gaudo? Iachino said that, but the 1st Fire Director of the Vittorio Veneto, Capt. Luciano Sotgiu did not see anything out of the ordinary in his guns' salvos, and the pictures taken by the British confirmed it. The Vittorio Veneto did not hit anything at Gaudo because, firing from 23.000 to 26.000m on a pair of light cruisers entering and leaving the smokescreens, it could have hit them only for a lucky chance. It had been already amply demonstrated that, even at far closer distances and with much more rapidly firing guns, it was practically impossible to hit a ship that was only manuvering to not being hit, if not firing some thousands of shells. Ultimately the new findings became "official" (Colliva Giuliano, “Questioni di tiro… e altre, le artiglierie navali italiane nella guerra del Mediterraneo”, Bollettino d’Archivio dell’Ufficio Storico della Marina Militare, sept. 2003, dec. 2003, mar. 2004) replacing Iachino's ones. No 381/50 barrel came close to wear enough to be changed. Several 203/50 had been changed. You stated that the RM ships had low armour. That's simply untrue. Only the Italian warships laid down for a very limited time in the '20s had comparatively light armours (even if not that light as often believed. The armor of the Trento class was not that different from that of the Admiral Hipper class, and way heavier than that of the French Suffren class for example). The ships laid down in the '30s usually had heavy, and sometimes super-heavy armors. Oh, and those are the "convenient distances for the action" reported in the "direttive e norme per l'impiego della squadra navale": 381/50: 19-21 km 320/44: 19-21 km 203/50-53: 17-20 km 152/55-53: 15-17 km 135/45: 11-13 km 120/50: 11-13 km So no super long ranges, sorry. Those were only possibilities, but not recommended. The habit to fire at long ranges developed during the war for a simple reason. ITALIAN WARSHIPS WERE NOT EASILY REPLEACEABLE. Italian shipbuilding was busy building hundreds of transports, and couldn't replace the loss of cruisers and battleships. During the war only a bunch of destroyers and submarines had been built in Italian shipyards (the Roma had been laid down well before the war).
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  4873. As for ancient tradition, in Rome the "pater familias" had any right on his family, even to kill his wife and children on the spot. This ancient tradition, however became less and less accepted as time progressed and, in late republican time, even the killing of a slave was no more considered acceptable. This is reflected in the TWO kind of Roman marriages. In the marriage "cum mano" ("with hand"), the most common in ancient time, the father of the bride placed her hand in that of the husband. In that way he transferred to the husband every right he had over her. From this kind of marriage, divorce was impossible. In the marriage "sine mano" (without hand), that became prevalent in 1st century BC, and practically had completely replaced the other by 1st century AD, there wasn't that part, and so the bride remained nominally under the authority of her father. That meant that her husband had no right to abuse of her in any way and for any reason, even infidelity, and she could leave her husband's house AT ANY MOMENT. That also mean that, the moment her father died, a Roman woman was completely free. She could inherit, carry on her businesses, etc. without being under the authority of anyone. Since high class Romans usually married very young women, that meant also that Rome was full of rich and relatively young widows with a lot of economic power. Being cum manu or sine manu, Romans had one wife at a time, even if it was common, for high-class Romans, to have lovers, even official ones. IE Servilia, mother of Brutus (Caesar's assassin), and widow of another Marcus Brutus, was the most known of Caesar's lovers. Gladiators were celebrities. They had a lot of sex.
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  4902.  @michaels5210  When used as LMGs, the MG42 and MG34 used a 50 rounds belt can (that the MG eats in 2.5 seconds). Had you ever seen a MG42 gunner trying to change it? It's MUCH quicker to change two or three magazines, even reload the Breda 30 two or three times. It's not by chance that the concept of GPMG took decades to impose itself (It practically needed them to be almost always carried by trucks) and it's not a definitive victory. The General Dynamics NGSW doesn't have a belt-fed option. And you can see how to change some magazine is infact faster than changing the short belts of the other bids. The rate of fire of the Breda is NEVER mentioned as a problem of the weapon in Allied reports. Instead Allied reports indicates that the Breda was more apt than the BREN exactly to be used by a single man, infact a single gunner, with the BREDA, can both reload and change barrel without changing his position, or the position of the weapon. They indicate as issues instead the lack of a carrying handle and that of a dedicated fixed tripod (BUT NOT THE RELOAD OR THE RATE OF FIRE). See how the people that REALLY used the weapons back then gave importance to COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS than what modern harmchair "experts" tend to do? IE, Ian just reviewed the DP-27. It has a quick exchange barrel, right? Not really. Hypotetically, by moving the weapon out of line and grabbing the scorching hot muzzle, you could change the barrel, but in reality, no spare barrels were provided to the gunner. The pan magazine was a good solution, right? Not really. You can't really change magazine without looking at what you are doing, so exposing your head over the weapon. A thing that can easily have lethal consequences. The M1 Garand with its pencil, not quick change, barrel could provide a laughable volume of fire in respect to the Breda 30, or any other real LMG.
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  4903.  @michaels5210  Despite the existence of people that take them as gospel, these clips are amateur works, and I take them as that. The "shifting zero" is the classic example of a problem invented because you "know" that the weapon is bad, and so you feel to have to illustrate some "problem". The MG42/MG3 has the front sight on the barrel shroud exactly like the Breda 30. None ever noticed that being a problem in 80 years of use of the weapon. The DP-27, despite having a fixed barrel, and so it could have had the front sight on the barrel, had the front sight on the barrel shroud exactly like the Breda 30. None noticed it being a problem for all the decades of use of the MG. Every modern MG has an optic fixed to the receiver that doesn't compensate for the barrel change. None noticed that being a problem to this day. We are used to movies where weapons always works, but that was not the case in WWII. Then an automatic weapon jamming was not a problem of "if" nor a problem of "when". It was a problem of "how often". At that time it was a REAL problem to manufacture magazines that were so well built to not have feeding issues and so cheap to be discarded on the field. Even the Brits experimented tilting magazines with the BREN (they didn't adopt them in the end, but they were much more awkward than that of the Breda, and you needed two clips to fill one). It was still a felt problem for the NATO countries in the '50s. Have you ever wondered why the M14 has a stripper clip guide? This is the stripper clip of a Canadian FAL, does this remind you something? Only that you need TWO of them to fill a magazine ( https://i1.wp.com/www.forgottenweapons.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Screen-Shot-2019-07-02-at-8.59.38-AM-copy.png?fit=684%2C738&ssl=1&w=640 ) "large gaps to allow gunk to get into ammo" is another "harmchair problem". A minor issue that harmchair "experts" inflates to gigantic proportions "that gun will jam at the slightest sign of dirt!" Ironically the same people seem to came over belt feeding. Were belts closed? I said BOLT. Bolt body, extractor, striker, striker spring, four parts. Do you want to add the locking ring despite it not being really part of the bolt? Make five. A BREN BOLT ASSEMBLY IS MADE OF 30 PARTS. All in all the Breda 30 was an unsatisfactory weapon for several reasons, but the difference between the best and the worst WWII LMG is a question of nuances.
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  4915. ​ @undertakernumberone1  The fact that there's a gorget doesn't mean you want to be hit there anyway. Neck is a weak spot of human body. Full of important things and not very apt to take hits. You claimed fluting was advantageous. Here's a simple point: had fluting been SO advantageous as you CLAIM... it would've replaced flat armor extremely quickly because the knights would've noticed: "hey, since we put that stuff on our armour, far less of us die!". Instead fluted armor had been fashionable for a certain perod in a certain place, and then abandoned, while flat armors went on until napoleonic era (and not for fashion. Napoleonic curiasses could still protect from projectiles). People weren't stupid. Yes, they adopted it because it fit the fashion, but then they noticed it was not worth it. You can weld the fluting to the armor if it's advantageous. Maces and the likes are better faced by a continually curved surface than a fluted one. That's why modern motorcycle helmets are not fluted. Physics doesn't change, The shot trap issue is with shots being "trapped", by the shape of the vehicle, in hitting a certain part of the vehicle 90° instead of glancing off. The fact that there's a gorget doesn't mean you want to be hit there anyway. Neck is a weak spot of human body. Full of important things and not very apt to take hits. So those versions have a shot trap, to have the full force of the hit discharged where the vertical fluting encounters the orizontal one. Better than the hit reaching the throat, but far from ideal anyway. Infact those are NOT shot traps. Projectiles are meant to penetrate that external "armour".
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  4962. What you described at first are not gender-related characters, but plot-related characters. More specifically they are characters for action/adventure fiction. More of those parts are traditionally played by males because males were the overwelming majority of the readers/viewers of such fictions and they relate to their gender. Males still are a vast majority of the readers/viewers but, since times changes, those roles are increasingly played by female characters. They are not exception and, apart for bad fiction (that happens whathever gender the characters belong to), they are not "taking a full developed male character and turning him into a girl". You are taking a girl for a given role. Those roles seems simplicistic for a girl? They are simplicistic for male characters too. Action/adventure fiction is not exactly renown for the realism and the complexity of the characters. Apart for roles that it's difficult to cover with a given gender for biological reason (IE a male as "the mom" or a female as "the big friendly guy", but, obviously, there are exceptions) the only role that writers really avoid to give to female characters is that of the laughing-stock. it's full of male characters that are hapless-clumsy-selfish-cowards, but to give that role to a female seems to be disrespectful. Rey is an OP Mary Sue because she's not challenged by the plot. Every time the plot slightly bothers her, she escapes thanks to a gratuitous power-up that has no sense in that universe. She does mind-control because she heard stories about the jedi? Really? At only 16 years from the fall of the republic Luke certanly heard much more stories, but it took him, a prodigy, trhee movies to do that. One has to wonder why the jedi in the Republic needed a school and years of training if hearing stories was enough. Wonderboy fighter-pilot Luke, at the end of the first movie, after having been trained by a master, only had a glimpse of vision of the force and, at the end of the second movie, after having been trained by another master, is throughly defeated by the villain. Rey beats the main villain in a lightsaber duel the first time she takes a sword in hand (or, better, that a lightsaber is attracted by her hand). The rage that welcomed Rey's performances is nothing compared to what would have happened had she been a male. The "ludicrously competent girl training the completely inexperienced schlub" is "the ace". A role that has tons of male examples (is one of those traditionally male roles that had recently seen more females interpreting it). The ace almost always gives room to the schlub at the end, for a reason or another, so that the new hero can save the day and yeah, if you give to the schlub at least a bit of training, it feels natural. None complained that Nikita could kick asses, since she was trained to do that. It has nothing to do with "girls support dudes in our culture". One of the the best recent examples is probably Sinbad in "Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic", and he's not a girl, nor is Dante Vale in Huntik.
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  5196.  @ForceSmart  You were arguing about "inconsistent quality of Italian ammunition". Are you really able to believe that the 381 shells and propellants were made with different tolerances than 203 ones? I understand that there are people, like you, that prefer apparently simple explanations that spare them the effort to think. There are many. For the same reason , you prefer ad hominem argument, talking about "emotional response". Again , an apparently simple explanation that, undermining your interlocutor's arguments because he's "emotional" spare you the effort to use your brain. (to remember you that someone you called an "historian" is not an historian instead, is not an ad hominem argument. I think "ad hominem" is another expression that you use randomly to be spared the effort to use your brain cells). You prefer to be spared the effort to make a simple proportion too. Someone said "over a kilometer" and you bought it, without even cheking, because cheking needs to use braincells. Of the picture shown, knowing the lenght of the HMAS Perth, the first salvo has a spread of 410m. The second one of 412m (a little more due to parallax). Or 1.7% of the distance. A single turret longitudinal spread of 2% of the distance in action was considered acceptable to good by any navy at the time. To make a comparison, US Navy obtained 1.1% single turret spread, but that was in tests, with the ship standing still and not steaming at 28 knots, after years of tuning, with delay coils already installed (Littorios had them installed in winter '42-'43) and with slower shells (for a simple geometrical reason, flatter trajectory shells, all things equal will show wider horizontal spread. That has little IRL effect since ships are not just horizontal targets and the flatter trajectory reduces the vertical spread - that's why flatter trajectory is preferred in rifle shooting - and the error in distance and bearing, by reducing the flight time). Richelieu shown a 2.1% single turret spread in tests (four guns in it's case) still in 1948, after delay coils had been installed, and that was considered acceptable. The service of the Regia Marina, or its "worthiness", is not in question, and I don't need any treat. That's anoter mental shortcut of you. Since I'm being "emotional" I'll give you another (other than the high speed of the shells) real reason why the dispersion of the Italian 381 was just average and not exceptional. All the Littorios were very "new". The first two had been commissioned only in 1940. At the time, it took years of tests to "tune " the guns of a big ship (Nelson class shown horrible dispersion in tests still after 10 years since their commissioning). And in wartime those tests are just seldomly made, because there isn't the time, the fuel, and every time the ship leaves the port, it's at risk of being torpedoed. That's what Adm. Emilio Brenta stated. By 1939 the Regia Marina corrected the dispersion of all of their guns, big and small, so much that, for some of them, there had been the necessity to open the spread, to maximise the probability of a hit (infact, the best dispersion is not the tightest one. That's, IE, a criticism the Americans made on Japanese gunnery). For the 381 there had simply not been the time. But I'm sure you'll prefer to believe in "inconsistent quality of Italian ammunition". For some mysterious reason, only of 381 shells. It spares you to think.
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  5228.  @jimmydesouza4375  So the reaty stated that: a) Italy had no obligation to fight alonside Austria in a war it declared. b) a "temporary or permanent" "occupation shall take place only after a PREVIOUS agreement between the two Powers" c) Austria (in this case) had to give compensations for changes in the status quo in the Balkans. Austria invaded Serbia in 1914 (that's a change in the status quo and an occupation) without any previous agreement (breaking the treaties). Despite the obvious violation of point "b", Italy was willing to get over it in case Austria complied with "c". Austrian foreign minister Berchtold, agreed on some concession (the recognition of the Italian occupation of the Dodecanese and Valona, that already happened). Italians wanted the cities of Trento and Trieste. German mediator Bernhard von Bülow pushed for the Austrians to accept the cession of Trento, and the Italians to accept a bigger degree of autonomy for Trieste in the Austrian Empire. That would have been probably enough, but unfortunately on 13/01/1915 Berchtold had ben replaced by Stephan Burián, that retired any concession made by his predecessor, so breaking the talks, and exposing the Italian "neutralists" politicians (like Giolitti, that publicly stated Italy could gain much by peace) to ridicule, since it was evident that Austrians were not willing to give anything. After two months of unsuccessful attempts to obtain anything Italy started the talkings with the Entente. Bulow considered the Austrian position to be irrational. That's his opinion on the matter, from a letter to a friend, the journalist Felix von Eckhardt: "We must influence Vienna. It would be unheard of, for Austria, after pulling us into this war for its own incapacity in last two or three years, to deprive us of the collaboration of Italy and Rumenia, and to throw two million more enemies against us [. ..] I'll do what I can to spare us a new, great and not needed trouble. I'll do it for ourselves and for Austria, which must be saved from the hereditary defect of always arriving too late ". That's what you call "betrayal".
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  5267.  @Shadowhunterbg  "The video said"? You know trhat the video is made by amateurs, right? One thing is a video on youtube, another thing are actual sources. So, again, MAYBE (the thing is absolutely not clear) that Arminius had been a hostage (that, at that time, meant "honored guest") as a child, and nothing else. Sorry. The meant was NOT to "make them Romans", even if to expose them to Roman culture was a bonus. "Roman citizen" is a definite thing and a difficult to obtain one. Not all the hostages became Roman citizens. Most of them simply returned to their tribe, or kingdom, when grown up. Arminius could have done the same, but he CHOSE to be a Roman citizen, CHOSE to be an Equites (the highest class of not Patrician born. As an Equites he belonged to the Roman Senatorial rank) and he CHOSE to be a commander of the Roman army. He did all those things because he wanted to. Sorry, any soldier of any army is bound to serve it. Even more if he's an officer. To purposedly lead the man you are in charge of to be slaughtered in a trap you prepared is worse than the treason of a simple private. Legions were mostly deployed in the provinces. Arminius was in Germania because he was a soldier and there were three legions there (and he knew the territory and the language, obviously). His brother was in Illyria at the same time. Arminius was in charge of the scouting cavalry because he was a Roman citizen. Roman officers were in charge of the auxiliares. You spoke about his family. I'm sorry if reality offend you. Pro-Roman is a political stance. It means that he considered to be ally of the Romans more useful than to be against them. What he loved is inconsequential. Arminius was so loved that his own tribesmen killed him. Arminius had never been kidnapped, and none forced him to became a Roman citizen, an Equites, and to join the army. He chose to do all of those things. Sorry, mental fictions don't count. Treason is defined by actions.
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  5268.  @Shadowhunterbg  It seems there are countless wrong things you are sure of. So, you are GUESSING. The authors of the video, and some actual historian, did that too. The difference is that actual historians when they are guessing, SAY that they are guessing. They guessed that Arminius and Flavus had been hostages (that, at that time meant an "honored guest) because that was a common practice at the time, not only among Romans. But, while for many historical characters (Pyrrhus, Aetius...) there are sources stating they had been hostages at some point, there is none for Arminius and Flavus. So, again, MAYBE (the thing is absolutely not clear) that Arminius had been a hostage (that, at that time, meant "honored guest") as a child, and nothing else. Judging by your emotional comments on ancient societies, I don't think you had studied any history. Actually to have high-class foreigners to study in Rome was pretty common, and we still have some bi-lingual textbook (obviously those were for students that already knew to read in their own language) used to teach them to read Latin. Culture was more priced than you think but, hear hear WE DON'T KNOW IF ARMINIUS HAD EVER BEEN IN ROME. There is not a single piece of historical evidence that Arminius ever in his life visited Rome. Let alone that he was taken there as a hostage and grew up in the capital of the Roman empire. These are just legends. Had he been an hostage or not in his childhood, that surely ended WAY BEFORE Teutoburg. At that time, instead of simply returning to his tribe. Arminius CHOSE to be a Roman citizen, CHOSE to be an Equites (the highest class of not Patrician born. As an Equites he belonged to the Roman Senatorial rank) and he CHOSE to be a commander of the Roman army. None of those things had been forced on him. He did all those things because he wanted to. Arminius was a Roman citizen and that meant that, for the Romans, he was one of their own. As trustworthy as if he was born into the city. What he was doing in the army was actually the first step of the "cursus honorum", as expected by a young equites. Mind, again, that his own brother didn't suffer any consequence for Arminius' treason. Flavus was a Roman citizen, and so he was trustworthy, it didn't matter what his brother had done. Actually Caesar normally used Gaulish cavalry in his Gaulish wars 8and those were not even Roman citizens). That was common practice at the time, not only among the Romans. Gauls, like Germans, normally fought among them and allied with foreigners to do so. Again, your emotions are inconsequential here. Treason is defined by actions, not by your emotions, (that, again, were not shared by all the Germanics, nor by all the Cherusci and not even by Arminius' own family). Any person doing the same things, now or in any historical period, would be considered a traitor.
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  5289.  @petemaly8950  The radiused corners were evidently not radiused enough, since both the real-scale tests performed at Farnborough and the analysis of the wrecks shown the points of failures being exactly the corners of the passengers' windows and the automatic-direction-finding window, so they didn't "knew" shit. What they thought they knew was wrong. It's fairly simple. Lots of people out there doesn't know what they are talking about. It happens to someone into here as well. When the Comet first flew, there already were airliners with oval shaped windows. It's not like the designers chosen that shape due to aesthetic considerations. So the designers didn't use "all the current, up to date knowledge for the design". Not even close. Fairly straightforward really In real life the Comet G-ALYP was lost due to a fracture starting from the corner of the automatic-direction-finding window. Not enough of the wreckage of the G-ALYY was recovered to establish the cause, of the failure, and the wreckage of the G-ALYV was not investigated enough, even if eyewitness testimony already pointed to a structural failure. In the first test on the G-ALYU the fracture started from the forward escape hatch window, that's identical in shape and structure to the passenger windows. In the second test, the fracture started from the corner of the passenger window N.7. The section of the fuselage with the crack starting from the passenger window is currently on display in the RAF museum at Cosford. So you are wrong again, sorry.
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  5294.  @petemaly8950  And here you are lying. I already told you that you don't know enough of two RL incidents out of three to know what failed, AND THE PASSENGER WINDOW FAILED IN ONE POST-INCIDENT STRESS TEAT OUT OF TWO PERFORMED (the other time it had been the forward escape hatch window, that's identical in shape and structure to the passenger windows). SO 50% OF THE TIMES. Fact is that the redesigned Comet had the oval shaped windows. Like other airliners already had before the Comet's first flight. The section of the fuselage with the crack starting from the corner of the PASSENGER WINDOW is currently on display in the RAF museum at Cosford. With a big arrow pointing to the corner of the PASSENGER WINDOW N.7 that says "ORIGIN OF THE FAILURE". Stop lying please. To say that "failure start points are irrelevant" is ridiculous. The failure start points are what made the aircrafts crash, as it would be simple & very easily understood by anyone with a functioning brain . To say that "De Havilland proved through extensive testing that the aircraft design was good" is hilarious, since the design was faulty and caused the crashes, and you can't "prove" what's false. Something your'daughter's dog would surely be able to lecture you about at this point. Not only, but the "extensive testing" had been made on the wrong pieces. Yeah "There's been lots of serious failures that would have been prevented with more testing". So? Had anyone said that the case of the Comet was unique? Keep in mind however (yeah... like you could..) that you talked about tests. I talked about taking a hint.
    1
  5295.  @petemaly8950  It's sad to see you have resorted to lying. I already told you that you don't know enough of two RL incidents out of three to know what failed, AND THE PASSENGER WINDOW FAILED IN ONE POST-INCIDENT STRESS TEST OUT OF TWO PERFORMED (the other time it had been the forward escape hatch window, that's identical in shape and structure to the passenger windows). SO 50% OF THE TIMES. Fact is that the redesigned Comet had the oval shaped windows. Like other airliners already had before the Comet's first flight. The section of the fuselage with the crack starting from the corner of the PASSENGER WINDOW is currently on display in the RAF museum at Cosford. With a big arrow pointing to the corner of the PASSENGER WINDOW N.7 that says "ORIGIN OF THE FAILURE". The window of the front escape hatches, that failed in the the first post-incident stress test had the same shape, structure and dimension than the passenger window. the rear one was bigger. To say that "failure start points are irrelevant" is ridiculous. The failure start points are what made the aircrafts crash, as it would be simple & very easily understood by anyone with a functioning brain. To say that "De Havilland proved through extensive testing that the aircraft design was good" is hilarious, since the design was faulty and caused the crashes, and you can't "prove" what's false. Something even teh fleas on your'daughter's hamster would surely be able to lecture you about at this point. And here you are lying again, since the testing having been made on the wrong pieces is one of the conclusions of the inquiry. Yeah "There's been lots of serious failures that would have been prevented with more testing". So? Had anyone said that the case of the Comet was unique? Keep in mind however (yeah... like you could..) that you talked about tests. I talked about taking a hint.
    1
  5296.  @petemaly8950  Wrong again. Simple stuff, for anyone but you. You can't "prove" what's false. "as far as they were concerned" count for any testing ever mande on anything that proved to be defective introduced on the market "as far as they were concerned it was safe". But it wasn't. Very very basic stuff, not at all difficult, for anyone but you. Any of your family's pet and various insect around the house could lecture you on the matter at this point. And you keep on lying. I already told you that you don't know enough of two RL incidents out of three to know what failed, AND THE PASSENGER WINDOW FAILED IN ONE POST-INCIDENT STRESS TEST OUT OF TWO PERFORMED (the other time it had been the forward escape hatch window, that's identical in shape and structure to the passenger windows). SO 50% OF THE TIMES. Fact is that the redesigned Comet had the oval shaped windows. Like other airliners already had before the Comet's first flight. The section of the fuselage with the crack starting from the corner of the PASSENGER WINDOW is currently on display in the RAF museum at Cosford. With a big arrow pointing to the corner of the PASSENGER WINDOW N.7 that says "ORIGIN OF THE FAILURE". The window of the front escape hatches, that failed in the the first post-incident stress test had the same shape, structure and dimension than the passenger window. the rear one was bigger. To say that "failure start points are irrelevant" is ridiculous. The failure start points are what made the aircrafts crash, as it would be simple & very easily understood by anyone with a functioning brain. To say that "De Havilland proved through extensive testing that the aircraft design was good" is hilarious, since the design was faulty and caused the crashes, and you can't "prove" what's false. Something even teh fleas on your'daughter's dog would surely be able to lecture you about at this point. Not only, but the "extensive testing" had been made on the wrong pieces. Yeah "There's been lots of serious failures that would have been prevented with more testing". So? Had anyone said that the case of the Comet was unique? Keep in mind however (yeah... like you could..) that you talked about tests. I talked about taking a hint.
    1
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  5321. The weapon was supposed to be used with a shield, and with it it was plenty stable. https://modernfirearms.net/userfiles/images/smg/smg127/villar-perosa_1915_3.jpg That hole sight was literally the only hole in the shield. The weapon was designed to be a point weapon. Like a long range shotgun. Put it to surveil obligatory passages (alpine trails, openings in the barbed wire) and, when an enemy shows up, throw a short burst in his direction. With half a dozen 9mm Glisenti bullets in his body, he’ll think better. The MG-42 for example, with its 1200rpm ROF was designed with this job in mind. Not fire continuosly, but fire when you actually see the enemy. Given the charateristics of the two warfares, it was more suited the Villar Perosa to WWI (when you almost always had some obligatory passage to surveil) than the MG-42 to WWII. The weapon had been higly successful in the attack role too. So much that the Austrians copied it, double barrel, bipod and all. At the end of the conflict a total of 14.564 MGs had been produced (so, more than 29000 barrels, VS only about 5000 MP18), and 836 millions of 9mm Glisenti rounds for them. Mind this. THERE WAS NOTHING BETTER AROUND. When the guy with the Villar Perosa, after having thrown a couple of offensive grenades into the enemy trench to stun the enemies, came over the edge with the SMG in his hands to clear it, he didn’t find the guy with the MP18 waiting for him. Because there was not any MP18, or anything similar. What he had in his hands was incredibly better for that role than anything the enemy had, that were bolt action rifles and showels. After having adopted the Villar Perosa, the Italians took almos three years field the MAB18 (that were nothing more than a single Villar Perosa barrel mounted on a Moschetto TS stock) not because the Villar Perosa was unsatisfactory, but because it was so satisfactory that none felt the urge to modify it.
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  5342. It's not a question of deciphering. The manual is clear, and only talks about field use and shows field use. Sorry, but this "everyone" you speak of is only the English speaking world, and it does because of Chinn's "The Machine Gun". Unfortunately, for how much a good work it was, it's not the only case where "the Machine Gun" is inaccurate.The order for the Third Army had been made as soon as the weapon had been adopted and, again, a facility capable to produce 500 weapons for month for the needs of a 1915 Air Force is beyond ridiculous. At the start of the conflict (may 1915 for Italy) the Italian Air Corp had 86 combat aircrafts in total. In a month they would have produced more guns than the aircrafts capable to mount them. Still in April 1918 The Air Corp had 232 fighters, 66 bombers and 205 recognitors. You know that it's not like this that it works. To say that it was intended for aircraft use you have to find documents stating that BEFORE it had been really used on aircrafts. Unfortunately you can't point to any of those, because that wasn't it's intended use. Instead there is plenty of documents that point out to it's intended use as a field weapon from the start. Because THAT was its intended use. There are pictures of the weapon used on aircraft because it had been used on aircrafts TOO. To say it was it's intended use from the start is like saying that the intended use of the Mondragon was on aircrafts, because the Germans used it that way. I already said to you that the English manual is form 1917 at least.
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  5433.  @bluelemming5296  We know that the Brits didn't hit anything past 20.000m. We don't know why. We can hypothesize. But has a KGV class battleship ever hit something at over 20.000m distance in action, to make a comparison? Even in Bismarck's last battle, on an enemy that was practically adrift, the Brits opened fire only at 20.000m and, for when they hit something, they were so close that they were using their secondaries as well. Surely, in the Denmark strait, the positioning of the sights on the Prinz Eugen was no better than on the British battleships, but it scored hits farther than them anyway. It's not a mystery at all. And its pretty amusing to reason like the Brits were standing, waiting for the Italians to come close. The Brits never served a battleship to a Littorio at short distance. When the guns of the Littorio had been fired at extreme ranges it's because the enemies, that were light cruisers and destroyers, fled. The only time they (again, light cruisers and destroyers) engaged a Littorio at short range had been in the second battle of the Sirte, under a storm. For when the Littorios had been fully operative, Brits and Italians knew the shortcomings of battleships, and tended to use them under their own air cover. That means that the possible areas of contact were really limited. The only REAL possibility to have a clash between a modern British battleship squad (Nelson, Rodney and Prince of Wales) and the two Littorios had been during Operation Halberd, but there the Italian command miscalculated the route of the Britsh formation, and so the Italian squad failed to make contact (But Nelson was hit by an aerial torpedo anyway, and the Royal Navvy didn't risk a battleship so close to the Italian bases for more than a year after).
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  5518. Exceptionally reliable, exceptionally stable while firing in full auto (you can se Ian's clip of him firing it), very accurate, optimally designed magazines. Every competitor failed in one or more of those departments. Yeah. Obviously the army, once the reality of mass warfare kicked in, preferred more simple to manufacture versions, but had not been the only one. Other nations started the war with comparably complex or even more complex SMGs (Thompson, MP35, Lanchester, KP31...), and kept on manufacturing them until the end, yet they were not on par. Roy Dunlap's classic "Ordnance Went Up Front": "The Beretta 38 is my favorite gun of its class, as it was of the Eighth Army. As easy to fire and control as a .22 sporting autoloader, it had terrific punch and range. The special 9mm cartridges loaded for it made it effective at 300 yards and dangerous up to 500 (when you consider that the .45 Thompson is an even-money bet at 100 yards, you'll understand why we liked the Beretta). It would operate well with German, British or American 9mm Luger ammunition," ... "the later model guns were equipped with bayonet studs, and with a fixed bayonet and a ten-round clip they were the answer to a soldier's prayer for guard duty of any kind - prisoner chasing or just keeping them out of the mood for argument. All the guns were really accurate and a pleasure to shoot. No one ever bothered with any other kind of submachinegun if he could get hold of a Beretta M38 and keep it. The New Zealand boys especially loved them. Even the Germans liked it, and they hated to admit anything was good except their own stuff."
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  5592.  @tylerellis9097  I'm sure that thinking "but we slaughtered just a few Venetians!" had been a great consolation for the citizens of Constantinopole during the sack, but the Venetians felt to be touched enough, and that's all that counts. Sorry, but law and moral have nothing to do with this matter. There was nothing lawful or moral in the massacre, there was nothing lawful or moral in the various coup d'etat that made the Byzantine policies toward latin merchants wavy and unreliable.The massacre of the latins simply demonstrated to the Venetians that the Byzantine Empire was an unstable and unpredictable commercial partner, and that, if they wanted to carry on their business without being at the mercy of some mad emperor, they had to do it through THEIR ports and THEIR fortresses, not asking for permission. In the end, it had been the right move, so yes, the massacre, for the byzantines, backfired a little. So ehe Empire of Nicaea, well after the Crusade, was able to defeat some Turks badly, but it's direct descendant was beaten by the Ottomans. That doesn't seem to indicate a responsability of the Crusade in the fall of the Empire. That without the 4th Crusade the Byzantine Empire would have been able to repel the Turks is only an ucronia one can choose to believe, but it's narrative, not reality.There is no proof or hint that, without the Crusade, the Empire would have not decayed, or exhausted itself in border disputes, or internal struggles. Again, "legal"? In 1204? All the legality that was needed in international affairs, was that the stronger one took what he wanted. The Byzantines had never fought an expansionist war? The Byzantine Empire had been unable to hold its possessions in front of the Crusaders, and so had rightly been divided between them.
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  5724.  @drewberg1361  You can tell yourself the story you like more. The .280 Brit was developed to be controllable in full auto. It's at the high end of intermediate cartridges, but it's an intermediate cartridge. Even in its more powerful iteration, the .280/30, the .280 provided 2/3 of the recoil of the .308 Win while at the same time exceeding all those non existing "NATO ballistics requirements" you are fabling about. What round was better for a select-fire weapon was a no-brainer. The Winchester prototype was ready and tested. It was publicly demonstrated in oct 1957, only five months after the first demonstration of the AR15. Around the same time the Infantry board requested for the respective cartridges, both obtained from the .222 Rem., thus not identical, to be interchangeable for further testing. The Winchester prototypes with the modifications required arrived at Fort Benning in July 1958. The report of the tests was released in september. the Winchester rifle was determined to be slightly inferior to the AR15, Winchester declined to develop its rifle further. That's the story. The Winchester cartridge was not a Remington ammo, but was obtained from the .222 Remington as a parent cartridge, like the .223 Remington was. In tests, the AR15 could shoot the .224 Wincester ammo, but not the contrary, because the .224 Wincester was slightly shorter. It's not a power contest. The .280 Brit is controllable in full auto, the .308 Win is not. What round was better for a select-fire weapon was a no-brainer, but you are reasoning like Colonel Studler did "IT HAS MORE POWAH! YEAH!", with the result of adopting the shortest lived infantry rifle in US history. Unfortunately the history did not agree with you on the importance of volume of fire in infantry battles, and the M14 had consequently been the shortest lived infantry rifle in US history.
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  5759.  @drewberg1361  The .224 Win has exactly the same base dimension of the .223 Rem and .222 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win, but for you the .243 Win is the parent case. The .224 Win has exactly the same thickness of the rim of the .223 Rem and .222 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win, but for you the .243 Win is the parent case. The .224 Win has exactly the same dimension of the extractor groove land of the .223 Rem and .222 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win, but for you the .243 Win is the parent case. The .224 Win has exactly the same angle of the shoulder of the extractor groove of of the .223 Rem and .222 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win, but for you the .243 Win is the parent case. That means that the The .224 Win has exactly the same dimensions of the extractor groove of of the .223 Rem and .222 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win, but for you the .243 Win is the parent case. The .224 Win has exactly the same shoulder angle of of the .223 Rem and .222 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win, but for you the .243 Win is the parent case. The .224 Win has exactly the same lenght between the base and the shoulder of the .223 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win, but for you the .243 Win is the parent case. The .224 Win has exactly the same diameter at the shoulder, of the .223 Rem. and different than that of the .243 Win, but for you the .243 Win is the parent case. The .224 Win has exactly the same taper of the .223 Rem. and different than that of the .243 Win, but for you the .243 Win is the parent case. The two cartridges are identical in every dimension and angle from the base to the neck, and different from the .243 Win in every single dimension and angle. It's evident to ANYONE that they are enlongated .222 Rem, but for you the .243 Win is the parent case. It's quite evident that you are not able to understand the same datas you post. Sorry, but you are a joke.
    1
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  5763.  @drewberg1361  You are embarassing yourself. The .224 Win has EXACTLY the same base dimension of the .223 Rem and .222 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win. The .224 Win has EXACTLY the same thickness of the rim of the .223 Rem and .222 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win. The .224 Win has EXACTLY the same dimension of the extractor groove land of the .223 Rem and .222 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win. The .224 Win has EXACTLY the same angle of the shoulder of the extractor groove of of the .223 Rem and .222 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win. That means that the The .224 Win has EXACTLY the same dimensions of the extractor groove of of the .223 Rem and .222 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win. The .224 Win has EXACTLY the same shoulder angle of of the .223 Rem and .222 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win. The .224 Win has EXACTLY the same lenght between the base and the shoulder of the .223 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win. The .224 Win has EXACTLY the same diameter at the shoulder, of the .223 Rem. and different than that of the .243 Win. The .224 Win has EXACTLY the same taper of the .223 Rem. and different than that of the .243 Win. The two cartridges are IDENTICAL in every dimension and angle from the base to the neck, and different from the .243 Win. For EVERYONE that can read and understand what he's reading. So not for you. EVERYONE with at least a working braincell would have long realized that both the .223 Rem and the .224 Win are enlogated .222 Rem. So not you.
    1
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  5765.  @drewberg1361  And now is the moment you embarass yourself by giving some completely useless datas to show you can type. Have I ever said the .224 win is identical to the .222 rem? Obviously not because, like the .223 rem, it DESCENDED from the .222 rem, it's not the same cartridge.You didn't give any sample on how the .224 win should have descended from the .243 win. The .224 Win has EXACTLY the same base dimension of the .223 Rem and .222 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win. The .224 Win has EXACTLY the same thickness of the rim of the .223 Rem and .222 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win. The .224 Win has EXACTLY the same dimension of the extractor groove land of the .223 Rem and .222 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win. The .224 Win has EXACTLY the same angle of the shoulder of the extractor groove of of the .223 Rem and .222 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win. That means that the The .224 Win has EXACTLY the same dimensions of the extractor groove of of the .223 Rem and .222 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win. The .224 Win has EXACTLY the same shoulder angle of of the .223 Rem and .222 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win. The .224 Win has EXACTLY the same lenght between the base and the shoulder of the .223 Rem and different than that of the .243 Win. The .224 Win has EXACTLY the same diameter at the shoulder, of the .223 Rem. and different than that of the .243 Win. The .224 Win has EXACTLY the same taper of the .223 Rem. and different than that of the .243 Win. The two cartridges are IDENTICAL in every dimension and angle from the base to the neck, and different from the .243 Win. For EVERYONE that can read and understand what he's reading. So not for you. EVERYONE with at least a working braincell would have long realized that both the .223 Rem and the .224 Win are enlogated .222 Rem (that not means to take a .222 rem and stretch it, but that obviously will fly over you). . So not you. "curious didn't you say earlier that is nearly impossible?" It was written that it would be almost a miracle starting form different parent cartridges, while in this caseTHEY DIDN'T START FROM DIFFERENT PARENT CARTRIDGES. but obviously you didn't understand. "because while they share some commonalities in sizes the .224 E2 was designed by different engineers and based off a different round and made to work in .22 caliber. Crazy right?" No. Because the .224 win was designed by different engineers STARTING FROM THE SAME PARENT CASE. EVERYONE with at least a working braincell would have long realized that it's impossible to have all those dimensions EXACTLY identical starting from two parent cases that have COMPLETELY different dimensions. And that excludes you. You even came to te point of telling they used different bullets! LMAOF! You don't even know that different bullets can be used even on the same cartrige! But really, where did you come from? Because you are not of this world. The next one will be that their brasses were of slightly different colour.
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  5798. The weapon was developed for the ground role. IT HAD NEVER BEEN INTENDED TO BE AN AIRCRAFT GUN. Less than four-hundred samples of more than 14.000 built saw limited use on aircrafts (at that time the Air Corp was a branch of the Army) waiting for the model to be in full scale production first than distributing it to the troops. It was supposed to be used with a shield, and with it it was plenty stable. https://modernfirearms.net/userfiles/images/smg/smg127/villar-perosa_1915_3.jpg That hole sight was literally the only hole in the shield. The weapon was designed to be a point weapon. Like a long range shotgun. Put it to surveil obligatory passages (alpine trails, openings in the barbed wire) and, when an enemy shows up, throw a short burst in his direction. With half a dozen 9mm Glisenti bullets in his body, he’ll think better. The MG-42 for example, with its 1200rpm ROF was designed with this job in mind. Not fire continuosly, but fire when you actually see the enemy. Given the charateristics of the two warfares, it was more suited the Villar Perosa to WWI (when you almost always had some obligatory passage to surveil) than the MG-42 to WWII. The weapon had been higly successful in the attack role too. So much that the Austrians copied it, double barrel, bipod and all. At the end of the conflict a total of 14.564 MGs had been produced (so, more than 29000 barrels, VS only about 5000 MP18), and 836 millions of 9mm Glisenti rounds for them. Mind this. THERE WAS NOTHING BETTER AROUND. When the guy with the Villar Perosa, after having thrown a couple of offensive grenades into the enemy trench to stun the enemies, came over the edge with the SMG in his hands to clear it, he didn’t find the guy with the MP18 waiting for him. Because there was not any MP18, or anything similar. What he had in his hands was incredibly better for that role than anything the enemy had. After having adopted the Villar Perosa, the Italians took almos three years to develop the OVP18 and the MAB18 (that were nothing more than a single Villar Perosa barrel mounted on a Moschetto TS stock) not because the Villar Perosa was unsatisfactory, but because it was so satisfactory that none felt the urge to modify it.
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  6000.  @Nortrix87  That's modern day "patriotic" narrative. It has nothing to do with 1th century mentality. "Germanic land" is a modern concept. It has nothing to do with how a 1st century Germanic tribesman reasoned. His world was his family, his clan, his tribe. Where that tribe was located, was pretty much indifferent. The "goal" was a struggle of power between Germanic factions. Arminius managed to gain power by leading the anti-Roman faction (represented by some tribe, but there were divisions internal to the same tribes, IE among the same Cherusci) and was briefly able to form the coalition. Following Tiberius and Germanicus campaigns, the anti-Roman faction had been crushed. The pro-Roman faction prevailed among the same Cherusci. Arminius was killed and the Cherusci asked to the Romans to send them Italicus, son of Flavus (Arminius' brother, that remained loyal ro Rome) as king. The son of Italicus was still king of the Cherusci and allied to the Romans in the last recorded appearance of the Cherusci in the annals. The anti-Roman faction gained something from the attack? Hard to say. Some of the tribes that participated to the attack had been erased form the map (and no, their goal was not "we'll all gladly die for the freedom of the Germanics!". The Marsi didn't give a damn for the freedom of the Langobardi. Had they knew the consequences, they would have not participated). Other had been enslaved by other Germanic tribes and faded long before the fall of the Empire. Rome governed Germania (included the same Cherusci) for centuries through client kings.
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  6005.  @ygnihteci00  You are evidently too ignorant to even be a troll, or know what a book is, but you are probably already under psychiatric treatment, if not, you should be, given your evident issues. "Wrong, most of them continued to exist and the others simply integrated into or where absorbed by other Germanic Tribes in the area." No, and "being absorbed" is part of being gone, especially when, that's what happened much of the times, the "absorption" was in a condition of subordination. "For like the third time, i never claimed they did, please learn to read properly" Again, you should check the theme of the clip and reading the posts you are answering before listening to the voices in your head. "I never said that the Lombards where the only ones responsible" My statements were "Ironically the Germanics that gained more form the revolt were not directly menaced by the Romans at all. Those east of the Elbe river, that gained power, lands and Germanic slaves, due to the weakening of the western Germanics." and "The Goths, that "conquered Rome and its territories" more than four centuries later, were still north of the Black Sea in first century. They had nothing to do with Teutoburg." At that point you listened to the voices in your head and talked about the Lombards as a rebuttal of the statements, but the Lombards didn't participate in Teutoburg, nor conquered the Empire. They conquered a land that had been conquered by the Goths a century before. The Lombards never seriously clashed with the Empire. I understand your serious mental issues, but you should learn what a book is and read some of them before listening to the voices in your head. "You are again trying to say all of them where wiped out during the scenarios following Teutobourg" No. I'm saying that "The Germanics that fought at Teutoburg and had been whiped out in the subsequent retaliation didn't care at all about the Goths or what DNA they had". You don't need to invent what I'm saying. You talked about genetic tests and German DNA as something relevant in first century, not me. I understand your serious mental issues, but you should read the posts you are answering before listening to the voices in your head.
    1
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  6007.  @Nortrix87  Yeah. At Tacitus time, that's end of first century, beginning of the second, the Romans still had clashes with some Germanic tribe, and they will have well after Tacitus (mind that the "Germans took advantage of our dissensions and civil wars to storm the quarters of the legions and make a bid for possession of Gaul. This attempt ended in another defeat for them..." was actually the revolt of a Roman general, Lucius Antoninus Saturninus, that had been scarcely aided in his revolt by the Chatti, that Domitian had defeated some year before, with the help of the Cherusci, longtime clients of the empire).Problem is that they were not the same Germanics of Teutoburg, nor the same of the Cimbrian war for that matter (it's actually debated if the Cimbrians were Germanics at all. At best they were a confederation of Germanics and Celts). Contrary to the Empire, the "Germanics" were not a single entity with a single goal. The Goths, that will end the Western Empire, were still north of the Black Sea in first century. They had nothing to do with Teutoburg. Those that had something to do with Teutoburg, generally didn't gain anything from it. Some of the tribes that participated to the attack had been erased form the map (and no, their goal was not "we'll all gladly die for the freedom of the Germanics!". The Marsi didn't give a damn for the freedom of the Langobardi. Had they knew the consequences, they would have not participated). Other had been enslaved by other Germanic tribes and faded long before the fall of the Empire. Rome governed Germania (included the same Cherusci) for centuries through client kings. The Germanics never named themself as a group. There's not a Germanic word to indicate the Germanics. It had been the Romans that classified them as such.
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  6010.  @Nortrix87  Polyaenus wrote more than 260 years after the facts, and he was not writing a treaty on ethnology, but on the stratagems of war. Actually the account is higly unlikely, since the Teutones, for one, never penetrated into Italy, they had been defeated by Marius at Aquae Sextiae, in modern day Provence, before he turned on the Cimbri. The previous accounts on Marius tactics were pretty different, and much more credible. Having to lead an army of newbies vs. hardened veterans, he first fought a defensive battle, only defending his camp. Then, when the Teutones gave up trying to overrun the camp, he searched for an easy victory over the isolated Ambrones, then, once his men were veterans of two battles, he faced the Teutones in pitched battle and a one-sided slaughter ensued. After Aquae Sextiae the legionaries were on the roll, and the result of the battle of Vercellae vs. the Cimbri had never really been in doubt. Augustus mentioned the homeland of the Cimbri in Denmark because at that time the Romans found in Denmark a tribe that named themself "Cimbri", and remained in good terms with the Romans, with route trade estabilished, for centuries, but many doubt even they were the same Cimbri (like there still is a totally unrelated "Cimbri" ethnic minority in Italy). The etimology of "Cimbri" can lead to many very common words. If they had been the original nucleus of the migration, it's most likely that many other tribes added to it in a snowball effect, until the most renown "Cimbrian" leader has a name that not only sounds Celtic, but literally means "King of the Boii" (a Celtic tribe). In 2nd century BC, western and central Germania was far from a ethnically uniform land. Both Celtic and Germanic people inhabitated it, and they still did in 1st century AD, at the time of Teutoburg (when the Celtic Senones still inhabitated Germania). The Celts started to dwindle because, with the Roman conquest of Gallia, they lost deepness of field. It was Ercolaneum, not Pompeii, and they were a not really statistically significative group, since it was restricted geographicallly, and much of that group was composed of slaves. The average height of Italian males in Roman period had been estimated between 164.2 and 165.4 cm by several studies on skeletons, and legionaries were not "average Italian males", there was a minumum height to be a legionary, so the average legionary war higher. There was an obvious difference with Gauls and Germanics, and infact the Roman historians reported it, but nothing to write home about. Mind that, at that time, height was higly dependent on feeding. Riches and nobles were normally higher than commoners, because they eat better, and riches and nobles composed the first lines among Celts and Germanics, so the impression was for them to be higher than they were in reality on average. Both the Teutones and the Cimbrians had been slaughtered en mass. There had been very few survivors, and much of them didn't survive for long since there were many families that expected a revenge for Arausium. 100 AC Romans were not interested of the precise name of the several tribes they piled up calling them "Cimbri".
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  6232.  @Woodsie_Lord  Then you have also problems in comprehending simple texts. The thread was about supposedly invading a foreign people, opressing them taking their wealth while forcing them to change their cultural practices, and when they fight back, successfully, seeking vengeance. Actually there were many pro-Roman tribes in Germania. The Cherusci were one of them, until Arminius took power (and still there were a strong pro-Roman faction in the tribe, that will prevail in the end, killing Arminius and asking the Romans for a client king). Arminius was a Roman citizen, an Equites, and a commander of the Roman army, in charge of the scouting cavalry at Teutoburg, so a traitor, even for modern standards. His own brother Flavus remained loyal to the Empire, and fought in the legions of Germanicus against him. "Arminius, savior of the Germanics" from the invaders that were oppressing and forcing is '30s narrative. A 1st century Germanic didn't reason like that. For him there was his family, then his clan, then his tribe and that was all. There was not a Germanic word to indicate Germanic people. It had been the Romans that classified them like that. For the Western Germanics, at that time, it was a question of who they had to become tributaries to. The Romans or the Svebian confederation, east of the Elbe. That's why there were pro-Roman and anti-Roman (that were pro-Svebian) factions among them. As already said, among the Same Cherusci the pro-Roman faction will prevail in the end, and they'll end up aiding the Romans, and being aided by them, vs. other Germanic tribes. They dind't prefer the Svebi to the Romans because the Svebi were Germanics. That distinction had no sense for them. In the same Svebian confederation there were the Semnones, that were Celts.
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  6247.  @geordiedog1749  After Pedestal Malta was resupplied by submarines. A new convoy didn't show up until November. Italian convoy losses had always been due much more to submarines than to Malta based aircrafts. That of the "moral supremacy" is in general a mith, when applied to defeats it's a pathetic excuse. Sirte 1 and 2 had been losses for the RN, and to talk about a pretended "moral supremacy" that should change the outcome is laughable. Sirte 1 is the Brits having the moral supremacy to flee the battle. Then having the moral supremacy to end up on an Italian freshly laid minefield they didn't suspect the existence of ("choosing", LOL!). Then having the moral supremacy to lose two ships and 830 seamen that surely had been happy to drawn showing their moral supremacy (but maybe they chose to), and having to retire the rest of the Malta Strike Force (but with the moral supremacy). In exchange for the the Regia Marina not having the moral supremacy and not having a single casualty. Trying to use "moral supremacy" to argue this had not been a defeat proves to not be able to handle basic facts, and infering "it would have had to anyway" is sour grapes. Sorry, IRL the Regia Marina didn't sail expecting to lose, they won easily without receiving a single casualty, the RN lost badly. Those are the facts. Sirte 2 is the Brits having the moral supremacy to have several ships badly damaged (The Kingston and Havock had ben effectively lost) in exchange for no damages for the Italians. Then having the moral supremacy to leave the merchants on their own. Then having the moral supremacy to have the convoy almost entirely destroyed. Sorry, IRL the Regia Marina didn't sail expecting to lose, they won easily, the RN lost badly. Those are the facts. Convoy PQ 17 is recalled as "PQ 17 disaster". 1/3 of the convoy passed through and the escort ships suffered no losses. If PQ 17 had been a disaster, Sirte 2 had been a tragedy. What you like or not is inconsequential. Randomly using the expression "cherry picking" doesn't make you any favour. YOU talked first about "first and second Sitre (sic)" so if someone was cherry picking it was YOU. It happens that "first and second Sitre" had been clear Italian victories. So did Pedestal. What had ben said about Convoy PQ 17 is valid for Pedestal too. If PQ 17 had been a disaster, Pedestal had been a tragedy. There is, and there will always be, people that prefer to not see plain facts, shut eyes and ears and repeat propaganda (like that of the "moral supremacy") until they believe it. They came to believe that losing two ships, 860 men, and having to leave an important base, in exchange for no losses for the enemy, is a victory due to something they call "moral supremacy" they pretend to have existed. They can't admit a defeat, for how much evident it is, because it doesn't fit their narrative of "bossed from start to finish" and, since the narrative is more important than facts, what doesn't fit into the narrative can't exist. Since they believe in things like "bossed from start to finish" they pretend to know what the people "expected" too. They don't know, obviously, but it fits into the narrative of the perpetual victory, and narrative is more important than facts. It's their choice, but they can't pretend to spread it without anyone recalling what the facts are. Facts are stubborn things.
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  6264. To give some chronology, the earliest traces of iron smelting (so no hammering of meteoric iron) date back to 2200-2000 BC Anatolia. From Hittite documents, Iron items were common, altough extremely expensive around 1800 BC. From around the same age we have some small iron jewels, likely smelted. Given the fact that Iron is a crappy material for jewelry (harder to form in complex shapes than gold, silver, or copper alloys, and prone to rust) it was evidently the fact that, for some reason, it was extremely hard to obtain that justified its use. The situation was still the same around 1325 BC. We don't know if Tutankhamun's iron dagger was meteoric or smelted, but, due to the fact that it was evidently not made for its Egyptian-made handle, it was almost surely imported and, form it's original position, it was probably the most prized item of his funerary equipment. More than his gold dagger, or any other golden object. Hittite documents point to the fact that instead, around 1200 BC, iron had become common and cheap. From this period is the most ancient big and complex iron item we have, an Hittite iron sword, surely smelted. In Ugarith had been found an iron sword bearing the name of Pharaon Merneptah (died 1203 BC), so Egyptians had access to the same tecnology. So, there had been some technological improvement, between 1325 BC and 1200 BC, that made iron cheap and available in good quantities. While the technology remained practically unchanged in the eight previous centuries.
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  6317.  @sergarlantyrell7847  A bascinet with aventail and without visor is not that much of a knightly helmet, if not worn under a great helm, for when things became serious. Is an evolution we seen several times. Kights first wore a nasal helmet with hausberk, not really different form that of infantrymen. Then that protection was considered too light, and evolved first into the enclosed helmet, then in the great helm, to wear over the cervelliere, or over the bascinet (evolved from the cervelliere, probably in Italy that too). At that point the protection was too bulky, knights tended to not use the great helm any more over the bascinet, that was too light, so it evolved into the visored bascinet, and then into the great bascinet, that was too bulky again. In Italy, the standard, or pixane, replaced the aventail (that must be worn over the cuirass, if you wanted to be able to remove the helmet at some point, and so was less safe). Once removed the aventail, and replaced it with the standard, the bascinet evolved in two directions, the sallet and the barbute. Early sallets were infact hardly distinguishable from early barbutes. High end products tend to be more preserved that the simplest pieces, and city militias were not poor, but the barbute was a simple helmet to make by definition, and there are tons of preserved barbutes whose craftmanship was not better than that of the contemporary kettle hats. http://vikingsword.com/vb/attachment.php?s=66f93c199c3eac6848997735ef636d45&attachmentid=36689&stc=1 https://farm2.static.flickr.com/1557/24368832943_8b6edf33d0.jpg As already said, exactly as the Sallet, the barbute gained popularity with higher classes too, and was worn by cavalrymen too. Why not? For scouting or light skirmishes it had advantages over the heavier helmets. and there will always be someone that will prefer freedom of movements/breathability/less restricted vision over protection even in pitched battles.
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  6408. This is a visit to the Pietta factory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdnbNJKJ9ZE As you can see, they use the same tooling to make their repro revolvers and their modern line of semiauto rifles and shotguns. They work in batches. "today revolvers, tomorrow semiauto rifles". It's obvious that those machines can make anything in between. A Fyodorov Avtomat like a M1 Carbine. They only need the right imput. They can make them BETTER actually. With more consistent tolerances than the originals EVER had. So why they don't do it? Because, while manufacturing is not really a problem, designing is. Manual repeaters (revolvers, lever actions...) solve a lot of problems, because timing is decided and force is applied by the shooter. In a semiauto/auto weapon there are a lot of bits that have to work togheter for the weapon to work. Much of those old designs required handfitting, because the admitted tolerances were so that, in a batch of supposedly identical parts, the right ones had to be chosen and coupled for the weapon to work. Worse, there was the "cascade matching" problem. When you took, IE, three parts that matched toghether, because they were all at one end of the tolerance scale, and then there was no fourth part that matched with them, because it should have been beyond the scale. It was a so common issue that, for the Winchester .224 prototype (the competitor of the AR15 in the CONARC competition) Winchester explicitly stated that they designed their rifle so that it couldn't happen. And we were in the late '50s. It was still a severe problem for the M60 MG. Modern CNC machines can't work like that. so the modern designer has to come out with his own completely different, set of admitted tolerances. Not to say that steel of the original composition is often unobtanium. The REAL problem is that most of those designs were not that great to begin with. Even the most successful ones, (IE, the M1 Carbine, just to say one) were good FOR THEIR TIME. But the eventual purchaser of a modern repro would expect form it MODERN reliability and durability, otherwise "This is shit! The manufcturer scammed me!". It doesn't exist "it seldomly work because the originals were like that too". For the designer of the repro, it's like a nightmare. To him is like designing a completely new weapon, with the adjunctive constraint that he can't choose the solutions he KNOWS will work flawlessly. He has to keep it consistent with original solutions that he know work "so-so". That's why modern repros, even when existing, mostly dont' have part interchangeability with the originals.
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  6463. Historically they did. As already said, multiple times medieval cavalry charges had been stopped by infantry that had not long pikes and was much less disciplined than the Roman one. A pilum used as a spear is a spear. Anti-cavalry square musketeer worked vs. cavalry charges because horses don't crush into dense packs of spears bristling infantry, regardless how armored or armed their rider is. Horses don't care if their rider is well protected or not, or what kind of weapon is wielding. At the time of the battle of Agincourt, brigandines were not common (they had just been invented). "common" means little anyway, in late medieval armies the quality of the protective gearing varied wildly. Many English longbowmen only had some sort of padded vest and an helmet ( https://78.media.tumblr.com/1306ef25e5adce23a62dc270f899fba9/tumblr_nwsa530hAp1qbrih3o1_1280.jpg ). Moreover Projectiles tend to came from above, and even good quality brigandines are not that well protected from that direction, the lorica hamata had a double layer on the shoulder, and the segmentata was much better protected than any brigandine. Brigandines' protection is, at best, at the level of that of the Lorica squamata, that was more a flashy garement for parades than a battle armor, and longbowmen didn't had shields. Ist century Roman armies had balista. Sige engines and gunpowder guns and cannons had not been used at Agincourt. Not that siege engines are so decisive in a pitched battle. A sling bullet can achieve ranges in excess of 400 metres. Their range was on par with longbows for any realistic use. Legionaries carried and used them, because slings were lightweight, cheap and effective. The cursus honorum was different. For the Romans to serve as an officer in the legion was not a meant to have a political career, a political career was something that only a successful officer could have. To be a good commander was the base of the political career. 1st centuries Roman armies were exceptionally well commanded. They were the peak of centuries of development in organised formation battles. From a Roman point of view, wedieval battles were only disorganized brawls. The first of the "couple of loose things" is incomprehensible, sorry. As already said, multiple times medieval cavalry charges had been stopped by infantry that had not long pikes and was much less disciplined than the Roman one. Cataphracts charged with spears, and their horses were better protected than average medieval ones. Stirrups had been ad advancement, but not a revolution.
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  6464. I already said the only times when knights beaten infantry was when the infantry was very undisciplined, chosen an unfavourable position, was bad led, etc. Dude, read about horses. They don't don't crush into dense packs of spears bristling infantry, infact dense packs of spears bristling infantry stopped them many times. Medieval knights had the advantage that usually they fought vs. very undisciplined militias, whose formations were very easy to disrupt. Square musketeers worked because horses dont crush into dense packs of spears bristling infantry. Sorry, they have a range of 400m. Slings outrange bows for purely physical reasons (bullets, even when they are simple stones, loose less energy than arrows during flight, are less influenced by wind too, and Romans often used lead bullets, far more energy efficient) . Denegate uncomfortable truths is not going to bring you anywere. Slings had been used in war well into medieval times. They stopped being only with the diffusion of crossbows. " I have slyngs smort and goode The best archer of ilk one I durst meet him with a stone And gif him lefe to shoot There is no bow that shall laste To draw to my slynges cast" ("King Edward and the Shepherd" 14th century poem) Sorry dude, but I know the difference between strategy, tactics and micro tactics, and I think that you simply don't recognise the difference between ancient and medieval battles. In Roman battle accounts you know the tactics they and their enemies used, because tactic was important for the Romans, and so they described them. In Medieval battle accounts, tactic was rarely described and, when it was, almost everything seemed to happen by chance, because tactic was not considered important (and infact armies were "led from the front" even in late medieval times). Roman officers were supposed to have been trained in tactic, medieval commanders weren't, and, again, medieval cavalry had problems even with medieval militia infantries, worse armored, commanded, and less disciplined than the Romans were. I already took Legnano as a sample. You said: "without them you can't charge with lance.". That's simply not true. Cataphracts charged with spears, and their horses were better protected than average medieval ones (because they were in ancient times, and they know organized infantries would have targeted the horses). Stirrups had been ad advancement, but not a revolution. With stirrups the knight could charge having more hitting power for his lance, but that's an advancement, not a revolution, because cavalry charges are not stopped opposing a human body to the tip of the lance but opposing a spear, an obstacle, or both, to the horse.
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  6465. You can write it some more time. It doesn't make it real. More, it can be reversed. It seems that Cavalry could win only when the enemy infantry chose an unfavourable position, chose to fight in loose formation, wasn't trained, didn't prepare the terrain or themself at all, even with simple tricks like grouping around a symbol (the Romans did, their insigna). You don't like Legnano? How about golden spurs? There the secret weapon was a 90-150 cm long spear-club that had not been particularly successful before or after? Humans are afraid, but humans can chose to act in a way that overcome fear, especially if they know that break the formation and flee will more easily led to their death. Discipline works this way, and Romans were disciplined. Infantries that medieval knights usually fought weren't. Sorry, but your whole reasoning about sling is just rubbish both from physical and real stand point. Arrows have a much larger drag coefficient due to the large surface area of the arrow shaft and feathers. This is reflected in the very low ballistic coefficient for an arrow compared to bullets. Moreover, sling bullets naturally spin in air, Arrows does not spin significatively during flight, so they loose speed first. Both ancient accounts and modern test states the longer range of the sling. Legionaries using slings in mass shooting is asserted both by ancient sources and modern archaeological findings, IE at Burnswark Hill. I didn't say medievals didn't use any tactic. I said that the importance of tactic vas less stressed in mediaval times, both in accounts, training, and method of command. Romans using tactic is not exactly a secret. Almost every account of Roman battles of contemporary authors described the tactic used. The tactic used in most medieval battles is not described, and often had to be guessed. Cavalry charges had been stopped/disrupted by short spears and simple ranged weapons. Infact the medieval chain of command wasn't apt to direct large battles. The larger the battle, the more the Roman advantage. You have not to "develop" the charge with lance under arm. It's fairly natural to use it that way on a horse. As already said stirrups had been ad advancement, but not a revolution. With stirrups the knight could charge having more hitting power for his lance, but cavalry charges are not stopped opposing a human body to the tip of the lance but opposing a spear, an obstacle, or both, to the horse. Actually the greater advantage of the stirrups came confronting with other riders, not infantrymen. I talked about PROTECTION FOR HORSES. The Cataphracts, on average armoured their horses much more than even late medieval knights. They lived at the peak of the era of organized infantry, and it was taken for granted that the enemy, infantry would have targeted the horses. Medieval knights were used to much softer targets.
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  6466. "But this is untrue." Only it's true. Medieval knights had the advantage that usually they fought vs. very undisciplined militias, whose formations were very easy to disrupt. The rare times disciplined (not Roman-level disciplined, only a little more disciplined than hastly formed militias) infantries showed up, they won. When disciplined infantries became the norm, it had been the end of the shock cavalry. "I just wrote that legnano prove my point." You can write it, that doesn't make it true. The Lombard league infantry was just barely more trained and motivated than the usual medieval infantry (it was a citizen's militia anyway), used the easiest trick one can think of to mantain the unity of the formation, and that had been enough. "You meant battle of when Flemish..."...were just barely more trained, motivated and armored than the usual medieval infantry (citizen's militia anyway), chose to not fight in the ideal cavalry's playground, and that had been enough. "Sorry but this is just theory" Sorry, but that's reality. That's how training and discipline works, and Legionaries were more trained and disciplined (and even better armored) than any medieval infantry. Cavalry charges were not stopped targeting the knights, but targetting the horses. "Just BS whole of it." You can ignore reality if you want, that doesn't change it. Arrows have a much larger drag coefficient due to the large surface area of the arrow shaft and feathers. This is reflected in the very low ballistic coefficient for an arrow compared to bullets. Moreover, sling bullets naturally spin in air, Arrows does not spin significatively during flight (a dozen revolutions a second means little), so they loose speed first. Both ancient accounts and modern test states the longer range of the sling. The shape of the arrow tip head has very little effect at subsonic speed. The form of the tail is more important, and unfortunately, due to the feathers, the arrow is very poor. The calculated drag coefficient under 100ms for arrows is around 2.0 (1.6 for modern day competition arrows with streamlined point and tail), while for bullets is between 0.2 and 0.3, and is around 0.5 for a sphere. The actual world record for sling throwing is 431m with a stone and 471m with a metallic bullet. "Im almost certain they meant auxilary slingers not main legionares." The ability of the Balearic slingers was legendary, but many bullets found had latin inscriptions on them and, again, the practice of the sling by legionaries had been reported. "You know this is logical error - absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" You know this is a logical error. You can'd adfirm something existed because there isn't any proof of it, and "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence". We KNOW because there are evidences of that, that tactic was important for the Romans. We know specialized works on tactic existed and were renown in Roman times. We know how Roman generals prepared the battle and reacted to the development of them. The importance of tactic vas less stressed in medieval times, both in accounts, training, and method of command, because the method of command used couldn't sustain any complex tactic. "Again give me some evidence of that" Already did. "Not true, in Medieval times there were no one rule" The "one rule" was that the medieval chain of command was too simple to effectively coordinate large armies. Still in late medieval times, and that's the case of Agincourt, the armies were led from the front. "you cant charge with lance under arms without stirrups, becasue you fall from horse." Falling or not from horse is only a question of how much force you impart to the hit. Thanks to the stirrups, Medieval knights could impart more force to their hits, even more than what a single arm could sustain, so they developed the lance rest (late 14th century). But, as already said, cavalry charges are not stopped opposing a human body to the tip of the lance but opposing a spear, an obstacle, or both, to the horse. Actually the greater advantage of the stirrups came confronting with other riders, not infantrymen. "Depend of the time, and knigts money." The time is that of the battle of Agincourt, and we can say that Cataphracts, ON AVERAGE (on average means that we are not confronting the richest and more armoured knight vs the poorest and less armoured cataphract, but what they used ON AVERAGE in battle) armoured their horses much more than even late medieval knights. "Tell how late pikemen in Brigandine..." Why should I? Late pikemen in brigandines were not even medievals, let alone the usual targets of medieval knights.
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  6467. "Funny beacuse you can say the same about romans" Really not. Romans lived at the peak of centuries of development of organized infantry battles, and usually won. "Give me one example of that," Already did. You only don't like them. Want more? Almogavars repeatedly beaten the French Cavalry, and all they generally had were a pair of javelins (with wich they targeted the horses), a short spear and a knife. "Partialy true." Heavy cavalry disappeared in short time. Light cavalry survived employing new tactics (like that of the Stradiots) that closely resembled those used by the Cavalry in Roman Times. "never discypline infantry with short sword ans shield defend against charge." Romans not only had short swords and shield. "From what I found they were good train and armored. And fact that you think that city militia was bad trains meant you dont know nothing." Unfortunately this reasoning shows that You know nothing. The infantry of the Lombard Legue, like the Flemish one, were barely at the level of the pre-Marian reform Roman Army (an army of non-professional, yet motivated, citizens. Barely because Romans had however a form of organized training since childhood). Professional Legionaries were completely different beasts. They were the ones that build 31km of fortifications (the Caesar's side) vs 28km (Pompey's side) at Dyrrhachium. War was not only their job. They already industrialized it. In middle age there had not been anything remotely comparable. "Sorry so you say that romans never run? never panicked?" Please, spare the straw men for someone else. "Yes, but must have posibility to target horse, with so short weapons you cant that. You only can attack horse after lanc hit first row and most of this row is dead." Horses don't crash into tight formations of spear bristling infantry. "You know that why people uses polearm and pikes?" Because that way to resist to charges is easier. Even Romans knew that. The "anti cavalry circle" was an emergency formation. At Pharsalus, foreseeing that Pompey would have tried to use his strong cavalry to break trough his right flank, Caesar prepared a line of spearmen. Having a little more time (few hours, not more) Romans could make any field completely impervious to cavalry. As already said, they already industrialised warfare. "Bla bla show me some proof" The Guinness book of records is not proof enough to you? Despite a much wider base of archers rehenactors none came close to 400m employing a longbow reproduction, while amateur slingers can exceed that distance even throwing simple stones. the drag coefficient of arrows had been calculated many times (IE H. O. Meyer "Applications of Physics to Archery", Physics Department, Indiana University, obtained 1.94 ± 0.14), that of bullets and spheres is available even on wikipedia. "Again proof." Again, it had been reported, and archaeological findings confirms it. "Again not all armiers were led from the front," Cavalry heavy armies usually were, unless the commander was too old for it. In this case often another, younger, one was chosen to lead the army from the front anyway. When the army was not led from the front, the command chain was however no notably different. The commander could see better, but not command better. And that's why those armies kept on being commanded from the front until late middle age. In Roman times a Tribune could take the initiative (and they often did, IE at Cynoscephalae), because he saw a good occasion, or a danger. In Medieval times each small group had the initiative because there was no way to coordinate them anyway. It was the only possibility. Please, do not invent "logic errors". Are you that are confusing simple or complex chain of command, with winning or losing at Agincourt. It's obvious that, even in a brawl, someone wins in the end. "Because importance of tactic was less stressed in medieval times dont meant that they dont use tactics and that individuals could not be great with command." But we are not talking about individuals. We are talking about a social and military system that valued tactic, described tactic, and produced specific works about tactic that the commanders were able to read and appreciated, with a social and military system that didn't. "That funny and show that you know nothing." That's funny and show that you know nothing. The lance rest was not used to simply hold the weight of the lance, but to arrest the rearward movement of the weapon.
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  6468. 1 I already did you all the infos. It simply seems that you refuse to read them, or your brain refuses to process them after you read. Physics is exactly the reason why longbows have shorter range than slings (compound bows outrange slings, but they weren't available at the time) 1,1 bows and crossbows HAD advantages over the sling, simply the range wasn't among them. Slings requires more training than bows to be used accurately (and crossbows requires even less training), so bows had an advantage for hunting and, once a society formed bowmen for hunting, it's easier to go further and train them for war than to replace the weapon entirely. Bows and crossbows can be used on ships and horses (slings requires space). Bowmen formations can be more packed (and so more easily protected by fences and trenches). But, in a confrontation between Romans and medievals, this has little meaning, because the Roman slingers were already trained. 2 You simply ignored all the examples given saying that they werent valid because the cavalry wasn't in it's ideal conditions, or because you didn't know them. Yeah. Romans used makeshift anti cavalry weapons. Or accurately prepared anti cavalry weapons. It was because they know what cavalry was and how to cope with it. That's exactly why cavalry is not a "win it all" weapon against them. 2,2 I already did actually. An armor is not some sort of impenetrable forcefield. Heavy armored late medieval knights had been killed by a lot of weapons that were not better at coping specifically with armors than those the Romans had. Falchions, daggers, short spears, and so on, even agricultural tools killed knights. 3 And, with those better charge techniques, longer lances, bigger horses ect. they had been stopped multiple times by infantry formations, less disciplined and trained than the Romans and without Swiss pikes. 4,1 Again, that's a straw men you built and continue to answer to. I never told of specific cases of bad leadership. I told of chain of command, literacy level, consideration for the tactic, education to it. "Yea, but in middle age there had been some gifted commander anyway" is not an answer like isn't "Romans lost this battle, so they were shit".
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  6469. 1 I gave you the info and the references. You simply decided to ignore them. Besides, YOU DIDN'T PROVIDE ANYTHING TO BACK YOUR CLAIMS 1.1 Sorry, but bows requires less training to be used accurately for hunting (where no super strong bows are required). Once your society has formed bowmen for hunting, it requires less time to obtain bowmen for war simply training them to use bows with heavier draw weight than to replace the weapon entirely. But, in a confrontation between Romans and medievals, this has little meaning, because the Roman slingers were already trained. 2 err... no. In neither of those battles the infantry was armed with "long poleweapons". In one they had normal spears no different from the ones the same Romans used (yeah, Romans knew spears and used them even if they weren't their primary weapon), in another they had short spears-clubs. As already said, Almogavars repeatedly beaten the French Cavalry, and all they generally had were a pair of javelins (with wich they targeted the horses), a short spear and a knife. They didn't search a terrain that was ideal for the cavalry to fight. Why should they had? Mind that Legnano was an "encounter battle", so the infantry prepared its line in haste. They didn't had the time to find any particular terrain. 2.2 You are so wrong. Plate armors are full of gaps to target. "half swording" infact was needed to be accurate enough to target them with a longsword. But to have knigtly weapons was no needed to kill a knight. Heavy armored late medieval knights had been killed by a lot of weapons that were not better at coping specifically with armors than those the Romans had. Falchions, daggers, short spears, and so on, even agricultural tools killed knights. 3 To call "idiotic" and "stupid" what you don't like, or understand, is not making you any favor. You are not particularly impressive, and the use of insults doesn't enhance the level of your arguments. Besides, "discipline is everything" is just another straw man of you. I never said it. If it's idiotic, it's only thank to you, because YOU wrote it. Yeah, medieval cavalry often won. But medieval cavalry NEVER faced a an infantry disciplined, trained, and tactically deployed at Roman level. When medieval cavalry faced an infantry that was barely above the level of "hastly formed militia" they were used to fight, the medieval cavalry often lost, and without the infantry having to use superweapons. Cavalry existed in Roman times. it's not like they didn't know horses. 4.1 To lie is not doing you any favor. I never told of specific cases of bad leadership. I told of chain of command, literacy level, consideration for the tactic, education to it. You simply didn't demonstrate "late medieval combine arms" having any superiority actually. Romans combined: ENGINEERING, heavy infantry, light infantry, heavy ranged weapons, light ranged weapons, cavalry, elephants sometimes, allied troops using their specific weapons and so on, deploying them in complex formations and purposedly tactically moving them during the fight at any level (from the single legionaries switching lines to entire legions moving). In many medieval battles it didn't seem there was any "coordination" actually, the troops only were there, and it's not suprising, since medieval armies were usually led from the front, where the commander couldn't coordinate anything.
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  6483.  @silver4831  I'm not forgetting. Here we were talking about HISTORICAL battlefields. Maybe you should have guessed reading about shields and warhammers, or the expression "War was a physical thing back then". Simply female soldiers, like any soldier, NOW are carried on the battlefield on truck and their job is to pull a trigger. Physical requirements to be an effective soldier had been changed by technology. NOW in many conflicts there are children soldiers too. They are cheap. That's because automatic firearms changed the conditions on the battlefield. IN THE PAST, to use children on a battlefield would have been considered ridiculous BEFORE being considered cruel. Because a dozen of children would not have been a threat for a single men. As for training, I already answered (you are being willfully ignorant about this?) "War was a physical thing back then, much more than now. It had nothing to do whit few minutes of sparring, and to have bigger muscles and more stamina was a HUGE advantage. Women, apart few exceptions, weren't taken to the battlefield for the same reasons children and old people didn't, because IRL, in a melee, a 50kg woman doesn't stand a chance vs a 70kg man unless she trained MUCH more, but training for troops is a resource. It's not free, it has a cost. If you need more training for female soldiers to reach the same levels of male ones, then you are using the resource "training" inefficiently. Almost any army that had a possibility on the matter estabilished minimum height and fitness standards. IE you had to be at least 1.65m high to join the Legion. That excluded many potential exceptional warriors? Yes, but training is a scarce resource, and it's inefficient to vaste it on the weaklings to search for the exceptions."
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  6533. This is a visit to the Pietta factory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdnbNJKJ9ZE As you can see, they use the same tooling to make their repro revolvers and their modern line of semiauto rifles and shotguns. They work in batches. "today revolvers, tomorrow semiauto rifles". It's obvious that those machines can make anything in between. A Fyodorov Avtomat like a M1 Carbine. They only need the right imput. They can make them BETTER actually. With more consistent tolerances than the originals EVER had. So why they don't do it? Because, while manufacturing is not really a problem, designing is. Manual repeaters (revolvers, lever actions...) solve a lot of problems, because timing is decided and force is applied by the shooter. In a semiauto/auto weapon there are a lot of bits that have to work togheter for the weapon to work. Much of those old designs required handfitting, because the admitted tolerances were so that, in a batch of supposedly identical parts, the right ones had to be chosen and coupled for the weapon to work. Worse, there was the "cascade matching" problem. When you took, IE, three parts that matched toghether, because they were all at one end of the tolerance scale, and then there was no fourth part that matched with them, because it should have been beyond the scale. It was a so common issue that, for the Winchester .224 prototype (the competitor of the AR15 in the CONARC competition) Winchester explicitly stated that they designed their rifle so that it couldn't happen. And we were in the late '50s. It was still a severe problem for the M60 MG. Modern CNC machines can't work like that. so the modern designer has to come out with his own completely different, set of admitted tolerances. Not to say that steel of the original composition is often unobtanium. The REAL problem is that most of those designs were not that great to begin with. Even the most successful ones, (IE, the M1 Carbine, to say one) were good FOR THEIR TIME. But the eventual purchaser of a modern repro would expect form it MODERN reliability and durability, otherwise "This is shit! The manufcturer scammed me!". For the designer of the repro, it's like a nightmare. To him is like designing a completely new weapon, with the adjunctive constraint that he can't choose the solutions he KNOWS will work flawlessly. He has to keep it consistent with original solutions that he know work "so-so". That's why modern repros, even when existing, mostly dont' have part interchangeability with the originals.
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  6563. The weapon was developed for the ground role. IT HAD NEVER BEEN INTENDED TO BE AN AIRCRAFT GUN. Less than four-hundred samples of more than 14.000 built saw limited use on aircrafts (at that time the Air Corp was a branch of the Army) waiting for the model to be in full scale production first than distributing it to the troops. It was supposed to be used with a shield, and with it it was plenty stable. https://modernfirearms.net/userfiles/images/smg/smg127/villar-perosa_1915_3.jpg That hole sight was literally the only hole in the shield. The weapon was designed to be a point weapon. Like a long range shotgun. Put it to surveil obligatory passages (alpine trails, openings in the barbed wire) and, when an enemy shows up, throw a short burst in his direction. With half a dozen 9mm Glisenti bullets in his body, he’ll think better. The MG-42 for example, with its 1200rpm ROF was designed with this job in mind. Not fire continuosly, but fire when you actually see the enemy. Given the charateristics of the two warfares, it was more suited the Villar Perosa to WWI (when you almost always had some obligatory passage to surveil) than the MG-42 to WWII. The weapon had been higly successful in the attack role too. So much that the Austrians copied it, double barrel, bipod and all. At the end of the conflict a total of 14.564 MGs had been produced (so, more than 29000 barrels, VS only about 5000 MP18), and 836 millions of 9mm Glisenti rounds for them. Mind this. THERE WAS NOTHING BETTER AROUND. When the guy with the Villar Perosa, after having thrown a couple of offensive grenades into the enemy trench to stun the enemies, came over the edge with the SMG in his hands to clear it, he didn’t find the guy with the MP18 waiting for him. Because there was not any MP18, or anything similar, there were only bolt action rifles and showels. What he had in his hands was incredibly better for that role than anything the enemy had. After having adopted the Villar Perosa, the Italians took almos three years to field the MAB18 (that were nothing more than a single Villar Perosa barrel mounted on a Moschetto TS stock) not because the Villar Perosa was unsatisfactory, but because it was so satisfactory that none felt the urge to modify it.
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  6637. The bolt carrier is the part where the recoil spring acts, the proper bolt, or bolt head, is the part in contact with the cartridge and that has the extractor, and so pushes the cartridge in the chamber and extract the spent case. The MG42 is a short recoil weapon, but its not a simple short recoil weapon, like a semiauto pistol, where there is a single piece bolt that recoils at the same speed of the barrel until the barrel stops and the bolt continues snatching the case out of the chamber. The MG 42 instead have a system whose purpose is to slow down the bolt head in respect to the bolt carrier, when the bolt separates from the barrel, to prevent extraction problems, cause pure short recoil systems (like those used in handguns) and long bottleneck cartridges doesn't match well. The rollers on the MG42, like the inclined surfaces on the MG34, or the accelerators on the M1919 and Breda SAFAT, are not bells and whistles added cause they were nice. All those systems are complications added to prevent the extraction problems that a simpler short recoil system /like that of a semiauto pistol) would have had. As for the Breda 30, its not like the Breda technicians really didn't know what they were doing, and didn't think to enhance the locking time, is that that wasn't the problem. The "simpler" solution would have been to not make the locking ring rotate at all (it should have acted like a simple barrel extension), and adopt a two piece bolt, with a rotating bolt head (to unlock it from the barrel) and a not rotating bolt carrier/striker that is pushed back at double the speed of the bolt head due to inclined surfaces, like in a SIA1918 - or in a MG34.
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  6689.  @tylerstevenson8085  You stated: "the majority of sea trade was done by shallow hulled coastal ships" like it was of some significance. The majority of people didn't ride horses, so horses didnt' exist? I feel like you're glossing over the entire point of this comment chain The original comment said that romans lost 100.000 men in a storm in 255 BC, so, since the Med. is calmer than the Atlantic, Roman ships could have not gotten anywere near to America. Now: 1) "Roman times" is not all the same. Third century BC was at the very beginning of the Roman experiences at sea. 2) Vikings surely knew how to navigate the Atlantic, but Mediterranean storms sunk their ships too. It's not like navigating the Med is a joke, and the Atlantic is the real thing. 3) Romans normally sailed through the ocean in Imperial time. Another one, but ocean neverthless. Then you came and blabbered some nonsense about the sea route from India to Rome not being a Sea route because the city of Rome couldn't be reached directly from India by Sea. Now you are talking of percentages like you really know something about them. There were Roman commercial outposts in southern India and, while ancient sources talk about how to reach them by sea, none talks about how to reach them by land because, face that, MOST of the commerce with India was made by sea because, AS ALWAYS, commerce by sea was HUGELY more economically efficient. It seems you are more than a little confused. I never stated the Romans were capable of "accurately and safely" doing anything. The original comment said that romans lost 100.000 men in a storm in 255 BC, so, since the Med. is calmer than the Atlantic, Roman ships could have not gotten anywere near to America. Now: 1) "Roman times" is not all the same. Third century BC was at the very beginning of the Roman experiences at sea. 2) Vikings surely knew how to navigate the Atlantic, but Mediterranean storms sunk their ships too. It's not like navigating the Med is a joke, and the Atlantic is the real thing. 3) Romans normally sailed through the ocean in Imperial time. Another one, but ocean neverthless.
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  6763.  @Silver_Prussian  It seems more the Russian one, judging by dead and wounded soldiers left rotting on the field. Yes, they were, and badly lost by Russia. all of them. That's what Russian schools teach? Sorry. The Crimean war had been fought to avoid Russia to take advantage of the Ottoman weakness to expand in the Balkans. French and British didn't want to "get Crimea or establish any foothold in the black sea" (had they wanted, they would have, since their fleets had no problem in doing everything they wanted for the duration of the war in the Black sea). They wanted to demonstrate Russia its expansionism could led to lose something more important than what it could gain, and they succeeded. Despite the poor management of the war, by the French and Brits (the Crimean war is considered among the lowest points reached by Western military proveness) the Russians, despite being on the defensive on their home soil, had about double their casualties (because that's the Russian way of fighting) and, once Sevastopol had been taken, in front of the perspective of losing Crimea, Russia sued for peace, and "all the parts of the Ottoman territory of which the Russian troop were in possession". Russia returned the Southern Bessarabia to Moldavia and had to "not establish any naval or military arsenal on the Black Sea coast". BTW, other than having been beaten at home by an expeditionary force had been an evident humiliation for Russia (no compulsory disarmament had ever been imposed on a great power previously...). It's not curious how the Crimean war is considered an example of abysmal management of military affairs for western countries, despite they had been evidently superior to their adversary? It's like the Russians being shit at fighing is taken for granted. Oh, you found an example of a battle the Russians won? How impressive... 😂I could have given you some other example had you asked. What the "Russians love" fucked them in the Crimean WAR, Russo-Japanese WAR, First World WAR, Afghanistan WAR...
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  6797.  @narnia1233  Sorry, but LOTR doesn't "switch to a 'new' character. Even without any mention of them before" at mid movie, so you can't take it as an example of that. So, to you, they have to completely invent a story for Frealaf. How that should be better than inventing a story for Helm's daughter, apart for the fact that's disjointed with Helm's story? What successful fantasy movie switches at mid movie from a main character to another previously mentioned only in passing letters? I don't know how much more simply I can explain this. You would prefer this movie to be made in a way NO SUCCESSFUL MOVIE HAD EVER BEEN MADE only for the sake to erase a character that Tolkien mentioned and whose presence doesn't contraddict any lore. The multiple POV of LOTR (movie, not book, that has an objective narrator) is made of characters that have all been introduced, have interacted and had a part in the story BEFORE having a POV. How inventing stories for multiple characters we know nothing of should be better than inventing a story for Helm's daughter? Intelligent or not, no successful fantasy movie had ever been done the way you propose. Honestly this is kind of depressing to me that I seriously have to explain this to anyone. It kind of makes me realize how much “modern audience” became an empty slogan, since you used it to negatively describe the way movies had ALWAYS been made. I guess it does make sense that you simply want a certain character to not be used no matter what. At the cost of making a movie in a way no successful fantasy movie had EVER been made, and to completely invent events as well, but simply for other characters that you prefer to see. Everything to not see her. At the cost of making a movies in a way none had been made before. Again, in what way inventing stories about a character instead of another would better the movie? Ok, now you are inventing the POV of Saruman. Sorry, id doesn't exist, nor in the books, nor in the movie. Sorry, but you dont' know the stories "I'm used to" and you shouldn't guess. You are simply advocating for this movie to be made in a way no successful fantasy movie had been made before, only to not have a certain character you dislike on screen.
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  6798.  @narnia1233  And what does your sex change? It doesn't solve the fact that this daughter has to do SOMETHING before switching to her POV after Helm's deat, and Frealaf has to do SOMETHING before switching to his POV before the final battle, otherwise the public DON'T CARE about those new guys, and there needs to be some INTERACTION between the characters before the switch. so you have to INVENT actions for two characters instead of one. Between Helm's death (frozen in the middle of winter) and Frealaf 's arrival (in spring) this daughter, whose POV we are following, has to do something. This is an action movie, it can't be the POV of someone that's simply freezing her ass waiting. So, what does exactly change? In movies the events are narrated from the POV of the characters. Those characters need to have AGENCY, they need to have MOTIVATIONS for what they do. it's basic screenwriting. A character without agency is a cardboard stand-in, it doesn't have depth. A character with agency has ambitions, motivations, and a sense of purpose. That's what makes the public root for them. One of the main fault of "modern screenwriting" is that the characters often DON'T HAVE AGENCY. Since they are "kind of character driven" and not "story driven" characters do things only because the plot says so. A story-driven plot is not a plot where a character doesn't have motivations, because one of the purposes of the story is precisely to give motivations to the characters. Aragorn doesn't arrive out of nowhere for the public. They KNOW him. Imagine the same movie, where, instead of Aragorn, it's a certain Poldo Smith that arrives out of nowhere, kicks Gríma Wormtongue out of the palace, and everyone lived happily ever after. Imagine the return of the king where, when Frodo was struggling through the Dead Marshes, Timmy Ross arrives out of nowhere, takes the ring, and takes Frodo's place from then on. What kind of movie will it be? The events are two paragraphs long. There are not enough events for a movie. In the appendixes version EVERY CHARACTER IS A SIDE CHARACTER. Every nominated character beside Helm (that dies in the middle of the war) DOESN'T HAVE A STORY so of what events are you talking about?
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  6881. The problem was the number. Mongols conquered many fortified cities, and many fortresses located in strategic points. Because they were important and worth the effort. Because even having the right equipment and know-how, to take even a small fortress needed weeks, or months, and a far larger army. That's why they had been so successful for so long. It was a very expensive warfare for the attackers. In western Europe there were tens of thousands of fortresses whose garrisons were capable to resist for weeks or months against far larger armies, and dividing the horde in multiple small columns to attack many fortresses at the same time was a bad idea. Already in the first invasion, it had been noticed that Europeans tended to win small scale engagements. The real difference was the Mongol chain of command, capable to effectively cohordinate tens of thousands of men in pitched battles, while European commanders still led from the front, so knew what was happening only close to them. In the subsequent attempts of invasion, Hungarians and Poles exploited that advantage. They built more fortresses, increased the number of mounted units, and divided the campaign into multiple small engagements instead of seeking big pitched battles. Then there is the fact that in Europe, praires ends in Hungary (that's why both the Huns and the Hungars came there before the Mongols). Western Europe was more forested, and so much less favourable to steppe riders. Mongols had big problems in Indochina and Korea because of that.
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  6899. Actually it had been an higly successful weapon. The weapon was developed for the ground role. IT HAD NEVER BEEN INTENDED TO BE AN AIRCRAFT GUN. Less than four-hundred samples of more than 14.000 built saw limited use on aircrafts (at that time the Air Corp was a branch of the Army) waiting for the model to be in full scale production first than distributing it to the troops. It was supposed to be used with a shield, and with it it was plenty stable. https://modernfirearms.net/userfiles/images/smg/smg127/villar-perosa_1915_3.jpg That hole sight was literally the only hole in the shield. The weapon was designed to be a point weapon. Like a long range shotgun. Put it to surveil obligatory passages (alpine trails, openings in the barbed wire) and, when an enemy shows up, throw a short burst in his direction. With half a dozen 9mm Glisenti bullets in his body, he’ll think better. The MG-42 for example, with its 1200rpm ROF was designed with this job in mind. Not fire continuosly, but fire when you actually see the enemy. Given the charateristics of the two warfares, it was more suited the Villar Perosa to WWI (when you almost always had some obligatory passage to surveil) than the MG-42 to WWII. The weapon had been higly successful in the attack role too. So much that the Austrians copied it, double barrel, bipod and all. At the end of the conflict a total of 14.564 MGs had been produced (so, more than 29000 barrels, VS only about 5000 MP18), and 836 millions of 9mm Glisenti rounds for them. Mind this. THERE WAS NOTHING BETTER AROUND. When the guy with the Villar Perosa, after having thrown a couple of offensive grenades into the enemy trench to stun the enemies, came over the edge with the SMG in his hands to clear it, he didn’t find the guy with the MP18 waiting for him. Because there was not any MP18, or anything similar. There were only bolt action rifles and showels. What he had in his hands was incredibly better for that role than anything the enemy had. After having adopted the Villar Perosa, the Italians took almos three years to field the the MAB18 (that were nothing more than a single Villar Perosa barrel mounted on a Moschetto TS stock) not because the Villar Perosa was unsatisfactory, but because it was so satisfactory that none felt the urge to modify it.
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  6948.  @leary4  He was talking of plastic ammos in respect to brass. You replied with an argument that's valid only talking of caseless annos in respect to brass. Plastic shields the chamber from the heat of the burning powder MUCH better than brass, because brass is a thermal conductor and plastic is an insulator. Heat remains in gasses, and it's expelled from the barrel with them, because also gasses are very bad at heat transfer. What the chamber is made for doesn't matter, it can't change physics. The chamber is physically part of the barrel (it's obtained in the same piece of metal) they are not two separated parts. A cooler chamber means a cooler barrel and a cooler receiver. Plastic seal better than metal. There's no doubt about it. Your same statement about the brass cases "breathing" means they are a poorly sealed. Since plastic seals better, it shields better powder from umidity, that's what ruins it. Shotgun's ammos are ammos. They seal the hot gasses the same way and are extracted the same way than bottleneck ammos. Yes, there is the effect of the bullet dragging the barrel with him. It's caused by the same friction of the bullet into the barrel (enhanced by the rifling). If the barrel is not attached to the receiver, when the bullet is fired, the barrel goes forward with the bullet. If it's attached to the receiver, the same force mitigates the recoil. That's why blow-forward weapons, like the Schwarzlose M1908 are notoriously recoil-enhancers. You can try to force a bullet down a barrel by hand while at the same time helding the barrel steady by hand. When you fire the gun, the combustion gasses provide the effort to force the bullet down the barrel, but the effort you needed to hold the barrel steady doesn't magically disappear. It mitigates the recoil. You can see him firing this in full ato at 4:04. He didn't fire in full auto the SIG bid, and it's enough to see how much the rifle kicked in semiauto to know why. Thank you.
    1
  6949.  @leary4  Combustion results in x amount of heat. Brass is a thermal conductor, and subtract that heat from gasses (where it's useful, since more heat= more expansion) transfering it to the chamber (where it's detrimental, since the results of heating the weapon go from discomfort to overheat). Plastic is an insulator, so heat remains in gasses, that expand more. That's why, with plastic cases, they need less powder for the same amount of energy transfered to the bullet. Heat then leaves the barrel with the same gasses, since the gasses too are bad at heat transfer (that's why you dont get burn immediately putting a hand in a owen, but you do touching a piece of metal in it). So gaskets shouldn't exist. Put two pieces of the same metal togheter, and they'll seal perfectly. It doesn't work like that. Materials that seal better, seal better, and plastic seal MUCH better than brass. They are not even comparable. It's not the air in the shell that "makes combustion possible". Gun propellants are not fuels, that need air to burn. They are explosives. They already contain all the chemical components for the combustion to happen. Also thermal expansion is not a wanted effect. The fact that plastic expands less than metal with temperature is better, since it makes the dimensions of the ammo more consistent. The fact that the bullet tends to drag the barrel with it is the reason short recoil pistols have less perceived recoil than blowbacks of the same caliber. Because the bullet tending to push the barrel forward, while barrel and slide are linked toghether, slow down the rear motion of the slide and so the slide slams in the frame with less energy. On Youtube Schwarzlose M1908 had been tested, IE, by Ian of "Forgotten weapons" and he also talked about how much the pistol kicked.
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  6956. ​ @Tom-zc9gs  As already said, I prefer to rely on the original wartime reports of those that had to daily fight the weapon and had extensively tested it, comparing with their own, than modern armchair impressions of those that had seen it firing once in a clip. "Machine carbine" is what the MP44 was. it's not like since the term "assault rife" imposed itself later, then who used "machine carbine" didn't understand the weapon. Between the MP44 and the M2 Carbine (select fire M1, it's not like at Aberdeen didn't know them) I would have selected the M2. The Mp44 WAS heavy (it was heavier than a FAL or an M14. 1.2kg heavier than an AK47 unloaded. 2.1kg heavier than a M2 carbine, almost double its weight) in exchange of what? The fact that it's concepts (but not the gun) imposed themself after the war didn't mean it was a superior weapon at the time. Also, the fact that the Tactical and Technical Trends criticised a good weapon, it's not a proof that they tended to praise bad weapons. Quite the contrary infact. There's an obvious bias in favour of what one knows. The weapons of the enemy had to pass that bias to be considered good. The Breda 37 had been considered exceptional DESPITE the bias, not thanks to it. The hindsight of successive weapon designs and industrial development has nothing to do with wartime weapons and conditions. Its misleading and has to be left out. A weapon doesn't become good in WWII because it's development had been good in Korea. The supposed problems of the Italian army have nothing to do with the quality of the Breda 37. It was an MG, not an army. Nor those that used it daily nor those that tested it as a weapon of the enemy noticed this supposed unreliability nor this "constant necessity of maintenance", nor those problematic features. The weapon had always been deemed to be very reliable and simple to mantain.
    1
  6957.  @Tom-zc9gs  Those that used daily it used it in the sands of Egypt and the snow of Russia, and deemed it to be very reliable. None noticed this supposed "lot of work to maintain on the field of battle" or that "Other MGs had far more reliability in the same conditions". It seems like something you decided by yourself. Canvas belts had been dropped as well, aren't they? One can invent supposed "general problems" of belts without taking in consideration the weapon he'stalking about at will. Judge them without having ever touched one, decide they are easy to damage... talking of the strips being "hard to keep clean and running" in comparison with belts is really funny anyway. 500m? Please. 90% of rifle exchanges in WWII had been fought at less than 100m, and 99% at less than 300m. So what's the use of doubling the weight for something that's useful in maybe 1% of the cases? And ist's not like the .30 carbine is harmless over 300m. Even a 9mm Para can still pass completely through a human body at 500m. Between the MP44 and the M2 Carbine (select fire M1, it's not like at Aberdeen didn't know them) I would have selected the M2. The Mp44 WAS heavy (it was heavier than a FAL or an M14. 1.2kg heavier than an AK47 unloaded. 2.1kg heavier than a M2 carbine, almost double its weight) in exchange of what? The fact that it's concepts (but not the gun) imposed themself after the war didn't mean it was a superior weapon at the time. the "tons of improvements that could be made" had not been made yet, it was the Mp44 that had to be judged, not "tons of possible improvements". Still in 1958 the contender of the AR15 was the Winchester Light Weight Military Rifle, a classic wooden-stocked forged-receiver rifle (and it could have won, the testers listed many advantages over the AR15) and, guess what? Both contenders had weights comparable to that of the M2, not that of the Mp44. A rifle really similar to the M2 Carbine was still a contender, an Mp44 would not have even been considered. The Mini14 is still appreciated now, and it's largely the same rifle, What modern weapon is really similar to the Mp44 as the Mini14 is similar to the M2?
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  7057.  @1mcg1  One of the Russians attacked the Ukrainians in the video. It doesn't need ANY other attack for all of them to be killed where they were. The men on the ground participating in the attack doesn't have any importance. That's only a "a posteriori" consideration". In a fight, you don't look for what enemy is shooting at you and who hasn't started yet. The only concern a soldiers is required to have is for his own safety and that of his unit. Not for that of the enemy. The bodies being in the same position where they were before the attack, or having been moved, doesn't logically have ANY importance in deciding their death having been an execution or not. Executed men can be (and usually are) moved before the execution. Not executed men can be (and usually are) shot were they are. They were held at gunpoint, apparently in the same positions, by a machinegun. It can very well mean that they had been killed rapidly, with a single bursts, during the fight. Sorry, but psicological interpretations of the attitude of the Swedes don't have any importance. One can say that, since they love the Ukrainians, they idolized them and want them to hold to higher standards than what's simply required by the laws of war. IT DOESN'T HAVE ANY IMPORTANCE. What counts are facts, not how Swedes, Australians or Martians interpret them. If Europe and US will lose interest in Ukraine based on something that's not a war crime, that will not make it a war crime. Facts are not changed by the consequences.
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  7233. The problem was the number. Mongols conquered many fortified cities, and many fortresses located in strategic points. Because they were important and worth the effort. Because even having the right equipment and know-how, to take even a small fortress needed weeks, or months, and a far larger army. That's why they had been so successful for so long. It was a very expensive warfare for the attackers. In western Europe there were tens of thousands of fortresses whose garrisons were capable to resist for weeks or months against far larger armies, and dividing the horde in multiple small columns to attack many fortresses at the same time was a bad idea. Already in the first invasion, it had been noticed that Europeans tended to win small scale engagements. The real difference was the Mongol chain of command, capable to effectively cohordinate tens of thousands of men in pitched battles, while European commanders still led from the front, so knew what was happening only close to them. In the subsequent attempts of invasion, Hungarians and Poles exploited that advantage. They built more fortresses, increased the number of mounted units, and divided the campaign into multiple small engagements instead of seeking big pitched battles. Then there is the fact that in Europe, praires ends in Hungary (that's why both the Huns and the Hungars came there before the Mongols). Western Europe was more forested, and so much less favourable to steppe riders. Mongols had big problems in Indochina and Korea because of that.
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  7301.  @paoloviti6156  "modification" in VERY broad terms, since it had double the row and more than double the power. "Hence" means nothing when the engines are so different. The reliability problems were on the first engines produced. Those of well known engines like the BMW 801 or the P&W R2800 lasted for longer before being ironed out. It has to be taken into account that, due to the different productive capability, the "first engines that gave problems" (a common occurrence in WWII era) were an higher percentage of the total production for the Italians, even if they were numerically fewer. The TBO of Italian licenced DB engines was of 60 hours. Packard Merlins rarely lasted 100 hours (and, due to the different mission profiles, most of those hours were at military/emergency power for Italian engines and at cruise speed for Packard Merlins). The P&W R-2800 started service with an expected life of 25 hours (then the 5 cylinders in top rear position had to be replaced without even checking them, while, for the DBs, at the overhaul the cylinders were checked and rebored only if needed). Only some thousands engines later it became of several hundreds hours, then of thousands. The difference between the outstanding P&W R-2800 and the unreliable Alfa Romeo 135 was that the US could afford to put in service an engine that required to toss 5 cylinders every 25 hours of functioning. The RR Merlin had nominally a 240 hours TBO but according to Rolls-Royce, if 30% of engines were reaching overhaul life and, no single cause made-up more than 30% of rejections, then it was time for an increase of maximum engine life.That means that 70% of the RR Merlins didn't even reach TBO, and that was late in the war when, again, much of the time the engine was at cruise speed.
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  7475.  @Gaspard129  Sorry, it seems to me that you answered before really having understood my post, so, please, try reading slower this time. "our entire inventory of machine guns was in .30-06, dude..." And so? If I SPECIFICALLY said that the .30-06 SHOULD HAVE BEEN USED ONLY FOR THE MMGs, what's the problem if "our entire inventory of machine guns was in .30-06"? Reason more. There were more than enough of them to use the inventory of .30-06 ammos, so the fact that there were many .30-06 ammos already in the arsenals WAS A FALSE PROBLEM. "And you think the different ammunition for aerial, naval, ground service is of no importance..." As a matter of fact, despite having been througly bombed, among the many shortcomings the Italian army suffered, there had NEVER been a shortcoming of ammo production. Italian aircrafts and ships always took off and set sails with the magazines at full capacity. That's because, in respect to the number of rifle caliber ammos the Army needs, the number .303 needed by the aviation was completely residual. As a matter of fact (2) the .303 was a residual caliber for the aviation that had almost entirely switched to the 12.7X81, and, since the Italian Army, like the German one, didn't use weapons in .50 caliber (the next step from the 8mm Breda was the 20×138mmB Long Solothurn) what the Air force did chose was completely indifferent. As a matter of fact (3) the residual use of 13.2mm by the Navy didn't cause any problem because, having switched to the 20×138mmB Long Solothurn for almost all the units since the mid '30s, the Navy already had enough 13.2 rounds in the inventory, for the few units that still used it in WWII, to supply them for not one but two world wars. "To your point about a lighter rifle/lmg cartridge like .30 Remington and heavier mmg cartridge like .30-06, this makes sense from a tactical perspective. It potentially creates a serious complication from a strategic level..." Again, since the .30-06 was not really satisfactory for any use other than in MMGs, the US Army ENDED UP USING TWO RIFLE CALIBERS ANYWAY, with the only difference that NONE of the two calibers was really optimal for the riflemen, being the .30-06 too heavy and the .30 Carbine too light. So what was specifically the logistical problem in having TWO good calibers, one for MMGs (the .30-06) and one for riflemen and LMGs (a kind of .30 Remington), instead of having TWO so-so calibers? McArthur simply made a mistake.
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  7478.  @Gaspard129  Now let me spell it for you. 1) the Italian army used TWO rifle cartridges exactly like the US one. That's factual. They took that decision having judged the 6.5 Carcano / 7.35 Carcano a good cartridge for individual rifles and LMGs but not for MMGs. You are none to judge if they were right, or if they benefited from it or not. Your strictly personal opinion on the matter has exactly ZERO factual value. 2) The Italian army decided to use TWO rifle calibers in 1935, BEFORE their entry in WWII. The US Army decided to use TWO rifle calibers in 1940, BEFORE their entry in WWII. What was special in 1932 so that it was not possible to take that decision then? The oh-so-cash-strapped US Army, back then, was adopting a new, semiauto (because semiautos were notoriously poor men's rifles in the '30s) rifle, and the moment to change the service cartridge is usually EXACTLY when a new rifle is adopted. Italian Army used TWO rifle cartridges in WWII exactly like the US one, with the difference that the Italian cartridges were strictly separated, ONE for MMGs, ONE for rifles and LMGs. US had one for MMG, LMGs and rifles, and another for other rifles. Who "made for unnecessary complication"? (your very personal opinion on tangible benefits has little value). McArthur was obviously wrong in sticking to .30-06, since the US Army had to adopt another cartridge 8 years later, finding itself with two rifle cartridges, none of them really satisfactory when used by riflemen and LMGs.
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  7480.  @Gaspard129  I've clearly offended your (ignorant) sensibilities pointing out that you pretended to talk about Italy's logistic situation in World War 2 without knowing anything about it, as you are now ignoring, or you are simply too stupid to understand, that I talked about decisions made by US , Netherlands and Sweden at the same time. You clearly are unable to understand that the Italian Army used two rifle cartridges in WWII like the US Army did. You are clearly clutching at straw, pretending your very personal opinion on relative convenience of cartridges for bolt action rifles to count for something in respect to the opinion of the people that HAD to operate them. You are clearly unable to understand that, deciding a round for a rifle in 1932, it would have fielded with the rifle, not before it, and the decision to stick with the wrong caliber in 1932 led to have to use two not-so-great calibers in 1940. Other than not even understanding even what a "rifle caliber machine gun" is, since you put .50 caliber MGs in it, you are not even able to understand that every army, US one included, has a residual use of old weapons in old calibers. You are evidently simply too ignorant and stupid to judge if the Italian Army benefited to have a heavier caliber for MMGs or not. Your strictly personal opinion on the matter has exactly ZERO factual value. Oh, sorry, I forgot to mention Norway among the nations that, in WWII, used an heavier round for MMGs (Colt M/29 in 7.92X61 Norwegian) and kept 6.5 Swedish for BOLT ACTION rifle. Now answer this question, my idiot friend. Since Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and Norway decided to stick to 6.5 for BOLT ACTION rifles, and use an heavier round for MMGs. What army fielded a MMG in 6.5 in WWII?
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  7652. We'll never know what really happened to the Hood, but vs. the Prince of Wales, that had serious teething problems that silenced all of his guns bar one, the Bismarck received worse damages that it inflicted. "still floating" is not that a great result. The very low metacentric height made the Bismarck almost impossible to capsize (in return it made it a poor shooting platform, due to the very short roll time), but the ship was sinking anyway, only slower. The Dorsetshire's torpedo actually hit the superstructure (near to the catapult), because the ship's superstructure was already underwater. Much shells hit it, but the battle had been already over in quite a few minutes. "Most of the British shells struck the forward superstructure of Bismarck with the hits late in the action simply rearranging the debris created by earlier shell hits." The ship's four turrets scheme was quite outdated. For a ship that big it lacked system's redundance and the lack of pumps and valves between the fuel tanks was a major flaw (a single hit on a tank, and the ship was condemned to leak fuel until drydocked), her two rudders were placed so close that it was near to impossible a hit damaging the first wouldn't damage the second too. It shared a design flaw with all the Germans' major ships of her generation, that made her stern section too fragile. The AA fire proved to be ineffective. The very high pressure engines gave her long endurance, but proved to be problematic on any German ship that lived enough.
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  7766.  @chisome8465  You are really sporting credentials on a Youtube comment section? LOL! First than accusing someone of "lying" you should at least understand what he's saying, a thing you are evidently unable to do. You can check the Libu chief depicted on the throne of Ramesses III, light skinned tatooed and with an hooked nose. Egyptians actually depicted Libyans as having a fairer skin than themselves, and that makes sense, since the "Egyptian" type was a medium between the inhabitants of upper (closer to Nubia) and lower (Mediterranean) Egypt, while the Libyans were all Mediterranean. The Egyptians depicted themselves as VERY different form the Nubian neighbors, that had dark skin and typical black traits, while the other Mediterranean civilizations were depicted as Egyptians with a different hat (and maybe beard, and a hooked nose). You don't have to use " the word you westerners use to group us". None but you is doing that. As already said: "So why not use a North African actor to play the part of a North African general? There is scarcity of them? How much do you bet that the part of Massinissa will NOT be played by a Berber, but it will be played by someone of black African descent too? Why this need to cancel the other African cultures?" West africa, Nigeria, Etiopia and so on ARE NOT NORTH AFRICA. Sicily, heck, even Berlin, is closer to Chartage than Nigeria. N. Africa being Black before the Arab invasion is 100% bullshit. You stated "I’m talking about before anyone came!", not "before the Greeks came". It' not my fault if you are unable to write. Again, you don't know what the color of the skin of the neolithic inhabitants of N. Africa was, or how much straight was their nose.
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  7823. The weapon was developed for the ground role. IT HAD NEVER BEEN INTENDED TO BE AN AIRCRAFT GUN. Less than four-hundred samples of more than 14.000 built saw limited use on aircrafts (at that time the Air Corp was a branch of the Army) waiting for the model to be in full scale production first than distributing it to the troops. It was supposed to be used with a shield, and with it it was plenty stable. https://modernfirearms.net/userfiles/images/smg/smg127/villar-perosa_1915_3.jpg That hole sight was literally the only hole in the shield. The weapon was designed to be a point weapon. Like a long range shotgun. Put it to surveil obligatory passages (alpine trails, openings in the barbed wire) and, when an enemy shows up, throw a short burst in his direction. With half a dozen 9mm Glisenti bullets in his body, he’ll think better. The MG-42 for example, with its 1200rpm ROF was designed with this job in mind. Not fire continuosly, but fire when you actually see the enemy. Given the charateristics of the two warfares, it was more suited the Villar Perosa to WWI (when you almost always had some obligatory passage to surveil) than the MG-42 to WWII. The weapon had been higly successful in the attack role too. So much that the Austrians copied it, double barrel, bipod and all. At the end of the conflict a total of 14.564 MGs had been produced (so, more than 29000 barrels, VS only about 5000 MP18), and 836 millions of 9mm Glisenti rounds for them. Mind this. THERE WAS NOTHING BETTER AROUND. When the guy with the Villar Perosa, after having thrown a couple of offensive grenades into the enemy trench to stun the enemies, came over the edge with the SMG in his hands to clear it, he didn’t find the guy with the MP18 waiting for him. Because there was not any MP18, or anything similar, there were only bolt action rifles and showels. What he had in his hands was incredibly better for that role than anything the enemy had. After having adopted the Villar Perosa, the Italians took almos three years to field the MAB18 (that were nothing more than a single Villar Perosa barrel mounted on a Moschetto TS stock) not because the Villar Perosa was unsatisfactory, but because it was so satisfactory that none felt the urge to modify it.
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  8030.  @LilSwinney  Yes. it's how it works. Had the Canadians tought their ammos were useful to keep their rifles working, they could have easily kept them. Nothing more difficult than to say "our rifles don't work with your ammos, sorry". The Brits had no interest in having some hundred of thousand soldiers on the frontline with useless rifles and, even had they been those cartoonish bad guys you are depicting, they were not in position to impose anything, because they need Canadian men and materials, not the contrary. And please, don't invent supply line issues. To supply the Canadians with their own manufactured ammos was not more difficult than supply the Canadians with their own manufactured rifles. Canadians had been able to keep their rifles, hadn't they? They had been able to IMPOSE the use of their Ross rifles, while the Brits were using Enfields, hadn't they? The supply lines supplied them with spare parts for the Ross, even if the Brits used another rifle, didn't they? Logistically it was a pain in the ass, but THE BRITS COULD DO NOTHING ABOUT IT. Because the Ross had been Canada's choice and the Canadians wanted to use it. Now you are telling me that the supply line could supply them with their rifles, their spare parts, their specific Canadian made uniform, their specific Canadian made webbing, their specific Canadian made showels, every piece of their equipment that was different from the British one, but was unable to supply them with their ammos? They had a sudden amnesia on how to delivery items when it came to rounds? What kind of shitty supply line the Canadians had?
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  8037. A "huge success"? Between 1991 and 1998 less than 14.000 NSX had been manufactured in total, and only an handful had been made after that date. ALMOST HALF OF THE TOTAL PRODUCTION HAD BEEN MADE IN 1991 ALONE.That means that the total retail price of all the NSX sold (not even counting that actually HONDA collected only a small part of that price, that included transport, taxes, dealer's percentage, etc...) didn't even came close to repay it's design costs. Not to say the actual building costs (almost half of the total production made in the first year means that the DEDICATED plant that built the NSX had been hugely overbuilt in respect to the actual production numbers reached every year after the first one. It's easy to say that probably Honda payed every NSX more than its retail price in building costs alone). The NSX had been, at best, a technological demonstrator, not a car that could be profitable in any way and, sales-wise it had been a flop, as demonstrated by the demand tanking just after a year of production. The MR2 spyder had been a variant of a car that sold in the hundred of thousands and had been evolved through three generations. The S2000 was an attempt to intercept part of the market of the Miata. Thus selling more than 100.000 samples, it ultimately failed at that, and so, after the mid-age facelift, the plans for a second generation had been scrapped. If one, the NSX demonstrated that make profits selling mid engined sportscars is a VERY difficult task. Kudos to Ferrari, Porsche and Lotus for succeeding in it.
    1
  8038. The Porsche 964 (1989-1994) had been produced in 62.172 samples. The 993 (1994-1998) had been produced in 68.029 samples. The 996 (1997-2004) had been produced in 175.262 samples. Porsche sold more 911 every year between 1989 and 2005 than Honda sold NSX for it's entire 14 year production span (and, as you said, they were priced about the same). Porsche, Ferrari, Lotus, Lamborghini... make a living producing and selling that kind of car. Those are their workhorses. For Honda, as already said, it had been at best a technologial demonstrator that never came close to be a profitable car. Obviously you can do nice things if you can completely ignore design and production costs, but not even Honda can lightheartedly loose billions on a project. They really believed to sell more than a handful of those cars a year (and infact they massively overbuilt the assembly plant) and, when the car had been a flop, they accurately avoided to spend more money on it. Yeah, they are talking about that, like for many cars that had been ignored while they were available on the dealers' floors. The S2000 had been in no way a sale success. A car with a retail price of about $35.000 that don't share a common platform with other models needs to be sold in at least 25.000 30.000 samples a year to came close to offset its production costs. the S2000 managed to sell half of what was needed only for two or three years. Japanese evolve their cars when they are a success, being they sporty models or not, like any other. The NSX simply had been a flop (like the S2000 had been for that matter), that taught Honda that, to be " the top of the food chain" (or, more precisely, to build a car that was marginally better than the competition in some respect, and worse in others) it had to spend way more than it could hope to recover, or could afford.
    1
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  8151. The weapon was developed for the ground role. IT HAD NEVER BEEN INTENDED TO BE AN AIRCRAFT GUN. Less than four-hundred samples of more than 14.000 built saw limited use on aircrafts (at that time the Air Corp was a branch of the Army) waiting for the model to be in full scale production first than distributing it to the troops. It was supposed to be used with a shield, and with it it was plenty stable. https://modernfirearms.net/userfiles/images/smg/smg127/villar-perosa_1915_3.jpg That hole sight was literally the only hole in the shield. The weapon was designed to be a point weapon. Like a long range shotgun. Put it to surveil obligatory passages (alpine trails, openings in the barbed wire) and, when an enemy shows up, throw a short burst in his direction. With half a dozen 9mm Glisenti bullets in his body, he’ll think better. The MG-42 for example, with its 1200rpm ROF was designed with this job in mind. Not fire continuosly, but fire when you actually see the enemy. Given the charateristics of the two warfares, it was more suited the Villar Perosa to WWI (when you almost always had some obligatory passage to surveil) than the MG-42 to WWII. The weapon had been higly successful in the attack role too. So much that the Austrians copied it, double barrel, bipod and all. At the end of the conflict a total of 14.564 MGs had been produced (so, more than 29000 barrels, VS only about 5000 MP18), and 836 millions of 9mm Glisenti rounds for them. Mind this. THERE WAS NOTHING BETTER AROUND. When the guy with the Villar Perosa, after having thrown a couple of offensive grenades into the enemy trench to stun the enemies, came over the edge with the SMG in his hands to clear it, he didn’t find the guy with the MP18 waiting for him. Because there was not any MP18, or anything similar, there were only bolt action rifles and showels. What he had in his hands was incredibly better for that role than anything the enemy had. After having adopted the Villar Perosa, the Italians took almos three years to field the MAB18 (that were nothing more than a single Villar Perosa barrel mounted on a Moschetto TS stock) not because the Villar Perosa was unsatisfactory, but because it was so satisfactory that none felt the urge to modify it.
    1
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  8183. In all likelyhood the Iliad is based on a real war, but Troy being the city on the Hisarlik hill is debatable. We know it was considered that in Hellenistic and Roman period (on the Hisarlik hill there was the Hellenistic/Roman city of Ilion), but we also know that it was a tourist attraction. In Hellenistic period, in "Troy", there were, IE, the tombs of heroes that didn't even die there. There's no guarantee that the entire city wasn't a tourist trap. And infact Strabo (1ts century BCE) thought it was a fake. The city on Hisarlik hill had been abandoned at the start of the Iron Age, before being rebuilt at the time of Alexander. It's entirely possible that, at the end of the "Greek dark age", when the poems on the Trojan war had become famous, people started to search for the city sung there in the region of the Troad, but the memory of the real location had been lost. Then the people that lived around Hissarlik hill reasoned "look at the fine ruins we have here. The shore, the rivers, all seems pretty similar to the poem. And all these people are searching for Troy. Let's THIS be Troy." and proceeded to make Santa Claus' village. Then Santa Claus' village influenced the later narrations of the poem, so the location and the poem became even more alike. Infact the location is pretty similar, yes, but none of the Hisarlik's city strata really line up with the events of the poem. We have to mix up two separate levels to have a big city in the Mycenean period (but destroyed by an heartquake, not a war), and a city destroyed by a war (but too late for the Myceneans to have done that).
    1
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  8354. The Great Wall familiar to us had been built two centuries after Marco Polo's travels. In his time the wall was a much smaller structure, largely in ruin. Other Europeans who travelled to Khanbaliq during the Yuan dynasty, such as Giovanni de' Marignolli and Odoric of Pordenone, said nothing about the wall either. Ibn Battuta, who asked about the wall when he visited China during the Yuan dynasty, could find no one who had either seen it, or knew of anyone who had seen it. Marco Polo was a traveler and a merchant, not a tourist that enters in a chinese restaurant and discovers he can't have a fork. Chopsticks were one of the many ways of eating he had seen during his voyage. Tea one of the innumerable kind of beverages. What there were interesting in them? The way the commerce of spices in the port of Zayton worked, or the way Chinese ships were designed and built were the relevant things, not sticks. Reality is that those "important" things had ben omitted by later travelers as well, because they were of no interest to them, and Marco Polo's accounts are by far the most complete written by an European traveler in the Yuan dinasty. Chinese reports dates back to very ancient times, but are far from complete, especially during the early Yuan dinasty (even the Princess Kököchin is not mentioned in Chinese sources, while is present in Persian ones). Much Chines sources about the early Yuan dinasty had actually been written later than Marco Polo's book. More, there is no point in searching European names in them, and Marco Polo being a governor is a later embellishment. Earlier versions of his book only states him to be an emissary of the Emperor, like there were tens of thousands. Actually Chinese had not really a "tradition or folklore of exploring". BTW Europeans first reached America about three centuries before Marco Polo reached China.
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  8437.  @ghostriders_1  Then why you are not stating you don't know, instead of stating the reality of a fictional world of your where Christians didn't even believe in the phisical body of Christ until, precisely around 80CE, a guy composed a tale about the life of a guy named Jesus and all the Christians "oh, yeah! It's our Christ!". Religious people are not more idiot than the others. If you have to postulate the idiocy of people for your theory being right, then your theory is wrong. You can't adapt reality to theory. Religious people have strong believings that are not easily bent. The stronger themore sectarian is the group. Christians were not idiots that accepted anything with the word "Jesus" in it. To be accepted by them, like by ANY religious group, a writing should have been compatible with what they already believed. If they only had Paul, Mark is not possible. If they had Paul and a series of stories about the life of Christ, compatible with Mark later wrote and indipendent from Paul, then Mark, like many other gospels. is possible, and, surprise surprise, whe had Mark and many other gospels. You seem to be under the delusion that very early Christianity was unified in one place & in one belief, that's why you concentrated on Paul. it was not. Wake up. If the Christians only had Paul, Mark is not possible. If they had Paul and a series of stories about the life of Christ, compatible with Mark later wrote and indipendent from Paul, then Mark, like many other gospels. is possible, and, surprise surprise, whe had Mark and many other gospels. All of that happened before Catholicism, sorry and the same Pauline epistles show those early Christian "different believings" to be just nuances. The theological questions that divided Christianity in incompatible sects had yet to be posed. Mattew considers Gerusalem a vital city the moment he's writing, not the moment the story is set. Then where is a paternoster before Mattew?
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  8438. So much of what you say doesn't make any sense and is not backed by any evidence. To decide the gospels are post 70 because of the reference to the destruction of the temple doesn't solve more problems that it poses. WE KNOW those kind of predictions were diffused before 70 CE in the Jewish community. Why Mattew, that writes for Jews, talks about Jerusalem as a vital city in the moment he writes? If they had all the infos, why they talked about the destruction wrong, leaving the readers guessing if Christ had just being lucky, and not even that much? Why the paternoster, that we find first in Mattew, was known and diffused before 79CE? Your pretense people should be idiots for your theory to work disqualifies it. You can't adapt reality to theory. Your theory fails to take into considerations religious people have strong believings that are not easily bent. The stronger the more sectarian is the group. New people are welcomed into the sect when they accept the believing of the sect. Is not the sect that acquire the believing of the new people. Another time you have to adapt reality to theory. You have even to force early Christianity to be a mysteric religion, another time adapting reality to theory, when that was EXACTLY the problem Christians had with gnosticism, that sold "very special revelations" only for the initiates. Sorry, but early Christianity didn't work like that. Bishops were elected, not cooptated. You have not debunked anything, sorry. You seem to be under the delusion that very early Christianity was unified in one place & in one belief, that's why you concentrated on Paul. it was not. If the Christians only had Paul, Mark is not possible. If they had Paul and a series of stories about the life of Christ, compatible with Mark later wrote and indipendent from Paul, then Mark, like many other gospels. is possible, and, surprise surprise, whe had Mark and many other gospels. Contrary to you, I've not to adapt reality to theory.
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  8446.  DOUG HEINS  No. They NEVER wanted the Littorios to have the longest range. That had NEVER been found in ANY Italian document. The high muzzle speed had always been intended to enhance penetration to the level of a 406mm gun (and infact it was on par with the US 16"/50). Longer range was just a consequence, and infact it had been only analyzing the Battle of Cape Spartivento (27 nov. 1940) that Adm. Campioni reported that the 381/50 could effectively open fire at 29.000 m with good visibility, while the maunal on the use of the Italian artilleries stated that the fire had to be opened at max. 22.000m with decent visibility and at max. 26.000m with good one. Italian 381mm AP shells weighted 885 kg. More than the German (800kg) and British (871kg) ones. Among the shells of the same caliber only the French ones were marginally heavier (890kg). Because they were intended for penetration, not distance. Deck penetration had not been taken into account, because (as WWII demonstrated) the possibility to effectively hit something at a range so long to penetrate an armoured deck was lower than marginal. The US 16"/45 MK6 and 16"/50 MK7 hit something different than land masses only at less than 10.000m, the MK5 hit the deck of the old BB Yamashiro at 20.000m without causing significative damages. The battle of Denmark strait was fought between 20.000 and 15.000m, that coresponded to the "optimal fighting distance" for BBs on Italian manuals. Littorio's guns were made to citadel any treaty battleship at that distance. Tested in real scale by the Soviets, the Pugliese system proved to be more effective than the standard spaced protection, that's why they chosen to use it in the Sovetsky Soyuz class. In Italian serveice it performed well (when the torpedo hit the area protected by the Pugliese) with damages contained and very fast repairing times. In general Italian ships withstood torpedo hits better than German ones. The often repeated defect of the "inverted dam" is 100% bullshit. Standard anti-torpedo protections have a 90° inward angle. Is that the way you build a dam? A curved surface was obviously better. Actually for the torpedoes to explode under the hull of a ship was the best location possible and the reason magnetic fuses had been invented.
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  8462. It's an often repeated mith. The Littorios almost always fired few shots at extreme ranges. Had they hit something, it would have been by far the longest range hit in history. Only in two occasions they fired more shots. At Gaudo the Vittorio Veneto was steaming at 28 knots and trying to hit, from 23 to 26 kms distance, two light cruisers that were entering and exiting smokescreens and only manuvering to not be hit. At that time it had been already amply demonstrated that it was practically impossible to hit a ship that was only manuvering to not be hit, even at far closer distances and with far more rapidly firing guns (see the battle of the Espero convoy) if not firing thousands of shells. The second battle of the Sirte had been fought in a storm, and the Littorio had been the most accurate ship of both parties in that occasion. The pictures taken by the Brits at Gaudo show, for Vittorio Veneto's salvo, a consistent single turret spread of 1.7% of the distance. Any navy of the time would have considered 2% acceptable to good in action. US Navy obtained 1.1% single turret spread, but that was in tests, with the ship standing still and not steaming at 28 knots, after years of peacetime tuning, with delay coils already installed (Littorios had them installed in winter '42-'43) and with slower shells (for a simple geometrical reason, flatter trajectory shells, all things equal, will show wider horizontal spread. That has little IRL effect since ships are not just horizontal targets and the flatter trajectory reduces the vertical spread - that's why flatter trajectory is preferred in rifle shooting - and reduces the error in distance and bearing, by reducing the flight time). Richelieu shown a 2.1% single turret spread in tests (four guns in it's case) still in 1948, after delay coils had been installed, and that was considered acceptable.
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  8485. Infact. The weapon was developed for the ground role. IT HAD NEVER BEEN INTENDED TO BE AN AIRCRAFT GUN. Less than four-hundred samples of more than 14.000 built saw limited use on aircrafts (at that time the Air Corp was a branch of the Army) waiting for the model to be in full scale production first than distributing it to the troops. It was supposed to be used with a shield, and with it it was plenty stable. https://modernfirearms.net/userfiles/images/smg/smg127/villar-perosa_1915_3.jpg That hole sight was literally the only hole in the shield. The weapon was designed to be a point weapon. Like a long range shotgun. Put it to surveil obligatory passages (alpine trails, openings in the barbed wire) and, when an enemy shows up, throw a short burst in his direction. With half a dozen 9mm Glisenti bullets in his body, he’ll think better. The MG-42 for example, with its 1200rpm ROF was designed with this job in mind. Not fire continuosly, but fire when you actually see the enemy. Given the charateristics of the two warfares, it was more suited the Villar Perosa to WWI (when you almost always had some obligatory passage to surveil) than the MG-42 to WWII. The bipod was added when it was seen that the shield was too heavy to be carried in attack, and, with the bipod, the weapon had been higly successful in the attack role too. So much that the Austrians copied it, double barrel, bipod and all. At the end of the conflict a total of 14.564 MGs had been produced (so, more than 29000 barrels, VS only about 5000 MP18), and 836 millions of 9mm Glisenti rounds for them. Mind this. THERE WAS NOTHING BETTER AROUND. When the guy with the Villar Perosa, after having thrown a couple of offensive grenades into the enemy trench to stun the enemies, came over the edge with the SMG in his hands to clear it, he didn’t find the guy with the MP18 waiting for him. Because there was not any MP18, or anything similar, there were only bolt action rifles and showels. What he had in his hands was incredibly better for that role than anything the enemy had. After having adopted the Villar Perosa, the Italians took almos three years to field the MAB18 (that were nothing more than a single Villar Perosa barrel mounted on a Moschetto TS stock) not because the Villar Perosa was unsatisfactory, but because it was so satisfactory that none felt the urge to modify it.
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