The History Thread

[GS]

Napoleon. Discuss.

[Ian]

Not actually that short.

[Henry]

A cunt of a man in more ways than he wasn't.

[Ian]

Also supposedly got the wind up him inside the Great Pyramid. Dunno if that's made up or not.

[Lewis]

I find him overrated, but I think he would have gotten away with it (until he died and everything fell apart) had Britain not waged the perfect war[s] against him. The fucking balls on our governments to keep going back for more and starting on him even as he managed to turn the rest of Europe against us.

[Giggles]

I've heard the name many many times but I've no idea who he actually was or what he done. Is he something to do with Nelsons Column in London?

[Henry]

I've heard the name many many times but I've no idea who he actually was or what he done. Is he something to do with Nelsons Column in London?

You're shitting us, surely?

[Giggles]

You're shitting us, surely?

I'm really not. I've zero interest in overseas history apart from a passing one in American.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

He's got a bit of a sweet tooth.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I've seen him described as 'the most all-round competent man ever to live' or something. That's probably going a bit far seeing as the British donned him about three times, but he was clearly useful.

Anyway, he lives on every Saturday night on BBC2 in the form of Captain Mainwaring and that's the main thing.

[mugbull]

People also always overlook the second Napoleon, who was in many ways as influential (for the French) as Napoleon of Fucking Corsica

[Ian]

'the most all-round competent man ever to live'

Brian Blessed, for my money.

[Jimmy Floyd]

There are still Napoleons running around technically claiming the French throne. Here's the current incumbent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Christophe,_Prince_Napol%C3%A9on

[Lewis]

Did you ever get round to reading Andrew Roberts' Napoleon the Great, GS?

[GS]

It's on my 'to read' list. I've read Vincent Cronin's (shorter) biography, and 1812 about the retreat from Moscow. I've also flicked through some of the Campaigns.

[Ian]

There are still Napoleons running around technically claiming the French throne. Here's the current incumbent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Christophe,_Prince_Napol%C3%A9on

You'd never tire of punching that face.

[Cord]

Made the classic mistake of trying a comeback once his time had passed. His purloining of the French army the second time was supremely badass, but going out stuck in your tent with the shits or whatever was no way to go out. Shades of Keegan at Newcastle.

[Reg]

Cord. :D

Can anyone recommend a nice overview of interesting wars for history dummies?

[Manc]

I'm in the clueless boat with Giggles.

[Henry]

Cord. :D

Can anyone recommend a nice overview of interesting wars for history dummies?

I read War of Wars, which is about all this stuff, by Robert Harvey a while back. Wasn't bad.

[Reg]

Thanks, Henry. Will put that on a list.

Was looking for a very broad overview of all the major wars in history? But fear that may be too big a subject even for a book aimed at dummies.

[Henry]

Er, yeah. Much too broad. There were thousands, and most were quite complicated.

But try Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_war#Wars). :)

[Reg]

I did consider that. :D

[Spammer]

Napoleon seemed to generally had similar plans to Hitler in taking over as much shit as possible. I'm not sure if he planned on wiping out entire races of people too, but he's not regarded half as bad as Hitler so maybe not. Or maybe he's so far in the past that it doesn't really matter anymore. Hitler copied him anyway in wanting to take everything over and also in deciding to go to Russia and ending up regretting it. Weird that Hitler didn't learn from history really. Napoleon also sorted out most of his family with different titles in the places he took over. Then he got smashed to bits and we planted him on an island somewhere to die.

Is that a good summary?

[Jimmy Floyd]

Wikipedia is actually brilliant for getting an accessible overview on history. I've gone through the whole US Civil War and the Seven Years War on it this year, neither of which I knew anything about before. I'm not huge on military tactics, but some of the strategy is fascinating.

[igor_balis]

History is interesting but 'history' meant in the sense of obsessively reading about fucking wars and soldiers and battle tactics strikes me as the preserve of perverts. Like, I know warfare is integral to how the World has changed over millennia but who gives a fuck about the ways in which old timey cunts with muskets were put in lines and shit? Fuck off.

[Spoonsky]

If you want an accessible overview of history it's hard to look past "In Our Time", the BBC Radio 4 show. Far less boring than Wikipedia, for example.


You'd never tire of punching that face.

It's Benedict Cumberbatch cross-bred with Vim.

[Boydy]

History is interesting but 'history' meant in the sense of obsessively reading about fucking wars and soldiers and battle tactics strikes me as the preserve of perverts. Like, I know warfare is integral to how the World has changed over millennia but who gives a fuck about the ways in which old timey cunts with muskets were put in lines and shit? Fuck off.

:D

Yeah, I agree with this.

[Spoonsky]

Also, people like to peddle the line that Hitler never learned from history when he invaded Russia, but there's a pretty solid argument that if he had stuck to capturing Moscow instead of concentrating on Stalingrad they might well have won the whole war, and regardless it was a close-run thing and not nearly simple as that line makes it out to be.

[Lewis]

Wikipedia is actually brilliant for getting an accessible overview on history. I've gone through the whole US Civil War and the Seven Years War on it this year, neither of which I knew anything about before. I'm not huge on military tactics, but some of the strategy is fascinating.

I think people take it for granted, or possibly even think it's a bit shit (think how citing it here is occasionally lolled at). It's a brilliant resource.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Wikipedia is only boring if you have no attention span.

It also has brilliant side alleys, like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Uxbridge%27s_leg

[Spoonsky]

I mean, you could definitely argue that I have no attention span, but it's always just seemed so dry to me.

[Cord]

Napoleon seemed to generally had similar plans to Hitler in taking over as much shit as possible. I'm not sure if he planned on wiping out entire races of people too, but he's not regarded half as bad as Hitler so maybe not. Or maybe he's so far in the past that it doesn't really matter anymore. Hitler copied him anyway in wanting to take everything over and also in deciding to go to Russia and ending up regretting it. Weird that Hitler didn't learn from history really. Napoleon also sorted out most of his family with different titles in the places he took over. Then he got smashed to bits and we planted him on an island somewhere to die.

Is that a good summary?

I think others declared war on him as much as he started wars himself, so I don't think it's fair to stick the Hitler label on him. He got pretty invade-y as he went on, but literally all of the rest of Europe wanted rid of him from the get go.

[Boydy]

It is dry. It's good for fact-checking or a quick overview but fuck sitting reading entire articles for major wars.

I also get distracted by all the links.

[Spoonsky]

:D

Yeah, I agree with this.

People have always been interested in weird, useless shit though. There are very few things that are objectively, without a doubt, worth knowing about. In the AGE OF CAPITALISM humans are being driven to increasingly obscure, specialized means of giving their lives meaning. Hence the cosplayers and all that.

[igor_balis]

My mate said the other day that if all the time he'd spent reading unverified shit on wikipedia over the last decade had instead been spent reading proper books he'd be a lot more knowledgeable. I tend to agree, especially when you consider he made up a cocktail on there about two years ago with a pretend citation and it is still there - we googled it the other day and a bar in California and a bar in Halifax, Nova Scotia both had it on their fucking menus.

Still think it is an incredible resource when you use it properly though.

[Lewis]

On the other hand, if he was a 'lot more knowledgeable' he would no longer be your mate, so ol' Wikipedia has done you a favour.

[igor_balis]

People have always been interested in weird, useless shit though. There are very few things that are objectively, without a doubt, worth knowing about. In the AGE OF CAPITALISM humans are being driven to increasingly obscure, specialized means of giving their lives meaning. Hence the cosplayers and all that.

Fair points Spoony, I'm mainly just bitter about signing up for A level history because of the interesting sounding Soviet social history shit at AS, then only realising at the start of year 13 that the A2 syllabus was basically all 'warfare through the ages', i.e. remembering the names of guns and shit.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Also, people like to peddle the line that Hitler never learned from history when he invaded Russia, but there's a pretty solid argument that if he had stuck to capturing Moscow instead of concentrating on Stalingrad they might well have won the whole war, and regardless it was a close-run thing and not nearly simple as that line makes it out to be.

Mans needed seed though.

[Spoonsky]

Is that you, Sincere?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Is that you, Sincere?

The account is a time share now.

[igor_balis]

On the other hand, if he was a 'lot more knowledgeable' he would no longer be your mate, so ol' Wikipedia has done you a favour.

And if you were less of a cunt you might actually make a couple of friends! Then you could have evenings that didn't consist of you telling your mum how funny you were on the internet, as she forces a smile and secretly wishes her son was 'more like the other boys'.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

http://cdn.meme.am/instances/400x/57315757.jpg

[Lewis]

She's in bed mate. The dog lolled though.

[Pepe]

That was a bit of a donnage,

[mugbull]

History is fucking awesome if you have an imagination.

We should do a wdytoe thread.

[Pepe]

Isn't it awards season?

[Lewis]

Biggest Seethe.

[Reg]

History is fucking awesome if you have an imagination.
One might say that if one has imagination, there is no need for history.

http://i.imgur.com/PMPxSH1.jpg

[mugbull]

I mean, you could, but you'd be wrong

[Pepe]

Biggest Seethe.

I was between seethe and donnage, in the end decided to support the punchy underdog.

[John]

Lol at that outburst from the insecure pervert Balis.

[phonics]

Biggest Seethe.

Nah I am taking that award with Pavel telling me to kill myself for calling him dull.

[igor_balis]

Lol at that outburst from the insecure pervert Balis.

At least Lewis's relentless snide comments are actually funny though. ;)

[Lewis]

Nah I am taking that award with Pavel telling me to kill myself for calling him dull.

The last time something like that happened was when I called him pretentious and he declared his arse to be grapeless, so it's a milestone for him at least.

[John]

Pavel seethes are so common and easy to provoke that they're disqualified from the awards. He did about four pages on the old board because someone said his writing style was unengaging.

Anyway, if we're going back to the old board then the biggest seethe was obviously Taz in the WDYTOE.

[Magic]

And if you were less of a cunt you might actually make a couple of friends! Then you could have evenings that didn't consist of you telling your mum how funny you were on the internet, as she forces a smile and secretly wishes her son was 'more like the other boys'.

Fuuuuuu...

:D

[Giggles]

It's like looking at myself 10 years ago :harold:

[niko_cee]

It also has brilliant side alleys, like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Uxbridge%27s_leg

Those bits are great, like that Jack Churchill chap and his longbow.

[leedsrevolution]

Pavel seethes are so common and easy to provoke that they're disqualified from the awards. He did about four pages on the old board because someone said his writing style was unengaging.

Anyway, if we're going back to the old board then the biggest seethe was obviously Taz in the WDYTOE.

That seethe killed Taz, unfortunately there was no coming back from it.

[Spammer]

Why did Taz leave anyway?

[Boydy]

Biggest seethe here is Taz as well, since he stopped posting when we all lolled at his new username.

[Lewis]

Anyway, if we're going back to the old board then the biggest seethe was obviously Taz in the WDYTOE.

Surely it was Alan by an absolute mile.

[John]

That was in the context of awards talk, so it only includes stuff from this year.

[Lewis]

Taz seems to seethe in every WDYTOE, so I didn't realise you only meant 2015.

[igor_balis]

I know I'm a huge hypocrite for my SEETHE at Lewis, but I've always found the culture of critiquing each other's personalities on here a bit deranged. I still think WDYTOE is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen on a message board. Maybe it has something to do with the inherent contradiction between the internet being impersonal and 'not real' on one hand, yet most people on here having known each other very well for a decade or more.

Like, imagine being sat around with your real life mates and someone saying 'alright, so lets take it in turns saying what we like and dislike about each other'. Fucking mental.

[John]

Imagine sitting with your real mates drawing crap pictures of footballers on craft paper.

Don't be an idiot.

[Boydy]

I don't like it when two posters I like fight. :(

[igor_balis]

To clarify I don't mind the wdytoe stuff, I'm more bemused than annoyed by it. Also, John, you're a smart bloke so I know you realise that's a crap comparison. Drawing stupid pictures of footballers isn't something you'd be likely to do with your real life mates, but it isn't that unlike playing silly parlour games like pictionary or something. Writing lists of who you think is sound and who you think is a cunt and going into juicy pop-psychology detail about it IS a bit weird. Whatever makes everyone happy though, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't read them.

[phonics]

Pavel seethes are so common and easy to provoke that they're disqualified from the awards. He did about four pages on the old board because someone said his writing style was unengaging.

That was the one I was referring to. I thought it was on here though.

[Magic]

Imagine sitting with your real mates!

Imagine indeed.

:cry:

[Toby]

So, history eh.

[John]

To clarify I don't mind the wdytoe stuff, I'm more bemused than annoyed by it. Also, John, you're a smart bloke so I know you realise that's a crap comparison. Drawing stupid pictures of footballers isn't something you'd be likely to do with your real life mates, but it isn't that unlike playing silly parlour games like pictionary or something. Writing lists of who you think is sound and who you think is a cunt and going into juicy pop-psychology detail about it IS a bit weird. Whatever makes everyone happy though, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't read them.

The detail is a function of the format. We got into more detail on everything here than the vast majority of people ever would in a conversation with their mates. It's essentially a conversation about ourselves, which I don't think is that odd.


That was the one I was referring to. I thought it was on here though.

It might have been, but it seems longer ago than the move.

[igor_balis]

The detail is a function of the format. We got into more detail on everything here than the vast majority of people ever would in a conversation with their mates. It's essentially a conversation about ourselves, which I don't think is that odd.
Fair points. I do think people being generally open and honest about their personal lives on here is pretty refreshing and a real strength of the place.

[simon]

Why did Taz leave anyway?

Everything can be traced back to Benny nutmegging him 15 times at the kickabout.

[SvN]

He'll be back eventually. I'm amazed he's stayed away for so long. He's probably waiting long enough that people will celebrate his return instead of laughing at him.

[Boydy]

I doubt that will ever happen.

[Lewis]

Everything can be traced back to Benny nutmegging him 15 times at the kickabout.

He could have stopped those by looking down.

[simon]

:D

[Davgooner]

I notice in Beevor's Ardennes effort that he puts it out there that he thinks Montgomery might have had Aspergers.

:D

[Jimmy Floyd]

Wdytoe is pushing boundaries and smashing down the walls of constricting social norms. It's what the information age is all about. It's been going strongish for 15 years too, which is longer than feminism has probably managed continuously without shitting itself.

[Magic]

I doubt if we were all 'mates' and knew each other well we'd have anything like the current array of topics we currently have, least of all WDYTOE.

I'm on a Leeds forum where we do go to meets and there's hardly any shit there, just between the mongs that never come to meets. And definitely no weird stuff.

[mugbull]

Oh yeah, wdytoe is weird as fuck, but it's cool and taboo. The problem is you can't think of this place as a real life friend circle. Yoy wouldn't wait 23 minutes for your friend to respond to an insult. Its more of like a proving ground for real-life friends. TTH exists in a vacuum, which is why i can say or do anything i want. Its also why i can rank peoples personalities, because there aren't any ramifications. Isnt that something youd love to do irl? We're all autistic anyway

[Henry]

WDYTOE is boring. I don't care what mahow thinks of Toby.

[GS]

Churchill.

Discuss.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Cometh the hour.

[Shindig]

Found me a great deal on my c... nevermind.

[Magic]

Does anyone else know about Jasenovac and what absolutely horrible cunts the Croats were?

[Magic]

Can someone provide me with context as to how on earth our prime minister in 1938 sat in a room with a bunch of dictators and signed over a massive chunk of land from a sovereign Czechoslovakia (that was ready to fight) to Nazi Germany?

How did the press see this? How did we see this? Are there other circumstances which I'm not aware of? Because I'm bewildered. I didn't know about this.

[Disco]

They thought Hitler would stop.

[Davgooner]

They wanted peace at almost any cost, twenty years on from WWI which took apart Chamberlain's generation. Everything was done to minimise the risk of war rather than prepare for it, which is why Germany stole a march. It's also the reason why the Allies completely discounted the idea of attacking the Germans in 39/40; the great offensives of the previous war had been bloodbaths and seen as a futile waste of lives.

[Magic]

Once you start doing shit like that its inevitable that a war will come. A simple show of force, because the Czechs had the West and Russia as allies would have crushed the Nazi movement. Even the army thought that move in to the Sudetenland would cause a massive Western/Eastern revolt and move to crush them. They had a shit army, no air force, some tanks and a few boats at this point. Maybe it's easy to say that in retrospect. Shithouse move imo.

[Henry]

I'm reading a book about the Jewish revolt in 66 AD. :drool:

[Pavel]

The last time something like that happened was when I called him pretentious and he declared his arse to be grapeless, so it's a milestone for him at least.

You do realise that was a joke - or are we still utterly unable to discern contextualised phrasing on the Internet?

And they say I'm the Autistic one.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYtbv44G-CI

[Lewis]

You flounced off for months afterwards. Was that planned?

[phonics]

He's defintiely not bitter about it. Much like a grape.

[Henry]

Anyone know a good book about the history of Judaism? Real history rather than make-believe biblical literalist stuff...

EDIT: mikem

[Lewis]

He's defintiely not bitter about it. Much like a grape.

It's also hard to refute charges of preciousness when you're clearly doing so having searched your own name,

[SvN]

It's also hard to refute charges of preciousness when you're clearly doing so having searched your own name,

:D

Rumbled.

[GS]

Anyone know a good book about the history of Judaism? Real history rather than make-believe biblical literalist stuff...

EDIT: mikem

I was looking at this as well. There was a book by Simon Schama, but the reviews weren't fantastic so I swerved it.

[mikem]

Um, I got it at school as a kid, so it was most likely something I hated. I'll ask.

[Pavel]

You flounced off for months afterwards. Was that planned?

Did I?

...or was I like, in the real world, working.

Like running my own business, travelling...making films that got shown at the Cannes FIlm Festival etc.

I await your attack at my narcissism.

[Pavel]

:D

Rumbled.

...why would I read anything else on, this website?

Give me something of worth and maybe I would.

[phonics]

Did you search your own name to find this thread, Pavel?

[phonics]

Christ on a bike, he did. What a weirdo.

[Pavel]

...it's a more efficient method of finding my old conversation threads on a board that is, frankly full of shit that I don't wish to discuss.

[Pavel]

That you think that is odd, as someone who is supposed to be an 'IT whizz', baffles the fuck out of me.

[phonics]

http://i.giphy.com/gQ7lvZHooMoTe.gif

[John]

Still using punctuation incorrectly, I see.

You bring nothing of value, Pavel, so if you're getting little value out of the board too I suggest you find a different one.

[Pavel]

Sorry, you've lost me: I've pizza to eat and an App to develop.

All of your memes are belong to you.

[Pavel]

Still using punctuation incorrectly, I see.

You bring nothing of value, Pavel, so if you're getting little value out of the board too I suggest you find a different one.

*Hey Macarana*

[phonics]

I don't know about that, it's quite fun to watch him pretend he doesn't care while feeling the need to vigorously defend himself every time he's mocked (to the point of searching his own name on a forum with 'nothing of value' :D) and I wouldn't have found the above gif to put into regular rotation without those posts so he adds a bit here and there.

[Pavel]

Thank you though, for your authoritative opinion that has made me see the light.

"Up the Space-RA!"

[John]

That gif is a bit crap aswell, so he isn't even bringing value by proxy.

Was that an incorrect reference to a song or a football stadium, Pavel?

[Pavel]

No I'm attempting to create some form of banning process - you guys are so fucking boring these days, it really is sad. Especially in age - I'm happy to never come back at this stage. God fucking help you all.

...as I said.

Up the RA. Fuck the gays. Immigrants are terribly smelly.

Henry, surely that's a banning offence.

[phonics]

That gif is a bit crap aswell

http://i.giphy.com/XKL1MHvk47OXC.gif

[phonics]

Sick martyr attempt brah.

[John]

Why bother getting banned? Just don't come back.

[Pavel]

Alright, John.

[Spoonsky]

What film did you make that was shown at Cannes?
Pavel

[Yaysus]

this seethe :happycry:

[John]

What film did you make that was shown at Cannes?
Pavel

This one. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1369582/?ref_=nm_flmg_vsl_1)

[mugbull]

Spoon is so nice. Aw shucks dude

[Spoonsky]

If his unsubstantiated boasting were about anything less interesting to me I might be less so, but in this case I'm genuinely curious.

[John]

It's the one I've linked above, Spoon. His sojourn into filmmaking is a matter of record here.

[Boydy]

This is so odd.

[Giggles]

John up to his old trampy trucks. Pavel can be a bit annoying at times but if the self styled 'big dog' wants you out then hounded you shall be.

[Disco]

Pavel has never needed hounding in order to flounce out, I'm sure it was over hexagons one time. It's pretty lol that someone would need to be banned to stop themselves coming here.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Giggles v John is a much more entertaining feud than Pavel v Life.

[Lewis]

This must be another one of those 'joke' MELTDOWNS.

[Bam]

No I'm attempting to create some form of banning process - you guys are so fucking boring these days, it really is sad. Especially in age - I'm happy to never come back at this stage. God fucking help you all.

...as I said.

Up the RA. Fuck the gays. Immigrants are terribly smelly.

Henry, surely that's a banning offence.

Well you would, considering you've in the past admitted being bisexual.

[Magic]

I changed my name to 'Magic' specifically so I could search it as 'MJ' was too short (people would abbreviate it).

[Boydy]

I changed my name to 'Magic' specifically so I could search it as 'MJ' was too short (people would abbreviate it).

I'm going to start throwing magic around all the time as an adjective just to piss you off.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'm going to start throwing magic around all the time as an adjective just to piss you off.

Benteke has magic in his boots...

[Magic]

I'm going to start throwing magic around all the time as an adjective just to piss you off.

I don't do it now, because we have mentions and quote notifications etc. On the old board it was a fucking nightmare, though.

[Giggles]

Were you ever MJ here?

[Boydy]

I don't do it now, because we have mentions and quote notifications etc. On the old board it was a fucking nightmare, though.

People might still talk about you with @ing you though. Especially if they're talking shit about you. Like subtweeting.

[Magic]

No Giggles

Well I don't care, Boyd. I only ever really checked when I was banned, and given I'm an absolute powerhouse to the posting economy the admins here know they can't really ban me. It's nice to have such a necessarily evil position of power.

[Boydy]

Yeah. I won't actually do it anyway because I can't be arsed and I probably wouldn't remember either.

I wonder if Pavel still has emails on for notifications.

[Magic]

You mean because you're not a cunt. I can't imagine doing something as petty and shit as that.

[Boydy]

I'm definitely a cunt. Just a lazy one.

[Bernanke]

100 years since The Battle of Verdun began yesterday.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Battelfield_Verdun.JPG

[Spoonsky]

Verdun, like most of the battles in WW1, is something that I just can't wrap my head around.

[Henry]

Is that landscape fucked up because of bomb craters?

[Bernanke]

Yep. 10 months of artillery. "Most who died never even saw the enemy."

[Lee]

I watched the first part of 'Royal Cousins at War' last night. It was interesting enough in a high level sort of way and I'll watch the final part after the football.

I vaguely remember learning about this lot at school and being taught that Wilhelm was a bit of a wrong 'un. I thought they might have been simplifying things a bit for us kids, or that what we were learning may be a bit of the victors writing history. Little did I know that he was a complete social spastic, with a strong wish to fuck his mother when he was younger. I'm fascinated by him now. Must learn more.

[Lewis]

Edward VII trolling him into oblivion with indifference is the best bit of those programmes.

'Nice boat, son. Do they make 'em for men?'
':mad:'

[Lee]

Edward seems like a bit of a hero. Spent his younger years travelling, drinking and shagging then spent his reign being nice to all his other relatives across Europe whilst lolling at the Kaiser.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The Kaiser was a right twat. Like letting Bielsa take over at United after Fergie, but in such a way that he can't leave until he dies.

[GS]

I read a book about the Falklands War recently. You have to laugh at the Argentinians.

[Magic]

https://vimeo.com/128373915

Pretty cool dataisbeautiful video of deaths in WW2. Some of the numbers just utterly beggar belief when you think about it, but it's cool to see it broken down graphically and compared individually and relatively to other wars etc.

Not sure on the definition of peace being 'rich countries not fighting rich countries', guess it's a subjective definition of a period of time from whatever side you are on.

Still, have to lol at the Chinese government opening the flood gates for the Yellow River in an attempt to halt the Japanese, sacrificing half a million (!) citizens. :harold:

[Adamski]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroo_Onoda

Just came across this mad bastard while reading something else, insane.

[Alan Shearer The 2nd]

Almost finished The World at War. Can anyone recommend any other WW2 documentary series?

[Spammer]

Almost finished The World at War. Can anyone recommend any other WW2 documentary series?

There's one on the Cold War written by the same bloke which I guess is kind of a continuation. It's narrated by Kenneth Brannagh, so you've still got the thespian voice explaining everything too.

[Ian]

Still, have to lol at the Chinese government opening the flood gates for the Yellow River in an attempt to halt the Japanese, sacrificing half a million (!) citizens. :harold:

Was that a failed gamble and they knew it might happen or did they just not given a shit because, fuck it, what're a few hundred thousand people when you've got hundreds of millions?

Like the Russians at Kursk, winning the battle despite losing whatever it was, three or four times as many men. "How many farm boys do you have to chuck into the meat grinder, Adolf?"

[Lewis]

They didn't care, a bit like when Chairman Mao said he wasn't arsed about a nuclear war because China would still have the most people left.

[Jimmy Floyd]

And when he decided to starve 40+ million of them to death.

[Alan Shearer The 2nd]

There's one on the Cold War written by the same bloke which I guess is kind of a continuation. It's narrated by Kenneth Brannagh, so you've still got the thespian voice explaining everything too.

Cheers but looking for just WW2 at the minute, will give that a look at some point though.

[Lewis]

And when he decided to starve 40+ million of them to death.

He knew he could fall back on his record mandate.

[Magic]

Stalin and Mao had their own graphs too. If you include them on top of WW2 deaths it's amazing any of the natives are still here.

[Magic]

I'm pretty sure a Spitfire just absolutely caned it really low over my house. Saw it ripping it past really fast from my office. Whatever it was = :drool: