Walter_Sobchak

I always cringe when I watch bad movie making, and a friend recently made me watch Rambo III because he was trying to get me to include it in a history of film class I teach (he considers it a classic).

 

About the time Marc de Jonge starts to torture Stallone I flip out and cannot watch any more.

 

A Turkish friend likewise shared his example of the finest movie ever made.  I sat through like twenty TV episodes and two movies of what amounts to a bunch of guys who travel around taking revenge on people who spit on the Koran, Jewish doctors who harvest baby organs, and American Red Cross workers who run secret de-virgination services and rape factories protected by "International immunity."  Gary Busey is particularly hilarious playing an over-the-top organ harvester.  

 

So what movies can you think of made in the last 20 years or so get the "enemy" wrong in a humorous way?

I remember seeing Rambo III at the second run theatre when I was a kid.  It was terrible on all sorts of levels.  Personally, my favorite part is when he magically is able to operate a tank all by himself and use the main gun to shoot down a helicopter.  

So I thought it might be a fun project to create a list of authors who have written about tanks and armored warfare for my website.  I was going to limit the list to authors who have been published in English. I was thinking I would categorize them and provide whatever biographical info that I could.  I started going through my book collection and files collecting names.  I am not finished and I already am getting overwhelmed.  I have not included memoirs by armor officers unless they were actual tank commanders. Here is what I have so far, not sorted or organized yet:

List of Tank and AFV Authors

Steven Zaloga

Richard Ogorkiewicz

David Fletcher

Robert J Icks

Kenneth Estes

Harry Yeide

George Forty

Simon Dunstan

Kenneth Macksey

Pat Ware

Thomas Jentz

Hillary Doyle

Richard Hunnicutt

Chris Ellis

Peter Chamberlain

Michael and Gladys Green

Peter Beale

A J Smithers

Robert Griffin

M P Robinson

James Loop

Walter J Spielberger

Uwe Feist

Norm Harms

Charles Kliment

Janusz Magnuski

Bruce Culver

Peter Brown

B. T. White

Dr. F. M. von Senger und Etterlin

John Milsom

Roger Ford

Horst Scheibert

Mikhail Baryatinskiy

Robert Forczyk

Lon Nordeen & David Isby

John Buckley

Bruce Quarrie (wehraboo)

Heinz Nawarra

George Bradford

William Auerbach

Orr Kelly

Peter Gudgin

Chris Bishop

Armin Halle

Ian Hogg

Robert Jackson (hack)

Franz Kurowski

Robert Citino

Richard Dinardo

Roman Jarymowycz

Artem Drabkin

M. H. Gillie

Belton Cooper

Patrick Stansell and Kurt Laughlin

Alexander Ludeke

Denis Showalter

Otto Carius

Rolf Hilmes

Wolfgang Schneider

Anthony Tucker-Jones

Thomas Anderson

Dave Higgins

Wolfgang Faust

Bill Munro

Stephan A Hart

Francois Verlinden
Bryan Perrett

Joachim Engelmann

Gordon Rottman

W. J. K. Davies

Wolfgang Fleischer

Michael Jerchel

Michael Norman

Michael Scheibert

James Bingham

David Eshel

Samuel Katz

Michael Mass

Marsh Gelbart

F Cappellano & PP Battistelli

Ralph Riccio and Nicola Pignato

Adam Geibel

Tomio Hara

Fred Crimson

Charles Bailey

Robert Cameron

Oscar Gilbert

James D'Angina

Jim Mesko

More to come....

If they are publishing it with the same quality paper as the original books, I can see why it's $100 bucks for the hardcover.  I have some of the later, less popular volumes that Hunnicutt published, I think the original price printed on the dust Jacket is $95.  

Well. Maybe I should direct them towards my list of books I'd love to read but can't justify 250 for.

I feel your pain, I have a similar list.  Even at 70 bucks, I am afraid I will have to manage with only possessing the PDF versions of the Hunnicutt Sherman books right now.  

Weak.

 

 

...Wait, Hunnicut's Sherman is only 70 bucks?

Obviously, you haven't been reading my website.  

http://tankandafvnews.com/2015/04/09/book-alert-hunnicutts-sherman-and-stuart-reprinted/

Does the Jack Russell Terrier also have a machine gun?

A Jack Russell Terrier does not need a machine gun.  They have endless energy, an infinite capacity for barking and a steely resolve to destroy all small things that squeak.   

Judging from the top picture in the article, they are also equipped with a Jack Russell Terrier.  

Whatever it's based on, it's just about the flimsiest looking suspension I have ever seen.  

Aww, look how cute it is.

I have my tickets to see the Melvins this June.  I am content.  

The Burlak turret is really weird looking.  It's nice that they took environmental sustainability into account with the design and put those rain water collectors on the front of the turret. 

 

Sure are a lot of red stars on this so called "American hero".

Nah, the GI Joe team were true American capitalists.  We know this because they occasionally fought their Soviet equivalent, the Oktober Guard.  Typically, they start out fighting each other but then have to team up to defeat Cobra.  Kinda like WW2 I guess.  

When I was a kid I always wanted more Oktober Guard appearances in the GI Joe comic.  Unfortunately, they didn't make Oktober guard figures until I was too old to play with toys anymore.  

No, it is indeed the MOBAT.  

GI Joe tank, IIRC.

 

I can't remember the name of it.

 

Edit: Nope... I thought it was the MOBAT, but I'm wrong.  But damn, I recognize it...

You were right the first time, it's a MOBAT with some crap glued to it.  I had a MOBAT tank when I was a kid, I played with it quite.  

I found this in a 1989 issue of ARMOR magazine.  What caught my eye was the "model" in the picture.  It seemed rather familiar to me, as it might to others who liked army themed toys as kids in the early 1980's.  A gold star to whoever can identify it.  

 

 

Compare it to actual human head:

 

I use that sentence all the time in a variety of contexts.  

Don't know if anyone here reads German/is interested, but as far as I can tell this is the original manual for the Leichttraktor: http://tanks.mod16.org/pdf/leichttraktor.pdf

 

Found in the national archives by accident while poking around a few of gigantic boxes of photonegatives on glass plates from the 20's and 30's. I think it's Heigl's (of Taschenbuch der Tanks fame) photo collection, at least most of the boxes are marked with his name. Don't know what to do with it, there's thousands of photos of interwar tanks, mostly from Britain and France, and I have no idea if they're rare or not.

That's really interesting stuff.  Renhanxue, are you the owner of the Swedish Tank Archives blog?  

two more for the US section

Evaluation of Siliceous Cored Armor for the XM60 Tank

INVESTIGATION OF THE VULNERABILITY TO BALLISTIC ATTACK OF TWO T77 OSCILLATING TURRETS

Trials Against Conqueror Tanks with Additional Ballistic Protection. Part 2: The Use of Large Hollow-Charge Warheads

War Metallurgy

This one has sections dealing with WW2 tank armor technology, rather techinical in nature.

Firing Trials with the 120mm. Tank Gun in Conqueror FV214 Using APDS/T. Shot (Lanoline Treated) and HES Shell in all St

Yeah, I don't know of any tanks just sitting around in Cali, this state sucks for that kinda thing. 

 

I did know that little fun fact, I can't remember if I noted it above in the M4A1 section. 

Its funny, Cali has several private collections and museums, but very few tanks outside of VFW or American Legion halls.  Whenever I am feeling in need of some company of the Sherman variety, there is a M4A3 on display about a ten minute drive from my house.  I also have a few M60's, an M48 and a M43 SPG within ten minutes of my house.  

Funny thing about the M4A1E8, it was the very last version to leave the production line.  The final models were produced in August of 45, after production of all other models had stopped.  If you want to see more M4A1E8 tanks, go to Indiana.  There are 13 of them on display in front of various veterans halls and public parks in that state.  

Jeeps, you are an ambitious man.

Volume 2,3 and 4 have some very interesting reading in them.  Stories of bazookas and 57mm guns blowing up Panthers and stuff like that.  

Anti-Armor Defense Data Study (A2D2) ‘How to Research’ Guide
Anti-Armor Defense Data Study (A2D2). Technical Report
Anti-Armor Defense Data Study (A2D2). Volume 2. U.S. Anti-Tank Defense at Mortain, France (August, 1944)
Anti-Armor Defense Data Study (A2D2). Volume 3. U.S. Anti-Tank Defense at Dom Butgenbach, Belgium (December, 1944)
Anti-Armor Defense Data Study (A2D2).  Volume 4. US Anti-Tank Defense at Krinkelt-Rocherath, Belgium (December, 1944)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=39&v=T6c1r5ol7cw

My favorite new name for an old timey AFV is a "skirmish machine."

I'm with Xthetenth on this one.  The Civil War was more important than the American Revolution.  As long as slavery was part of the Constitution it was a pretty meaningless document.  

If you really want a dramatic way to put it, I would recommend reading what William LLoyd Garrison had to say about the Constitution.  

There is much declamation about the sacredness of the compact which was formed between the free and slave states, on the adoption of the Constitution. A sacred compact, forsooth! We pronounce it the most bloody and heaven-daring arrangement ever made by men for the continuance and protection of a system of the most atrocious villany ever exhibited on earth. Yes—we recognize the compact, but with feelings of shame and indignation, and it will be held in everlasting infamy by the friends of justice and humanity throughout the world. It was a compact formed at the sacrifice of the bodies and souls of millions of our race, for the sake of achieving a political object—an unblushing and monstrous coalition to do evil that good might come. Such a compact was, in the nature of things and according to the law of God, null and void from the beginning. No body of men ever had the right to guarantee the holding of human beings in bondage. Who or what were the framers of our government, that they should dare confirm and authorise such high-handed villany—such flagrant robbery of the inalienable rights of man—such a glaring violation of all the precepts and injunctions of the gospel—such a savage war upon a sixth part of our whole population?—They were men, like ourselves—as fallible, as sinful, as weak, as ourselves. By the infamous bargain which they made between themselves, they virtually dethroned the Most High God, and trampled beneath their feet their own solemn and heaven-attested Declaration, that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights—among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They had no lawful power to bind themselves, or their posterity, for one hour—for one moment—by such an unholy alliance. It was not valid then—it is not valid now. Still they persisted in maintaining it—and still do their successors, the people of Massachussetts, of New-England, and of the twelve free States, persist in maintaining it. A sacred compact! A sacred compact! What, then, is wicked and ignominious?