What is your favourite C-ration ?

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#101

November 26–December 13, 1950

2,500 dead, 192 missing, 5,000 wounded,25,000 killed, 12,500 wounded,

about 45,000 men in Chosin became causalties of war in a 17-18 day period.

between 5 to 20 july, (a 15 day period) 49,822 german combat losses. 177, 847 Russian combat losses (battle of kursk, glantz)

228,000 men were combat causalties in kursk for a 15 day period.

45,000 men at the Chosin in a 17 day period.

Ironman, theres no use arguing, your tall statement holds no ground.

PS, you accuse me of “not researching” battles. I have an entire bookshelf full of ww2 books from my family bookstore in my study. I don’t need to scrounge the internet for sometimes, unreliable sources.

#102

You just dont get it…its his opinion. I have read things in your post’s that I think your saying to piss people off. Would you like me to post some??[/quote]

this is not a matter of opinion, mike-m. His statement can be proved wrong

Piss people off? I don’t remember if I did, or which statements, but I sure as hell do not piss off as many people as ironman. In fact, the vast majority of my posts do not attack anyone at all.

and , why are you traveling from thread to thread defending him? Do you know him?

#103

Realy. Some of you guys carry on about how little you seem to think others know. I am surprised that you seem to not know which was the fiercest battle in the history of modern warfare. Anyway, for your knowledge:

[b]Recipient of two Bronze Stars, world renouned spokesperson, television commentator, author, and historian, Conressional Honors Recipient, FBI and CIA consultant, Chairman of the Colorado State Board of Veterans Affainrs, college professor, retired army engineer,

Mr. Doug Sterner[/b]
http://www.homeofheroes.com/a_homepage/admin/webmaster.html

The Brotherhood of Soldiers At War

“From November 27th to December 10th, American soldiers and Marines would find themselves in a battle unlike any other in history. Survival would call for leadership, teamwork, and immense courage. From it was born a brotherhood perhaps unmatched by veterans of any other battle.”
http://www.homeofheroes.com/brotherhood/chosin.html

#104

sorry , ironman, but your posting BS. These are personal entries that have an ameican slant, written by americans.

I’ve just given you the causality figures from german and russian historical archives for the battle of kursk. and proved you wrong.

four times more men were killed/wounded at kursk then at Chosin, in around the same number of days.

“From November 27th to December 10th, American soldiers and Marines would find themselves in a battle unlike any other in history.”

I’m sure that the battle of kursk and many others were unlike any in history. at kursk 2,000,000 men clashed with over 11,000 tanks. I can write in an article/website that “the battle of kursk was unlike any other in history.”

#105

And that means precisely f***-all. The battles of Amiens, Stalingrad, Salamis, the various battles of Armageddon (Megiddo), etc. were all unlike any other in history too - but it doesn’t mean any one was fiercer than the other. Amiens was the first time the stalemate on the Western front had been decisively broken since the trenches formed in 1914. Stalingrad consumed an entire German army group, marked the turning point in the East, and was the scene of some incredibly fierce fighting. Salamis was critical in the survival of Greek philosophical thought, while the 1918 battle of Megiddo was possibly the first modern instance of Blitzkrieg. While this makes them unlike any other in history, it doesn’t of necessity make them particularly fierce (Amiens and Megiddo for instance were marked instead by being very one-sided and finally breaking the morale of the enemy, who gave up rather than continue fighting in both cases).

Not of course that any of this logic will get inside FerrousFool’s head, but maybe some spectators will stop and think for a minute or two. FF will presumably just requote and call me an idiot, using phrases like “Holy Freakin Guano Batboy”, “Kiddo”, etc. Apparently these constitute a devastating intellectual arguament in his world which mean the person they are used on should yield to his intellectual superiority. When they don’t he gets very upset.

#106

Was Chosin any more ‘special’ as a battle than Imjin? The 29th Brigade (primarily the Gloster Regiment) held off the Chinese 63rd Army, at one point two companies (roughly 200-250 men) of the Glosters (B & C Coys) were fighting off two whole Divisions (18,000 men) of the Chinese Army (188th & 189th Divisions). Eventually the British were beaten by sheer weight of numbers, and were forced to withdraw, with most of the Glorious Glosters killed or captured.

Source

I’m not having a go at the US achievment at Chosin (although undoubtedly I will be by the time you reply), but was Chosin that superior to Imjin as a battle, as an example of bravery and fighting spirit? I would certainly say there were many more bloody battles (Somme, Stalingrad, Monte Cassino, Kursk for example must all have a claim as the most hard fought battle ever).

#107

You have been to seven threads yourself today…is that considered traveling from thread to thread. Do I know him?? NO I just dont see what all the anger is over…okay, so someone else has a different view big deal, now lets get on to our interest of Military Stuff
A group of you guys do seem to enjoy doing battle with him. :wink:

#108

You have been to seven threads yourself today…is that considered traveling from thread to thread. Do I know him?? NO I just dont see what all the anger is over…okay, so someone else has a different view big deal, now lets get on to our interest of Military Stuff
A group of you guys do seem to enjoy doing battle with him. :wink:[/quote]

well, you seem to be traveling thread to thread to defend him. the main thing that pisses people off is that he never admits that he’s wrong, and he makes arrogant statements.

#109

One of the problems the US had in WW2 was that they issued rations (K) to the troops but the troops did not bother to warm/heat them. The cumulative effect of this was a fall in operational effectiveness and attributed to combat exhaustion, trench foot and a break down in morale. Although the variety was good the constant cold food and lemonade powder took its toll. The UK rations on the other hand consisted of corned beef, sardines, soya sausages and compo tea. Self heating soup was also issued as assault rations so hot food could be available to the troops. The Brits also used central cooking to feed the troops even in the front line. One of the tasks of the CQMS was to deliver hot food to his coy even if it was only tea and biscuits.

Edited to add – based on Charles Whiting’s Siegfried the Nazis’ Last Stand page 151 also How to make war, James F. Dunnigan.

I had C rations in the early 80s. it was novelty more than anything, I do not think any was particularly bad but the quantity was a surprise with a box per meal and it was difficult to identify which meal was which. I also experienced US central cooking with a large pan (12x24x1.5 inch) of breakfast, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon and something else. It was all heated in the tins and served to troops. By this time MREs had come in to use. Our cook made packed lunches for use, normal stuff, one cheese one ham sandwich, one fruit, one clacky bar, one crisps and possibly an egg. The light troops with use got MREs one pack it would seem talking to them that that was SOP when they had a meal out, and no method to heat them. For some reason they did not have individual cooking kit. This lead to a problem on the first day of our field firing at Fort Hunter Liggett, when lunch time came the US troops with us lined up but had no eating irons as they are normally provided for them. They ended up having to borrow from the brit soldiers for two days until some turned up from their QM. They also had no maggot bags and we were all in tents in January in CA.

It was a revelation to the light troops to see the brits sit down at the first opportunity and brew up. One officer explained to me as he shared my brew that they mix the coffee and sugar in a ball and sucked it as they are not allowed to light a cooker and are not issued one.

#110

In contrast the first and main thing I can remember from all my fieldcraft or “personal admin’” in training, is that as soon as you are given any time to yourself, or if you find yourself unoccupied then you should (DS would say MUST) get down and get a brew on for you and one other.

That said - In a forest with light discipline and badly organised Kit, i have never really been tempted by the Tea with seven sugars no flavour and a small handful of pine needles floating in it.

Screech on the other hand! excellent stuff - must be all the sweets i was deprived of as a child.

#111

“battle Unlike any in history”

Sorry but In Britain we Have a national Hero called Blackadder. He also fought at a battle unlike any in history, All the opponents were armed with sharpened slices of fruit! Need I point out that being Unlike does not equate with Bloodiest most brutal and most horrific!

“It was after all, was it not, Field Marshall, a particularly vicious sice of mango that she threatened you with?”

#112

<pedant mode>

(sorry, just happened to have the scripts to hand :wink: )

Incidentally, in the aforementioned battle of Mboto Gorge, Blackadder won the Military Medal for his selfless action in blowing up a heavily defended mango dump while under fire by a hail of whortleberries…

#113

Nah, it’s just you’re the only person who seems able to tolerate him. Then again, I suspect you haven’t been subjected to the sort of insults he throws around normally. For instance, I’m a professional engineer (in my case I work on high vacuum equipment). Some areas that relate closely to my degree and job cropped up (early jet engines/turbomachinery in that particular case) and I had some relevant comments. Ironman posted some poorly thought-out replies which seemed to be entirely cribbed from google without any understanding of what he was posting about.

#114

You bonehead you. lol Let me make it easy to understand:

Vicious
Fierce

Those are the terms. Now, Chosin was the most vicious, most fierce battle in the history of modern warfare. Got that? Not where the most were killed, but the most vicious and fierces. Do you uinderstand those terms?
:shock:

#115

Note: multipart as phpBB won’t let me post long comments

When I pointed this out and explained where he was labouring under a misapprehension, he got downright abusive. I was accused of lying about my qualifications (and I stated repeatedly that I was more than willing to prove to any mod he cared to nominate that I really did have these qualifications - something funnily enough he never took up). He also accused me of being a liar and an incompetent engineer.

That having taken place (and the original threads are still out there - mostly in the Jet Engines thread in my case), I fail to see why I should extend any tolerance to someone who is behaving in exactly the same way as he did originally before his ban.

#116

The questions relating to my professional competence I got particularly angry with, quite simply because if I screw up in my job it’s quite possible people will die. The machines I’m working on run at very high energies indeed. For instance, I was helping to run a destructive test on one the other day, and the energy released was enough to bend 20mm aerospace-grade aluminum substantially, put a rather large dent in a 16mm thick stainless steel plate and throw a large chunk of steel about at half the speed of sound. Fortunately this was all going on inside a box made of a similar grade of armour plate to some APCs, but even then the box was thrown about a lot. Had that gone off when installed in a standard system rather than the bomb box, it would quite possibly have killed someone.

#117

That’s where the anger is from, and it’s worth noting that he has behaved in a similar manner to a very large number of other poeple. For instance, there is one member who has been a small arms instructor with the British Army for something like 20 years (can’t remember exactly). Ironman accused him of lying and being clueless about British Army doctrine for section fire, and in a rather abusive manner too. I suspect it’s only a matter of time before you too say something he disagrees with and get similar treatment.

#118

I know it pisses your pants that you are completely ignorant about the Korean War, but if you are going to post that Chosin was not the most vicious battle in modern warfare, provide the proof - the experts. Where is your expert stating so?

You have not provided a link to an expert who states otherwise. You cannot. PLEASE. Spend all night and day scouring books and the Internet looking for it. PLEASE.

:lol:

#119

Now remember kids, the key words are “vicious” and “fierce”. Not the most dead, or the longest, or who shot the most bullets.

You have your charge.

#120

Completely Ignorant - to the extent that I was a cadet in a Unit of the Gloucestes when at school and Yearly would parade to the memorial! on the Corner of Gloucester Park to stand round the Sphinx and check out her tits!

Yes Serving members of the British Military in units with Battle honours from Korea have no Idea, whereas you who has played call of Duty knows all about it!