The pro-Russian separatists and their T-54

#451795974 / gettyimages.com

So I was derping around on Wikipedia, reading up on what kind of weapons and equipment the military of the self-proclaimed (and little recognized) Federal State of Novorossiya was using to fight against the Ukrainians. I noticed something interesting under the section about tanks: they've got a T-54. Now that itself isn't noteworthy because a lot of countries had them, thanks to the Soviet Union's foreign policies. What I did find amusing however was that they got the tank from a museum.

They've been erected new barricades on the streets of the city of a million people - and have even nicked a World War II tank from a local war museum.

The armed men arrived at Donetsk museum with heavy lifting gear, winched the Soviet era T-54 tank onto a flat-bed truck and drove it off. Squatting on top of the tank, one of them told a local online journalist: ‘‘We have got an engine to go in it. We have got some experts. We have to add the engine, ease the turret and it will be a working battle tank.’’

Well, necessity is the mother of invention, so I have to tip my hat to their improvisation. I wonder who these experts were and from which side of the border they hailed from? Actually, the separatists have a nice little armor corp, the bulk of which is made up of about 40 or more T-64s (apparently from Crimea after the Russians took over there), some T-72B1s, and a small number of other armored vehicles.

There's that bear again: Russian armor convoy enters Ukraine, part of it destroyed by Ukrainian artillery

Well, this is getting interesting. According to reporters from both The Guardian and The Telegraph, a convoy of about 23 APCs, along with a number of support vehicles crossed the border into Ukraine yesterday. The Ukrainian government reports that the army destroyed part of the convoy with artillery fire.

This is starting to get worrying. It's more or less an open secret that the Russians have been supplying pro-Russian separatists with both weapons and *ahem* "volunteers" ever since the revolution there and maybe they just got caught red handed? Or, if I may go a little bit further than I should, what if this was meant to provoke the Ukrainians into doing this very thing? Who knows what Putin's game plan and end goals are. I don't think he could gobble up all of Ukraine without provoking a serious response from the rest of the world, but he could repeat what happened in Crimea and take another piece of Ukrainian territory, specifically, Eastern Ukraine.

I'm pretty much sliding over the thin line between speculating and bullshitting here, but this idea popped into my head just now. What if Putin goes on TV and tells the Russian people (and the rest of the world) that there was no incursion into Ukraine, at least not an intentional one? He could claim that the convoy that crossed over the border was just a patrol that took a wrong turn and got lost. Ignore the fact that the convoy was traveling with the supposed aid convoy the Russians have assembled on the border*; the two convoys were totally unrelated and just happened to driving down the same highway together. It would be easy for Putin to wave the bloody shirt and lament the "murders" of soldier who were merely serving their country, only to be cut down by "the barbaric" Ukrainians. Spin it some more and he could probably fan the patriotic flames and manufacture a mandate to send troops into Eastern Ukraine in order to prevent the loss of anymore Russian life. Again, I'm just crossing over from speculation to bullshitting here, so I doubt it will happen.

What do you think of this whole mess?


*Yeah, I believe what the Russians say about as much as I believe anything that comes from an untrustworthy source. They say "humanitarian convoy", but unless they allow the contents to be inspected by a third party, who's to say that it isn't carrying more weapons and supplies to the separatists?

Zulu is quite a good movie

https://www.movieposter.com/poster/MPW-6188/Zulu.html

One of my all time favorite war movies. It was Michael Caine's first big acting role and he and Stanley Baker were excellent. The battle was top notch and it was really cool seeing what late-19th century fighting might have looked like.

The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between the British and the Zulu Empires in modern day South Africa. The war is famous for the Zulu's surprise victory at Isandlwana and the Battle of Rorke's Drift, where less than 200 British soldiers defeated a force of 4,000 Zulu warriors. Zulu depicts the latter battle and a prequel, Zulu Dawn, centers on the former. The war ended the same year it started with the fall of the Zulu Empire and its annexation into the British Empire.

Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded to survivors of Rorke's Drift and even if the movie isn't 100% historically accurate, the medals were definitely deserved.

Check out this picture of the USS Constitution's original sail plan

Via Wikipedia.

So, Monday marked the 201st anniversary of the USS Constitution's (Old Ironsides) victory over the HMS Guerriere during the War of 1812. Indeed, it was during this battle that the ship earned her famous nicknamed of 'Old Ironsides' due to her hull withstanding the cannon shots of the Guerriere. Apparently, this was due to American oak trees being more dense than those grown in Europe. So, to mark this occasion, here's the original sail plan for the Constitution.

Credit: National Archives.

Probably my favorite thing about the Constitution is that 215 years after she entered service, the ship is still a commission warship today. Only the HMS Victory beats it and that's the only time a British warship has bested her.

h/t Popular Science.

Iron Maiden - The Trooper

The Trooper, of course, is based on the famous Charge of the Light Brigade, which itself was forever immortalized by Alfred, Lord Tennyson in his epic poem. Amazing how an absolute clusterf*ck like that gets turned into some sort of celebrated event, yet Pickett's Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War is infamous as a huge blunder and isn't immortalized.

I just wonder if any wargamers have played this during a Victorian era game? If not, then I am terribly disappointed in all of you. :P

Damn, where were these guys during WWII?

Saw this on Tumblr and it boggled my mind: Operation Dingo. Look at the casualties.

Click to embiggen.

The Rhodesian forces managed to inflict 8,000 casualties, while only suffering eight of their own. On the downside, the Rhodesian military belonged to a white minority government that was attempting to maintain control over an African country, so the praise is limited. On the other hand, Robert Mugabe is one of the worst dictators currently alive.

Still, Dingo was brilliantly executed. The reason the casualties on the ZANLA side were so high is because of clever trickery on the part of the Rhodesians. They had a DC-8 plane fly over ZANLA's base of operations prior to the initial air attack, which caused the rebels to lower their guard. When the Canberra bombers began their attack runs, the latter group assumed that the DC-8 was performing another fly over and didn't bother running for cover.

Needless to say, they were wrong. The bombers dropped anti-personnel bombs and their attack was followed up by the other aircraft. Meanwhile, the two hundred Rhodesian soldiers surrounded the camp and went about their rather distasteful business. It actually would have been even more of a bloodbath if the Rhodesians had had more men to encompass the camp more.

The amazing thing is that of the two dead on the government side, only one was a soldier. The other was a pilot who was killed when his Vampire fighter jet was shot down.

The Agincourt Gambit

xkcd - Knights.

Brilliant.

The War Over Stolen Smoked Meat

Ladies and gentlemen, The Crazy Snake Rebellion.

The Crazy Snake Rebellion, also known as the Smoked Meat Rebellion or Crazy Snake's War, was an incident in 1909 that at times was viewed as a war between the Creek people and American settlers. It should not be confused with an earlier, bloodless, conflict in 1901 involving much of the same people. The conflict consisted of only two minor skirmishes, and the first was actually a struggle between a group of marginalized African Americans and a posse formed to punish the alleged robbery of a piece of smoked meat.

Seriously? That had to have been a damn fine piece of meat in order to instigate an armed conflict. What was it, Holy Bacon? Also, "Smoked Meat Rebellion" is one of the best names for a conflict since the War of Jenkin's Ear in 1739.