Another WWII movie starring Brad Pitt, you say? Yes, please.

I wasn't aware of this until the other day, but Brad Pitt is starring in another World War II movie directed by David Ayer called Fury. It's about the crew of a M4 Sherman fighting against the Germans near the end of the European Theater of the war. Besides Pitt, the cast list is pretty impressive: Shia LaBeouf (the guy from the Transformers movies), Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson movies), Michael Peña (End of Watch, Gangster Squad, Shooter), Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies and has done a couple of war movies such as Black Hawk Down and Wind Talkers), and Jon Bernthal from The Walking Dead.

The last WWII movie Brad Pitt did, The Inglorious Basterds, was pretty damn good, so there's hope that this one will at least be a good popcorn movie. I have this feeling that it probably won't be hugely accurate, but what war movie has ever been dead-on? Honestly, I don't care too much about strict accuracy in war movies. As long as a movie doesn't include anything absurd and blatantly inaccurate (aside from like comedies), I'll probably enjoy it.

On the other hand, Fury is only the fifth movie David Ayer has directed and the first war movie; all of this previous movies have been crime and cop dramas. He also wrote the script for U-751, which was based on the capture of that German u-boat and its Enigma Machine. Unfortunately, in the movie, he altered history by having an American submarine crew in place of the British crew who had actually captured the u-boat. He also wrote The Fast & The Furious, so take that as you will.

I guess we'll just have to wait until the first trailer comes out before we'll have any idea of whether it'll suck or not.

Holy crap, this B-17 ticked off the wrong German

I don't think duct tape is going to fix that...

And I didn't notice until now, but there's a Browning M2 .50 cal hanging from the plane like a chunk of meat hanging from a flap of skin. Holy crap. According to the caption that went with this picture on Wikipedia, the bombardier didn't survive the mission. Well, duh. Wolverine from the X-Men probably wouldn't have survived that. But in all seriousness, I can't believe that the pilot and co-pilot survived such a hit. No wonder they called them Flying Fortresses.

Picture via Wikipedia.

Paraguay still has M3 Stuart tanks

So, it all started with a post on The Wars of Pooch about a game of Flames of War involving New Zealanders in Italy against Germans. Well, the Kiwis were using three M3 Stuart Light Tanks and as is my want, I ended up on Wikipedia reading about the Stuarts. I already knew about them. Not a lot, but they weren't new to me. That's when I saw something that made me do a double take. Apparently, Paraguay's army still uses Stuarts and M4 Shermans. At first, I thought it was BS, since that bit of info had a [citation needed] tagged on at the end, so I looked up the article about the Paraguayan Army and that's when I facepalmed. They do indeed have twelve Stuarts (of which, only six still work) and three Shermans.

M3 Stuart Light Tank.

Holy crap. I know a lot of third and second world countries rely on older military vehicles, since they can't afford more up-to-date stuff, but Stuarts from World War II? Tanks from World War II? I did some checking and according to Wikipedia, a T-72 tank costs like one or two million dollars and their military budget is about $248 million. Maybe Paraguay can do a fundraiser on Kickstarter or IndieGoGo and raise money to buy tanks that aren't over sixty years old?

God, I hope they don't expect those things to actually hold up against an invasion. Paraguay, guys, be nice to your neighbors! Then again, I just read that they've only ever been in two wars, the last of which was the Chaco War in the 30s, so they should be okay.

They aren't called the Greatest Generation for nothing

Into the Jaws of Death by Ralph B. Sargent.

Via Wikipedia.

Twenty WWII spitfire fighters discovered in Burma

Holy moly guacamole, this is awesome!

A British farmer spent 15 years and a metric buttload of money to look for the stalwart planes and finally managed to locate them in an underground bunker in Burma. Apparently, the British buried them there near the end of the war both because they were obsolete and to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Japanese. Another thing that's interesting is that the planes were never taken out of the crates they were shipped over in.

...Of course, enthusiasts of WW2 “Warbirds,” military history buffs and action figure collectors are all equally excited about this stunning discovery, especially after learning that yes, the buried planes were still INSIDE their shipping crates, tarred, lubed and sealed up tight.

This find is pretty important because the number of working Spitfires in the world is only 35, so these twenty will go a long way towards ensuring their survival. Spitfires are an important part of not just British history, but world history. These are the planes that helped defend England during the Blitz and fought the forces of Fascism in Europe and Asia. Plus, they're just pretty to look at. Pre-jet engine military aircraft have an elegance and beauty that their successors their lack.

h/t to The Joe Report and The Lair of the Evil DM.