"Here lie the husbands of 114 Libyan women"

[Praefectusclassis]

Apparently reading the above epitaph made Jona think of RAT. He sends his regards from El Alamein :!:

[Paullus Scipio]

Whatever is he thinking?
Perhaps that here lies a golden opportunity for an enterprising RAT member to start a harem from all those poor widows?? D lol:

[hoplite14gr]

Can you please tell him to get a pic of the monument of the Greek Brigade Jasper?

Thanks

Best regards

[Praefectusclassis]

I'll try. IF he's still there, I'm sure he'll do so.

[Praefectusclassis]

Jona texted back he's already elsewhere.

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

Now what in city whould he think of Alexander the Great?

Oh no........... cant speak about that here...... LOL

M.VIB.M.

[Jona Lendering]

Well, I'm back from a trip through the (semi)desert from Cairo to Tripoli. I saw a lot of ancient history stuff (go here for an unexcavated Byzantine fort), but I also passed El Alamein and Tobruk. Guilty landscapes. I found that epitaph about the 114 widows a lot more impressive than the usual "gave his life for king and country" or "mort pour la France". I do not think that the mortally wounded spend much thought about those great causes - they will think more about their wives, I guess; and that's what made the line about those widows so much more convincing.

At the German cemetery at Tobruk, I spotted another line that made me think about the utter stupidity of war, a remark by Albert Schweitzer: "Die Soldatengraeber sind die groBen Prediger des Friedens" ("The tombs of the soldiers are the greatest preachers of peace"). He was right, so very very right.

[Robert Vermaat]

(go here for an unexcavated Byzantine fort)

Great stuff!

One thing - the pic of the cistern does not show.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Sorry, was browsing earlier when we went to radio silence.
Excellent link Jona!

[Jona Lendering]

the pic of the cistern does not show.

Fixed, thanks!

[P. Clodius Secundus]

That epitaph reminds me of the cold-war days in Germany. When describing the new armor piercing rounds for the 120mm gun on the M1A1s. We were told that given the accuracy and lethality of the system "Every round equals three weeping Russian Mothers." Of course that catchy little phrase had to be modified where we were in Bavaria to "Four weeping Czech Mothers". Our anticipated adversaries in the 4thCPA had mostly older Soviet tanks which still used a human loader for the main gun. Given the disparity in numbers each of our platoons were expected to destroy a battalion before we were authorized to die. Man am I glad that that particular nightmare/bloodbath never came to pass!

[Lochinvar]

Hey Randi, just remember 'No plan survives first contact with the enemy'! :lol:

[Iagoba]

That remembers me my firts LARP battle.

Our captain yelling us "hold the shield waaaalll!" while he charged alone against four enemies (someone got upwards the ranks soon.. :roll: )

[hoplite14gr]

Randi mechanical devices are prone to failure usually when are most needed.
Alaways s***t hits the fun when you are low on maintenance.

I know of a country where they substituted the T80-U autoloader with a crewman. It works better trust me.

Kind regards.

[P. Clodius Secundus]

Randi mechanical devices are prone to failure usually when are most needed.
Alaways s***t hits the fun when you are low on maintenance.

I know of a country where they substituted the T80-U autoloader with a crewman. It works better trust me.

Kind regards.

I'd be interested to see the new turret configuration. IMHO The autoloader on the T-64/72/80 tanks was ill-concieved. In theory, by reducing the number of crew it would reduce the internal volume of the armored "envelope" of the vehicle. That would raise the HP/weight ratio and improve performance. All it really did was add another mechanically complex system and reduce the number of people available to maintain it. Another drawback was that it required the gun to return to a neutral or "index" position each time before loading. They included a similar loaders override switch on the M1A1 Abrams. I've loaded hundreds of rounds and never had any use for that feature. The time standard for loading the 120mm is 5sec for AP (sabot) and 7sec for HE (heat). I'd be embarrassed if it ever took me that long to reload. We had one one run in Germany where we took less than 3sec to hit our second target. The evaluators accused me of holding a round in my hands the way we used to on the older tanks. I disputed it and forced them to review the audio and showed them the entire sequence was by the book. I had learned on the oldest tank in the inventory, the M48-A5. It's turret was designed for a 90mm but they had upgraded them to 105mm. I'll bet that the loader on a T-80 is even more cramped. I've seen today's M1A1 crewmen loading my way in a number of shows, maybe I started something... Regards,
Randi