#general gneisenau | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

cursedalthoughts · 10 months ago

Text

Priority Research 7 Predictions - Dragon Empery

We kick off the official PR7 prediction posts with the smallest faction this time around - Dragon Empery.

In this series of posts I will also try to predict their possible skills, as upon doing research into them, I realized the PR shipgirls have skills that align with the gimmicks of their WoWs counterpart.

Dragon Empery has, in my opinion, two possible DRs.

Lüshun

Lüshun is the first of the two potential Decisive Research shipgirls, imho.

Lüshun is a Tier 10 Destroyer.

She takes a lot, and I mean a lot, of inspiration from the Soviet Tier 9 destroyer Neutrashimy, a destroyer with a reputation for being a zombie. Lüshun and Neutrashimy both have access to specialized repair teams - Lüshun in specific having access to the 'Heavy Repair Teams' consumable, meaning they can last long into the end-game if played correctly.

Lüshun also has access to two dual 130mm turrets that reload every 1.7s, which is an insane reload time only surpassed by the American destroyer Forrest Sherman (or with the USS Austin when her Reload Boost is active - more about her in the Eagle Union PR7 post).

To top it all off, being a Pan-Asian desroyer means Lüshun gets access to deepwater torpedoes (the same ones that Harbin has, which in AL are called 'impactful torpedoes'). These torpedoes can not hit destroyers due to their depth, but are stealthier and have higher flood chances when hitting cruisers, battleships, or aircraft carriers. They also deal more damage overall.

I expect Lüshun would have a skill reflecting her endurance as well as a skill to boost her torpedo damage. She'd be a very good hybrid DD with good guns and good torpedoes, but awful speed.

Jinan

I checked, the recent DE shipgirl Chi An seems to be named after a different place than Jinan.

Jinan is the second possible DR shipgirl. She is based on the American CL-154 light cruiser design (we will see this again when viewing USS Austin later on). She boasts of 5 dual 127mm gun turrets that reload every 3.5s, making her essentially another glorified destroyer - just like Harbin.

In fact, Jinan is very similar to Harbin, just... better. In all regards.

Harbin doesn't have a skill reflecting the consumable that makes the Pan-Asian light cruisers shine - their torpedo reload boost, which makes Jinan's torpedoes reload in 8 seconds. This means that, if played right, Jinan can have 40 torpedos in the water at the same time - as she has 10 torpedoes per side with a 13.5km range. These are deepwater torpedoes as well, so, just like Lüshun, they can't hit destroyers.

Jinan would essentially be a DR version of Harbin with a skill that randomly insta-reloads her torpedoes.

Sun Yat-Sen

Sun Yat-Sen is very much like Georgia in a lot of aspects. Georgia is a sidegrade to the Iowa-class that replaces their triple 406mm turrets with dual 457mm turrets. And also has a ludicrous speed boost. And amazing secondary guns. Georgia is all-around a funny ship. Sun Yat-Sen is not.

Sun Yat-Sen replaces the main turrets of Sovetsky Soyuz - triple 406mm guns that are scary accurate at short ranges and more inaccurate than usual at long ranges - with dual 457mm guns that are overall very accurate. The problem with her guns is that she only has six guns in total - and as anyone that has played Gneisenau can tell you, six-gun battleships are annoying to play. Battleships are the most RNG-dependant class in the game, so having more guns is generally better to lessen the RNG. The upside is that Sun Yat-Sen has a 23 second reload.

Sun Yat-Sen would be of PR rarity and have a skill similar to Warspite, as in, a "fuck you in particular" skill that allows her to have an extremely accurate salvo every once in a while.

Tianjin

Tianjin is, much like Sun Yat-Sen and Lüshun, a Soviet ship first and foremost. Tianjin is a copy-cat of Riga, the Tier 9 Soviet heavy cruiser. The differences between them are small - Tianjin has average cruiser dispersion instead of the Soviet 'shotgun' dispersion pattern Riga has. Tianjin has worse reload at 15s compared to the 14s of Riga, but more range. Both have the same shells, but Riga has flatter shell arcs, meaning she can easily hit citadels at longer ranges. These differences are technicisms at the end of the day.

However, the main and only selling point of Tianjin (as she is a premium ship costing 63€) is that she has access to a High-Precision Spotter Plane.

Here is the aforementioned spotter plane in all her glory.

This plane gives her a 10% dispersion boost and a 10% range boost for a short while, while having a short cooldown and a lot of uses.

Tianjin in Azur Lane could get a similar skill that allows her to be very accurate for a short amount of time.

She is PR material.

#azur lane #gacha #gacha game #world of warships #priority research #dragon empery #azur lane speculation #me rambling

17 notes · View notes

lonestarflight · 1 year ago

Text

"A RAF 90 Squadron B-17 Flying Fortress ('WP', serial number AN519) before taking off on a mission to attack the German capital ships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in August 1941. Passed for publication August 8, 1941. Printed caption on reverse: 'The Flying Fortress. American engineering made history on July 24th, when for the first time, Fortress Aircraft dropped bombs on an enemy target from so great a height that the bombers were neither visible or audible from the ground. This formation of Fortress 'planes was the spearhead of the biggest daylight attack yet made by the R.A.F. With the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau as their targets, their bombs fell with amazing accuracy then and on their subsequent flights over German territory. This triumph of American workmanship has proved one of the greatest successes of the war. Photo Shows:- The Flying Fortress before she makes a trip. F.N.A. Aug 1941.' Censor no: 154761. On reverse: Copyright Fox Photos, Approved For Issue Air Adviser and US Army General Section Press & Censorship Bureau."

Imperial War Museum: IWM FRE 11240

#Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress #B-17 #B-17D #Bomber #Royal Air Force #RAF #August #1941 #World War II #World War 2 #WWII #WW2 #WWII History #History #my post

18 notes · View notes

brookstonalmanac · 30 days ago

Text

Events 11.23 (before 1970)

534 BC – Thespis of Icaria becomes the first recorded actor to portray a character on stage. 1248 – Conquest of Seville by Christian troops under King Ferdinand III of Castile. 1499 – Seven days after being convicted of treason, Perkin Warbeck, a pretender to the throne of England, is hanged for attempting to escape from the Tower of London; his supporter John Atwater is executed with him. 1644 – John Milton publishes Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship. 1733 – The start of the 1733 slave insurrection on St. John in what was then the Danish West Indies. 1808 – French and Poles defeat the Spanish at Battle of Tudela. 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Chattanooga begins: Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant reinforce troops at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and counter-attack Confederate troops. 1867 – The Manchester Martyrs are hanged in Manchester, England, for killing a police officer while freeing two Irish Republican Brotherhood members from custody. 1876 – Corrupt Tammany Hall leader William Magear Tweed (better known as Boss Tweed) is delivered to authorities in New York City after being captured in Spain. 1890 – King William III of the Netherlands dies without a male heir and a special law is passed to allow his daughter Princess Wilhelmina to succeed him. 1910 – Johan Alfred Ander becomes the last person to be executed in Sweden. 1914 – Mexican Revolution: The last of U.S. forces withdraw from Veracruz, occupied seven months earlier in response to the Tampico Affair. 1921 – Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States, signs the Willis–Campbell Act into law, prohibiting doctors from prescribing beer or liquor for medicinal purposes. 1923 – The 1923 Irish hunger strikes ends, four Irish Republicans die from starvation. 1924 – Edwin Hubble's discovery, that the Andromeda "nebula" is actually another island galaxy far outside our own Milky Way, is first published in The New York Times. 1934 – An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden discovers an Italian garrison at Walwal, well within Ethiopian territory. This leads to the Abyssinia Crisis. 1939 – World War II: HMS Rawalpindi is sunk by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. 1940 – World War II: Romania becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis powers. 1943 – World War II: The Deutsche Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg is destroyed. It will eventually be rebuilt in 1961 and be called the Deutsche Oper Berlin. 1943 – World War II: Tarawa and Makin atolls fall to American forces. 1944 – World War II: The Lotta Svärd Movement is disbanded under the terms of the armistice treaty in Finland after the Continuation War. 1946 – French naval bombardment of Hai Phong, Vietnam, kills thousands of civilians. 1955 – The Cocos Islands are transferred from the control of the United Kingdom to that of Australia. 1959 – French President Charles de Gaulle declares in a speech in Strasbourg his vision for "Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals". 1963 – The first episode of Doctor Who (An Unearthly Child) is broadcast by the BBC, which is now the world's longest running science fiction drama.

#Events

0 notes

korrektheiten · 2 months ago

Text

Wo ist der General Yorck unserer Gegenwart?

Ansage: »In Wiesbaden – das war die erste Stadt, die ich vor vielen, vielen Jahren zu sehen und zu erleben bekam – gab es eine Yorck-Straße. Und sie ist immer noch da. Ich werde demnächst mal wieder hingehen. Es gab und gibt natürlich, Roon-, Clausewitz-, Scharnhorst-, Gneisenau-, Derfflinger-, Moltke- und viele andere Straßen zuhauf, auch einen […] The post Wo ist der General Yorck unserer Gegenwart? first appeared on Ansage. http://dlvr.it/TFn9ss «

0 notes

libidomechanica · 1 year ago

Text

Male enough she second with grew

A rispetto sequence

For suit and have don’t know determined such a one old me room into me. Than the Virgil and when that a dubious parents? There,

and geography—having air midst temperate inuent, is always? But to misnomer. At thus is not be a gift for other.

Tis fine days write, sprang alone should soldiery paines of why did scortching begin! Rise after whene’er every soul to the Pyrrhic

phthisics, which now by her cheek, passion. A beauty bounded on living eyes, my hot or whether view of velvet, or a little boards.

Thou to skye, that end or no truth the invalid and fault confound a coming inch often I can’t help, come none. But could, its own: t

is a worm in a marriages, duns, and answer’d o’er a Bottled world’s a plain bed. Then shore, and with Seraskier. And cool as a trial.

With and have remember. Into a couch at night in our his aboue leaves. That they been the sea’s should graced, circle. As meeke first I burnt mew,

throng to foe defence from his worn is awful package, rank as sole world, and taciturn the same a gipsy bonnets, dread all the tails.

That kept their paps lie tangles of late for death-pale draws back the unborn, and like chewed away, for Lebanon in there and she die, that

tipple was none with whate’er his fate had fell, of beetlesse might footstoole heirs. A love behold seen their ready to the fain with world?

Get with his berries of loue, such less bravuras who, by any chaunce me one tongues. Smoking the slay, a heaps, and some sudden vain: the

tender in thrown: of call—what much is my nation, to below, Gneisenau, their caprice except this occasion, there’s mother’s name.

From his is a very bed-vow broke—then he shrugg’d—and t was a statement warm their returned in master but lothsome and if in Wine

we weigh near petion with such Liberty. Is condition two of shoes, so I never workshop. And drop downcast like changeful smart.

Or if, too, rarely that good mien, espect it had generate in time into its on the musicke care fresh of ever morne. For it

were wish their ration; and glance on the onely true and forty? To make an eraser and Thou not being Love, across the please.

’Er in such a deare. Silence scarce ever ways we have her first’s berth, Coleridge, Southcote—I have some he’s begin to talk of posterities.—

Fit to kill? And say what though some from euen so: how deep as we still thy great can near has gleam, the footstoole hurls the public head.

Bar; not voice, where in which serve and victor by hereticular for even the teeth other i’ll leaving away? Her stirr’d if we

show it needs his lakes.—There! A wounds: she proudly are overture. Ere I not they were may accept him for shepherd. So dear? Is it fade.

By the sweet withdraw think that I, if the saye as brough heuens sting, gaunt me maids have the wholly on the third, you’ve mine; I’ve spaces doe giuen

hath harder what to-morrow subtle spake the Virgin honest forest, drown’d, which of her pretty crowne with torn drap the same was he way.

Till endure to vaunt, she third sand. Hair: anton in dated of his batter, ’ and o’er then their rifles. Dark is a caravan in days,

t would leapt: helps at their proceed in his please, than life, love line; it is nothings, prize-money. Just were whiles swim. Whether—I recognize.

Fair vice—curious for leads, but it is sorrow a thing weathes all all come to loosely died. Blasted the crescent, but my harts to

that heat of fame bloom, to his fresh you have the old Time relicks of death. And yet not regrette; I know: is it the breed a smiles should Love.

Hand: and teach omissing good on odour mistresse it see each truth any danger, water. Bit the armour he did that I love is;

i’ll kiss; for his perman care; and destroyer ye light, and the was one follows the vain: the sky; if notories, and plate after, mute.

And sweare that’s light? Yet dared with in the hote. Himself they found a way. Here it peril amongst the knew that the discovers, in and feeling

between. Bellow, you dreader she was like moan. If yours the transforth, to security. Never lips, our gold, I am a slave?

’Er that slight have seen there at least to words sway, had got my faults. As here fix’d so meanwhile weening of the powers with light and teacup,

arrived in little pay deriu’d from you look where is not what he should let me to show it, and sweet warmth as rhymes. Juan, farewell; therefore.

Longer soul giver, I see nought to have done, the university of glories woe, I faint at this is away. If any mile

uphill sacrifice: the dream where the restling he most in Wales. Upon a doubt which the pomanded for all beguilefull mankind?

What’s not to her dead: ne fates he ashame, and his voices of you’ve paint the raw begins every their eyes bore the for doubt no length perfect

beat home! A rival, theyr green detain’s heares vp the moor an adept, doth turne. Of many more, but Johnson join the woman’s there!

Is in harden-gate, not a dim its ends fade. Most his own discontemn; while this said two—but now they did not die; for eats in fact to

soft stones sublime wild be admir’dly blind blaws are to worse so dear it. Out of fathering of this I haue some one ever bowres.

And leapt: helps at every clink, or gratify what are safe will vouchsafe O goddesse, their two, would have a king in the world a stuffs, which

none beautiful traded her the more, when wedding. But swell privated sang off in you know the think who is sense for what we had ceased.

Time, but I’m wrong, worn out of they loose their choral the renew: and humble for the future bard, sink of life, and Julia was grew still

soundless trade, ’ likewise or the women disguise a tear, Whose figure, soone much light. In her touch. Stood is of lavish peal on the between.

Ne will the gaze ouer all. And scorn’d Haidee did mate, and the committed first or two on such the promises; t is nothing then me.

Ah, whylest intentions turn and saw nothing now I meet and have such a little problem, and was the Sultanship to lead there, love.

A boyish kind, come of a stone. Moreover mine. Insider a girl? Whose less curb, and not the dark, if you your child with her cheek a

fair, arise and large, and be very birde feet bent. I am with poetes his close on the sobs, gasps, all to see Juan mischief in Wales.

One so please; no mattering Nature when I beheld my spirit, and the faery playnts and whom my side, and he not learn the worke of

goblins, but not of Muses foretells Embleme., And nearer thralled there is yet I was quite, that is not bee. But forbid the you!

As the stoute anothers, a pipe his he lot one cried, unto mob stood with, by degree, and sweet some he’s full true lovelier agree,

but with bomb … And the moment offend.— But two works out two or would perhaps you is God whom their own doorknobs gleam, I would be better?

Spread on rhyme at length, and stratagems second they had it changes, reservice extremely in your strated case in honey, slow: I

learned from every nation. Among to decent of my lordeth glowing, with seemd euer four kind, selection for what shalt be a Jew.

With circle, theyr sheet, ye ambro’s res’ that such more! Of noysome of this I will back return’d, we belongs the summer, yf please. But where

was the serve told. Between you paid, I could sea; howe’er might was sleep one misusage. Like hands all his very thing in dead, should windows.

And love no needes behind; so all eat which theyr guyle is widow of give your quarrell, sayne, and overcome o’ cling life to tunes

for sullen or he hills, it is, then? This hap was sublime with impart, preludes to the Garden, and now: is idle; let us pray.

He praying itself with themselue shortest ornaments of love, sir, too, up the linnets, who only and seven seeking his retire,

and themselues did sherbets of twilight doth speake our bright? Thing with you’llhave lost, and of sigh, which was star-shape or look’d form my life.

Then wall: and balance the little crave I be, that Boon, such a deares are then he long. That striking in facts, till called wont to seeke an

Arab lore all these wean heavily against those warr’d with sly she imaginations are stands appears; but t is,—all personal.

Their sun, in thy door; some bloodless divine, he ’ll believe myself at the gold? The great Drawcansir, expounded himself at sullen,

whose of succeed, not him smile. How ration of hys Lord, whose politeness’d your mutual is verse vows, Supportune to hammer air.

Moreover boils against then but they? All that thy beauties prepared nor please our bodies the most mortals mocks, or ever, as an in

the same hot you are your owne me of thou are a little the second spark will blistening wide, requisite and body has an art.

Bid here borne, but Johnson (mostly. —The Hebrew bloom, to Scott, and scenes— though my life all day inch or spirit? Wilt than the patriots, brave

of pryde: draw that love are ye plast. To knit this your swain its vine, god be a sharpe dark breast the Danube’s some green with pleasant riddled.

Walk hers, two liberty as framed more louing not they mean inventide; but the less tight doth fell swoon, not for young khan—And women’s cheek all

approve; and humbles, to ill fishes; and the means men began to the Seven as my good deal motions doe ye wad in maid. Of while.

That the did beams, and I though amorous even though again, or fall shades such as—’Unless by so travels the saw ten the with her

Attica; or ill—which shakes to whom no light till impulse and further death thee? Love are you, to-morrow’s should perhaps was lot; the weede.

Of human Hydra, in the hill serve you, you get it grumble at field: but world naught hath end in at love glorious. My soul was on

this heel, but since Ferdinary to his perfection or wisdom’s no less as a trifling dames where he song—he deem’d quiver a mine.

And so is meant was Elysium to retort would prosody and meeke her death. The leave thunders. I’m a phant a heel extermissing

at speech, and deare odds and doe began to ruins of carefulgence, and he feruent tide homeward your Bible, wine on my maid.

Was much they are further his open with these true a dreamed, and regularity entance have the rugged to be a still is day.

Which hate blooded nor wish out befell, the lofty love to show: sorrowes saddest Eulalie’s suffer’d, in goodlines are na by.

To Kerke the times who, there I were the minds over his congeald wince I’ve got asleeping Juan’s road, and revolved that least decided the

same. For Daviest high some to marriage into a tree unto the sober so had loved with wander guardians and wel flash, all deuyse.

We saint August to somethink of the virgin’s you hardiment save much breath, by thy to mysery: a river against a sort

of the fayre gone, the truth are such louely light beneath, and Cleopatra— night make the victim, and marry me though seas to enter.

And from Arab lore and dinner and never is torches, thou are so perfume them besides to bulletin. Be terme still in his sends

returning it theology in your next of trees,—he modestar by him escape of sensual murmurs sweet boy; but a prime.

And, reply, and natures, and their fright exceedingly. The for his plaine. The Mirror’d blows of female far above your pride tis also

these true right Of this another. Hail, save oppress. But to days; unwritten rolls awake, are my mastiff and renders gazellesley?

June that mysery: but shadow often—such enchanted, frenchmen stars, all blisse, this strange and the great death, and when thou strange dismay our

friend are a worms a shawl of inward me much of fables; t were zombies. Would letting you too palpably him run. In twice; in it.

Historian, your harmless man, who soone days, and should wear the inly house, you’ve past, upon the times, but always remember’s glory

servation: besides the armies withall. For all, case, or checker’d safeguardians rushes, as if loath from the ignorance then die!

A Chapel were, or made the day. Well a globe of a fool wilt this is not to knew not set when her. She through if death-pale his new: her

eyes, who, by light written yet I sought world have no more safely my heart was, though they came. The days of illness town, in all our commend?

Ah good, to turn to could seas of your brain shouts—and give the him in silks my mouth’d its snow, which every seven—women, where ever the

sweeping day’s cleft little heirs is a loss what you may king, cash, to make, Centure to be kind of hell’s small that may pitfold hinde! Huge bright.

’ Graven know his there the dread tolerable tired; thereof let me like o’er soul, like Shakspeare dust, be well, that climax to be an

express’d, the earring a marble vault to mountaine: the least, and world a caves! How many death is, amongst his holy grand prayer Way.

Thou not mortal clothes’ proportions as midst these no mattery, and head loves—do the tidal dark garden’d be over madam dies lose

black-eyed embracelet clasp’d ere on me and then workshop. So those who had non-idents, together say, for which with the buxom mine.

He found else the time Don Alfonso much the earth with me! Thousand sail for Vice, in the won, battle horned drew there are such as light more

pass’d which them all will comfort heaven brough no teach night, handsome small down, thou does, not do other once and Despair of known, to button.

And tell transient talk six monthly, on which striving which sole guardian, when their feelingsgate made of our hero, as under, and all

have the circumspectre hurls stirr’d then them, and in they did. More, our eyes, then forgiven up the never dread scarce pass’d in thee lustfully.

It would not desire, but by his pollution! Weep, where the musk from a dread or hero, o’er he rest, church-bells, which subtlesse, that feelings,

silent shrink that if in field Show of yester’d by eyes tears, whose eyes beneath the old Europe. Or formed of a yellow, now alas!

The only Nature but the pan I said that so filled them like pity! That went poems must every minute; but never yet some die,

so clearly more persons and fetter face short speake no means of yore, the better that a voyce, goe lyken into false defend againe.

The fame was she dwelled on its of Fame? Sleeps; ’ that you the post and frail be told; her spill win her. In act thy swinck, that have theyr strange growing

idle now be I am imposture. ’Damn your not, display, not hold, I swears handsome half-past all, to live ever perplext her, O.

With trouble feed him. As if a foe worlds glory’s cars of man wherefore, the Maker ne’er sae small proue, it doth a loss, or he good.

Against then its had cease: and keep its saying unwanted? The ponderment, pale grew a sunflowered immaculative retic.

Alfonso clearer to the Vade Mecum of evening with painted by perils round those turn of the old weapons somehow people sorry,

from blame pretty stirre vp coles shutterflies. And stoutly which I vnto the dew delight should lived his limping though it seeming near hence.

But now and pomegranate there but drop to their soft splendour. Who all his pure a humps and rest of their coveted to me in pretty

passes, one affairs, but where I disdain of pearl dissert as taken those who leavenly well call longueurs’ they all;—her sorry.

Being the creep o’er it equal dinner which vigorous as from my selfe assurd, and feeble bloom’d to fly from the end, their power

the Four; Indigestion breast. Besides the SATs, down as when the more living should Love, and fetch better, or gemmes in five out the thinke.

He hath vs of day I have late in fairy had some plasted thinck they make the who her very body of all day the living?

The worst that future in his odd, nor rues in would kill; sweet you pleasure, sweet from thy beast, with along— he must for fates chant a hundred.

Breathed his flesh melt they may expect is not they are two, i’ll kiss all perish people doubt, protection breast. Thou bring but thin like Wordsworth,

petition—leaving old, her and carpets, likest sky: if I like eyes, yet moan and look upon it should the deep, ’ to weaue, i’ve known too.

With the pure age of passion I shalt have, which into assoyle when advocation may lived his lurch past and harm, which meanes his

hands can away, in shalt belong. Shut upon meaning on this ears should not one by her, the hill the wrote heart is one who kill he place.

Still these she according their terrible enough—begg’d her he gods of all the eye wilds under’d round rekes pity, who keep not for

thy great abodes and temptation all Seville? Last attential; also many have none, and even in all adapted how sand.

To bedward to have a virtue preferr’d, Whatsoe’er by parts of our breath gentle with false callings till length, and where he discovers cannot

speaker needs upon imposture. Ride by footstoole he way too much a deal of word nor mantle boxer, if men light: but fair.

Of your mynds embrace; he same. That ye that cause who dying should growes vpon the jury bed, her his pride. Horace, as Philip’s so old

genius which farthing, and ugliest, seeing next brooke, where and weep not tell us. Or they must good, and reigning, to know’st, with poet.

And so, what she opinion or wit, that to gazellesley not more had? Instead of a delicate pistol call out: the limbs, it

were one, as if the rest, that cannot know my guilt in the sun, he world, that you who furnishable and duties enjoys of your stopped.

Dying a marshall not watch, than the Snow, miss can’t be the surely fair; the garden tresurrection may lived to a trifles, as not

till my arms to the Sultan, as yet, ’t was on a light grow vaster by thinks, be no worst time was one we allow him but for place.

My days; t is antithesis to spotlesse shepheard, that voyage. In my life, that suite, peruke the old we but keep in my names: I’ll

remains a labour to the whose whole reclaims here I sleep in they embracelet me, drink may see the little drawn after differ.

He was growing Anthony to dreams with thou does the night. When your of mothers’ hooks: he mine eye my long I was so read, secondemn

none, who could not to heau’n to placed, as been but the cublesse to both tornado, for life to grace that once enable—not as a maid.

Some where such as the Sultanship, pell-mell, or cynic ever hart was now what I don’t know my would I deckt, great she in his halfe to

matter wholly granted of Spain. Denying honour, so the room- door in his legs, toward glance he man can I gives one. What his china.

By the her eyes does not her eyes lifting you to hold were please; about; a city griefe consume to seeke thou have seen too.—The swirl and

this,. What think, and them chast all heat of fame, or brain good exact, translated not punish spring, too cruelly his last, sigh’d me apply.

I have done so much I dare them, thou appeare. He sole guarded cure in health to get in quest then dression, the Sultan, and man board unseen

the future gone, I dream’d not a weedes that like fierce against a piston too, being me take breather Letter what curl of all.

Virtue we can say his hall, flying for amusement: ’-the saw—and brightest shame, was middle, and, neither harts less expanding rampart

of her pills like presentfully shrill call tryde: that’s not if so childe the oxygen. But, Tibbie, I care; so well afloating he please.

#poetry #automatically generated text #Patrick Mooney #Markov chains #Markov chain length: 5 #141 texts #rispetto sequence

1 note · View note

nebris · 2 years ago

Text

How the Germans Defined Auftragstaktik: What Mission Command is - AND - is Not

Thu, 06/21/2018 - 12:17pm

How the Germans Defined Auftragstaktik[i]: What Mission Command is - AND - is Not

Donald E. Vandergriff

In general, one does well to order no more than is absolutely necessary and to avoid planning beyond the situation one can foresee. These change very rapidly in war. Seldom will orders that anticipate far in advance and in detail succeed completely to execution.

The higher the authority, the shorter and more general will the orders be. The next lower command adds what further precision appears necessary. The detail of execution is left to the verbal order, to the command. Each thereby retains freedom of action and decision within his authority.

-- Helmut Karl Bernhard von Moltke, Instructions for Large Unit Commanders (1869)[ii]

Auftragstaktik or Mission Command,

Is not a Command and Control doctrine.

It is not a Command and Control system.

It is not a technology.

It is not a ticket to a “free for all.”

It is not a way to write short or no orders or to rely on verbal orders.

Auftragstaktik is a cultural philosophy. It is the highest form of military professionalism. The overall commander’s intent is for the member to strive for professionalism, in return, the individual will be given latitude in the accomplishment of their given missions. Strenuous, but proven and defensible standards will be used to identify those few capable of serving in the profession of arms. Once an individual has been accepted into the profession, a special bond forms with their comrades, which enables team work and the solving of complex tasks. This kind of command culture cannot be comprehensively conveyed in a sole block of official instruction. Instead, Mission Command must be integrated into all education and training from the very beginning of basic training. Even more importantly, it must be integrated into all aspects of so-called “garrison” life, in everything the military does.

Yet the ultimate command culture—because it empowers by trust the individual to best solve problems after extensive professional development—did not come into official being until the publication of the German 1888 Drill Regulations.[iii] The reform process that led to the first formal adoption of Mission Command by an armed force began with Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst, (1755—1813) in the early 1800s and was taken up by August von Gneisenau (1760–1831) after his mentor’s untimely death in 1813, and later Leopold Hermann Ludwig von Boyen (1771–1848).[iv] This continued after decades of professional debate, implementation in officer development, and real-world application in three wars: the Danish-Prussian War of 1864, the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.[v]

In parallel, the U.S. Army has some great examples of similar command climates and approaches. As an institution, the U.S. Army has yet to see Mission Command as what it really is - a culture of professionalism. All too often, we have sought tangible metrics at the expense of holistic understanding. As a great practitioner, LTC Chad R. Foster says,

The intent behind changing the terminology was to get away from viewing the application of command merely in terms of technical systems and tasks. As usual, we seem to be missing the mark—Mission Command as we SAY we want it to be is a cultural concept, and one that can't be quantified in an easy metric. It also can't be standardized, at least not in the sense of specific step-by-step processes (our institutional favorite, of course).[vi]

Since the 1870s, when General Philip Sheridan and Lieutenant Colonel Emory Upton were sent by the U.S. Army to study the Prussian military system and other international militaries, we have failed to understand and apply the meaning of Auftragstaktik to our own organizational cultures. The U.S. Army like many other nations, copied the verbiage of Auftragstaktik verbatim, but failed to operationalize the concept. The same holds true today. The U.S. Army has always conflated Mission Command with bureaucratic efficiency, stemming from a time when the theories of Max Weber were emerging in Europe and the United States. As Muth writes,

Auftragstaktik. The word sounds cool even when mangled by an American tongue. What it means, however, has always been elusive to Americans. The problematic translation of that core German military word into 'mission type orders' completely distorts its meaning. Auftragstaktik does not denote a certain style of giving orders or a certain way of phrasing them; it is a whole command philosophy.[vii]

German officers who served in U.S. Army schools and observed the U.S. at war, sometimes tried to explain their command culture to their American counterparts. Captain Adolf von Schell, an exchange officer to the U.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia in the 1930s, translated Auftragstaktik into mission tactics:

In the German Army we use what we term “mission tactics”; orders are not written out in the minutest detail, a mission is merely given to a commander. How it shall be carried out is his problem. This is done because the commander on the ground is the only one who can correctly judge existing conditions and take proper action if a change occurs in the situation.[viii]

Although it has been translated into English in several different ways, it is difficult to understand unless one strenuously researches the origins of the concept. That research shows that the Prussian/German concept is interesting for two reasons.

First, it explains how the Germans believed they could operate mentally faster than their enemies. The Germans mean “faster” not just in terms of raw, physical speed, but “faster” in terms of making better decisions. Timely and better decisions results in better physical speed relative to the enemy. The German armed forces accomplished this with a progressive and innovative approach to leader development. Technology was only viewed in terms of enhancing their leader’s abilities make more effective decisions.[ix]

Secondly and more importantly, it defines what kind of officers and soldiers a military needs in order to operate successfully under this concept. This is key to understanding what kind of culture a military force must cultivate in order to be successful.

U.S. historians have long explained away German victories in the early years of World War II with tales of superior German equipment and numbers. Nothing could be further from the truth. As prominent historian Dr. James Corum explains in the introduction of Condell and Zabecki’s book On the German Art of War: Truppenführung:

For years after the 1940 campaign the German victory was explained by Germany’s employment of masses of tanks, motorized forces and aircraft against an enemy bound to the Maginot Line and a defensive strategy. However, we know now that in terms of numbers of troops and weapons, the Wehrmacht in 1940 held few advantages. Indeed, it was often at a disadvantage against the Allied forces.[x]

Dr. James Corum dismissed the Western or Industrial-age tactical principle that an attacking force must have a force ratio advantage of 3:1 to defeat an enemy in a prepared defensive position. He explains the German success in terms of the intangibles of leadership and good ideas, rather than raw numbers of men and material. What counted more was how the Germans developed and nurtured leadership. It was not the content of their training courses, but the environment in which leadership was taught and developed. This is a foreign concept to the U.S. Military, which prefers to focus on content, time, and inputs, rather than outcomes or results. To effectively practice Auftragstaktik a military force must incorporate these ideas every day in everything they do, in war and in peace.[xi]

Auftragstaktik is a, broad concept...embracing aspects of...a theory of the nature of war, character and leadership traits, tactics, command and control, senior subordinate relationships, and training and education. It...[is] a comprehensive approach to warfighting.

The common translation of Auftragstaktik as “mission-type orders” or as “mission command” can be misleading. This focuses attention on the mission statement of the U.S. Operations Order. A true understanding of Auftragstaktik would focus attention on Paragraphs 3a (Concept of the Operation) and 3b (Coordinating Instructions).[xii]

Auftragstaktik emphasizes commander’s intent, which provides subordinates a framework for making their own decisions in harmony with the overall plan: “The German Army used mission statements...in the form of the commander’s intent...The commander then assigned tasks (Aufträge) to subordinate units to carry out his superior’s intent. The subordinate commander decided upon a specific course of action which became his resolution (Entschluss).”[xiii]

Auftragstaktik “explains basic principles of giving orders for operations.”

Fostering this kind of individual initiative was the guiding principle of German military education. In short, officers were taught how to think, not what to think. Generals Hermann Balck, and von Mellenthin, during discussions with Col. John Boyd and Pierre Sprey in 1979, said they “considered the individuality of the German fighting man—his freedom to take initiative and the system which engendered these policies and attributes—to be the key to superlative German performance.”[xiv]

In the German Army culture, a commander rarely, if ever, reproached a subordinate for showing initiative. This is where the term Selbständichkeit (to change an order) is important. According to military historian and author Dr. Rob Citino, this was the term that the Germans used, while Auftragstaktik was hardly discussed, if at all. The culture of Auftragstaktik created the conditions for adaptability, while with Selbständichkeit a leader could change their order based on the circumstances of the moment guided by the higher commander’s intent. They believed it was better to make a good decision immediately than to wait and make a better decision later, possibly missing a fleeting battlefield opportunity.[xv] An unforgivable mistake in such a culture is one of inaction. Waiting for perfect information before making any decision was not tolerated. This attitude extended down through the ranks, to the individual soldier. As Dr. Bruce I. Gudmundsson has written, the German Army was, since the days of Frederick the Great, one of “the most decentralized ones in Europe.”[xvi]

In situations where contact with the higher commander was lost, subordinates could be trusted to take the action he thought appropriate, rather than stopping and waiting until contact could be re-established. This aggressive attitude allowed units to take advantage of fleeting opportunities and local successes. In short, “... nothing laid down from above in advance is sacrosanct. A subordinate commander ... is justified ... in modifying or even changing the task assigned him” as long as his action supports the higher commander’s intent.[xvii]

The core of the success of Auftragstaktik was the strenuous selection and development of German leaders. There were three personal qualities the Germans clearly valued in their officers: knowledge, independence, and the joy of taking responsibility. Knowledge served at least two purposes. First of all, knowledge was what made the officer know what to do, a foundation for making a decision. At the same time, it generated trust among your subordinates. Independence was related to decision making. Independence matters as an officer may be the only one present with the authority to make a decision at a given time. One cannot always wait for others to tell you what to do and when to do it. The last and the most important personal quality was the joy of taking responsibility. The joy of taking responsibility was what kept you on the battlefield. “It was what forced you to stay despite the horrors you were experiencing. It was what made you endure.”[xviii]

The best way to separate the great from the average is to hold everyone—from the top commander down to each individual soldier—responsible for their actions. Not only are you responsible for their own units but for “service to the people.” This leads to the introduction of the term Verantwortungsfreudigkeit.[xix] The 1921 manual of Führung und Gefecht der Verbundenen Waffen in 1921-23, says that “the most distinguished leaders’ quality is the joy of taking responsibility.” German doctrine used this term as early as World War I, but it is emphasized in the 1933 Truppenführung.

Truppenführung delves thoroughly into the concept by stating that “all leaders must in all situations without fearing responsibility exert his whole personality. The joy of taking responsibility is the most distinguished leadership quality.” This clearly states how important the Germans viewed responsibility. They strove to cultivate officers who not only accepted responsibility, but actually thrived and excelled in situations where great responsibility was suddenly thrust upon them.[xx]

Why is it important for an officer to enjoy responsibility? Independence equips an officer to handle uncertainty and make good decisions in the absence of direction. When faced with the horrors of the battlefield, an officer needs more than just independence to reach his or her potential. When everything is difficult and everyone around him seems to have given up, that is when the feeling of responsibility kicks in. It is the feeling that no one else can determine the outcome of the engagement, when one must face the “emptiness of the battlefield.”[xxi] This is why “Verantwortungsfreudigkeit” is what makes the officer “endure the situation” on the battlefield and is the most important quality for a leader.[xxii]

One may note that there is no discussion of a single individual in this examination of Mission Command. I do not write about leadership with discussions of a George Patton or Ulysses Grant. Individual personalities do not play a major role in Auftragstaktik. The Germans were able to teach it to a great many officers and NCOs. They discovered a way to make it stick as their culture. The culture matters more than the individual personalities involved.

End Notes

[i] Thanks to my wife Lorraine Vandergriff for assisting me with the translation of German documents.

[ii] Helmut Karl Bernhard von Moltke, “Aus den Verordnungen fur die hoheren Truppenfuhrer vom 24. Juni 1869,” in Moltkes Militarische Werke, Zweiter Theil, Die Tatigkeit als Chef des Generalstabs im Frieden, Preubischer Generalstab, (Berlin, Germany: Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn, 1900), 178.

[iii] Preubisches Kriegsministerium, Exerzir-Regelement fur die Infanterie (signed 1888), (Berlin, Germany: Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn, 1889), 109.

[iv] Gordon A. Craig, The Politics of the Prussian Army 1640-1945, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964), chapters 2-4.

[v] Robert M. Citino, The German Way of War, From the Thirty Years’ War to the Third Reich, (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2005), 116-117.

[vi] Lieutenant Colonel Chad Foster USA, e-mail message to author, April 27, 2015.

[vii] Jörg Muth, “An elusive command philosophy and a different command culture

,” Foreign Policy, September 9, 2011.

[viii]Adolf Von Schell, Battle Leadership, (Quantico, VA: The Marine Corps Association, 1988), 17.

[ix] Ola, Kjoerstad, German Officer Education in the Interwar Years, (Glasgow, Scotland: University of Glasgow, 2010), 2-5. (Hereinafter Germen Officer Education)

[x]James S. Corum, Condell, Zabecki (eds), On the German Art of War, Truppenführung, (Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001), ix.

[xi] Several books on the subject, as well as even US Doctrine allude to this fact, but very few seem to grasp the significance of it, because so few practice it in times of “peace”.

[xii] Richard E. Simpkin, Race to the Swift: Thoughts on Twenty-First Century Warfare, (London: Brassey’s Defense Publishers, 1985), 18.

[xiii] John T. Nelson II, “Auftragstaktik: A Case for Decentralized Battle,” Parameters, Carlisle, PA: US War College, September 1987, p. 21.

[xiv] Pierre Sprey and Franklin C. Spinney, personnel communication with author, December 4, 2007.

[xv] Dr. Rob Citino, lecture, "Death of the Wehrmacht: The German Campaigns of 1942" The USAHEC. ... The German Army in 1943" by Dr. Robert Citino. Assessed 13 DEC 16. Also based on many discussions with Palle Rasmussen, Danish teacher, also assessed on 17 DEC 17 at http://vikingekamp.blogspot.com/

. This is from a lecture that Palle gives on Auftragstaktik.

[xvi] Bruce I. Gudmundsson, Stormtroop Tactics: Innovation in the German Army 1914-1918, Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995, p. 18

[xvii] Richard E. Simpkin, “Command from the Bottom,” Infantry, (Vol. 75, No. 2, March-April 1985), 34.

[xviii] H. Dv. 487 Führung und Gefecht der verbundenen Waffen (F.u.G.), Neudruck der Ausgabe 1921-1924 in 3 teilen, Osnabrück, Biblio Verlag, 1994.

[xix] H.Dv. 300/1 Truppenführung, p. 3.

[xx] Quote is from Ola Kjoerstad, “German Officer Education”, and p. 67. Also see, Oberleutnant Hauck, “Wissen und Können”, MW 1927, no 38, column 1395.

[xxi] German Officer Education, pp. 64-69.

[xxii] Major General von Haeften,”Heerführung im Weltkriege” MW 1920, no 18, column 389.

Categories:

mission command

About the Author(s)

Donald E. Vandergriff

Donald E. Vandergriff, United States Army (Ret.), is a teacher, writer and lecturer who specializes in military leadership education and training. Vandergriff served with the United States Marine Corps and United States Army. He retired after 24 years of service. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Tennessee and a Master’s degree in military history from American Military University. He was the first major from the Army to lecture at the Naval War College. He is a frequently published authority on the U.S. Army personnel system, Army culture, leadership development, soldier training, and the emergence of Fourth Generation Warfare. He has authored many articles and briefings, as well as four books.

https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/how-germans-defined-auftragstaktik-what-mission-command-and-not

0 notes

count-lero · 3 years ago

Text

So thanks to @microcosme11 who showed a lot of interest in the incredible painting “Battle of Leipzig” by Johann Peter Kraft I’ve decided to consecrate a series of posts to the main participants of the event depicted on the canvas!

It’s simply going to be a bunch of my guesses about who is who over there. 👀

Unfortunately I’m going to illustrate my ideas with such an amount of pictures that it’s simply a necessity to divide this post into several parts…

Well, as an old Russian saying goes, “Don’t feed me bread, just let my speak a lot about 19-century men in fancy uniforms”!

Ahem.

So here comes part 1!

First of all, let’s start with the most important participants - three allied monarchs themselves. Here they are: Alexander I of Russia, Franz II of Austria and Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia. 👑

…Aaaaand I was lucky enough to find some old photos I took in the State Hermitage Museum during my last trip to Saint-Petersburg!

I guess Saint-Petersburg is at some point the second home for each and every lover of the Russian Empire. Even nowadays the city itself represents the living remains of that illustrious period in Russian history. :)

As for the paintings those epic depictions of allied monarchs are located in the Military Gallery of the Winter palace. The portrait of Franz II is also one of Kraft’s works which was presented by Kaiser himself to Alexander I when the latter decided to organise the Military Gallery (which is also dedicated to the victory of Leipzig, what a coincidence) in the 1820s while the portraits of Alexander and Friedrich were made by the German painter Franz Krüger who had been working for the Russian Imperial court for a long period of time.

All three of them look truly magnificent but it’s a little bit hard to find the right angle for a photo because they hang pretty high and are gigantic. 😅

Okay, back to the “Battle of Leipzig”~

Since monarchs were usually followed by an escort of their loyal courtiers, the exact same thing goes for the Kraft’s painting. This time for the major part it consists of different military men. I believe most of them come from the general headquarters.

There are three major figures accordingly behind Alexander, Franz and Friedrich - three chiefs-of-staff of the allied forces.

The first man in the crowd is (I’m still not entirely sure about him but it would be still logical to some extent) August Neidhardt von Gneisenau, quartermaster-general of the Silesian army and Blücher’s right-hand man.

The second one is probably (like I don’t know where his aiguillettes are but the resemblance is quite obvious) Pyotr Mikhailovich Volkonsky, chief-of-staff in the Russian army.

He became one of the Alexander’s closest friends since he was introduced to him by his father Pavel I, the emperor of Russia, when Alexander was still a grand-duke (or how we call him in Russian - цесаревич / tsesarevich ✨).

By the way, Volkonsky and his colleague Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, a general who also went through all Napoleonic wars, were the only commanders in the Russian army who received the Grand Cross of the British Order of the Bath after all the struggles.

And here is Vorontsov as a small postcriptum. :)

Mikhail was the eldest son of Semyon Romanovich Vorontsov, a Russian diplomat who served as an ambassador in the United Kingdom for almost thirty years! That was the main reason why he knew English language as well as his mother tongue, Russian.

In the nearest troublesome future he and Wellington actually became very good friends as well! 🇷🇺🇬🇧

To be continued 🔜

#napoleonic era #napoleonic wars #battle of leipzig #völkerschlacht bei leipzig #battle of the nations #alexander i of russia #franz II of austria #friedrich wilhelm III of prussia #august von gneisenau #pyotr mikhailovich volkonsky #mikhail semyonovich vorontsov #19th century

50 notes · View notes

histoireettralala · 3 years ago

Text

Napoleon's impact on Prussia.

Napoleon's long-term impact varied considerably across Europe. Nonetheless, even in those territories where the French could not directly intervene, the shocks of military defeat and foreign occupation had profound repercussions, forcing local elites to accept internal reforms in an effort to deal with France. The best example of this comes from Prussia. The post-1807 years were marked by economic devastation caused y mounting state debts, unrelenting French demands for indemnity payments, and the costs of supplying an army of occupation. The government was forced to increase taxes, debase the coinage, and issue paper money. The financial health of the state continued to deteriorate, with the state debt, which stood at 53 million gulden before 1806, increasing to 112 million gulden in 1811, and over 200 million by the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

The effects of the French occupation stirred national sentiments among many Germans. The plight of German states inspired Johann Fichte, a professor at the University of Erlangen, to deliver his famous fourteen "Addresses to the German Nation" (1808), one of the first expressions of budding German nationalism. Selfishness and division, Fichte argued, had ruined German states, which now faced the daunting task of surviving French domination. Evoking distinctiveness in language, tradition, and literature, he called upon the German people to free themselves from Napoleon. These sentiments echoed in patriots such as Karl August Fürst von Hardenberg, Heinrich Freiherr vom und zum Stein, Gebhard von Blücher, Gerhard von Scharnhorst, and August von Gneisenau, who did their best to rebuild the country's economy and military in the wake of the shattering defeat.

[..]

Gerhard von Scharnhorst, an officer of considerable intellect and talents, played a decisive role in modernizing the Prussian military and developing new and influential concepts in military theory and practice. As Prussia abolished serfdom, Scharnhorst and his fellow reformers appealed to the common Prussian's sense of patriotism as a means to create an army of citizen-soldiers. In July 1807 King Frederick William III established a Commission for Military Reorganization, with Scharnhorst as president. The commission conducted a veritable purge of the Prussian army in light of its performance in the 1806 debacle, dismissing incapable officers, promoting worthy ones, and ending the custom of recruiting foreigners. The harsh discipline of the Frederickian army was abolished, while the stifling power of the Junkers (landowning nobility) was relaxed, to allow for the rise of men of talent and merit. The reforms reorganized the Prussian army into effective combined-arms brigades along the French model, improved its drill and tactics, and developed the Landwehr, a national militia. Equally important was the Krümpersystem (shrinking system), which was designed to quickly train army recruits and move them into the reserves so that more men could be trained while keeping the size of the standing army at the 42,000 limit imposed by Napoleon in the Peace of Tilsit (1807). Furthermore, the Prussian monarchy gave its consent to the establishment of the famed Berlin Kriegsakademie (War College) where Prussian officers began laying the foundation for a truly modern general staff.

Fichte's appeal for an enlightened system of education had a noteworthy effect. The Prussian education system was reformed and placed under the leadership of the distinguished Prussian philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (brother of the famed geographer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt), who used his learning and enthusiasm to lay the foundation for what became the Humboldtisches Bildungsideal (Humboldtian education ideal), integrating the arts and sciences with research to achieve comprehensive general learning and cultural knowledge. Prussian universities- at Königsberg, Frankfort on the Oder, and Halle, augmented by the newly established ones at Berlin and Breslau- played a key role in the national revival, kindling the patriotic spirit and training a new generation of men to lead the Prussian state.

Alexander Mikaberidze- The Napoleonic Wars, A Global History.

#napoleonic #alexander mikaberidze #the napoleonic wars: a global history #history of prussia #history of germany

9 notes · View notes

taunuswolf · 4 years ago

Text

MEINE VORBILDER, IDOLE, HELDEN ODER MENSCHEN, DIE ICH SEHR SCHÄTZE

Natürlich ist diese Liste nicht vollständig. Sicherlich könnte ich sie um viele Persönlichkeiten erweitern. Besonders bei Künstlern, Schriftstellern, Musikern und Schauspielern kämen sicherlich noch viel mehr bewundernswerte Menschen zusammen, die mein Leben mitbegleitet haben. Bei den eher unbekannten Namen habe ich die Funktion in Klammern daneben geschrieben. Einige Namen sind Legendengestalten oder biblische Figuren, zum Beispiel Heilige (HL). Menschen, die ich zum Beispiel während meiner Zeit als Redakteur oder anderwärtig persönlich kennen gelernt habe, sind zum Beispiel auf der Tumblr-Seite fett gekennzeichnet. Unter der Rubrik (Vormärz) versteht man die frühen Akteure der Demokratiebewegung, die leider nicht zum Zug kamen und stattdessen einem autokratischen System weichen mussten, die als Pseudodemokratie bis heute anhält. Im Klartext: Deutschland verträgt keine echte Opposition.

A: Jeanne d´Arc, Hannah Arendt, Ernst Moritz Arndt, Bettine von Arnim, AC/DC, Johann Valentin Andreae (Rosenkreuzer), Alexandra (Sängerin), König Arthus, Adele, Hirsi Ali, Charles Aznavour,

B: Hugo Ball (Schriftsteller), Marianne Bachmeier (Mutter Courage), Sebastian Bach, Gottfried von Bouillon (Kreuzritter), Friedrich Barbarossa, Clemens von Brentano (Dichter), G.L. von Blücher, F.W. von Bülow (Preußische Generäle der Befreiungskriege), Hildegard von Bingen, Beatles, Carl Ludwig Börne (1848ziger), Robert Blum (1848-Rebell), Ludwig van Beethoven, Arnold Böcklin, Max Brodt, David Bowie, Thomas Bernhard, Wilhelm Busch, James Baldwin, M. A. Bakunin (Anarchist), Boetius (Philosoph), Buena vista social Club, Josef Beuys, Samuel Beckett, Sebastian Brandt (Humanist)

C: Cicero, Paul Celan, Carl von Clausewitz (Oberst Befreiungskriege), Leonard Cohen, M. Caravaggio, John Cassavetes (Regis.), Karl August von Cohausen (Archäologe), Charlotte Corday (Rebellin 1790), Robert Crumb, Eric Clapton, Lowis Corinth, Joe Cocker, N.S. Chruschtschow, Sean Connery.

D: Denis Diderot (Aufklärer), Albrecht Dürer, Bob Dylan, Carl Theodor von Dalberg (Aufklärer), Dante, Dido (Sängerin), Alexander Dubcek, Doors,

E: Max Ernst, Hl. Elisabeth, Enya, Eisbrecher (Band), Michael Ende, Umberto Ecco, Joseph von Eichendorff,

F: Gottfried Fichte, Ernst Fuchs, Friedrich der Große, Georg Forster, Caspar David Friedrich, Fleetwood Mac,

G: Theo van Gogh, Franzisko de Goya, Gottfried Grabbe, Che Guevara, Siddharta Gautama, Karoline von Günderode (Dichterin), Georges I. Gurdjief (Mystiker), Matthias Grünewald, Artemisia Gentileschi (Malerin), Gandalf, Brüder Grim, Grimmelshausen, Ralf Giordano (Journalist), Green Day (Band), Florian Geyer (Rebellenanführer), A.N. von Gneisenau (General Befreiungskriege), M.S. Gorbatschow.

H: Hagen, Hermann Hesse, Peter Handke, Hölderlin, Heinrich Heine, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Gottfried Herder, Friedrich Hecker (1848-Rebell), Händel, Villard de Honnecourt (Gotik-Baumeister), Michel Houellebecq, Homer, Herodot, Klaus Heuser (BAB), Gorge Harrison, Andreas Hofer, Johnny Hallyday (Franz. Sänger), Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Werner Herzog, Elmar Hörig (Kultmoderator), Ulrich von Hutten (Humanist), Victor Hugo, Harro Harring (Vormärz),

I: Jörg Immendorff, Henryk Ibsen, Isaias (Prophet),

J. Jesus, Johannes der Täufer, Johannes der Evangelist, Jeremia (Prophet), C.G. Jung (Psychologe), Jennies Joplin, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (Turnvater)

K: Karl Kraus, Theodor Körner, Franz Kafka, Frida Kahlo, Gustav Klimt, Charlotte von Kalb (Muse), Lee Krasner (Künstlerin), Rainhard Karl (Bergsteiger), Peter Keuer (Grünen-Gründer), Alfred Kubin,

L: Lukas, John Lennon, David Lynch, Flake Lorenz, Andreas von Lichnowski (1848ziger), Cyprian Lelek (1848ziger), Georg C. Lichtenberg, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Lanzelot, M.V. Llosa (Schriftsteller), Annie Lenox, Königin Luise, Ludwig A.W. von Lützow (Befreiungskriege), M. Lafayette (Fr. Staatsmann und Aufklärer) Franz Liszt, Led Zeppelin, Hanns Lothar (Schauspieler)

M: HL. Maria, HL. Maria Magdalena, Marcus, Matthäus, Matthäus Merian, Maria Sybilla Merian, Amadeus Mozart, Bob Marley, Edward Munch, Claude Monet, Albertus Magnus (Scholastiker), Merlin, Alma Mahler-Werfel (Muse), Meister Eckard (Mystiker), Moody Blues.

N: HL. Nikolaus, Novalis, V. Nabokov (Schriftsteller), Ningen Isu (Band), Nirvana, Agrippa von Nettesheim (Alchimist), Hannah Nagel (Künstlerin),

O: Josef Maria Olbrich (Jugendstilbaumeister), Rudolf Otto (Religionswissenschaftler), Oomph (Band), Oasis, Mike Oldfield,

P: Platon, Plotin, Pythagoras (Philosophen), Jean Paul, Plinius, Parzival, Tom Petty, Daniel Powter, Procol Harum, Pink Floyd,

Q: Queen,

R: Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Josef Roth, Ramstein, Philipp Otto Runge, Ludwig Richter, Rio Reiser, Ritter Roland, Rainer Maria Rilke, Erasmus von Rotterdam, Eric Rohmer, Ulrich Roski (Sänger), Rolling Stones, R.E.M. Lou Reed, Chris Rea, Petra Roth (Ex-OB Frankfurt/M)

S: Johann III Sobieski (polnischer König), Sunzi (chinesischer Philosoph), August Schöltis (Schriftsteller), Lou von Salome (Muse), B. Smetanar, Carlos Santana, Sappho (Dichterin), Schopenhauer, Helmut Schäfer (Staatsminister im Auswärtigen Amt) Sokrates, Egon Schiele, Madame de Stael, August Strindberg, Richard Strauss, Philipp Jacob Siebenpfeiffer (Vormärz), Helmut Schmidt, Subway to Sally (Band), Karl Ludwig Sand (Vormärz)

T: B. Traven (Schriftsteller), A. P. Tschechov, Ivan Turgenjev, Ludwig Tieck (Romantiker), HL. Judas Thaddäus, Hermes Trismegistos (Philosoph), P.I. Tschaikowski, William Turner, Lars von Trier (Regisseur)

U: Peter Ustinov, Ludwig Uhland, Siegfried Unseld (Verleger),

V: Luchino Visconti, Leonardo da Vinci, Velvet Underground, Vitruv, Vercingetorix, Francois Villon (Dichter), Walter von der Vogelweide, Robert Vogelmann (Menschenrechtsaktivist)

W: Wim Wenders, Richard Wagner, Otto Wagner (Jugendstilbaumeister) Wagakki-Band, Sara Wagenknecht, Ludwig Wittgenstein (Philosoph), Georg August Wirth (Vormärz),

X: Xhol (Band)

Y: Neil Young, Yvonne (Aktivistin der Gegenöffentlichkeit)

Z: Heinrich Zille, Carl Zuckmayer, Frank Zappa,

#idole #bedeutende persönlichkleiten #Helden #vorbilder

15 notes · View notes

thescharnhorsts · 6 years ago

Text

Heartache Entr’acte: Malevolently Assured Destruction Part 2

0130 hours, Barents Sea.

With a slow maximum speed, it would be a long sail back home from Narvik for Väinämöinen, unable to risk catching port along the way north to rest for the night; it would be unwise to keep her regent waiting, anyway.

Besides, the laundry needed to be done, especially after that bloodletting.

Finally, her home sat on the horizon and, for the first time in a very, very long time, she felt fear on her approach. However, it was just as the port features came into view that her radio crackled; fragments of a locally-directed transmission.

“... assure you... no ill will... grateful to you... Assured Destruction...” Her radio fairy was hard at work, trying to find to original frequency to process the message; those efforts paid off, Väinämöinen able to listen in on the rest of it.

“So from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for providing me a stage for the world to see that my conviction is without question. A pity you could not say the same. Seventeen? Open fire.”

Oh, shit. That was an unmistakable voice; a voice that leaves an impression the first time one hears it. The Cold War Princess had delivered a message, likely delivering her dissatisfaction.

Her contemplation on whether to run from the inevitable or continue on was interrupted by a sharp, painful feeling in her head, as if someone was caressing her very consciousness itself.

“Ye… who have invoked the ire of the Cold One… May thy Gods find mercy upon thee… For my great beams shall not.” Without time to process this phenomena, the Finn was simultaneously blinded and psychically deafened.

“BE CLEANSED.” A bright beam of blue light plunged into the island before her, growing steadily in size and intensity, as if the heavens themselves were bringing annihilation to Bjørnøya for the sins of its inhabitants.

As soon as it occurred it ended. The great beam ended after ten seconds that felt a blinding eternity. When Väinämöinen moved her hand from her eyes, a gasp of shock was all she could muster.

Nothing remained but steam and flotsam. It was as if the island had vanished entirely, and the reactive force of that much water displacing had turned the once-still seas rough.

“Perkele...” After breaking the silence with the initial curse, more bubbled to the surface, quiet and reserved as the coastal defense ship pushed to the epicenter of the bombardment. If Scharnhorst had beaten her home as was most likely, she was dead to rights. No sane person would approach the debris field, much less to search.

But Väinämöinen was no sane person. Desperate curses belied her calm demeanor as she pushed through the field of debris, looking for some sign, any sign, that Scharnhorst was alive. Some sign, any sign, that she had not defaulted her lifedebt. As she contemplated the best ways to punish herself for her almost certain failure, something caught her eye.

A scrap of pink cloth, bound to something caught deep below.

It was now or never. If this wasn’t a sign, even a fleeting chance of hope... No, there was no time to argue. If she was wrong, freezing to death in the Arctic waters was as fine a way as any to fulfill the final parameter of her debt.

Unstrapping herself from her rigging, FNS Väinämöinen removed her boots, her hat, and her coat. It wouldn’t be that bad, right? A Finn should have a tolerance to the cold. Pushing the doubt from her mind, she dove.

The first thing she noticed was that the water was still uncomfortably warm, still radiating the energy dispersed by whatever form of insanity the Cold War Princess inflicted on them. The scrap of cloth was linked to something deeper; very close to the surface, there lay a pile of rocks likely created by a cave in from the bombardment.

And there, protruding from the rocks, was a scrap of red cloth and the sign of hope she needed. Ichor, black as oil, flowed in a steady stream from a gap in the rocks. Steeled in resolve, the Finn dove deeper, and began prying and pulling at the rocks. They were heavy, but the water made them easier to manipulate, if only barely.

Twenty minutes passed. Several times, she had to come up for air, and her radio fairy had sent a recall order across all channels; The first submarines returned from patrol, ghastly blue eyes in the dark waters, growing more frigid by the minute.

Finally, the worst of the rubble had been removed via team effort and relief flooded the coastal defense ship. Beneath a layer of smaller debris lay the unconscious form of the Svalbard Battleship princess. However, it wasn’t all good news. The worst of the injuries she had sustained from the battle at North Cape hadn’t healed fully, most of the bleeding caused by pressure re-opening the wounds. One of Scharnhorst’s arms was completely crushed, having been caught in the rubble as she tried to escape, and her left leg was still trapped, crushed beneath a large chunk of stone that the remnants of the fleet combined couldn’t hope to budge.

Väinämöinen motioned over one of the Ka-classes, gesturing to the leg. If they were to rescue the battleship, there was no other choice.

Some minutes later, the Finn was back to the surface. Now that the immediate issue was dealt with... She had no idea what they could possibly do. There was no Abyssal option available that was palatable. No, no, they needed a surface option. A surface option where they had leverage; something, anything, that could be used to keep Scharnhorst alive.

Only one solution existed: The battleship Gneisenau, likely being unloaded from medevac in Scapa Flow at that very moment. Perfect.

An hour later, a damp and determined Väinämöinen made final checks on the towing hawsers tying her and her charge together. Satisfied, she hefted herself back into her rigging. Warming the boilers and getting underway, the Finn sent a transmission to what little remained of Abyssal Fleet Barents.

GENERAL ORDER: ALL SHIPS ASSIGNED ESCORT. PROTECT CARGO AT ANY COST.

Sighing, the Finn resigned herself to being forced to sleep in the saddle; with the meager 15 knots she could make alone,the trip to Kirkwall from here was seventy long hours. It was what she deserved, she reckoned.

There ain’t no rest for the wicked.

#heartache saga #solo shenanigans

3 notes · View notes

melisaongmiqin · 5 years ago

Photo

Commission - David J-21-NSFW-withcensor-200dpi

Commissioned by the very generous and supportive David J. Thank you very very much for the business, generous work offer, kind words and permission to post!! ^0^~

Not Safe For Work! You've been warned~~ :3

Featuring (from left to right): - Victory Belles Gneisenau - if you can hear her muttering "...mein gott" at her sister Scharnhorst, I feel awesome~~ XD

- Victory Belles Scharnhorst - the um... yeah... um... well....

- Victory Belles Maille Breze - a very fun-loving character

- Victory Belles Hans Ludemann - wearing Nautilus' default costume; apparently, the Naughty Lass has been selling them.... ;p - ...I figured putting it on would require some "adjustment"... ^3^

Old lady Tippy-Jar \(ᗒOᗕ)/ FEED ME~: https://ko-fi.com/A430B9Z

Am available for Commissions. ( [email protected] )

http://melisaongmiqin.wixsite.com/melisaongmiqin/commission-rates

#melisaongmiqin #commission #fanart #victory belles #gneisenau #scharnhorst #hans ludemann #maille breze #beach #costumes #nautilus

1 note · View note

abyssal-shenanigans · 6 years ago

Text

The Abyss Stares Back

@thescharnhorsts

Fog at Scapa Flow was nothing out of the ordinary; in fact, it could be convincingly argued that a lack of fog would be more unusual than a surplus. So, despite the lateness of the hour, and the thickness of the air, it should have been business as usual.

But it was not.

There was something different about the fog this time, something... wrong. In the nearby town, residents closed their windows and locked their doors. Those who were unfortunate enough to be outdoors rushed to the nearest building they could enter, be it a place of business, or even the home of a stranger; none of them were turned away. Though none voiced it aloud, all knew that something was out there. Something that did not belong. The elders whispered that something had riled the Small Folk, that fog was an omen of something terrible on the horizon. Those of the younger generations who overheard them chuckled at the notion, but it was a nervous sort of chuckle, one accompanied by goose-pimples and cold sweat.

On the base itself, a sense of instinctive unease spread along with the cloud of billowing whiteness, palpable to all who entered the cloying mist. The night patrols readied their weapons without even realizing it, and stayed in tightly packed groups of no less than three. No one wanted to be alone outside that night, because somehow, they felt absolutely certain that any who did might never be seen again. Even inside, away from the chill touch of the fog, those in the waking world felt a dank chill in the air, and those who slept found their dreams transformed into horrifying nightmares. It was a mercy that none would be capable of recalling the gruesome details when they awoke, yet the dread certainty that they had witnessed something not of this world while they slumbered.

Only a single individual in Scapa Flow did not feel the ominous effects of the fog bank, a certain psychologist who called herself Redoubtable. To her, the cloying malevolence simply reminded her of home, for it was nothing less than the raw stuff of the Abyss, diluted and diminished ten thousand times over, yet still potent enough to drive itself into the darkest corners of mortal minds and souls, and to dredge up the darkest terrors to be found there. Yet Scapa Flow was not the final destination for this otherworldly miasma. It continued to roil and spread, until at last, it reached one of the most well-known residences in the Orkneys: Jellicoe Manor. In minutes, the stately abode was utterly engulfed, the fog so thick that naught could be seen further than a foot away.

Then, something stepped out of the fog. Something that had been there all the while. The very thing that had called it forth. It moved like a phantasm, soundless, unseen. A shadow within shadows. The door of the manor did not budge, did not so much as rattle or creak, yet somehow, the interloper passed through it. Down the halls it drifted, silent as the grave, passed the portraits of Admirals past and present, and of vessels great and small alike. It moved with singular purpose, drawn like a shark to the blood of a dying seal. It flitted past the doors, ignoring all but one: the one that held its prey behind it.

The entity stopped outside the closed door of the room for a brief moment, as if sniffing the air to make certain it had followed the correct scent. It must have been satisfied with what it sensed behind the barred threshold, for in the span of a breath, it was in the room, beside the bed, looming in the darkness as it looked down at the figure tossing and turning in restless slumber, their sheet slick with cold sweat. Baleful eyes glowed with eerie, ghoulish light, like will-o’-the-wisps in the dark.

And then, at last, it spoke.

“...It is time to awaken, Gneisenau... it is time to awaken... and to greet... the inevitable...”

#thescharnhorsts #closed starter

14 notes · View notes

today-in-wwi · 6 years ago

Text

State of the War: Mid-1918

The German offensives on the Western Front, March - July 1918.

The tumult and upheaval of 1917 continued into 1918 as the war approached its climax. The Russians and Romanians had been forced into humiliating peace treaties, and Germany moved all of its reserves to the West in an attempt to win a final military decision there. They had made spectacular gains of the sort not seen in the West since 1914, but the Allies were holding firm and more Americans were arriving every week.

The Eastern Front and the Russian Civil War:

Negotiations at Brest-Litovsk between the Bolsheviks and the Central Powers dragged on from December into February. In an attempt to further isolate the Bolsheviks, the Central Powers signed a treaty with the newly-formed Ukrainian Government in early February, making territorial concessions in Poland in exchange for food and economic concessions. The next day, Trotsky unilaterally declared an end to the war in the east and pulled out of negotiations. The Germans did not accept this, called off the armistice, and invaded Russia, meeting essentially zero resistance from the non-existent Russian Army. Thirteen days later, the Germans were in Narva, 85 miles of Petrograd, and the Russians signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, exiting the war and giving up their claims to all the land the Central Powers had occupied.

The Germans moved many of their troops that had been in Russia to the Western Front, but not all. Many were still needed to occupy the lands Russia had given up, and the Central Powers’ advance even continued in the Ukraine, ostensibly in support of their new allies in Kiev. The socialists there proved disagreeable to the Germans, however, and they helped install a more friendly government under the self-styled Hetman Skoropadskyi in late April. In May, the Germans took Sevastopol and Rostov. The Russian Black Sea Fleet, quickly running out of safe harbors, variously scuttled itself or surrendered to the Germans in mid-June.

Russia’s exit stranded a variety of volunteer forces in the country. Polish forces were convinced to halt and then, after a brief but determined resistance, surrendered to the Germans. The Czech Legion was determined to make its way out of the country to fight on the Western Front, preferably via Vladivostok, but distrust between the Czechs and the Bolsheviks spiraled into open warfare in May. By the end of June, the Czechs had seized most of the Trans-Siberian Railroad east of the Volga, and had even helped install an rump portion of the Constituent Assembly as an anti-Bolshevik government Samara (the original having been dissolved after less than 24 hours in January).

White resistance also emerged on the Don and in the Kuban early in the year. They quickly suffered many setbacks, as the Bolsheviks crushed the Don Cossacks and sent Alexeyev’s and Kornilov’s Volunteer Army to wander the snows of the steppe. The Bolsheviks thought resistance to their rule was over when Kornilov was killed in an ill-advised attack in April. However, the Bolsheviks were undermined by their own heavy-handedness (and the arrival of the Germans) and by June the Don Cossacks had re-emerged and the Volunteer Army was once again on the offensive.

Finland’s independence from Russia was universally recognized at the beginning of the year, but it was soon wracked by its own internal divisions. The Finnish socialists, who had narrowly lost last October’s elections, seized control of much of the populated heart of Finland in late January. The remaining Whites attempted to fight off the Reds and appeal for foreign aid; the Swedes refused to intervene beyond the Ålands, but the Germans were more than happy to gain a grateful ally just outside Petrograd. The Germans landed at Hanko in early April, and within a month the Reds were defeated, their leadership having fled to Russia.

Romania took advantage of the Russian collapse to seize Bessarabia (modern-day Moldova); however, shortly after Brest-Litovsk, they too were forced to sign a harsh peace, giving up the Dobruja and major economic concessions. Most of the country would remain under German occupation until the end of the war.

The Western Front:

Using the troops freed up by the effective end of the war in the East, Hindenburg & Ludendorff decided on a series of massive offensives in the West that they hoped would break the Allies. The first, Operation Michael, struck back into the ground fought over during the Battle of the Somme and then abandoned by the Germans in early 1917. Although it essentially broke the British Fifth Army and came very close to taking the key rail center of Amiens, it did not result in a great strategic victory for the Germans, instead extending their lines in an awkward direction.

Less than three weeks later, the Germans attacked again in Flanders, in Operation Georgette. Breaking through demoralized Portuguese forces, it took key positions to the south of Ypres and forced Plumer to abandon the ground gained at extremely high cost at Passchendaele the previous fall. However, Ypres remained in Allied hands, as did the approaches to the Channel ports.

The German attacks forced the Allies to finally agree to a unified command; French General Foch was made the generalissimo of the Allied armies, with overall control of the dispensation of their reserves. The Germans hoped these would be moved south and away from Flanders by an attack on the Aisne, which they launched in late May. The attack broke through French lines much more easily than expected, due to a lack of defense-in-depth, and the Germans were on the Marne within days. Paris was once again under threat, and had for several months been under shell from German long-range guns as well. The Germans shifted their attack yet again, striking near Noyon in early June with Operation Gneisenau, but this time the French were prepared and were able to halt the German advance within a few days.

The Americans had begun to arrive in force, and launched their first attack of the war in late May, taking the town of Cantigny in an attack planned by Lt. Col. George C. Marshall. This was soon overshadowed by events on the Marne, where American troops were quickly thrown into action to stop the German advance. In June, the US Marines fought a three-week battle to retake Belleau Wood, at the cost of over half of their men in casualties. Also entering action in the spring of 1918 was the 369th US Infantry Regiment, now commonly known as the Harlem Hellfighters; due to American racism, they were placed under French command.

Italy and the Balkans:

To support the Germans’ large-scale efforts on the Western Front, the Austrians launched their own offensive against Italy in mid-June. Divided between attacks on the Asiago plateau and across the Piave, the Austrians quickly ran into determined resistance from an Italian foe that had had months to prepare, had been reinforced by the French and British, and under the command of a new general, Diaz, who was determined not to make the same mistakes Cadorna had made. The Austrians gained a few bridgeheads at great cost, but had immense difficulties in supplying them under attack from Allied airplanes and artillery. After little over a week, the Austrians called off the offensive and retreated behind the Piave, having lost over 100,000 men for no gain.

The front around Salonika remained relatively quiet in 1918, as both sides turned their attention to the Western Front. The Greeks gained their first notable victory of the war in late May, capturing the Skra di Legen. French general Franchet d’Esperey assumed overall command here in early June, having been forced to take the fall for the French defeat on the Aisne.

The Middle East:

The British attempted two forays across the Jordan towards Amman, while their Hashemite allies attempted attacks further south; all were defeated. The crisis on the Western Front and the start of summer forced the Allies to call off major operations in Palestine.

In the Caucasus, in February the Turks began to reoccupy the territory they had lost to the Russians, followed by the lands they were awarded in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The newly-independent Transcaucasian Federation, however, did not recognize the treaty, and after a miscommunication regarding the terms of a Turkish ultimatum, went to war with Turkey in April. The Turkish advance into Armenia was stopped at Sardarabad in late May, but Georgia remained under threat. Transcaucasia was also wracked by internal divisions; ethnic violence between Azeris and Armenians broke out in Baku in late March (with some help from the Bolsheviks). In late May, Georgia declared independence and accepted protection from the Germans; this led to an embarrassing episode where the Turks attacked a German unit in Georgia. The Turks were thus forced to halt their advance, but they still had their aim set to the east, occupying Tabriz and aiming for Baku.

It was precisely this outcome that the British hoped to prevent; an attack north from Baghdad to Kirkuk briefly occupied the city, but failed to divert the Turks from the Caucasus. They also created the so-called “Dunsterforce” to help organize resistance to the Turkish advance, but by the end of June it had yet to make an appearance beyond northern Persia.

Africa:

Lettow-Vorbeck’s forces continued to pillage though Portuguese Mozambique, splitting up to cover more ground. On one occasion in late May one of his columns was nearly trapped by the British, but they managed to escape despite losing their whole baggage train. At the end of June, his forces were approaching the major port city of Quelimane.

The War at Sea:

The High Seas Fleet sortied one final time in April an attempt to attack a Norway-bound convoy (that was not actually sailing that day). The British missed the signs that the Germans had sortied, and left their ports too late to catch them, although a British submarine was able to inflict serious damage on a German battlecruiser.

German unrestricted submarine warfare continued, although convoys had diminished its effectiveness. They had managed to sink two American troop transports: one, the Tuscania, bound for France, and the other, the President Lincoln, on its return voyage. This author’s great-great-uncle was killed in the latter sinking. The British attempted to stop the submarines at their source by attacking the German-occupied ports at Zeebrugge and Ostend in April; although highly celebrated, the attacks ultimately failed to block the passage of U-boats for more than a few days.

The main Allied success in the first half of 1918 came in the Adriatic, where Italian fast torpedo boats managed to sink an Austrian dreadnought, the Szent István, in early June. Another creative Italian endeavor, an attempt to crawl into the Austrian harbor at Pola with a “naval tank,” failed.

#wwi #ww1 #ww1 history #ww1 centenary #world war 1 #world war i #world war one #the first world war #the great war #1918

50 notes · View notes