15 replies to this topic

[Juni Ori]

So, tell me who's The One who definitely deserves a mention here.

Simo H�yh�, sniper (actually rifleman, never used any optics) - 3 months in Winter War and ~500 kills. Record never beaten in any conflict by anyone. Hunted by Soviets many times, even huge price was set for his head, but enemy snipers were always killed. Some sources even claim Soviets used mortar and artillery fire just to get him. Finally he was injured to mouth in the end of the war and he died in 2002 in the age of 96 years. Rest in peace.

[chumloofah]

Dutch!


Not so keen with the glamourising on proper killing, so here's a picture of how war should be.
Snappy one-liners are a factor.

[Havell]

Fun fact:  The minigun in Predator is the same prop as in Terminator 2.  Even though they sounded completely different in each film.

On topic:  Robert Henry Cain is a cool British example.  He took on six tanks single-handedly, at some points firing a mortar from his hip.  He still found time to shave.

[a1s]

I don't know any, so I'll just pick someone at random:

Ivan Diomodovitch Antoshkin
Participated in the Winter war. Commanded a regiment of bombers. In 3 months his regiment had performed 2936 sorties dropping 964 tons of bombs on the enemy.  He personally flew 32 sorties, a large amount of those at night (bear in mind: this is 1940 Russia, so this is no mean feat).

During a critical moment in the battle for Moscow Anotshkin (by then a lieutenant colonel) from his his HQ managed to organize one of the first counterstrike against German tank and machine formations. His Division suffered heavy losses, but kep on fighting.

Died a general of aviation in 1944 with his second in command in an UT-2 plane crash. (not a very exciting death to read about, but you can respect an officer who keeps flying even when he is a general)

[Eagle of Fire]

Quote

Battle of the Chateauguay was a battle of the War of 1812. On October 25, 1813, a force consisting of about 1,600 French Canadians and Mohawks repulsed a American force of about 4,000 attempting to invade Canada. [3]

Quote

Already though, the commander of the outposts, Lieutenant Colonel Charles de Salaberry had been organising his defences. De Salaberry had many informants among the farmers in the area, and had accurate information about Hampton's size and movements, while Hampton had very poor intelligence about Salaberry's force.

De Salaberry had been so confident of victory that he had not informed his superiors of his actions. De Watteville rode forward and "approved" de Salaberry's dispositions, even as the fighting started.

My home town, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, is named in honor of this great military mind who managed to fend off an American attack when outnumbered almost 4 to 1. Superior strategy and tactics, as well as close knowledge of the battlefield area were decisive in this victory.

Casualities were stupidly low on the Canadian side.

[a1s]

fun facts about snipers:
The best snipers in history were all on the eastern front of WWII (I see winter war as part of that). (depending on who you ask this could be anywhere from top 8, to top 50 of worlds finest, with figures on kills jumping up to 2 times from source to source)
There are wikipedia articles about Simo Häyhä in English and Finnish (obviously) and also in Chinese, Polish, Arabian, and several other languages, but not Russian. apparently they don't like to talk about it.
A less impressive kill-count was achieved by an American by the name Carlos Hathcock, who killed  over a 100 people in the jungle of Vietnam with sniper fire. If you don't see why that is remarkable, go into you nearest woods and play hide-and-seek.

[Juni Ori]

a1s: remarkable in Winter War bomb raids to Helsinki was that over 95% of them went significantly off the target - thus mentioning his bomb raids in heroic thread seems little off-topic. Of course, much of his bombings may be against enemy (our) lines, but even then (in Winter War) Russian bomb raids were next to insignificant. Only later on the WW2 their bombings became more accurate and effective.

Jungle snipers are indeed totally different chapter, but hardly ever sniper ranges are less than 100m, thus making sniper activity in dense jungle area questionable and that number - even though it may be correct - sounds a little exaggerated. Not meaning he didn't take out 100 enemies, but meaning that hardly he took that many in dense jungle. Also note: significant part of Winter War was fought in wooded areas.

[a1s]

the fact that snipers usually don't work closer than 100 meters is dictated by the fact that they need to get away unnoticed*. in the jungle the same factors which obscure the enemy from you when you want to kill them, can work for you, when you are trying to escape. the best thing is shooting someone across a river or large elongated swamp, as these are hard to cross quickly, and don't have any trees in them.

*) by unnoticed I mean, that noone knows where they've gone, not that they can somehow secretly kill people from afar.


P.S. when I typed "unntocied" fire fox offered me just one choice of correction- Scientology. why?!
it also doesn't know what a Firefox is.
I guess I shouldn't have upgraded my dicttionary...  

Edited by a1s, 14 March 2008 - 02:24 AM.

[BeefontheBone]

Sure you've not got a Debian version? Probably only recognises Iceweasel these days

[Juni Ori]

Another record-oddity:
Fighterpilot Jorma Sarvanto who shot down 6 enemy bombers in 5 minutes.

[Aristharus]

War heroes..?

Arndt Pekurinen  

[Havell]

Aristharus, on Mar 16 2008, 03:07 PM, said:

War heroes..?

Arndt Pekurinen  

Good call man, good call.

It is my life's aspiration to dodge a draft, and stir up hell even if I fail.

[punch999]

Not to Necromance or anything but this thread really irked me. What is a war hero exactly? Sounds rather redundant to me.

[a1s]

Hero (male) and heroine (female) to refer to characters (fictional or historical) that, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, display courage and the will for self-sacrifice – that is, heroism – for some greater good, originally of martial courage or excellence but extended to more general moral excellence.

[Yobor]

I don't think that is quite what Punch meant...