IrishGunner

Well, it seems that chocolate has joined the ranks of Black Adder in causing controversy regarding how to commemorate the First World War.

UK supermarket's Christmas truce advert kicks off debate

More on this overlooked theater...

The World War I in Africa Project: A visual exploration of an overlooked history

I'm telling you, it's a regimental stein

Regimental stein?

A nice Pass and photo, Hardy! An article on Gebirgs-Artillerie is on my editorial list of things to do...

Beautiful piece in #4

Good on the black light test. Could turn out to be something interesting...

Do you have any particular reason to believe it's military? What else was in the lot? Is it silk? Black light test?

Carnival order is a possibility. As is some "unofficial" sports award. I've seen the same color combination (except in 22mm width) for sale on a UK trophy vendor's site.

Mac, it indeed could be a book or two. And you are right about the differences between German and British employment. I might break it into two pieces because of the differences, as well as the natural evolution of the outline should take me to creeping barrages and Bruchmueller's work on the German side. Fortunately, I read German almost fluently; so, that's not a problem. If you have any German language references to recommend, that would be great!

Bruce Gudmundsson and David Zabecki also have a couple books that I believe will be useful.

And now that you've got that "maiden post" out of the way, keep rockin' on! There's lots to comment upon across GMIC.

I wonder if anyone told the Air Force that the real nuclear deterrent force is SSBNs...

I would like to try something here... I've accepted a "deal" to write an article on the effectiveness of artillery preparatory bombardments in the First World War. There are a lot of technical and historical references. But I'd like to see if we can turn a thread into an article. I would like your thoughts. What do you think? What have you read? What anecdotes can you share from your own research - especially personal comments from individual diaries or commentary from unit histories?

Here's the thesis: "Given the amount of artillery ammunition expended on both sides of no-man’s land, was the use of artillery in preparatory bombardments really all that effective? At what point were artillery bombardments an advantage and in what ways did bombardments hinder an attack?"

And here's a little video to light the fuse... Get you thinking...

*ATTACHMENT! gaaaah!

I just thought you were trying to be fancy, speaking French and all...

I know very little about EK's, but this look interesting.

Thanks for sharing. (No pun) Much better than most Christmas advertisements.

In fact that is an experimental hand grenade-throwing device.

Curious. Thanks.

An interesting infographic showing the cost of war over the last 100 years.

Poppies viewed by drone

A find like that is what collecting is all about...

I wonder if the "cross bow" was for launching ropes in the mountains...

Just announced that the award for this operation will be the Global War on Terror Expeditionary Service Medal. It is a shame that we cannot add stars or devices for subsequent awards.

Yep. Here are some details.

I wrote one. The magazine I sent it to didn't print it.

Post an abridged version or an abstract on GMIC Articles...

That Jubilee is nice. Was that awarded to only a select group?

Nice sterbeblid. I haven't seen that many decorations on one before.

Thanks for posting this reminder, Claudius.

Must be a lot of material for a good article...

Some nice and even affordable pieces in there... As long as the provenance doesn't push up the bidding.

Not a true comparison, but I found that the West Point class of 1942 - the first graduating class after war declared in December 1941 lost 70 of 374 graduates in WWII. They could have had a few more deaths in Korea and Vietnam. The class earned a total of 134 Purple Hearts; some of those additional 64 casualties were possibly KIA in the later conflicts.

But still nowhere near the loss percentage of St. Cyr 1914.