US has successfully landed on Mars seven times.

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by GingerCoffee, Feb 17, 2015.

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  1. Fullmetal Xeno

    Fullmetal Xeno Protector of Literature Contributor

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    He wanted to invade Africa so he could fulfill his promise of having another Great Roman Empire, along with the fact that African armies are very weak...
     
  2. Chinspinner

    Chinspinner Contributor Contributor

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    The Italian army was ill-equipped. The British defeated them wherever they met them.

    The Germans wanted to control the Med and thus the Suez canal which would prevent us sending ships to the furthest reaches of the empire, which is why north Africa was so important. (We also held Gibraltar and Malta which were important air/ sea-bases in the Med- the battle for Malta is well worth reading about).

    Rommel is incredibly interesting. Monty had a great deal of respect for him. He looked after POWs and fought by the rule of law. When he returned to Germany (after defeat by Monty) he was shocked at the holocaust and joined the attempt to over-throw Hitler. He was a "good" Nazi.
     
    Last edited: Mar 11, 2015
  3. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    Yeah, the Italian army kinda sucked. I heard that Hitler even had to bail Mussolini out a time or two during the war. That's probably why Mussolini is rarely talked about in the documentaries, because he was the army that gave the Allied forces the least trouble.

    Hmm...makes sense. The Germans wanted control over key areas of the Med. and other spots in Africa to prevent supplies, etc. from getting to where they needed to go. I'll check out the Battle for Malta. :)

    Ditto about Rommel. He seemed...well, he seemed like one of the few guys from the enemy side you could respect. Yeah, he fought for Hitler, but he, as you said, fought according to the laws of war and even worked to overthrow Hitler when he learned of what the latter was doing. He was one of the more humane leaders of the Axis powers, I've heard.
     
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  4. Chinspinner

    Chinspinner Contributor Contributor

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    Well, I'll prattle on a little more about the Battle for Malta. Basically it was getting bombed day and night and protected only by a squadron of Hurricanes. They were almost out of fuel and there was one last ditch effort to get a re-supply convoy to them. The convoy got bombed repeatedly. A squadron of Spitfires had to take off from their air-craft carrier and fly the gauntlet all the way to Malta, which was right at the limit of their range, they made it. A fuel tanker towed by one escort ship survived the bombing and eventually limped into Malta. They were literally hours away from grounding the last planes due to lack of fuel and losing the island.

    I mean it is beyond Hollywood movie suspense.
     
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  5. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    Yeah. I don't think I have the words to describe that. :eek:

    EDIT:
    I always felt World War II was an extension of World War I, a war that could've easily been avoided had certain people in power swallowed their pride. It's pretty tragic when you think about it. I wonder if Princip even realized what he was about to do when he killed the Archduke. Did he even care? Granted he died shortly thereafter of pneumonia while in prison, but still...
     
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  6. Burlbird

    Burlbird Contributor Contributor

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    @Link the Writer you do realize that after proclaiming that you can't stand WW2 talk you engaged in pure WW2 derailing? :D

    Just kiddin' of course... Yeah, and about that "Italy was an Axis Power" which I guess worldwide pizza-mania helped us forget, there are a few other countries that you would probably NEVER think of when you say "Axis Powers" - namely Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Croatia and Finland. Fascists from those countries (and from Franko's Spain, thou Spain remained officially neutral) joined ranks with German forces, mostly on the Eastern front. [Independent Croatia was the remnant of Yugoslavia, which was part of the Pact for some 36 hours]

    I always liked the fable of the Desert Fox, tanks in the desert, gays in uniforms etc - but NOTE: Rommel was NOT A NAZI! He never joined the Party!

    Another fact about WW2 that I find particularly interesting steems from that list of Axis-allied countries I mentioned - the war Nazis waged was not necessarily the same war that Wehrmacht fought.. It is easy to mix the two, with Nationalsocialists everywhere, but fact is their war was a political one - the reason why their main, central and ultimate enemy was the Red Army, and their main targets were Jews and communists - their sole goal the cleaning of German nation. Now, this is a simplification, of course, but it is easy for "peoples of the West" to forget the fact their governments had no problem letting the fascists seize power wherever they could, because the Blacks were deemed a lesser evil than the Reds. Because, you know, Reds want a revolution that will change the way capitalism works, and Blacks don't give a damn about that as long as we leave them alone (and alow them to kill their Jews) :)

    Oh, WW2 rants, aren't they a neverending joy? :D
     
  7. Shadowfax

    Shadowfax Contributor Contributor

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    France was the only country that Italy invaded without getting whipped, and that was only because the French were on the run from the Germans.

    They also got kicked out of Ethiopia, and lost their colony of Eritrea, by local forces supplemented by British troops.

    After that, they invaded Egypt and got beaten by a British force less than half their size (The British General paraphrased Churchill "Never in the field of human conflict has so much been surrendered by so many to so few"). Rommel stepped in to keep the Axis in Africa (and Italy in the war)

    Then they invaded Greece, and got whupped by a very ordinary, but rather belligerent, Greek army. Hitler sent some German stiffening, Britain tried to prop up the Greeks, but Blitzkrieg was still the flavour of the month - that and the fact that all the Spitfires were still in Blighty - and Greece fell. Then, Hitler made the strategic masterstroke of seizing Crete (massive gamble that was within hours, if not minutes, of failing) using crack airborne troops. This delayed Barbarossa by a couple of months, and led to the loss of some crack troops = failing to take Russia and, ultimately, losing the war.

    Italy also managed to lose the battle of Cape Matapan, despite the fact that their battleships were running away faster than the British bombers could fly!

    I'm including Commonwealth troops along with British.
     
  8. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    Damn, Italy should've stayed out of the war all together. :crazy: If I were Italian, I would wonder what the point was since we were getting our ass kicked everywhere.
     
  9. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    Blame it on that walking cartoon character 'el douche', Mussolini.
     
  10. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    Yeah, if there was ever a walking cliché of a villain, El Douche Mussolini was it. As a child, I thought he looked like Dr. Evil from Austin Powers. :p All he needed was a scar on his eye and a white cat.
     
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  11. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    That's a photoshop that needs to happen. :p
     
  12. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    Your wish is my command, Mister Lemex!
     
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