Quietly, without any fuss, Poland’s per capita GDP has matched that of Japan. By the end of the decade they will have, by far, the most powerful armed forces in Europe. Poland has been a bulwark against the east for centuries, and now, in a war of assimilation that has consumed so many European neighbors, the Poles stand resolutely true to their own heritage.
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Poland’s history of being invaded goes back 110s of years. I remember my dad telling me that my grandfather on my mom’s side had very blonde hair when he was younger, probably a product of invasion by the Swedes
Actually the first polish cavalry attacks in WW2 were effective. They were not charging them as the Germans depicted in propaganda news reals. The Poles were using anti tank guns and magnetic mine/ grenades to take out tanks. The AT rifle was so big a pack horse carried it. Set up in a bush it could punch though all the German tanks of the day at 500 yards. That’s beyond the range of the tanks machinegun. The grenade tactic worked by riding out of cover hitting the tank and out running the turret traverse back into cover. The turrets were… Read more »
Very cool. Didn’t know any of that. Sounds like they made max effect with what they had, including insane courage.
Hmm, I don’t know about the rest of that but I do know a thing or two about machine guns. The Germans were using their MG08 (Maxim) in 7.92x57mm as their standard heavy machine gun across all applications including tanks/armored cavalry. That round is slightly more powerful than the 7.62x51mm NATO (or Remington .308, same thing) and I’m highly familiar with both of those cartridges and machine gun gunnery applications. 500 yards is a very comfortable range for those German MG08s. I don’t know who told you or where you read that 500 yards is “out of range” (a safe… Read more »
Ok, long winded, but interesting. Seems just like German engineers to build a 18 man land battleship in WWI, and it’s not surprising they only built 20 of them considering how complicated it apparently was. This was WWI though, and I thought the Polish cavalry charges were during the early stages of WWII… Were the Nazis using these tanks at that time? I thought they had newer models by then. I guess you probably brought up those tanks to make the point that even those would destroy horseback cavalry, but I’m still curious. Most 30ish caliber rounds do indeed have… Read more »
ACTS(TM) can be quite brusk and seem condescending. That’s his style. (Asshole). I consider him a friend, and have been on the hard end of it upon occasion. And needed it every time. I’ve known people like him before. Tolerates no fools, but dang, you want them on your side. He also takes correction if you get your facts and logic in a row. And respects you if you do. Don’t take him too personally. He rarely means it that way, unless you’ve proved yourself a fool multiple times. And it comes to things mitary… consider him an expert in… Read more »
I’m glad you can get along with him. I’ve tried, but anything I say is interpreted as passive aggressive. He’s moved on from good natured ribbing (if that’s ever what it was) and fully into character assassination at this point. I think the best thing I can do is ignore him. I don’t need him in my life.
I understand, but think it’s your loss, if for no other reason than he has some good info.
Take care.
My attitude isn’t “abrasive and condescending” unless YOU choose to read what I say in that tone. If you read it as me stating learned facts, imparting information and experience with the occasional chide or jive meant in good nature, it comes out totally different in your perception. I.E. in my response to Wesley I said “You might want to actually know what you’re talking about” or something like that. If you read that with me wearing a wry smile with a wink it comes out one way. If you read that as me being condescending and abrasive it comes… Read more »
Well, I guess we’ve established that we don’t like each other… What else can I say at this point?
Both WW1 German tanks tipped over into craters and were abandoned before being destroyed. Most of the tanks in WW2 were far better. You’re right about the beaten zone of a machine gun but the 500 yard range is the mark one eye ball range for spotting the muzzle flash. Can’t hit what you can’t see. The Poles also had sand bags to stop gun fire at that range. Beaten zone verses people in the open and people in good cover are different things. I’ve played with some guns too. May favorite is the Owen sub machine gun. In WW2… Read more »
In Poland in 1939 & 1940 the Germans were using Panzer 1 & 2. Light tanks in the modern sense. Only really armoured against machine guns, rifles and artillery fragments. The French and British had better tanks but less mobility and the real early war counter to the tank was the Stuka dive bomber. The best tank at the start of WW2 was the French Char series tanks. Big, very well armoured with a good gun but blind as a bat and reliant on rail for long distance travel. Most were captured without a fight.
Fun fact: at the beginning of the war between nationalist china and Japan/ Manchuria the Chinese had German supplied helmets, uniforms and guns. They looked in 1936 like the Germans of 1940. They also had some Panzer 1 and 2 tanks. Panzer’s do not work in paddy fields. The Japs had the same problem with their light tanks. Both sides learned by 1940. At one point the Japs made very big heavy tanks but all the shipping needed to get them to China was sunk. So they disassembled them shipped them to Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the defense of home… Read more »
Last summer my Sister and my nephew went to Europe with her friend and her son. The boys are amusement park fans and they did a tour of European parks. I’m not a fan of that stuff so I don’t know what they thought of the parks but I do know what they thought of the countries they visited. Everyone agreed that Poland was the very best country by a wide margin.
Not a bad feat for a bunch of dumb Polacks 😉
I know Bill’s in love with AI and using it for the thumbnails in here even though it does dumb things like make 32 star US flags and such. In the thumbnail above it looks like the armor that cavalryman is wearing has the headdress attached to his backplate. Attached or not it’s so long and bulky that it would be impossible to move his head quickly making him unable to avoid a blow. It looks really cool but it would be lethal to wear something like that into battle. AI is easy but it’s dumb. It makes people who… Read more »
Hey know-it-all look up the Polish Hussars, aka the Winged Hussars.
OK, I did that and I looked at a lot of images to give you the benefit of the doubt. You made this personal so what follows is more than justified. It wasn’t easy finding images of the real thing instead of stylized nonsense made to “look cool” but I managed. The “Winged Hussars” look a bit like the bad guys in the Road Warrior movies to me but that’s not the topic here. Genuine “Winged Hussar” armor and the armor in that stupid AI thumbnail are not the same at all. Real, not modernized and not stylized “Winged Hussar”… Read more »
Hey!
Here’s another song about Poland!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcYhYO02f98
Rumble is dumping ads into paid subscriber content. People have been complaining about ads running on this site’s paid content behind the paywall for quite a while. I’ve been able to replicate that behavior and trace the source of the injected ads they’re seeing. I can’t get ads to run on anything but an unblocked (no ad blocker) naked version of Google Chrome Manifest v3. That doesn’t mean they won’t run on other browsers, it just means they don’t run on other browsers on the machine I’m using. The ads are coming from … https://rumble.com/embed/v6t1r53/?pub=6f1ej https://a.ads.rmbl.ws https://1a-1791.com I’ve highlighted the… Read more »
I haven’t noticed the ads because I always use an adblocker… But it occurs to me that it might not be Rumble being sneaky, but could be how the videos are being set up. Not all of the videos on this site are behind the paywall, the backstage show for instance is embedded YouTube videos that are unlisted and have the monetize toggle switched off. I’ve never uploaded to Rumble, but I’d guess the mechanism is similar. If you want to both list the video for ad money AND embed it behind a paywall, you probably have to upload it… Read more »
Monetization, and the ads that run that make something monetized, can be implemented by multiple means. Ads can easily be run or not on a per user basis. YouTube Premium offers a subscription service that allows paying users to watch all content ad free. (Rumble does the same sort of thing with Rumble Premium.) This is just a single example but — Obviously every single bit of content does not need to be uploaded twice, once for ads and once unlisted for ad free access. If it did then that would double the storage space needed to host video content.… Read more »
My point is that you’re making accusations of malice and theft that might not be accurate. Bottom line is that the system has to decide somehow whether ads should be shown or not. If you embed a monetized video into a page without flipping whatever switch to turn the ads off, it will most likely show you ads if you’re not logged into a paid Rumble account. It seems more likely to me that there was an oversight when some of the videos were embedded than it is that Rumble is actively trying to steal air time. Rumble is one… Read more »
And my point is that you’re just guessing and don’t really know if my accusations are accurate or not. I know how the system decides and actually described the process. Being as you “guessed” wrong it appears you do not so … If I’m going to give anyone any benefit of the doubt I’m giving it to Bill Whittle and not Rumble. You do as you see fit, I sure as hell will do the same so that’s not something I can honestly contest. I do not have any love for Rumble, or YouTube for that matter. I do know… Read more »
Seems to me that’s exactly what you’re trying to do. You made accusations about Rumble being scum bags, I pointed out that it could be an innocent mistake. That’s all. No need to “get your undies in a bind” as you say.
*YAWN*
FYI, if you want to post html tags or something without it getting filtered out, you could use a code block:
Yeah, I know that, good of you to look it up though. I notice you figured out that if you put a second “!” at the end where it should have gone it would comment out that part of your post. Good for you, Sport.
Actually I just pushed the “code block” button on the comment editor and typed some html. Not sure what you think I had to look up… You seemed to be having trouble demonstrating what an html comment looked like while trying to flex your superior knowledge, so I thought I’d help you out. My original intent in replying to you was not to pick a fight, but to call for a calmer approach that could maybe get something fixed. I’m going to stop here because I really should have known that you will turn anything into a fight and no… Read more »
“Actually I just pushed the “code block” button on the comment editor and typed some html.” … is neither here nor there and has nothing to do with who is responsible for any ads running here behind the paywall. Good for you, Captain Irrelevant, another stunning victory for the good ship “Makes No Difference”. You stopping here is the best idea you’ve demonstrated so far. No, I do NOT “turn anything into a fight” and I have more than amply demonstrated that here in these comments in the past. I fight when I’m fought with, I give every bit as… Read more »
Ok, I have to reply because I’m actually a little baffled by you. What did I say in my first reply to your comment that upset you so much? I only got sarcastic in reply to your sarcasm and strutting as far as I can tell. Yes, of course I remember our “history”. I seem to irritate you to the point of boiling over even when I don’t intend to. Last time we had it out we agreed to attempt a truce if I remember right. You still seem to think I’m only on here to go after you, but… Read more »
Also, if you want to get someone’s attention about ads being shown behind a paywall, you could email them: https://billwhittle.com/contact-us/
Then you might get a response from someone who can possibly fix it instead of just me…
My OP was for all the people who have been complaining about ads running behind the paywall. If someone wants to send it to BWC that’s fine with me.
Being as you can’t fix anything clearly it was not meant for you but hey, don’t let that stop you. Never has before.
You’d rather start a fight and be a Rumble cheerleader, which is also no surprise.
Fyi: I doubt Bill reads most comments, but you can send this info to him via the contact us method. That goes to Shelly, the office manager who can get it to Bill. I did this when the blog was acting up a while back, and Bill sent me an email thanking me for the info I sent about what I found while trouble shooting.
You might give it a go, and thanks for the info.
I’m half-Polish, proud that my grandfather came over and made a life here in the USA. When he landed, they that told him “Poles are too stupid to hire.” He changed his name from “Jakubowitz” to Jackson and was made a supervisor of an Italian crew, “Wops” just smart enough to hire, apparently.
Don’t knock Poland, as they’ve become a beacon for freedom and liberty in the ‘land of the lost’. I recall (when I was very young, Salem MA’66) that the butt of cultural jokes turned away from Blacks, to Irish, to Chinese, to Wop (with out papers) and later to Polak. My father inlaw’s heritage was Lithuanian, and he was the Rodney Dangerfield of pole-jokes. Seems like we follow a process of cultural assimilation that (IMHO) once likely included native American Indian jokes. A Native American, Pirate, and Frenchman walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Gentlemen, hau, arrrrrrr, oui, today?”… Read more »
I grew up with Polak jokes. I will only tell one. No insult for anyone of Polish descent implied. Go ahead. Make a Scot joke. I don’t care, even though I count myself as primarily Scot. Hey, I’m descended from a Ferguson clan chieftan…..from the third son. Not the heir, not the spare, but the…. well, he’s descended from a chieftan, so I guess we care. How many Polaks does it take to change a ceiling light bulb? Three. One to hold the bulb, and two to turn the ladder. I wish I could remember the group that the follow… Read more »
Robert Heinlein and other authors often made up “new” words by reversing common ones. Like “stobor” is actually “robots” mirrored. When I see a word that doesn’t make any sense I automatically read it backwards, just in case.
In this case, your words don’t make any sense no matter which way they’re read 🙂
Ding ding ding!
You win the nonexistent award.
No surprise it was you, but well done anyway.
How many Scotsman does it take to change a light bulb?
Eleven. One to hold the bulb, and ten to drink until the pub spins.
I love it! Not a drinker myself but love the joke. Wish I could upvote it more than once.
Of course, they’d be drinking scotch; the good stuff. No mere beer for a Scot!😁
Aye, the good stuff! 😀 Surprised Ron Swanson didn’t mention Lagavulin…
The joke can of course be adapted to all sorts of groups depending on who you’re making fun of. Gotta spread the love after all!
Just hadn’t seen it yet!!!
Cracked open a bottle of The Classic Laddie last night as it happens. From Bruichladdich distillery. It’s 100 degrees which was a good excuse for a few ice cubes which meant 100 proof was needed.
And no I don’t need an excuse for any of this but I had finished off my bottle of The Botanist gin (also from Islay) the night before so I just had to drink the scotch.
What else could I do, I mean honestly.
Sometimes you just have to take one for the team!
lately I’ve been trying to make a bottle of Ardbeg An Oa last as long as possible… Tasty stuff.
Well, you had no choice! The scotch was calling your name! It would be the height of rudeness to ignore it!
(Drink mee! Drink mee!. C’mon you know you wanna!)😏
Oops
My ethnic background is Polish on my dad’s side and Italian on my mom’s. In their cases, at least one parent came here as a teens. In my Polish grandmother’s case she was fleeing from the risk of being kidnapped off here farm by Ottoman Empire thugs into slavery (yep the Ottoman empire had legal slavery in the late 19th / early 20th century) as some of the other young girls had been. My parents went to Poland in the 80s and even my mom who was pretty Italo-centric raved about how beautiful everything was. This is a trip on… Read more »