crescent ww2

THese must be the most boring WW2 soldiers on the market, they are made well nut just look crap and are they even WW2

if Crescent had used the man who made their FFL then they would have made great pieces most of the time but you can't imagine who made these made the Legion figures although their Arab advesary are a bit crappy.

armen"TEERS",the legacy of the Germans

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Yesterday I was walking down the main street in this small French town , I stopped in a cafe and a Lesbian type butch brutto was giving me the eye, an amazing ego because she was of out of control weight and style  wise looked like a navvie but in the small French Cafè where i was drinking the beer at the end of this blog I met 97 year old Berty who told me about the town in the First World war. "It was awful, many people ate nothing but seaweed brought down the line from the coast" Berty had been in the Second World war and wasn't totally enamoured with the Krauts but its interesting to talk with senior citizens as they are a wealth of knowledge.We always make the mistake that they are boring but guess what we're going where they are if we're lucky.
The military engagements in Armentières on April 9-18, 1918, were part of the Germans' spring offensive in the final year of war. As did other battles along the Western Front, they left scenes of utter devastation in their wake. In northern France, around 600,000 hectares of forest lands were destroyed over the course of the war, and in Belgian Flanders, 46,000 orchard trees were felled.
 Over half a million Belgian and French houses, 750 of which were historically significant, were completely or partially destroyed. All streets, train tracks, and bridges in these areas were leveled. By the end of the war, the region around Ypres was strewn with an estimated 9,600 bunkers, some of which can still be visited today.he village
CHAPELLE-D'ARMENTIERES OLD MILITARY CEMETERY of La Chapelle-d'Armentieres was in the hands of Commonwealth forces from October 1914 until the fall of Armentieres on 10 April 1918. It was retaken in the following October. During the Allied occupation, the village was very close to the front line and its cemeteries were made by fighting units and field ambulances in the earlier days of trench warfare. Chapelle-d'Armentieres Old Military Cemetery was begun in October 1914 by units of the 6th Division and used until October 1915. The cemetery contains 103 First World War burials three of them unidentified. The cemetery was designed by W H Cowlishaw

La Léonce d’Armentière

when you're in texas look behind you

Facing the threat of invasion from the north and fearing a Unionist uprising in their midst, the people of North Texas lived in constant dread during the Civil War.

Word of a "Peace Party" of Union sympathizers, sworn to destroy their government, kill their leaders, and bring in Federal troops caused great alarm in Cooke and neighboring counties. Spies joined the "Peace Party" discovered its members and details of their plans. Under the leadership of Colonels James Bourland, Daniel Montague and others, citizens loyal to the Confederacy determined to destroy the order; and on the morning of October 1, 1862, there were widespread arrests "by authority of the people of Cook County." Fear of rescue by "Peace Party" members brought troops and militia to Gainesville, where the prisoners were assembled, and hastened action by the citizens committee.

At a meeting of Cooke County citizens, with Colonel W.C. Young presiding, it was unanimously resolved to establish a Citizens Court and to have the Chairman choose a committee to select a jury. 68 men were brought speedily before the court.

39 of them were found guilty of conspiracy and insurrection, sentenced and immediately hanged. Three other prisoners who were members of military units were allowed trial by Court Martial at their request and were subsequently hanged by its order.

Two others broke from their guard and were shot and killed.

The Texas Legislature appropriated $4,500 for rations, forage used by State troops here during the unrest. (1964)

In his book, Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong, James Loewen gives an interesting take on the Gainesville Hanging historical marker.   Loewen considers the modest marker an "extended excuse" for what happened in October 1862.   He explains how years earlier in 1911, Gainesville put up a Confederate monument on the courthouse lawn that was "a counterfactual statement to cover over the awful crime that the Confederates carried out on these very grounds in October 1862."

march on rome Mussolini

More than 57 years after his execution by members of the Italian resistance, the dictator Benito Mussolini and his legacy remain a difficult issue for Italians.When Atlantic put out this fantastic set of fascists it was ok to do so because no one gave a shit and still don't.

Italians don't  try to forget about it but the

y are more or less indifferent, fascism is part of thje Italian DNA and even if they are Lefty or right like the Yanks they love a dict6ator or sopmeone who leads from the groin down., The 28th of  October was the 80th anniversary of the event which brought him to power.

The 'march' reaches Rome

On that date 1922, Mussolini led his "March on Rome", which brought the Fascist leader to power and enabled him to stay there for 23 years.

For many years after the fall of fascism, Italians turned their backs on their recent history. The fascist party was banned, the history curriculum in Italian schools even stopped at World War I.

But gradually in the 21st Century old taboos are being broken.

Myth of the march

The ironic fact about Mussolini's march on Rome in 1922 was that he and most of his black-shirted followers travelled to Rome from Milan by train, first class.

There was no march.

But to satisfy his inordinate vanity, Mussolini, a master of propaganda, later created the myth of the march on Rome.

He inflated the figures from the reality of a few hundred black-shirts to a mythical army of 300,000 fascists led by him in person on horseback.

The post-fascists insist they've made a clean break with the past.

Senator Giovanni Consulo, a member of the post-fascist government coalition party which now calls itself the National Alliance, says that the march on Rome represents an episode in Italy's story, " but it's something that no longer influences the current situation".

" I think it's ridiculous to talk now about fascism, it seems to me so far (away), it doesn't belong to the modern culture. I'm proud of our history, the positive and the negative parts of it.

"It's our history, I'm an Italian citizen, I'm proud to be," he says.But fascism haqs not walked away, Giorgio Bocca a respected journalist said "Left or Right the DNA of the Italian is fascist.But also part of their DNA is the eternal lament that someone somewhere owes them someething. But they stop at nothing to take away the rights of Londoners when they come to London in droves taking our jobs, homes and space giving in return lousy overpriced eateries and restuarants.

Bunker tourism

Apart from a few thousand fascist diehards who visited Mussolini's tomb in his native town of Predappio near Bologna this weekend to commemorate the largely fictitious march, few contemporary Italians are even aware of the anniversary.

But the prospect of guided tours to a newly discovered relic of fascist times, one of Mussolini's wartime anti-air raid bunkers, has aroused interest here.

Through the keyhole

The air raid shelter is under the headquarters of Mussolini's great exhibition in Rome.

This is about 30 feet under ground and it was built between 1937 and 1939 and they were obviously expecting quite severe air raids.

The bunker has got airtight doors like those in a submarine.

The bunker has been abandoned for more than 60 years, but now the private owners of the exhibition site are thinking of bringing guided tours down here.

One of the first things you see in the bunker is a couple of bicycles.

Frederica Beraduce, who works at the site in Rome, says they were used to power the air-conditioning.

"It was a very prehistoric but very functional way of getting the air here, because we are eight metres under sea level.

"They needed air and electricity and so with these bicycles they could provide air for all the people staying here."

The exhibition on the site was planned by Mussolini for 1942, bit it never took place because of the outbreak of World War II.

Fascism and art

Its distinctive architecture now provides a unique backdrop for the international film industry.

Frederica Beraduce says the architecture was an example and a memory of a war and sufferings and years of suffering for the Italian people.

"For a long period it was almost forgotten. Fellini started in the 1960s and it's like having a set, because it's almost unreal.

"You can see the architecture, the structure, the marbles are almost unreal, it seems fake.

"So a lot of artists now are using it for commercials for films, for videos," according to Frederica.

Mussolini was executed in April 1945

An exhibition of fascist art and architecture in Rome last summer attracted tens of thousands of visitors.

The signs are that Italians are slowly coming to terms with both the false legends and the realities of 20 years of fascist rule.

The government recently agreed to let the direct male descendants of the former Italian royal family - sent into permanent exile for collaborating with the fascist dictatorship - back home for the first time next month.

Mementoes of the fascist leader are no longer taboo, his shadow is no longer feared. He is basically forgotten by most and has never been feared since his death, thats a myth put about by redundant journalists of the BBC.The fact is no one cares anymore

missiles

Missiles

Atlantivc allied troops overrun a German missile base

One of the problems for the German military, and indeed any mobile military force, is the weight of the artillery and, more importantly, its ammunition. In traditional combat two forces would meet on the battlefield and then wait while the artillery was brought forward to settle the battle, notably if one side was in prepared defenses.

Of course this hurry-up-and-wait was exactly what the Blitzkrieg was attempting to avoid, by moving so quickly the enemy forces would not have any time to organize a defense. However this meant that the infantry would be facing forces that were dug in and provided with artillery support, with no such support of their own. In the opening stages of World War II the Luftwaffe was so overwhelming that they were able to address this by providing "flying artillery" in the form of the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber, but this was an expensive solution to the problem.

A better solution would be very long-range artillery, organized into the army or corps level instead of the battalion. Units facing dug-in troops would call in artillery from far to the rear, and the artillery would only have to be moved after the troops had moved fairly long distances. This would also mean that a single supply line and organizational group would be able to provide fire support to the entire army, greatly reducing the logistics required. However this is difficult to achieve, as normal artillery grows in weight dramatically as the range is increased. Artillery capable of supporting an army over a front of, say, 150 km, would be considerably heavier and slower moving than a number of smaller guns. The longest range systems until that point had been the World War I Paris Guns, which had a range of just over 100 km but were so huge as to be completely immobile.

The solution was the rocket. Rockets can be made to fire to any appreciable range, but their weight scales roughly linearly instead of exponentially with range (at least for shorter range systems). On the downside, rocket artillery was notoriously inaccurate, a problem accentuated with increased range. Although a rocket might have the range to replace a large gun, it was not clear that it would be able to hit targets at that range. Rheinbote was built in order to test that question.

Developed in 1943 by the Rheinmetall-Borsig company, the first test flights were carried out that year. Several changes were made to the system, but the basic design remained the same: a long and skinny rocket stabilized with fins at the extreme rear. The Rheinbote carried a 40 kg warhead to an effective range of 160 km. The final version consisted of a four-stage rocket fueled by diglycol propellant, and reached over 220 km in testing. For shorter ranges some of the stages could be removed. It was launched from a simple rail on a mobile trailer. Over 220 were constructed and fired against Antwerp between November 1944 and the end of the war.

The concept of long-range artillery rockets on the battlefield would remain undeveloped after the war. Even Rheinbote was not used in its intended role, but instead as a smaller version of the V-2 missile in the strategic role (for which its 40 kg warhead was essentially useless) due to its poor accuracy. It was not until the introduction of lower-cost guidance systems that rocket artillery was able to provide the accuracy needed at longer ranges, and since the 1970s such systems have become a part of many armed forces

Sixty years ago this month, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, and the Japanese government surrendered to the United States and its allies. The nuclear age had truly begun with the first military use of atomic weapons.  ver since the atomic bombs were exploded over Japanese cities, historians, social scientists, journalists, World War II veterans, and ordinary citizens have engaged in intense controversy about the events of August 1945. John Hersey’s Hiroshima, first published in the New Yorker in 1946 made some unsettled readers question the bombings while church groups and a few commentators, most prominently Norman Cousins, explicitly criticized them. Former Secretary of War Henry Stimson found the criticisms troubling and published an influential justification for the attacks in the mag.

 During the 1960s the availability of primary sources made historical research and writing possible and the debate became more vigorous. Historians Herbert Feis and Gar Alperovitz raised searching questions about the first use of nuclear weapons and their broader political and diplomatic implications. The controversy, especially the arguments made by Alperovitz and others about "atomic diplomacy" quickly became caught up in heated debates about Cold War "revisionism." The controversy simmered over the years with major contributions by Martin Sherwin and Barton J. Bernstein but it became explosive during the mid-1990s when curators at the National Air and Space Museum met the wrath of the Air Force Association over a proposed historical exhibit on the Enola Gay.The NASM exhibit was drastically scaled down but historians and journalists continued to engage in the debate.

 Alperovitz, Bernstein, and Sherwin made new contributions to the debate as did historians, social scientists, and journalists such as Richard B. Frank, Herbert Bix, Sadao Asada, Kai Bird, Robert James Maddox, Robert P. Newman, Robert S. Norris, Tsuyoshi Hagesawa, and J. Samuel Walker. The controversy has revolved around the following, among other, questions:Did the USA want to warn the Reds in Russia about what would happen if they overstepped the mark and used the Japs as an example?

bullfigters

anyone know who made these

newCall to arms set

the dalek wars

War of the Daleks is an original novel written by John Peel, published in 1997, based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor and Sam. This novel was the first appearance of the Daleks in an original Doctor Who novel; they had not appeared at all in either the Virgin New Adventures or the Virgin Missing Adventures. War of the Daleks was originally announced by the Doctor Who Appreciation Society as being published as a New Adventure around the time of The Left-Handed Hummingbird.

This story chronicles the demise of Davros once and for all and the rising of the supreme Dalek force. This also conflicts the destruction of Skaro which has survived thanks to a larger plot played by the Dalek Prime.

As with all Doctor Who spin-off media, its relationship to the televised serials is open to interpretation. But the Doctor is still worried. For there is a signal beacon inside the pod, and even now a Dalek ship is closing in..

The story opens up with the Doctor and Sam in the TARDIS doing some maintenance when they are collected by a ship which holds an escape pod containing Davros. A group of Thals arrive; they want Davros to alter their species so they will be better able to fight the Daleks. A force of Daleks then arrive and take the Doctor and Davros, along with other characters, to Skaro. Before landing on Skaro, the Doctor discovers that the coordinates he believed were Skaro's were actually those of the planet Antalin.

Since Davros's return the Dalek Prime has met considerable resistance with a number of Davros loyalists forming. Initiating a final civil war on Skaro, the Dalek Prime has all the Davros loyalists revealed and exterminated. In the mean time he releases the Doctor to leave Skaro. The Doctor discovers a planted device on board the TARDIS which would allow the Daleks to survive in case the Dalek Prime failed. He jettisons it into the vortex.

With his faction defeated, Davros is sentenced to death by matter dispersal. Prior to his downfall he had implanted a Spider Dalek as a spy amongst the Dalek Prime's forces. Davros is placed in a disintegration chamber and his atoms dispersed. His fate is left open when his data is either erased from the disintegrator or transmatted across space to a safe location.

The novel Unnatural History suggests that the Doctor, perhaps under the influence of Faction Paradox, tricked the Daleks into tying their own history into such knots that it collapsed in upon itself.

The Dalek Prime claims that the planet the Doctor destroyed (in Remembrance of the Daleks) was not Skaro, but Antalin. According to the Dalek Prime, the Daleks had found out about the destruction of Skaro when they found records during their invasion of Earth in the 22nd century (The Dalek Invasion of Earth). To simultaneously save their homeworld and maintain the flow of history, the Daleks reasoned that they needed to make it appear as if Skaro had been destroyed, so they allegedly terraformed Antalin to resemble Skaro and placed Davros there after altering his memories so, when revived (Destiny of the Daleks), he would believe he was on Skaro. It is also suggested that the Daleks' war with the Movellans was faked to give the Daleks a plausible reason for reviving Davros. The truth of the Dalek Prime's claims is debatable.

It is implied that the Dalek factory ship jettisoned from the TARDIS near the end of the book ends up as the capsule seen in The Power of the Daleks

battle of barnet by cherilea and crescent

The Battle of Barnet was a decisive engagement in the Wars of the Roses, a dynastic conflict of 15th-century England. The military action, along with the subsequent Battle of Tewkesbury, secured the throne for Edward IV.On 14 April 1471 near Barnet, then a small town north of London, Edward led the House of York in a fight against the House of Lancaster, which backed Henry VI for the throne. Leading the Lancastrian army was Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, who played a crucial role in the fate of each king. Historians regard the battle as one of the most important clashes in the Wars of the Roses, since it brought about a decisive turn in the fortunes of the two houses. Edward's victory was followed by fourteen years of Yorkist rule over England.

Formerly a key figure in the Yorkist cause, Warwick defected to the Lancastrians over disagreements about Edward's nepotism, secret marriage, and foreign policy. Leading a Lancastrian army, the earl defeated his former allies, forcing Edward to flee to Burgundy. The Yorkist king persuaded his host, Charles the Bold, to help him regain the English throne.
Leading an army raised with Burgundian money, Edward launched his invasion of England, which culminated at the fields north of Barnet. Under cover of darkness, the Yorkists moved close to the Lancastrians, and clashed in a thick fog at dawn. While the main forces struggled in battle, John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, and his Lancastrian troops routed the Yorkists under Lord William Hastings, chasing them up to Barnet. On their return to the battlefield, Oxford's men were erroneously shot at by his allies commanded by John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu. The Lancastrians lost the battle as cries of treason spread through their line, disrupting morale and causing many to abandon the fight. While retreating, Warwick was killed by Yorkist soldiers.

Warwick had been such an influential figure in 15th-century English politics that, on his death, no one matched him in terms of power and popularity. Deprived of Warwick's support, the Lancastrians suffered their final defeat at the Battle of Tewkesbury on 4 May 1471, which marked the downfall of the House of Lancaster and the ascendancy of the House of York. Three centuries after the Battle of Barnet, a stone obelisk was raised on the spot where Warwick purportedly died. Nick Clegg and fellow imbecile Cameron should heed the warning here.You may have to forgive thenm as if you chose to go to bed with a hideous fellow human being every night then you too may imagine yourself as a "Kingmaker" instead of the would be so called leader of a small country near Scandanavia.
For those who have only heard the term “kingmaker” recently and in connection with Nick Clegg, the name may suggest a divine and benevolent power.
Yet to those who know its medieval origins, it carries a hidden curse: that of Richard Neville, 16th earl of Warwick and foremost commander of the wars of the roses. Warwick tried to turn political stalemate to his personal advantage, and then, forced into breaking promise after promise, met a decidedly sticky end.
He earned his nickname for his part in making and breaking (and making again) the two dynasties that squabbled for control of England between about 1450 and 1485: the houses of Lancaster and York. Both of these had some claim to the throne, and when Warwick rose to prominence, the Lancastrians were ruling. They didn’t have the support of parliament, and their leader was possibly the most incompetent king ever to have ruled England: the hapless Henry VI, who owes his fame to the fact that he squandered the nation’s resources on grandiose projects while his soldiers suffered bitter defeat in the final days of the hundred years war.

The rebellious Warwick supported a pretender to the throne: his young cousin, Edward, earl of March. March’s father, the duke of York, had won what we might call a democratic mandate, in the form of support from parliament in 1460, but he had been murdered by his Lancastrian enemies only a few months later. Warwick hatched a plan to make good Edward’s inherited “mandate” while promoting his own interests at the same time. He cut a deal with the young earl, which led to an alliance of talent and manpower that toppled the Lancastrians in 1461. With the former Henry VI incarcerated in the Tower and most of his supporters dead, only his runaway queen, Margaret of Anjou, and their infant son, Edward of Westminster, had any right to dispute the claim of Edward IV to be king of England.
But the power Warwick had wanted for himself remained out of reach. The new king was simply too happy to rule without the assistance of his opportunistic cousin, since he believed his victory to have owed more to God and his own prowess than to the help of others. He even claimed there had been a miracle at one of his battles, where three suns had appeared on the horizon (an optical illusion known as a “parhelion”).
A disenchanted Warwick tried to replace Edward with a member of his own faction: the king’s younger brother, George, duke of Clarence. When this ploy failed, he shed all pretence of loyalty to York and decided that his interests were best served by bringing back the Lancastrians: he made overtures to the runaway Queen Margaret towards the end of 1470. To spectators this was a most unlikely of alliances, since the two parties were sworn enemies, both dripping with the blood of their respective friends and relations. But in the interests of power politics, then as much as now, even a pact with the devil was preferable to lonely obscurity.

the russian winter by divinia hill

The average and minimum temperatures differ among Russian regions. Winter is most severe in hinterland Yakutia (where no major armed conflicts happened to date), with the lowest temperature about −65°C. In European Russia (west of the Ural mountains), where most battles were fought, the average winter temperature is rarely below −20°C, but varies greatly: for example, temperatures in the winter of 2005/2006 fell to −20°C or −30°C in Moscow. In Russia this phenomenon is known as "Epiphany frosts" (крещенские морозы, Russian pronunciation: [krʲeˈɕɕenskʲije moˈrozɨ] - referred to Orthodox Epiphany on January 15), known for centuries for its low temperatures. But most recent winters in central Russia were unusually warm. A New Year's day without snow in Moscow and temperatures up to 10°C in the middle of winter are no longer rare.

Nevertheless, one factor for Russia's temperature is its Continental climate. The other is the geography of Russia: it is as far north as Canada, but has little open inland water to store the sun's energy. For example, in the Altai region in August, the temperature is above 20°C during the day, but at night can fall as low as −5°C.

Medieval Russians used skis to ease transport in their winter campaigns.Since it follows the autumn rasputitsa (nearly as troublesome), the severity of Russian winter is often linked to Russian military victories. In the Great Northern War, Charles XII of Sweden invaded the Russia of Peter the Great in 1707. The Russians retreated, adopting a scorched-earth policy. This winter was the most brutal of the 18th century, so severe that the salt water port of Venice froze. Charles' 35,000 troops were crippled, and by spring only 19,000 were left. The Battle of Poltava in 1709 sealed the end of the Swedish Empire.

Charles Minard's graph showing the strength of the Grande Armée as it marched to Moscow and back, with temperature (in Réaumur) plotted on the lower graph for the return journey. –30 degrees Réaumur = –37.5 °C = –35.5 °Napoleon's Grande Armée of 610,000 men froze to death.

The Russian army retreated before the French and again burnt their crops and villages, denying the enemy their use. Napoleon's army was ultimately reduced to 100,000. His army suffered further, even more disastrous losses on the retreat from Moscow.

According to an American military study, the main body of Napoleon's Grande Armée, initially at least 378,000 strong, "diminished by half during the first eight weeks of his invasion, before the major battle of the campaign. This decrease was partly due to garrisoning supply centres, but disease, desertions, and casualties sustained in various minor actions caused thousands of losses.

At Borodino on 7 September 1812—the only major engagement fought in Russia—Napoleon could muster no more than 135,000 troops and he lost at least 30,000 of them to gain a narrow and Pyrrhic victory almost 600 miles inside hostile territory. The sequels were his uncontested and self-defeating occupation of Moscow and his humiliating retreat, which began on 19 October, before the first severe frosts later that month and the first snow on 5 November."

During WWII the only cold winter was in 1941-1942, and the Wehrmacht lacked necessary supplies, such as winter uniforms, due to the many delays in the German army's movements. Hitler's plans for Operation Barbarossa also miscarried before the onset of severe winter weather: he was so confident of a quick victory that he did not prepare for even the possibility of winter warfare in Russia. Yet his eastern army suffered more than 734,000 casualties (about 23% of its average strength of 3,200,000) during the first five months of the invasion. On 27 November 1941, General Eduard Wagner, the Quartermaster General of the German Army, reported that

"We are at the end of our resources in both personnel and materiel. We are about to be confronted with the dangers of deep winter."

pirates by divinia hill ltd

Pirates were usually old sailors and war veterans that abandoned the navy and went into a life of piracy, they brought with them weapons and experience. Due to the lack of people and transportation they had to recruit and steal to begin the life of the the infamous piratee. After the ship they usually had small raids off of the coast and plundering on the open seas. They took supplies from the ships and left them to die, with little food and water.

Pirates were a hassle in 1802 on the Barbary states (North African states) because they harassed America on the seas. The pirates pried on merchant ships entering the Mediterranean sea, the pirates held the crews of the ships for ransom. America complied paying a least 2 million by the time Jefferson became president. Jefferson sent a small fleet to the Mediterranean to deal with protecting the merchant ships.

Piracy was ended when American and European forces destroyed pirate bases in 1815.

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR IN THE GOLDEN AGE

this set from britains was very nice marred bt the standing shooting figures shooting upwards

along with lone star mybe the worst ever done CHARBENS

the second set

ACW from Crescent. These are better than the Charbens but not by much

does it get much worse than charbens yeah it does heres lone star

The best were Britains. But the paint jobs were terrible

these are the best of all better than any others around but not from the golden age.these are cta and come from waltham cross uk below britains

these timpo were better than a lot and as good as the britains nearly .the geezer who made them had an idea of anatomy.below are some painted by tim.

.

italeri brought out good rebel cavalry but the infantry were terrible.the timpo painted above by tim are really good I think