Caption: It depends on your definition, doesn’t it?
Bullet Points:
** AUKUS Submarine program – CDRSAL clarifies the situation as he usually does, and it’s worth reading (including homework).
** Could it be that I am in love? It definitely seems that way. Cycling .45 ACP tracers through an M-1 Thompson (Navy) is one of my favorite things to do. Don’t hate me for my imperfections. And just because — this is for MikeW.
** How it’s done. Ah, the good old days.
** BUDS through SQC.
** Is it over? Who says it’s over? It’s not over, Al Kirk – not by half!
** Jules invades Italy and drinks all their wine. More whimsy.
** More immigrant-related fraud and corruption. It needs to be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law, preferably with a term of at hard labor. Chain them up and allow them to break rocks. A full day of labor is a day toward the completion of the sentence. A day without full labor doesn’t count.
** Ammo.com – Which states have the most gun owners? We analyzed the most recent surveys and sales reports, then updated our report on gun ownership by state! Our findings were quite surprising. Here are a few quick reference points from the report: (1) Montana has the highest rate of reported household gun ownership at 66.3 per 100 residents. (2) Wyoming (66.2 per 100), Alaska (64.5 per 100), Idaho (60.1 per 100), and West Virginia (58.5 per 100) have the highest rates of gun ownership in the U.S. (3) Massachusetts and New Jersey have the fewest gun owners at only 14.7 per 100 residents. https://ammo.com/articles/gun-ownership-by-state
** The concepts are embraced by the left.
** WSF found this boating with EdB incident. EdB is seen docking his boat. Yeah, when you’re cool – you’re cool, and you know it.
** Claudio reports on the situation – Not a good time to be a Russian soldier if ever there was a good time. https://strategypage.com/htmw/htatrit/2026051863126.aspx#gsc.tab=0 While the Russian Ministry of Defense has dependably documented Russian casualty removal and medical care catastrophes since the first weeks of the Ukraine War in 2022, it is apparent that the Russian military medical system has dissolved. Russian losses were regularly reported to be 37 percent dead and 63 percent wounded. Given the decrepit performance of Russian combat medical care, many of those wounded eventually died from lack of care. The Russians regularly abandoned wounded soldiers, leaving them to die alone. Russia used to send the bodies of dead soldiers back to their families for burial. But now all that is returned are the heads. It has reached the point where not even heads were returned, and the dead soldiers were simply reported as missing. This included those taken prisoner or, more frequently, those deserting.
** Bethany Andres-Beck, a software engineer, chick with a stick, and Democratic activist, is running in the Democratic primary for Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District. She/her/it, is one of several candidates competing for the seat being vacated by incumbent Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA). I have no words beyond these: When I was a kid, there would be bearded women that were paraded when the circus came to town as freaks and spectacles. Today they are congressional material. How times have changed.
** Africans…in Norway…being Africans.
** Come on, look Sharpe.
** Overpriced addictive sludge – with your name on it. Sustainable, organic and ethically sourced for your personal benefit. That will be $15.00. And don’t skip on the tip because I put decorative foam on it.
** In Batshit Bonkers Britain. Translated for your benefit.
**CDRSAL is happy and for good reason.
Battle of 73 Easting
The Iraqi ambush at 73 Easting was tactically perfect: a massive tank force hidden by a blinding sandstorm. They just didn’t realize the outnumbered Americans could see right through it.
On February 26, 1991, during the rapid 100-hour ground offensive of the Gulf War, Iraq’s elite Republican Guard established a textbook reverse-slope defense in the southern Iraqi desert. The Tawakalna Division used the severe sandstorm—a shamal—to their advantage, digging their T-72 tanks and armored vehicles into the sand. They expected the near-zero visibility to neutralize American airpower and force advancing troops into a brutal, close-range fight in which numerical superiority would prevail.
Enter the U.S. 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, advancing to locate the Iraqi Republican Guard. Leading the wedge was Eagle Troop, commanded by then-Captain H.R. McMaster. They struck the Iraqi defensive line at a map coordinate known simply as “73 Easting.”
The Iraqi plan was technologically doomed. American M1A1 Abrams tanks and M3 Bradley fighting vehicles were equipped with forward-looking infrared (FLIR) thermal imaging. While the Iraqi gunners were effectively blind in the blowing sand, the American gunners could see the heat signatures of the Iraqi vehicles glowing brightly through the storm.
When McMaster crested a small rise, he found himself staring directly into the kill zone of a massive, prepared ambush. Standard military doctrine dictated that upon hitting a fortified enemy line, a scout troop should halt, hold its position, and call in artillery or air support. Instead, McMaster ordered his nine Abrams tanks and twelve Bradleys to charge straight through the heart of the Iraqi formation.
The speed and shock of the assault overwhelmed the defenders. American gunners identified and destroyed Iraqi tanks before the defenders knew they were under attack. In exactly 23 minutes, Eagle Troop destroyed over 50 Iraqi tanks and armored personnel carriers without suffering a single casualty or losing a vehicle. The engagement redefined modern armored warfare, proving that thermal optics, rigorous battle drills, and aggressive leadership could dismantle a numerically superior enemy.
Photo
Translate the caption: Inscription on the back of the photo: “Russian women [walking] in front to detect mines. Chasing the partisans. Vitebsk, June 1942.”
The image shows a line of local women marching in front of a Wehrmacht unit to protect the occupants from land mines or partisan attacks. Three armed men in civilian clothes appear to be local policemen. Two photographers film the scene: one from the tank’s turret and the other running in front of the column. It is likely that the column has just begun its journey – a photographer would not have run first into the dangerous, uncontrolled area.
The testimonies of the survivors of the punitive operation that took place in June 1942 in the Vitebsk and Surazh districts of the Vitebsk region rather mention the use of civilians as “live mine detectors” or “living shields”.
The protocol of interrogation of a captured Wehrmacht soldier Tadeusz Meger dated September 25, 1943 (until the moment of his capture he served in the 2nd company of the 5th Jaeger Battalion as a mortar gunner) captured details of the use of people as a “living mine detector” during a punitive expedition against partisans in the area Polotsk – Nevel – Vitebsk (second half of February – April 1943): “During the first operation, the approaches to the railway were mined in one place. Company Commander Ayberger ordered the gathering of civilians from nearby villages and then let them proceed. 20 people were gathered from three villages. Among them were old women aged 60-70, older people, children aged 10-14, girls, and one woman with a small child. When all these 20 people went to the minefield, there was a machine gun behind them in case they did not go. Five people in front- three old women, one old man, and a young girl were blown up by mines. All were seriously injured. Some had their leg blown off, some had both, and the girl was wounded in the stomach. After a while, all of them were shot.
WSF was an engineer. He used to find mines.
Identify the Aircraft
1
2
3
Rare, but identifiable. Flown by Scott Crossfield.
Parting Shot
End
(1) AN-26.
(2) North American XB-21.
(3) Douglas Skystreak.
– Kle.
Excellent
3 looks to be Douglas Skystreak (D-558-1)
It is
Welcome back. Leaving us here unsupervised is not wise.
I appreciate your solo efforts to raise Arizona’s ranking in individual gun ownership, but you have your metropolitan areas of diversity holding you back.
It’s true.
So if we give (sell) three Virginia’s to the Aussies that are already afloat, what do their highly trained crews (and commanders) do til the new ones arrive?
Blue or Gold on another boat?
When you think of the demands of training up 6 crews for 3 boats, the existing crews will be busy for a while.
I didn’t think Hunter Killers did Blue/Gold teams.
You can ask the COB, but my understanding is that SSNs do.
So Australia will have 3 more active working submarines than Great Britain. Oh, how far the English have fallen.
But the UK has more Muslims, so much the advantage…
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Antonov An-26 “Curl”
2. North American XB-21
3. Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak
Excellenr
I promise I haven’t got a beard…
Good to know…otherwise it would shatter the ‘Jules Mystique’ we all have come to believe.
I should hope not.
Mine clearing: In another war, on another continent, way back when… there were terrorists whose favorite tactic was to plant landmines on dirt tracks through the bush and open veld. The purpose wasn’t to blow up military vehicles, but to terrorize the local population into keeping their kids at home, rather than send them to school. That would allow the terrorists to indoctrinate the kids during their visits, and also disrupt the local farmers, whose labor could no longer reach them. A couple of trailers loaded with kids, towed by farmers’ tractors, met very sticky (literally) ends like that, after which traffic on those bush tracks largely ceased.
.
It will therefore come as no surprise that, when local commando units (in the original sense of “commando”, that is, locals patrolling their own area) captured a terrorist (or plural), they would ask them where the mines had been laid. If they refused to answer (which, initially, they usually did), their captors would immediately wire them (yes, with baling wire or similar) to the front bumpers of their vehicles and drive, at speed, up and down the local tracks. The rapidity (and volume) of the terrorists revealing where their mines were was directly proportional to the (rapidly decreasing) distance between themselves and the mine.
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War crime? Technically, according to the bureaucrats, probably. Effective? Oh, hell, yes.
You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.
Gunowners – Rhode Island is likely near to where it should be on the list,
but: We have some of the worst (and most illegal) gun laws in the country.
We also (at least among the sane minority and a lot of the insane majority)
have some of the lowest trust in government in the country. Thus, I can’t
imagine a quarter of gun owners would answer a survey truthfully, here.
Also, we do try and make up for it in volume – the only gun owners I know
here who only have one are the ones I’ve personally bought guns for as gifts
(the first one’s free) (yes, legally, transferred through a gun shop, BB).
*
Bearded Lady – honestly, the beard doesn’t make me as suspicious as the
residency in the PR Massholia.
– Kle.
‘WSF was an engineer. He used to find mines”.
Interesting ideas; not the way we did it.
With no moral compass, from WWII Germans to Iran Mullahs, human lives are there to be used. I don’t doubt that our current crop of (P)regressives will implement the practice given the opportunity.
I just thought – It is a very progressive form of mine-finding.
CDR Sal is pretty much on point with that read, I know the program has been ‘in review’ for a number of years, especially after the Tri-lat with JAUS back in the 2010s.
Re the fraud- Take away their ‘citizenship’, not like they ever really meant it, kick them back to their home country for them to prosecute them. Good riddance.
On the Ireland front, do you ‘really’ want the Catholics and Protestants to agree on something and expect there won’t be a ‘reaction’ from them??? The number of AR-18s, Stens, and BHPs buried over there are legion. The Brits never found them, even after years of looking. Any bets they’re being checked, greased, and gotten ‘ready’ if needed? Hell, those are the folks that pretty much invented the car bomb!
They’re adept at urban guerrilla warfare.
Is science sexy?
Oh yes, very.
Then there’s 73 Easting, outstanding by any reckoning.
Photo: That scene in SISU…same thing, ‘cowardly men following the terrified brave woman’.
***
Can science be sexy? Wasn’t in my basement ‘lab’ when I knocked the alcohol bunsen burner over trying some new ‘experiment’ and set the floor on fire and mom opened the door and asked if everything was alright? I was maybe 10 so ‘sexy’ was not in the vocabulary, panic maybe.
I got you beat, Paul….
.
I blew out the laundry room window in the basement while “testing” my Hydrogen Generator…..
😯