petemonks.bsky.social
Boring Australian suburban dad. Recipient of participation awards for Kosovo, East Timor, Afghanistan and a few other things and places.
Militantly centrist and firmly opposed to authoritarianism.
Going by @Pete_Monks back at the old place.
#NGFHQ
410 posts
818 followers
173 following
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In fact…
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As a dad, I can confirm.
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Having seen a lot of the British and US armies, the average behaviour of Brits (especially the paras and a few other specific units) out drinking in a garrison town is going to be worse than the yanks, or even us Aussies.
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“here’s a rock or something to go with it, you’ll need that too”
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I’m expecting these bastards to rename the USS Doris Miller as well.
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It’s a bit like The Thin Red Line. Some brilliant acting and individual scenes, and it speaks to me in a way most war movies don’t, but I will still steal glances at my watch thinking “come ON, get a move on, I’ve got things to do here”
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I’m not worked up about this particular strike for the same reasons (in fact, I am simultaneously impressed and delighted), but looking at your B-52 analogy I think a strike at Guam or Barksdale that destroyed 30 in a night would have been viewed very differently to losing them over Hanoi.
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Well, that’s something I had absolutely no inkling of (not that I’m a China expert in any way, shape or form)
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It’s got a happy ending, though
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I thought that was the Battle of Algiers
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The establishment by the time of El Alamein was 64 6 pounders (4 batteries), but for most of the Western Desert campaign regiments actually had considerably less, and 2/3 went into action with an eclectic mix of 2 pdrs, captured Italian AT rifles, 37mm and 47mm.
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It did put a hole in my wallet, and I almost certainly wouldn’t have got it if I hadn’t served with 23 Fd Regt. Glad I did, though
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Jack Argent was revered in 2/3rd Anti-Tank Regt and 23 Fd Regt, and was one of the most remarkable people I have ever met 5/5
artilleryhistory.org/gunners_past...
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Not only did he basically re-raise the Regt as a reserve unit after WW2 against the wishes of AHQ, but he was also a driving force in the Parramatta Eels becoming a first grade Rugby League team, and was manager of the Australian Rugby League team that toured Europe in 1959-60. 4/5
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I served with the successor of the regiment (23 Fd Regt) for a year and had the opportunity to meet the author, Lt Col Jack Argent (initially BC 12 AT Bty, then the CO after 2nd El Alamein). Jack Argent was one of those forces of nature who make excellent citizen soldiers. 3/4
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The regiment had an impressive history, and the book has the usual strengths and weaknesses of these sorts of histories - key appointments, brave deeds and casualties are scrupulously recorded, but less positive moments or individuals are skipped over 2/5
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The analogy I’m thinking of is more along the lines of “yes, that thing you call a machine gun is an ingenious toy, but it will never be efficient enough to stop a charge by well-trained cavalry, so I wouldn’t waste time looking for ways to counter it”
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I would watch the hell out of that, though
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I first started reading Calvin and Hobbes as a teenager and even then I said to myself “yeah, that’s EXACTLY how I’m going to do the dad thing”
One day my kids are going to discover Calvin and Hobbes for themselves and say to themselves “oh, right, NOW I get it”
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Wikipedia also tells me this bloke turned 20 the year of 9/11, but for some inexplicable reason the guy who would have enjoyed TWO world wars became a YouTuber or some shit instead of going to war himself.
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You would think this whole evil wizard thing would have been sorted out by 1944 at the very latest.
All over airfields in Lincolnshire Lancaster and Halifax squadrons would be getting briefed one afternoon, “Right, chaps, it’s a milk run tonight, short flight, no night fighters to worry about…”
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The genre generally doesn’t do much for me, but it’s better than the others you mentioned (I’m a fan of Elliot Ackerman and was SO disappointed by 2034).
It reminds me a bit of 1990s Ralph Peters - there’s some interesting ideas about future war rather than simple extrapolation of the here and now
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But if you think the future fight for your land force is regime protection and domestic enforcement (maybe with the help of deputised militias), then you are good to go
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However, “Ex Supra” by @tonystark.bsky.social gave me the uneasy feeling that if things kick off and I’m back in uniform I will be as unprepared intellectually for what is coming as all those allied officers who got rolled by the Axis in places like Gazala and Singapore over 1940-42 2/2
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Take a look at “Ex Supra” by @tonystark.bsky.social
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This scenario starts to look more like the breakdown of federal institutions in Bosnia in the early 1990s (and the level of violence and ethnic cleansing immediately afterwards) than the Troubles or the Years of Lead.
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I was always very impressed by “Europe: A History” by Norman Davies, which accompanied me on my first trip to Europe (my exchange posting to the British Army and deployment to Kosovo) almost 25 years ago. When I finally get on top of my own reading list I will have to read it again.
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Do you happen to have a link to Franz Marty’s interviews, @wesleymorgan.bsky.social
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Full Meta Jacket
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…and they will be completely oblivious to the fact that someone else out there resents their relative success, or thinks they are a ‘DEI hire’ and is about to make a call themselves.
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Any Afghanistan veteran who had anything to do with HUMINT, targeting or night raids knows EXACTLY what I’m talking about
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I was a desert rat as well, during my year attached to the British Army’s 3rd Royal Horse Artillery (part of 7th Armd Bde) in Germany and Kosovo.
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I was thinking more in the sense of “remote state/province with an independent self-image dependent on extractive resources that is perpetually convinced it’s not getting its fair share from (or it’s actually subsidising) the more industrial part of the country”
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I would have thought that Alberta was more like a cross between Queensland and Western Australia?