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Angry Staff Officer

@pptsapper

9 May

I'm 3 gins in and so I therefore assume that you all want to hear about the time that the president of the united states got so annoyed with the lack of action from his commanding general that he planned & executed his own amphibious invasion?

Bc yolo, I guess
#drunjhistory

So, it's May, 1862, and ol Abe Lincoln is on his way to go see his asspain of a general, George McClellan, who with his enormous army is INCHING his way up the VA Peninsula so cautiously that anyone with logs painted as cannons could stop him

As they repeatedly did

Lincoln, ol beardy buckeye Sec War Stanton, Salmon "I'm not a fuckin fish" Chase, and Gen Egbert Ludovicus Viele, who I assume was there because they needed an engineer with a batshit insane name, well, they're all en route to Fort Monroe, a big ass fort on the VA Peninsula

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Angry Staff Officer

@pptsapper

2 May

@3rd_Infantry

Fun fact: all the regimental anti tank companies were pulled out of their divisions in 1941-42 and consolidated into tank destroyer battalions & given the 600-series designation. So, for example, the 603rd Tank Destroyer Bn was composed of the AT pltns of the @3rd_Infantry

https://twitter.com/ThisDayInWWI/status/1388888545947910148

Each division also had a tank company. In 1940, the Army began to strip the tank companies out to form provisional battalions. Two of these, the 192d and 194th, from the OH, WI, IL, KY, and CA National Guard were shipped to the Philippines in September of 1941

Armed with new M3 Stuart light tanks, these units were the first US armor units to see action against enemy armor. In late December, 1941, the battalions engaged Japanese Type 92 tanks near Damortis, Luzon. They continued to support US forces as they fell back towards Bataan

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Angry Staff Officer

@pptsapper

20 Apr

https://twitter.com/usacac/status/1384505143337439237

The pre-WWII National Guard is a complex institution to look at. On one hand, as this thread points out, there were glaring readiness issues. OTOH, the NG also container some superb combat leaders who cut their teeth on the Western Front & trained their troops in what NOT to do

https://twitter.com/usacac/status/1384505143337439237

In addition, this thread just talks about the combat divisions, because that's what's pertinent to the GHQ Maneuvers. But something else happens in 1940: all coast artillery corps regiments are fully activated for federal service, which they'll be on thru the duration of the war

What's the coast artillery, you ask?

Big. Ass. Guns. Like this monster 12" disappearing gun, a staple of the harbor defenses, along with 10" rifles and mortars, and 6" and 3" guns, 155mm mobile guns, AAA guns, and searchlights.

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Angry Staff Officer

@pptsapper

18 Apr

Look, it's April 17, and that means we drink for Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter, ok

I don't make the rules, I just enforce em

Now, you might ask WHY we do such a thing, and I say, we drink for DDP because OTD in '63, the Rebs in Vicksburg, MS had a VERY BAD MORNING INDEED

First up, an apology to the US Navy because an Army guy is gonna talk navy stuff. But only a small apology. Because reasons. With that out of the way:

D Squared Porter. What a dude. Weren't allowed to be in his family unless you were a naval hero. Straight up.

Like, to the point of his dad, Commodore David Porter, adopting a kid named James whose mom had died and that kids changes his name to David, too, joins the Navy and becomes the first full admiral in US Navy history

David motherflippin damn your torpedoes Farragut

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Angry Staff Officer

@pptsapper

16 Apr

One thing that is noticeable in the debates over slavery in the US from 1800-1860 is how quickly pro-slavery advocates turned to physical violence against abolitionist rhetoric, from Brooks caning Sumner in Congress to destruction of abolitionist printing presses

This of course is most evident in Bleeding Kansas in the 1850s, with Missouri Border Ruffians attacking Free Soiler farms. But there's evidence of it through the 1830s, as well, especially against those who would dare create newspapers or otherwise spread the abolitionist gospel

The "honorable" southern slavers were so afraid of mere words that they felt that they had to respond with violence

What a garbage culture.

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Angry Staff Officer

@pptsapper

7 Apr

Two COAs diverged in MDMP
And sorry I could not choose them both
But be one decision-maker, long I stood
And looked at one as long as I could
Till it was come my time to brief

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was feasible, distinguishable too,
Tho as for that, the acceptability there
Had worn them really about the same

I shall be telling this with a sigh,
Sometime, many orders and orders hence,
Two COAs diverged and I -
I took the one less travelled by,
The throwaway COA didn't make a difference

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