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    These forums date back to the game's origins as the Crysis mod Traction Wars. Over the years the game and internet habits have evolved and discord.gg/vanguardww2 is now the principle home of the community.

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DerJoachim

Member
I conceded that shovels were used in WW1 because of trench warfare, a thing that only massively happened in WW1, thats ofcourse why as we all said they were used effectively.

But we are talking about a WW2 game, and unless this is that arcade kid game of H&G , shovels have no place above a bayonet as a melee weapon.

Also what kind of historian are you????(this is not a provocative question, just want to know what kind of studies you make)Austrian made clubs were issued to finish off gassed enemy troops, wounded and overall to clean the "trash" from the trenches without using ammo, it wasnt used as a charging weapon 1 on 1 with anemy standing still, the famous use of medieval weapons was mostly made in the italian front when Austrian gassed alot of italians and coudlnt finish them off, so they "seal" clubbed them.

Then tell me why stabbing weapons are still used to these days as standard equipment, if the shovels are so amazing, the bayonets were unwieldly because the WW1 rifles were actually too big and unfit for trench hand to hand combat, you are questioning bayonet+ standard issued rifle, which is different.

Im questioning the effectiveness of a stabbing weapon over a shovel, because no way on earth you can dodge a swift stab rather than put your arms up and hope that the shovel break your forearm instead of broking your neck, putting your arms up in protection is the first things people do in self defense, good luck hitting a neck unless you are a samurai, ill take a couple of broken bones over bleeding the hell out or having my organ ripped a part any day.

Yes ofcourse a shovel can decapitate you, but we are not all Commandos in Schwarzenegger movies, even a kid can stab effectively, it is more immediate and easy to do, imagine a trained soldier.

Stab in legs, stab in the stomach, stab in the neck = if you dont die in the next 10 minutes you die by the end of the day, organ failure, you bleed out, a couple of broken bones?? nothing the body cant heal itself, you dont even need a medevac.

We are not talking about swiss knifes afterall.


Still i dont see the reason why a coupel of ppl use WW1 as an argument if the point of the discussion is using shovels in a WW2 game where the massive trenches concept was already obsolete, you want to go all shovels??? maybe try VERDUN, that is a nice game and fit very well the discussion.


I Edit a bit to make it more swift and clear, forget about my personal rant opinion, but in WW2 Early Fallshirmjagers jumped out with nothing but Pistol knifes and grenades, and alot of bayonets fights took place against New Zealanders, then you can also take the Ghoorkas and theyr big ass Kukris when they charged Germans camping Monte Cassino, then ofcourse we can all talk about how shovels were amazing in WW1 and could be also amazing in a WW1 game.
 
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VonMudra

Well-known member
I specifically research WW1 and WW2 history, most specifically Polish Memory History surrounding the 1939 campaign, however I am well versed in both wars, the inter war period, as well as late 19th century/early 20th century economic history.

And, actually, German troops in WW2 specifically trained to assualt with rifle/grenade in one hand, and shovel in the other:

Working Forward / der Erste Zug

Notice how the rifleman uses the shovel in his right hand, as a way to push himself up off the prone, and to keep it handy for the final bound.

I'm curious as to where you think that Austrian made clubs were specifically to 'finish off the wounded.' Not only was 'finishing off the wounded' an extremely, EXTREMELY rare instance in WW1 (especially on the italian front, where there are numerous cases of Austrian troops holding fire to allow assaulting Italians to evacuate wounded and even retreat to their lines), but all nations made and issued trench clubs- there were even entire factories behind the front dedicated to cranking them out. They were most effective during night trench raids, however it was standard practice to issue them to assaulting troops.

Bayonets to this day are mostly just a utility knife that fits on the end of your rifle in dire straits. There have been next to no bayonet charges since WW2 in the world, and bayonet combat is almost unheard of (though it does occasionally happen, eg, a few instances with the British army in Iraq and Afghanistan). The reason it is still issued is, partly, a morale thing (ordering fixed bayonets creates a very major psychological buff for soldiers, effectively creating in their minds a do-or-die situation), partly hard dying army traditions, and partly because modern bayonets really are just utility knives that has a slot to fit on a rifle- it is easier than issuing two knives.

Also, in hand to hand, it is all about incapacitating the enemy- out-right killing is not necessary. Breaking his arms with a hard slash with a shovel is just as effective as putting a bayonet through his stomach. Indeed, some bayonets were specifically designed TO wound- eg, the French cruciform bayonet on the Lebel, which was designed to created wounds that would fester and cause blood infection due to difficulties in sewing up a cruciform shaped hole, and the dirt and crud that would build up in the angles of the bayonet. Wounding an enemy means he has to take care of his soldier, which costs supplies, manpower, and time. Such thinking even went into the design of the .223 in the US armed forces, under the logic that killing a Russian is not as effective as wounding him, and taking 3 people out of the fight- one wounded, and two to carry him back on a stretcher. That said, hand to hand DOES generally result in death- just that death is mostly due to blood loss and massive bodily injury- not outright death in the fight (like all wounds in war, most are not out-right fatal).

Trenches were not obsolete in WW2 by any stretch of the imagination (the entire Russian defense in the Northern Kursk salient was trench based- and wildly successful, the Germans weren't even able to push past the first lines of defense). Trench combat was extremely common in WW2, and trenches lined the Eastern Front every time the front went static. The Italian and Finnish fronts also saw heavy trench combat, and even the hedgerows of Normandy were heavily dug in by the Germans, who built entire machine gun bunkers and command trench lines and living/command/shelter bunkers into the larger hedgerows.


Now, to answer your main question- no, we will not have an all melee kit. However don't count out being able to wack someone with a shovel someday if you want to equip it.
 

DerJoachim

Member
Thansk for the big answer.

Gotta agree with with you in the end, but Austrian finishing off italians is documented in Caporetto disastrous(for the italian) offensive, gassed men were finished with medieval styled weapons.
 

Killen

Member
Thansk for the big answer.

Gotta agree with with you in the end, but Austrian finishing off italians is documented in Caporetto disastrous(for the italian) offensive, gassed men were finished with medieval styled weapons.

What? Did you say caporetto? At the end we rejected the austrian near river Piave. A famous italian song has been written about this event.
"Il Piave mormorava calmo e placido al passaggio, dei primi fanti il 24 maggio"

Edit: it's called "Il Piave mormorava".
I actually live near Venice, near this river Piave
 
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DerJoachim

Member
In term of material and human losses it was a total disaster for the italians, considering it was just a Strafexpedition (a punitive expedition not intended to win the war on the italian front), the italian front was secondary , the balkans and the carpathian front had the most humans and resources allocated there.
 

Killen

Member
In term of material and human losses it was a total disaster for the italians, considering it was just a Strafexpedition (a punitive expedition not intended to win the war on the italian front), the italian front was secondary , the balkans and the carpathian front had the most humans and resources allocated there.

At least we won :p. Both wars, we were untrained and really bad armed. But give us the right equipment, and we will kick your asses :) just kidding!
Edit: can you press "reply with quote" when you are answering me? So i receive a notification on my menu :)
 
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VonMudra

Well-known member
Caporetto was an utter defeat for the Italians, there is no way around that. I can see them finishing off gas victims who were unsaveable- that was a sad part of war, but a necessary one to cut short suffering. Piave in 1918 was more or less a lucky break- the Austrians couldn't agree to a plan and were by that time suffering heavily from food shortages and ammo shortages, as well as the Italians having basically total air superiority on the front by then. Although they got across the river, their lead units were unable to be supplied and supported properly and then, when rain swelled the river and swept away all their pontoon bridges, that was it.

Vittorio Veneto however is very very much overblown by the Italians. The was barely a battle-apart from a few loyal German and Hungarian units, by the time the battle commenced the Austrian army had disintegrated as soldiers were either surrendering en masse or just walking home. By then, the Empire was already falling apart thanks to the collapse of the Macedonian front, and the troops just wanted to get home safe. The chance for Austrian victory on the Italian front had been lost on the Piave in early 1918, and it was mostly due to the Germans withdrawing most of their troops from the Macedonian Front to support their Western Front offensives, which caused the over-stretched Bulgarians to finally (and not without putting up a crazy hard fight) collapse, followed right after by the Ottomans, and a massive offensive into Austria by the united allied front there. By the time Vittorio Veneto was being fought, most of Austria-Hungary had broken into self-declared independent states, Romanian troops were marching on Budapest, and Serbian and Greek troops were heading to Zagreb.

In the end, the historical consensus in WW1 has been moving to naming the Macedonian Front as the front that broke the Central Powers, as without her allies, Germany would have been facing an invasion from the south and east, with no organized forces to respond. Dobro Pole, the battle that broke the Bulgarian front, is basically the battle that won the war for the Entente- all because of Ludendorff's exceedingly short sighted policies of Drang Nach Osten and Western Front offensive that wasted manpower in occupation and in massive tactically successful but operationally failing offensives.

IMO, as a historian, I can roughly say that had Ludendorff instead pulled most German troops from Russia (hell, there were still 1,000,000 German troops alone in November of 1918 occupying the territories taken in Brest Litovsk) and sent them to clean up the Italian and Macedonian Fronts, and stabilize the Ottoman front, a negotiated peace in 1919 would have been much more realistic, as German reserves would still exist to hold back allied offensives, and her allies would not have collapsed.
 
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FlyingR

Member
It's great to have you here [MENTION=147]VonMudra[/MENTION] , it's nice reading your inforamtion and your arguments.
 

Killen

Member
Caporetto was an utter defeat for the Italians, there is no way around that. I can see them finishing off gas victims who were unsaveable- that was a sad part of war, but a necessary one to cut short suffering. Piave in 1918 was more or less a lucky break- the Austrians couldn't agree to a plan and were by that time suffering heavily from food shortages and ammo shortages, as well as the Italians having basically total air superiority on the front by then. Although they got across the river, their lead units were unable to be supplied and supported properly and then, when rain swelled the river and swept away all their pontoon bridges, that was it.

Vittorio Veneto however is very very much overblown by the Italians. The was barely a battle-apart from a few loyal German and Hungarian units, by the time the battle commenced the Austrian army had disintegrated as soldiers were either surrendering en masse or just walking home. By then, the Empire was already falling apart thanks to the collapse of the Macedonian front, and the troops just wanted to get home safe. The chance for Austrian victory on the Italian front had been lost on the Piave in early 1918, and it was mostly due to the Germans withdrawing most of their troops from the Macedonian Front to support their Western Front offensives, which caused the over-stretched Bulgarians to finally (and not without putting up a crazy hard fight) collapse, followed right after by the Ottomans, and a massive offensive into Austria by the united allied front there. By the time Vittorio Veneto was being fought, most of Austria-Hungary had broken into self-declared independent states, Romanian troops were marching on Budapest, and Serbian and Greek troops were heading to Zagreb.

In the end, the historical consensus in WW1 has been moving to naming the Macedonian Front as the front that broke the Central Powers, as without her allies, Germany would have been facing an invasion from the south and east, with no organized forces to respond. Dobro Pole, the battle that broke the Bulgarian front, is basically the battle that won the war for the Entente- all because of Ludendorff's exceedingly short sighted policies of Drang Nach Osten and Western Front offensive that wasted manpower in occupation and in massive tactically successful but operationally failing offensives.

IMO, as a historian, I can roughly say that had Ludendorff instead pulled most German troops from Russia (hell, there were still 1,000,000 German troops alone in November of 1918 occupying the territories taken in Brest Litovsk) and sent them to clean up the Italian and Macedonian Fronts, and stabilize the Ottoman front, a negotiated peace in 1919 would have been much more realistic, as German reserves would still exist to hold back allied offensives, and her allies would not have collapsed.

That was amazing! Thank you, Von Mudra!
I didn't want to say that Caporetto wasn't a total defeat. Btw, sometimes italians are patriottic, and sometimes aren't. (Me too).

When talking about politicians, we are not that much patriottic, you know: bunga bunga. (That's a shame for us).
We are patriottic when talking about soccer, food (at least, me :p) or inventions.

I like this country, but it is a state made of old people.
A funny fact: in italy, there is a special "event" called miss Italia (probably in germany there is miss Germania or deutschland) where some jugdes vote the cutest girl (in Italy).

The winner's name is Alice Sabatini.

When an interviewer asked "in which years would you prefer to live?" she said: "i wanna live in 1942, during the war, because only men fought the war, and i am a girl".

Some days after, another question was asked, and another funny and stupid answer was given. " what's your favorite italian historical figure?" she said "Michael Jordan".

Well, that's amazing! ****!

That's a little summary of our life here. We criticize people every time. She doesn't deserve, btw, what happened next. Everyone made fun of her; it happens, she probably didn't expected the questions.

PS: if i was Alice, probably my answers would have be ridicolous too.
 

DerJoachim

Member
Wait a minute, i cant see why Michael Jordan cant be a favourite historical figure????? what he did with sport and marketing was revolutionary.

To be honest Michael Jordan is also one of my favourite historical figure, not only for sport but as a human being, the way he tackle his objectives and business is a role model for alot of people, and since he belong to the past (he is still well and live though but very old) he can be called an historical figure.

About the gassed men getting finished, well thats barbaric and inhumane and you cant justify it by any mean, sorry VonMudra but there you are wrong, gassed men can still be recovered, Hitler hismelf was gassed as a matter of fact, a shame he didnt died on the spot. :rolleyes: , i do agree with the rest though, Garmany could have made a peace deal with much better leverage and on better terms, and like you said they still had millions of troops in Russia for some reasons, and thats why the "jews made Germany lose the war" (meaning german jews businessmen had interests in Russia) was the avant garde motto of German nationalists after Versailles.
 

Killen

Member
Wait a minute, i cant see why Michael Jordan cant be a favourite historical figure????? what he did with sport and marketing was revolutionary.

To be honest Michael Jordan is also one of my favourite historical figure, not only for sport but as a human being, the way he tackle his objectives and business is a role model for alot of people, and since he belong to the past (he is still well and live though but very old) he can be called an historical figure.

The problem is that he is not italian. If you read again my comment, the questions was: "what's your favorite ITALIAN historical figure"
 

DerJoachim

Member
Sorry my bad, i didnt spot it, in that case she is not worse than average modern day girls/boys anyway, the dumbification of ppl is real, and thats the fault of society.
 

VonMudra

Well-known member
Wait a minute, i cant see why Michael Jordan cant be a favourite historical figure????? what he did with sport and marketing was revolutionary.

To be honest Michael Jordan is also one of my favourite historical figure, not only for sport but as a human being, the way he tackle his objectives and business is a role model for alot of people, and since he belong to the past (he is still well and live though but very old) he can be called an historical figure.

About the gassed men getting finished, well thats barbaric and inhumane and you cant justify it by any mean, sorry VonMudra but there you are wrong, gassed men can still be recovered, Hitler hismelf was gassed as a matter of fact, a shame he didnt died on the spot. :rolleyes: , i do agree with the rest though, Garmany could have made a peace deal with much better leverage and on better terms, and like you said they still had millions of troops in Russia for some reasons, and thats why the "jews made Germany lose the war" (meaning german jews businessmen had interests in Russia) was the avant garde motto of German nationalists after Versailles.

Thing is, Michael Jordan isn't Italian.

And hey, it's not like those women are voted in for their intelligence :p

As for gassed men being finished, it was (if true), a case of lack of medical equipment to care for them. Gassed men CAN survive, but in this case the Austro-German forces had used chlorine and phosgene on the Italians. Most fled due to the inundation of the gas, and their masks were of incredibly poor quality. Those who remained were, by the time the Austrians got to their positions and the gas had cleared, probably doing little other than squirming in agony and frothing at the mouth as their lungs dissolved- there is little that you can do to help by that point. I don't generally agree with the killing of wounded men- but in this case, I can understand the very human need to end the pointless suffering of another. Most gas casualties who lived (and most DID live) were casualties due to eye irritation and burns on exposed skin, Hitler included. That was easily recoverable from- but breathing that stuff in for hours would not be. The gas was released at 02:00 hours, and the Austrians didn't begin their assualt until 08:00 hours, so that's 6 hours that those who didn't flee had been breathing it in. Any who were left alive by that point, well, they weren't going to survive even had they had access to today's medical equipment. I should note here too that while Mustard gas was the most commonly used gas, it wasn't really effective at killing people, just causing irritation and burns. The phosgene used at Caperetto meanwhile was incredibly deadly, and was responsible for the vast majority of gas deaths during the war.
 
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