Comments on: Alas, a self-godwining thread

Alas, a self-godwining thread

five fresh fish — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 00:57:44 -0800

H1t3r pwnd UK, USA! A gunnery has been discovered, buried beneath a metre of iron-rich Normandy soil. It was likely part of a ruse on the part of the Axis forces: a fake gunnery was also built, less conspicuously, and it took the abuse. It was forgotten -- or the memory at least buried by the locals and those who fought there -- until recently. Now it appears to explain some puzzles about Bloody Omaha [pic].

By: nlindstrom

nlindstrom — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 01:04:08 -0800

H1t3r pwnd UK, USA!

You're a bloody idiot, five fresh fish.

By: NinjaPirate

NinjaPirate — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 01:29:18 -0800

(what puzzles?)

By: jimmy

jimmy — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 01:31:37 -0800

Watch out for that Hiter, man. He's fucking devious.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 01:49:03 -0800

Oh, get off it. The West has this big hate-on going for Muslims because they take offense to rude cartoons about their Prophet, and you're going to have the audacity to get nasty because I used g33ksp33k to describe how the Axis army successfully used a decoy gunnery to protect its real gunnery? This is a significant historical find: it's an intact gunnery at a historically significant beach. It's going to make one helluva great museum/memorium for the future.

By: strawberryviagra

strawberryviagra — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 02:15:52 -0800

Jim looks pretty excited about it.

By: alumshubby

alumshubby — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 02:38:07 -0800

5ff, if you'll excuse a bit of pedantry, "a gunnery"? I've never heard/read the word used like that.

By: milov

milov — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 02:46:23 -0800

nub

By: saraswati

saraswati — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 02:47:58 -0800

get thee to a gunnery!

By: loquacious

loquacious — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 02:50:52 -0800

get thee to a gunnery! Too fast for me. But makes possible: "Couldn't shoot a gun in a gunnery".

By: eriko

eriko — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 02:55:24 -0800

5ff, if you'll excuse a bit of pedantry, "a gunnery"? Yeah, it took a bit for me to figure it out, but it is a simple collapse of "gun battery." Hitler may have pwnd us with a fake battery, but we pwnd him with a fake Army Group. The only thing real about the whole thing was the commanding officer, who went to command the very real US Third Army. Pretty good trick when you can convince the bad guys your army is twice as large as it really was.

By: insomnus

insomnus — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 03:10:35 -0800

gunnery You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

By: NinjaPirate

NinjaPirate — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 03:27:59 -0800

I'm still waiting for the puzzle spoilers. Also fake tanks, fake supply lines

By: Malor

Malor — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 04:15:55 -0800

I don't know if it's true, but I heard a story about the Germans building a wooden airfield, complete with buildings, a runway, a control tower, and a bunch of wood planes. Rumor claims that, just as they were finishing up construction, an Allied plane circled overhead, and dropped a single wooden bomb on the runway. I just did a quick Google search. The only thing I see is a variation of this story, wherein the RAF were trying to hoax the Germans with wooden artillery, and it was the Luftwaffe that dropped the wooden bomb. So this is probably not true, but it's amusing anyway. :)

By: slater

slater — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 04:31:50 -0800

Malor: Snopes sez 'maybe'

By: bunglin jones

bunglin jones — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 04:33:55 -0800

Malor, snopes says maybe

By: bunglin jones

bunglin jones — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 04:35:29 -0800

ugh... preview, jones, preview.

By: grabbingsand

grabbingsand — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 04:40:26 -0800

The spanner and nut kids are cute enough, though.

By: caddis

caddis — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 04:41:43 -0800

Very cool fff. Thanks.

By: shoos

shoos — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 04:58:06 -0800

How any of this is at all related to the "Prophet" bullshit is way beyond me.

By: furtive

furtive — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 05:39:20 -0800

You should see the size of his ball peen hammer.

By: Witty

Witty — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 05:41:53 -0800

Fake paratroppers too... part of Operation Fortitude.

By: Witty

Witty — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 05:50:37 -0800

H1t3r pwnd UK, USA! Yea, and really... this has nothing to do with Muslims. So you "get off it".

By: bonaldi

bonaldi — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 06:03:17 -0800

You misspelt H1tl3r

By: lemonfridge

lemonfridge — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 06:15:31 -0800

You misspelt H1tl3r pwnd

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 06:20:45 -0800

It fascinates me that something that large and presumably well-known only 60 years ago somehow had to be rediscovered. No wonder we can't figure out where Atlantis went.

By: mk1gti

mk1gti — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 06:28:22 -0800

Well, regardless of who deceived who, this is a really interesting addendum to the history of the Normandy invasion. That part is indisputable. So as far as who should be getting kudos, I would say Rommel pwnd UK, USA!

By: Witty

Witty — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 06:38:22 -0800

Hmm... so he drained a three-pointer from 30 feet to end the half, but he lost the game 118-67.

By: Joeforking

Joeforking — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 06:43:41 -0800

A shrubbery?

By: alumshubby

alumshubby — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 06:46:35 -0800

The only mention of a ruse I see isn't at Maisy battery; it's at the better known Pointe du Hoc. Maisy wasn't really a ruse so much as forgotten about. Or maybe my reading skills are fading along with my youth...

By: NationalKato

NationalKato — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 06:57:23 -0800

Funny, never saw this in any of the Call of Duty games...

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 07:03:44 -0800

Also a fake invasion.

By: Cyrano

Cyrano — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 07:04:01 -0800

Shouldn't it be "H1t3r pwnd UK, USA, Canada"? (Cool link, though.)

By: a3matrix

a3matrix — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 07:26:17 -0800

good post fff

By: mk1gti

mk1gti — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 07:29:03 -0800

Shouldn't it be "H1t3r pwnd UK, USA, Canada"? --------------------------------------- And let's not forget the french. And the Belgians!

By: majick

majick — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 08:12:08 -0800

You forgot Poland.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 08:17:36 -0800

My favourite fake out of WWII: The Germans secretly rebuilt an airfield after the British bombed the heck out of it. They kept the fact that it was operational secret from the British by painting bomb craters and other debris on the runways. They even went so far as to fake a stream cutting across the runway. The last piece of trickery was their undoing as they forgot to upgrade the fake stream when the real stream feeding it froze over in winter.

By: mk1gti

mk1gti — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 08:30:26 -0800

You forgot Poland. -------------------------- I gave them a pass because they make such delicious sausages!

By: TwelveTwo

TwelveTwo — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 09:00:37 -0800

Mmm!

By: bardic

bardic — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 09:33:07 -0800

I've often wondered about the beaches and interior zones after D-Day--how many (years, months) days was it before citizens could return to working their land? They probably had to wait until the following spring--which makes me think Ol Bessy (or whatever the French equivalent is) must have blown herself to pieces over (literally) tons of unexploded ordinance. If the Allies cordoned off areas where they knew plenty of shells has landed (like the area around a gun emplacement), it seems more possible that something like this could have remained hidden. Dunno. Interesting post, shitty framing.

By: teece

teece — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 10:04:23 -0800

This is a fascinating find. Thanks, fff.

By: mikel

mikel — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 10:14:54 -0800

Yeah - awesome find, both the link to post here and the content of the link itself! BTW as the beaches were divided by invading force, I believe this particular gun placement would have only been useful for fooling/killing US soldiers - Canadians were over on Juno.

By: bardic

bardic — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 10:30:06 -0800

With bicycles!

By: signalnine

signalnine — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 11:07:34 -0800

...less conspicuously I think you mean less inconspicuously or possibly more conspicuously. Also, "memorium" isn't a word. Interesting information, but fff needs to invest in a dictionary.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 11:15:00 -0800

Yeah, it took a bit for me to figure it out, but it is a simple collapse of "gun battery." Oh, geez. Biggest Brain Fart Ever. How embarassing. That and the 'hiter' spelling. Gahd. And all the other misteaks (sic). I was very tired when I posted that. BTW, it was UK/US because the Royal Air Force targetted the fake, and the US troops were slaughtered because Maisy was still operational. Wish I'd remembered about the other fakies; it would have made a better post.

By: tommasz

tommasz — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 13:59:23 -0800

Fakery on this scale is harder now that there are satellites observing things. While techniques existed at the time to detect fakes (stereo cameras, infrared film) it was extremely hazardous to do so from an airplane. Both sides engaged in deception. The Allies went to a lot of effort to try to convince the Nazi's we were going to attack the Pas de Calais, because of its proximity to England. It didn't completely fool them, but even a little bit helped. There were fake paratroopers and other bits of subterfuge, but this is the only one I can recall at the moment that was so effective and deadly.

By: me & my monkey

me & my monkey — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 14:37:57 -0800

My favorite WW2 hoax: Operation Mincemeat

By: ThusSpakeZarathustra

ThusSpakeZarathustra — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 19:28:57 -0800

'fish's corrollary to Godwin's Law...exceptions may exist where the subject of a thread is actually facists or nazis. Good post, 'fish. Thanks.

By: notmtwain

notmtwain — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 04:30:45 -0800

Fascinating stuff, fff. One of the things which stuck me was the website's asking for anyone on either side with knowledge of what happened to come forward. Unfortunately, the veterans are disappearing at a rapid rate and soon actual witnesses to this history will no longer be available. I don't suppose there are any D-Day veterans on Metafilter. If there are, I salute you.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 12:29:17 -0800

Aside: I commented on "iron-rich soil of Normandy." This was actually a subtle reference to bloodshed, and a slight commentary on the deep red of the soil around the [koff] "gunnery." Question: is that soil naturally red, or is it a consequence of the war?