Know what a Grizwald is? A grenade. About the size of a battery. Responds to pressure. Our platoon was stuck in a trench outside of New Kasmir during the winter campaign. More'n a week, completely cut off, and the Alliance entrenched not ten yards away. We even got to talkin' to 'em, yelling across insults and jokes and such, 'cause no ammo to speak of, no orders, so what are you gonna do? We mentioned that we were out of rations, and ten minutes later, a bunch of apples rained into the trench. Cap said wait, but they were so hungry. Don't make much noise. Just little pops and there's three guys that kind of just end at the ribcage.
52I just watched this. Watching Serenity literally right now too. So good...
8I will try not to be offended.
6
What was stopping them from just hucking grenades over to the Germans to begin with? You don't typically have to exploit trust of the enemy on the battlefield to throw a grenade.
30It's much more effective if they are grouped together waiting to catch the grenade. It also reveals the position of the soldiers in the trench.
Grenades aren't very effective in trenches, unless the victim is close by. The narrow shape and curves of the trench can shield a person from a nearby blast.
48If you're in a trench in wartime and fist sized object comes flying in from the direction of the enemy forces you're going to dive away from it and take cover. But then the thrown object turns out to be a can of food, not an explosive.
So how do you respond to the next thrown item? Do you still dive for cover?
The rational answer is "yes." The starving soldier desperate for a break from the fighting answer was not.
17Plus trenches have dugouts and the like. You can imagine that after the first round of corned beef, people were probably waking their mates up, yelling at everyone to get out here and see what's happening.
It's ingenious, in a horrifyingly cruel way.
5
It's funnier this way
12Style points?
6
The Geneva Conventions, AKA, the "The List of Things That Canada is No Longer Allowed to Do."
15Damn I thought Canadians were supposed to be polite.
13We made sure they didn't die on an empty stomach.
14wait til you hear about the mounties
There's a lot to love about Canada, but our closets are overflowing with skeletons.
12They'll taze ya all the way dead in the airport you're stuck in. Absolute templates for ACAB.
7
As the saying goes, "Fear the anger of a patient man."
2British politeness developed mostly so we didn't turn our aggression inwards. Given how large the British empire got, it was quite effective.
Canadians seem to have taken this further. Impeccably polite, but that rage needs to go somewhere. The only thing worse than an angry Canadian is a "disappointed" Canadian. That's when you know you need to find cover!
2
Do you guys know what a Griswald is?
12No, but I've seen their Christmas Vacation.
17
Sounds like a good strategy to me. Exploiting an enemy's weakness is standard practice in war.
6I mean, one could argue this was a beautiful moment of humanity amidst unrelenting savagery, shattered by a callous pack of assholes.
Or
You can say "Lol, get fucked Krauts. Btw we know Wilhelm was planning to Manifest Destiny Africa."
14Canadians have always taken the approach that war is a bad thing, and trying to pretend otherwise is stupid.
You don't try to be a gentleman to the man who is trying to kill. You kill him first. That way you get to go home.
1
Well that sounds bad (like war in general).
6Especially since it was WW1. I wouldn't feel so bad if it was WW2 and Nazis were being unalived, but nobody deserved to die in WW1.
7WWI - yes, not necessarily specifically bcs of Nazis (one solder is just a human, exactly like the enemy solder), but because WWI was much more contained in fixed fronts, soldiers vs soldiers. Back then they still avoided civilians (but then tech advanced).
2
At least they didn’t have to blow up on an empty stomach
5A very Canadian thing to do
1ah, the first SPAM bombing...
1
