[ EPU Foyer ] [ Lab and Grill ] [ Bonus Theater!! ] [ Rhetorical Questions ] [ CSRANTronix ] [ GNDN ] [ Subterranean Vault ] [ Discussion Forum ] [ Gun of the Week ]

Eyrie Productions, Unlimited

Subject: "Our Witches at War Eps. 15-19"     Previous Topic | Next Topic
Printer-friendly copy    
Conferences Annotations Topic #133
Reading Topic #133, reply 0
Gryphonadmin
Charter Member
22375 posts
Jun-06-15, 02:47 AM (EDT)
Click to EMail Gryphon Click to send private message to Gryphon Click to view user profileClick to add this user to your buddy list  
"Our Witches at War Eps. 15-19"
 
   LAST EDITED ON Oct-17-16 AT 08:08 PM (EDT)
 
Notes from Gryphon
Notes from Matt

Chapter 15

the old Isle of Wight Detachment - As seen in the Strike Witches: One-Winged Witches manga.

Do you want me to stay behind? - As Lynne often works as Yoshika's scrub nurse, this is a more serious offer than sentimental, but Yoshika is likewise quite aware that her skills with a rifle can't be replaced as easily as her nursing abilities can.

and in that moment, something changed - There's more than one way to touch the Force. Trude was trying something not unlike the Jedi method, through focus, meditation, and heightened awareness, but there's a reason it wasn't quite working.

Despite the way she tries to be the model soldier, Gertrud Barkhorn is an incredibly passionate person, and her tendency to bury that - her reluctance to admit that she has such feelings in public, even to herself - was a big reason she hadn't been able to make things work.

I wonder if LeMay saw the report about that? - Probably, yes. The man's a pig, but he isn't stupid.

Вы нэкультурно, но мы товарищи (Vy nekul'turno, no my tovarishchi) - "You are uncultured, but we are comrades." (N.B. "Uncultured" to an Orussian is basically a synonym for "unbelievably rude".)

Wolfgang cuddled up in her arms - It's really a shame that Gryphon or Mio weren't there to see this, because there's really no greater seal of approval.

Schwerpunkt - An actual term from German military doctrine, commonly applied to the point at which a Blitzkrieg assault is concentrated.

her rune-shield circle sprang to life - That should answer the question of "Did Minna actually break through?", back during Wilma's test flight.

issho ni nisen - "Two thousand together," the dual-wield version of the senken-no-arashi-based flying-witch super Mio busted out at the end of New Tricks.

forcing herself to look away - Poor Perrine. Life was hard enough without Mio doing the all-up Fusō-goddess-of-war thing in front of her.

in the form of a semi-piggyback - Erica and Trude employ a similar flight formation at one point in Strike Witches the Movie.

(Coincidentally, "wife-carrying" is a popular sport in Suomus!)

Trude, you're on fire - The Me 262's Junkers Jumo turbojet engines had notoriously short services lives and an irritating habit of catching fire if pushed too hard.

To be fair, Trude had pushed them to somewhere around 150% of rated output for most of the afternoon, which will tend to break quite a lot of things.

a very Krupinski-esque landing - There is a legend, possibly apocryphal, that the first time a young Erich Hartmann met Walter "Count Punski" Krupinski, the latter crashed a Bf 109 on landing right in front of the former, sprang out of the flaming wreckage, and shook the dumbfounded Hartmann's hand, declaring cheerfully, "Hello, you must be the new boy! I'm Krupinski." We may assume that something similar happened when Erica first met Waltrud, back in the JG 52 days.

finding other ways of burning off some of their jangling, exhausted nerves - After I finished this piece, Gryph attached this note: Lynne sat down at the table, smiled pleasantly at the waiter, and said in lightly-accented Gallic, "I want you to bring me a bowl of ice cream no smaller than my head."

Has anyone booked you for the evening? - It's entirely possible that Hannelore was thinking of doing this before volunteering to house Neuroi-chan, but that likely solidified her plan.

are you a married man, Herr Gryphon? - It occurred to me when we were working on this scene that no one (aside from Mio) was likely to actually know one way or the other about that. It made the way he framed his answer that much more interesting.

Episode 16

the Flanders mud - Hannelore is being poetic here. Not all, nor even most, of the witch casualties of the First Neuroi War were killed or buried in Flanders, but that is where the fulcrum of the war was, and so where the memories of many survivors are centered.

Jamie McCudden - Based on Major James McCudden VC, a British Royal Flying Corps ace with 57 victories to his credit. Killed in a crash brought on by engine failure in July, 1918.

Georgette Guynemer - Based on Captain Georges Guynemer of the French Air Service; the first Frenchman to 50 victories. Shot down and killed in September, 1917.

Francesca Baracca - Based on Major Francesco Baracca, Italy's top fighter ace of WWI with 34 victories. Either shot down or killed by ground fire (no one is entirely sure) in June, 1918. Lucchini's own ace archetype, Franco Lucchini, was nicknamed "the Francesco Baracca of the Second World War" in his time.

Of possible interest is that the symbol that is now the Ferrari logo - the yellow shield with the prancing horse silhouette - was Francesco Baracca's personal symbol, which was presented to Enzo Ferrari by Baracca's mother after the war. Ferrari subsequently employed it first as his Grand Prix racing team's emblem, and then that of the road-car company he set up to support it, to honor one of Italy's national heroes.

Manfrieda von Richthofen - Manfred von Richthofen, the notorious Red Baron, was the Luftstreitkräfte's golden boy, and the highest-scoring ace of the war, credited with 80 victories at his death in April, 1918.

Oswaldine Boelcke - Baron von Richthofen's mentor, Germany's Oswald Boelcke formulated some of the first written-down rules for aerial combat, the famed Dicta Boelcke ("Boelcke's Laws"). He was killed in a midair collision with one of his subordinates during a battle with British aircraft in October, 1916.

Baker Mike 570 - The XB-36 prototype shown here differs somewhat from the real one; it's already experienced some of the developments that really didn't happen until later in the process, such as the revised cockpit arrangement (first seen on the second prototype, the YB-36, in real life) and the four-bogey main landing gear configuration (enabling it to land on more than three runways in the world).

out with their engines - Not metaphorical; the B-36 actually had tunnels inside its wings (which were seven feet thick!) from which its engines could be worked on in flight.

in Württemberg, we've never held with that - Heidemarie, like the Hartmann sisters, comes from a suburb of Stuttgart - quite nearby where they are currently headquartered, as it happens. (She's from Calw, they're from Weil im Schönbuch.)

Winterpalast des Kaisers - Just like it sounds, the Kaiser's Winter Palace. Remember, Neukarlsland is in the Southern Hemisphere (although Brandenburg, which is more or less where the real Buenos Aires is, has a subtropical climate and the distinction is not really as significant as it was back in the old country).

Asbach Uralt - A German/Karlslandic brand of brandy, which used to be called cognac until that name was legally reserved only for brandies made in the actual Cognac region of France/Gallia.

slap / embrace / kiss - She learned this sequence from Erica Hartmann just the other day.

the Reichstag - The Kaiser actually means both houses of the Imperial Parliament here; in fact, he's probably having more trouble with the Bundesrat, the upper house, which is made up of the ruling nobles of the empire's various principalities, than with the actual Reichstag, which consists of elected deputies from the general public. In common parlance, though, most Karlsländer refer to the entire institution as the Reichstag, because that's the name of the building both houses meet in.

Type 2 flying boats - The Kawanishi H8K, as seen in the first couple of episodes of Strike Witches 2. Still the Imperial Fusō Navy's standard long-haul transport aircraft in 1946.

Lieutenant Hembery - This character is named in honor of Paul Hembery, the engineering liaison from tire supplier Pirelli to Formula 1, who is constantly taking abuse from basically everyone in the paddock on account of his employers did exactly what Formula One Management demanded of them in re developing tires that aren't really very good. Like his namesake's, Lt. Hembery's woes here are not his fault.

I will support you... with all my strength - That's how dang Prussian Hannelore von Hammer is. She flies 7,000 miles and then gives the guy an out, because he's a faithless cur and a fool, but he's still her king. :)

Baker Mike 570 heavy - The use of "heavy" in ATC radio traffic concerning aircraft of a certain size is anachronistic to this setting - it wasn't really adopted until jumbo jets came along - but I couldn't resist.

a hundred klicks from bingo fuel - Capt. Ridley may be overstating the urgency of the situation somewhat, but if anyone dips the fuel tanks and calls him on it later, he can always claim that it's an experimental aircraft and the gauges aren't reliable. :)

Chapter 17

just a bit hesitant to accept - It's hard to blame Trude. Witches grow up with fantastic gifts, then lose them at a fairly young age. It's a pretty crap deal, and it's easy to see why she's afraid things won't last.

And you know that I don't mind if you're not a poet - Gryph and Trude really do have an awesome Bromance.

the day Königsberg fell - In the episode of Strike Witches where this is flashbacked, where the battle in which her younger sister was injured wasn't specified, but it was plainly before the formation of the 501st, the architecture of the ruined city looks German, and it's implied that Chris and Trude lived there. Trude is based on Gerhard Barkhorn, and he was from Königsberg in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, a weirdly positioned exclave of Russia, thanks to how the end of the war went), so that's what I went with.

misusing the Force is just like misusing magic - It was interesting to see the reactions from people who saw Trude's awakening a few episodes ago as a sign she was headed down the wrong path. Quite the opposite - she's on the right path for her, and as Gryph points out, she's been dealing with the kind of control and self awareness she's needed almost as long as she's had access to her magical powers.

Grundschule - Literally "ground school", grades 1-4 of primary school in Karlsland. Not to be confused with aviation ground school; by the time Trude got to that she was presumably capable of better self-control than she was in the first grade.

Erica Hartmann had been patiently waiting for this opportunity. - You have NO IDEA how fun this whole scene was to write.

Was in der Scheiße? - "What in the shit?" (Many Karlslandic expletives that would involve some other curse word in English involve shit instead.)

Nipa Katajainen - More formally Nikka Edvardine Katajainen, an old squadronmate of Eila's before they both joined different Joint Fighter Wings. Had a brief appearance in the Strike Witches movie, in which she managed to be struck by lightning and crash.

We really just had to introduce her by way of a crash.

Illu - Nipa's pet name for Eila, based on her middle name, Ilmatar (the name of a Suomi spirit of the air). Also what Eila's ace archetype, Eino Ilmari Juutilainen, was called by his friends.

preparing to enter enemy airspace - This was actually about the first scene we wrote for this episode. We wanted to establish that Freiburg was essentially empty now. That may just be important later.

I've been trolling you - Yeah, Chief, nobody in 1946 is going to know that expression, even if it is derived from an older figure of speech.

the crowd was getting slowly bigger - Word is getting around, and the more it does, the more interest will grow.

Heinrike Prinzessin zu Sayn-Wittgenstein - Another canonical witch who had a cameo in the movie. Goes back with both Minna and Heidemarie Schnaufer.

Wittgenstein has arrived! - Heinrike's ace archetype, Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, had a habit of barging into air battles already in progress, having let the scrubs do the spotting and initial gettin'-shot-at, and warn his lessers off by announcing on the radio, "Wittgenstein's here - clear off!" He was a bit of an ass, really.

your ridiculous gun - Even for Strike Witches, it's kinda nuts. Princess uses what's basically the turret gun from a bomber, cut down with a pistol grip stock and fitted with push-button electric trigger so she can rock and roll with it. That's kinda crazy.

I am coming to do an apologize. - As first tries go, this could have been better, but it also could have been worse.

VG-50 - In the Strike Witches TV series, Perrine's Striker is based on the Arsenal VG, a French fighter aircraft that only saw limited production before the Fall of France. In season 1, she flies a VG-39; it's never mentioned on screen, but in reality that model only existed in prototype form, and the suggestion is that she's testing it for the Free Gallian Forces with an eye toward putting it into production in Britannia. This is borne out by the second series, in which (again, not mentioned on screen) she has a VG-39bis, which would have been the production version.

We've sort of continued this pattern here, by showing that at this point in time, Perrine is testing the VG-60, while the Gallian Air Force is transitioning to the production VG-50 (both only-theoretical future developments of the VG series in real life), now that Gallia has been liberated for a couple of years and the Gallian aircraft industry has had time to stagger back to its feet.

MAC 1934-2 11mm machine gun - Technically the French never actually built this beyond a couple of prototypes, but since the War in the SW universe went on a little longer, well, why not? Same reason that Amelie is flying a VG-50.

Amélie Planchard - A third witch from canon, Amélie was one of the main characters of the manga One-Winged Witches (starring Wilma, which happened parallel with Strike Witches season 1 chronologically), and had a more substantial guest appearance in the movie than the other two cited above. To say that she is fond of Perrine is to understate the point somewhat. In old-timey Scholastic Aptitude Test terms, Amélie:Perrine::Perrine:Mio.

adjutant-chef - A French noncommissioned rank, equivalent to a chief warrant officer (which is why Mio and Minna call her "Chief" thereafter).

Perhaps I was misled - Perhaps indeed. But Wilma is acting with the best of intentions! Mostly. Sort of.

Hijikata - Here he is at last, Chief Petty Officer Keisuke Hijikata, IFN. Mio's loyal minion throughout the Strike Witches TV series, though he didn't get a lot of screen time except in the first couple eps of both seasons. He seemed mostly to act as her chauffeur and general dogsbody in his TV appearances; here, I've made him her crew chief. A total pro, like all the 501st's ground crewmen.

I will yet manage to get Yoshika's crew chief and Erica's some screen time.

a cloudy greenish liquid - This is Żubrówka, a rye-based Polonian vodka flavored with a tincture of bison grass.

See, Witolda's second plan for an apology really was MUCH better. I'm not saying this always fixes things when dealing with Orussians, but it's a pretty solid starting point.

Пейте со мной, Ороссийская, к вечной вражде между нашими странами - "Peyte so mnoy, Orossiyskaya, k vechnoy vrazhde mezhdu nashimi stranami." ; "Drink with me, Orussian, to the eternal hostility between our countries."

Мы пьем ненависти, Полоныачка - "My p'yem nenavisti, Polonyachka." ; "We drink to hatred, Polonian." Note that unlike Orossiyskaya, which is simply the feminine form of the word for a person from the Orussian Empire (as opposed to orusskaya, which means a person of ethnic Orussian origin and not necessarily a subject of the Tsar), the word for "Polonian" Sanya uses here, polonyachka, is a diminutive feminine form that, depending on how you choose to take it, can either be read as affectionate or patronizing. In this context it is completely ambiguous... which is exactly how Sanya wants it.)

Для красивых женщин - "Dlya krasivykh zhenshchin!" ; "To beautiful women!"

the battle of Zieleńce, 1792 - This, and indeed the Orusso-Polonian War, went about the same as the real thing, leading to the Second Partition of Polonia in 1793. The third, which eradicated the country entirely as a sovereign political entity, occurred a mere two years later, and unlike in the real world, Polonia did not regain its independence in 1918 - hence Witolda's bitterness toward Orussia and Orussians (and Ostmarkers and Karlslanders, albeit to a considerably lesser extent).

Episode 18

Kübelwagen - When writing this scene, I had a powerful temptation to make the witches' stolen ride of choice one of those Panzer IVs from the airport scene, but I managed to restrain myself. It just wouldn't have made much sense, given what a hurry they're in. Even Shirley can't make a tank go that fast.

Wachtmeister - Literally "Watchmaster", a German police rank corresponding to Constable or Patrolman; the lowest-ranking uniformed patrol officers.

Nikolina von Below - The witch version of Major Nicolaus von Below, Hitler's Luftwaffe adjutant during WWII, and the long-suffering functionary who had to handle Erich Hartmann and company during the infamous Hat Incident (hence her remark to Ursula about having trouble with Hartmanns).

the visiting dignitaries at the Kaiser's wedding - Most are based on actual persons; the Doge of Venezia and Duchess of Romagna are fictional, based on the fact that Italy is not a unified country in the Strike Witches setting. (In real life, Venice hasn't had a Doge since 1797.) Duchess Maria of Romagna appears in the second-season episode "My Romagna", wherein she is befriended by Lucchini (who doesn't know who she is) during a witches' shopping trip to Rome.

His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Fusō (who required no other name) - He does have a name - Hirohito - but custom dictates that the reigning Fusō Emperor is never called by any individual name in public. There is, after all, only one, so disambiguation isn't required. After his death he'll be called Emperor Shōwa, for the convenience of historians, but while living he is simply the Emperor.

Preußens Gloria - "Prussia's Glory", a march originally written to celebrate the Prussian victory in the 1871 Franco-Prussian War (which led to the unification of Germany). In this instance, the band is only playing the fanfare (from 0:40 to 1:06 in the version linked).

Feldwebel - A senior noncomissioned officer rank in the Imperial German armed forces, akin to a company sergeant major, and the Luftstreitkräfte rank Prince Friedrich held at the end of the Great War. As previously noted, Fritz was an aviation mechanic, eventually rising to command the maintenance crews of Jagdgeschwader 1, and he always served as Hannelore's personal crew chief alongside his other duties.

King Friedrich I in Prussia - Not of Prussia, for what can only be described as public relations reasons. Friedrich (formerly Friedrich III, Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia) basically just upped and promoted Prussia from a duchy to a kingdom, and thereby himself to its first king, in 1701. The complicated network of political connections that made up the Holy Roman Empire at that time meant that the Polish crown also had a claim on Prussia, and to smooth any ruffled feathers, Friedrich styled himself king in Prussia instead. (It also reflected the fact that he, and his lands, were still technically subject to the Holy Roman Emperor.)

His grandson, Friedrich II (the Great), dispensed with that silliness in 1772, and thenceforth the Hohenzollerns were kings of Prussia. For this and other accomplishments, he's still revered by Karlslanders at the time of this story, and affectionately referred to by most as der Alte Fritz ("Old Fritz"). (The current Kaiser, his several-greats-nephew, is often called der Junge Fritz, "Young Fritz", in comparison. Friedrich III, Young Fritz's grandfather, reigned for only 99 days and never acquired a nickname.)

Zehlendorf - Named for one of Berlin's upscale boroughs.

piscialetto - Italian: "bedwetter" (literally "pissbed"). Also the Italian name for the common dandelion, which is sometimes known in English as the "pissabed" because of its diuretic properties.

Commendatrice - The feminine of commendatore, the Italian/Romagnan word for what in English is the title of Knight Commander of the Order of Merit. Perrine is not a member of Romagna's Order of Merit; Lucchini is applying the Romagnan equivalent of her title as a member of Gallia's Legion of Honor, Commandeuse.

Fränze - Affectionate diminutive of Franziska, the German/Karlslandic equivalent of Francesca. Akin to calling her "Frankie".

life is never boring with you around, is it, Baracca? - Hannelore first mentioned Francesca Baracca, her fallen Romagnan comrade from the First War, when they were en route to Neukarlsland in episode 16. She already thought Lucchini reminded her of Baracca, and that was before she beat the tar out of some dipstick at a wedding.

call me by my name - Exactly what Hannelore's full formal name now is will be a matter for the state heraldry experts to wrangle over for years. She's Fritz's wife but not his empress, but having married him, she's still a member of the royal family as well as her own ancestral one, so the best guess is "Hannelore Augusta Ulrike Freifrau von Hammer und von Preußen" - although in this context she's obviously just telling Yoshika to call her Hannelore.

the grand Hotel Adlon - Based on one of prewar Berlin's grand hotels. The Adlon was the preferred haunt of foreign diplomats and correspondents (but not the Nazi bigwigs, who preferred the Kaiserhof). IRL, there is still a Hotel Adlon on the site today, although it dates from the 1990s (the original had the misfortune of ending up in East Berlin; it was mostly burned down by Soviet soldiers at war's end and had been completely demolished by the '80s).

a song one of them did not know - "Bei mir bist du schön" ("To Me You're Beautiful"), a Karlslandic swing version of the 1932 Yiddish show tune "Bei Mir Bistu Shein". Actually a Liberion song, but very popular in Karlsland/Neukarlsland. Not usually performed by oompah bands. Here's an English version by Janis Siegel of the Manhattan Transfer.

Schönenwind - "Fair Winds". Also the English meaning of the real-life Argentinian city's Spanish name, Buenos Aires.

Sorgenfrei - "Carefree", in the "be cool, no worries" sense. A reference to Friedrich the Great's favorite Berlin palace, Sanssouci, the name of which means the same thing in French. (Even German aristos named things in French in the 1700s. It was a thing.)

halfway to Danzig - A city on the Baltic coast of what was then East Prussia. In real life, now the Polish city of Gdańsk. 250-odd miles from Berlin.

Horch - A German luxury car manufacturer, defunct since WWII. After 1932 it was part of Auto Union, the company which eventually evolved into Audi; one of the Audi logo's four rings signifies Horch (the other three are for Auto Union's other members, DKW, the original Audi, and Wanderer).

Kaiser Wilhelm Institute - The Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes were a complex of research establishments, centered in Berlin but with branches scattered all over early-20th-century Germany, all operating under the auspices of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaft). The Society still exists today as the Max Planck Society, which name (for the eminent German physicist and sometime president of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society) was considered less politically questionable by the Allies after World War II.

The KWI for Magical Medicine is here located in the building that was home to the real-life KWI for Biology.

Dr. Adelsberger - This character is based on Dr. Lucie Adelsberger, a Jewish-German pediatrician and Holocaust survivor who had the supremely unenviable job of being a prisoner-physician at the Auschwitz concentration camp (as recorded in her memoir, Auschwitz: A Doctor's Story, which is, as you might imagine, not for the faint of heart). Finding a historical archetype for the specialist Yoshika and Lucchini were to consult was tricky, because the real German medical profession did, erm, not exactly cover itself with glory in the WWII era. After researching the matter, we decided that Dr. Adelsberger fit the bill - and that she deserved a break, metatextually speaking.

turning the Excelsior upside-down - Another of Brandenburg's grand hotels, based (like the Adlon) on one of prewar Berlin's.

Episode 19

Charlottenburg, Neukarlsland - Not to be confused with Charlottenburg, the suburb of real-life Berlin, or Charlottenburg, the suburb of in-story Brandenburg. In the real world, that approximate location is the Argentinian city of La Carlota (the name of which means roughly the same thing).

Bücker Jungfrau - This setting's equivalent of the Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann ("young man"), a basic trainer developed in Germany in the 1930s and used by the Luftwaffe and a number of other air forces (the Spanish Air Force used them well into the 1960s). A civilian version is still in production in Poland. Highly regarded as an aerobatic and sport aircraft.

May I trouble you to land as soon as possible, Frau Hartmann? - What I like, as we've written these pieces, is the way Ursula's rather wickedly dry sense of humor has developed.

Eucodal - The painkiller of choice for WWII hospitals - particularly ones equipped with a Fusō doctor.

(Better known in the US today as oxycodone.)

demona domestica - Literally "domestic (as in pet) demon", though in this setting the word is almost exclusively meant in the neutral-to-benevolent Greek sense of a spirit or minor god (compare Maxwell's demon, or the metaphorical meaning of "daemon" in computer programming), not the negative "evil/infernal being" usage most common in the real world.

I don't know what to do! - It's a desperate and (pardon the pun) unfamiliar situation. Losing your familiar is a lot like losing a limb to a witch. Side note - my Italian here was a combination of google translate and some clean up work, so corrections are perfectly welcome.

Kuji's very persistent - Yoshika's familiar, Kuji Kanesada, does not appear in the anime (except for a very brief appearance in the original proto-OVA), but is very prominently featured in the alternate-timeline manga Maidens in the Sky, where he is... interesting. In an "oh, so that's where she gets it from" sort of way. Though Yoshika in OWaW is based on the TV version, we can take it from her reaction here that they've had a few of the same adventures off-camera...

Flugschule E.W. Hartmann - In the real world, Erich Hartmann's mother Elizabeth was one of interwar Germany's pioneering lady aviators, and actually did run a flying school for a while before the country's economic problems made it unfeasible to continue.

Liesel Nussbaum - Not based on any specific real person, although named partly in honor of the German Jewish painter Felix Nussbaum (1904-1944), whose year of death should tell you everything you need to know about his fate.

good training for cold-weather flying - Throughout this episode, I had to keep reminding myself that it's winter in Neukarlsland right now. The country has much milder winters than most of Europe, but still, it's chilly.

Cowtown - Fort Worth, Texas, where Consolidated Aircraft is based and the XB-36 project is headquartered.

Worst LeMay can do to me is send me back to my old outfit. - B.J. is slightly incorrect here. Worst that LeMay could do would be to REFUSE to send him back, and keep him on as an aide for another couple of months - and LeMay knows it.

And how is Major Barkhorn getting along? - I think Dr. and Frau Hartmann deserve a bit more credit than Ursula is giving them here. They may not be anywhere near the front, but that doesn't mean they can't read between the lines.

heard anything from Alfie - Erich Hartmann's younger brother Alfred (named after their father) was a Luftwaffe gunner assigned to bombers. He was captured by the British early in the war and sat out the remainder as a POW.

that Marseille girl - Hanna Justina Marseille, who had a guest appearance in the second season of the Strike Witches TV show. A very capable witch and one with many loyal admirers, but vain and prone to be difficult; she has a strange obsession with competing against Erica Hartmann, and it really riles her up that Erica could not possibly give less of a damn about their supposed rivalry.

Klara Tank - The local edition of German aircraft engineer Kurt Tank, who designed many of Focke-Wulf's wartime products.

Hans von Ohain - Based loosely on a real person, the German engineer who, independently of Sir Frank Whittle but at around the same time, developed the turbojet aircraft engine. For various reasons largely outside either man's control, an engine of von Ohain's design powered an operational aircraft some time before any of Whittle's did.

I believe we've mentioned this before, but in real life, von Ohain and Whittle didn't meet until 1978, if you can believe that.

Ar 234s - The real-world Arado Ar 234 was the world's first operational jet bomber, fielded late in the war. It can be assumed that the Our Witches at War equivalent is some form of jet-powered heavy Striker, intended as a replacement for bomber/Zerstörer Striker models like the Bf 110 and Ju 88.

a quite passionate turbojet designer, and she in turn has a staff - this is not so far off of our reality, either...

Indeed, one of the reasons Frank Whittle's engines took longer to reach operational use than von Ohain's was that the British government and aviation industry were far less interested in the prospects of the technology than their German counterparts. Whittle was very much a voice in the wilderness for most of the '30s, while von Ohain had the support of Ernst Heinkel (one of Germany's foremost aircraft designers at the time) and the RLM.

Now, if you'll excuse me, ladies, I must get back to my honeymoon. - I can't really think of a purer von Hammer line.

Recapturing the first piece of Karlsland to be taken back from the invaders - This still really hasn't sunk in to the various 501st witches. Even the Karlslanders, really, because of how insane their last week has been. But it's a major achievement, practically and symbolically, and won't be forgotten.

Prinzessin Eugenie - This is the local equivalent of the Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which was named after the 18th-century Austrian general Prince Eugene of Savoy. In this case we may gather that this particular historical figure was a woman, most probably a soldier-witch.

Eugenie Prinzessin von Preußen - A fictitious daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II's youngest real-life son, Prince Joachim. In this setting, Joachim is one of Fritz's many elder brothers, all of whom have managed to make themselves unsuitable for the succession in one way or another, but at least here he presumably did not commit suicide (as the real one did) in 1920, since Eugenie was born in 1930.

She's based on the personification of Prinz Eugen in Kantai Collection.

Grand Admiral Canaris - In the real world, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris was the head of the peculiarly ineffective German secret service, the Abwehr, before and for most of World War II. In early 1944 he was discovered to have been arranging things so that his agency was sandbagging to a truly epic degree, in hopes that Germany would lose the war and Hitler would be overthrown; this ultimately cost him his life in 1945, just a couple of weeks before Hitler's own death.

In this setting, it appears he wisely stuck to the navy.

Karolina von Kleist und Falkenhagen - Karolina's original design was... not nearly so reasonable. But as we discussed things, she evolved rather nicely, as did the motivations of the family around her.

swinish ingratitude toward our war heroes - This is one of my favorite lines in this episode. Such a nice turn of phrase.

a colossal bolt-action rifle - This is based on a Mauser Tankgewehr 1918, the first of the short-lived but impressive class of weapons known as anti-tank rifles. (Oddly, Tankgewehr, usually shortened to T-Gewehr, is its actual German name, not, as one might expect, Panzergewehr.) In this setting they were developed for engaging Neuroi, not tanks, and so are probably called N-Gewehr rather than T-Gewehr. Lynne's Bishop rifle is a fictional development of the real-life Boys anti-tank rifle (which she carries in the Strike Witches canon), a later (1930s) example of the same sort of weapon. ATRs were outclassed by armor development and abandoned as a concept by the middle of World War II, though they would later stage a comeback of sorts as the modern anti-matériel rifle.

I am indebted to Forgotten Weapons for bringing this very impressive, if not terribly practical, piece of machinery to my attention. They also have a similar video about the Boys, and its 1930s contemporary, the Panzerbüchse 39.

Arming complete. Hals und Beinbruch! - Fritzchen's farewell here is also really something.


  Alert | IP Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

  Subject     Author     Message Date     ID  
Our Witches at War Eps. 15-19 [View All] Gryphonadmin Jun-06-15 TOP
   RE: Our Witches at War Ep. 15 SpottedKitty Jun-07-15 1
      RE: Our Witches at War Ep. 15 Gryphonadmin Jun-07-15 2
          RE: Our Witches at War Ep. 15 Star Ranger4 Jun-07-15 3
   RE: Our Witches at War Ep. 15-16 CdrMike Jun-27-15 4
      RE: Our Witches at War Ep. 15-16 Gryphonadmin Jun-27-15 5
   RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-17 Gryphonadmin Jul-22-15 6
   RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-17 DaPatman89 Jul-22-15 7
   RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-17 SpottedKitty Jul-22-15 8
      RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-17 Gryphonadmin Jul-22-15 9
          RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-17 BZArchermoderator Jul-22-15 10
              RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-17 SliderDaFeral Jul-23-15 12
                  RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-17 ebony14 Jul-23-15 16
              RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-17 drakensis Jul-23-15 14
                  RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-17 Nova Floresca Jul-23-15 15
          RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-17 SpottedKitty Jul-23-15 13
          RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-17 Meagen Feb-21-21 39
   RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-17 Wiregeek Jul-23-15 11
   RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-17 Rickdominated Aug-04-15 17
      RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-17 Gryphonadmin Aug-04-15 18
   RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-17 Gryphonadmin Sep-06-15 19
   RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-18 MoonEyes Sep-22-15 20
   RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-18 Mister Fnord Sep-23-15 21
      RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-18 Gryphonadmin Sep-25-15 22
          RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-18 MoonEyes Sep-25-15 23
              RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-18 Gryphonadmin Sep-25-15 24
          RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-18 Mister Fnord Sep-26-15 25
   RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-18 SneakyPete Sep-28-15 26
      RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-18 Gryphonadmin Sep-28-15 27
      RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-18 BobSchroeck Sep-30-15 28
   RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-19 drakensis Oct-18-15 29
      RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-19 Offsides Oct-18-15 30
          RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-19 Gryphonadmin Oct-18-15 31
              RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-19 drakensis Oct-19-15 36
   RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-19 MoonEyes Oct-18-15 32
      RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-19 Gryphonadmin Oct-18-15 33
          RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-19 SpottedKitty Oct-18-15 34
              RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-19 The Traitor Oct-18-15 35
                  RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-19 MoonEyes Oct-19-15 37
   RE: Our Witches at War Eps. 15-19 Gryphonadmin Oct-17-16 38


Conferences | Topics | Previous Topic | Next Topic

[ YUM ] [ BIG ] [ ??!? ] [ RANT ] [ GNDN ] [ STORE ] [ FORUM ] GOTW ] [ VAULT ]

version 3.3 © 2001
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited
Benjamin D. Hutchins
E P U (Colour)