>There's more, but it would just be piling on at this stage. Point is,
>Erich Hartmann was also a badass.

Can't really argue with that, indeed.

>He didn't make his last flight at
>83, true, in large part because he only lived to be 71.

Which, you know, has to be acknowledged as a valid excuse.

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-Covered Balls!"

I know that I ragged on the Finns elsewhere, but only the Guhrkas are their equal in the "come if you think you're hard enough" department.

Koti - Uskonto - Isänmaa

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-Covered Balls!"

I clearly remember pictures of tank witches from one Strike Witches series or another. So there are probably sniper witches out there somewhere.

Peter Eng
--
(Artillery witches never get any fame.)

------
Fearless creatures, we all learn to fight the Reaper
Can't defeat Her, so instead I'll have to be Her

As noted by another poster, there are tank witches. Eila's sister Aurora is one in World Witches canon, and in OWaW, Darjeeling Bishop wanted to be one until her flight aptitude intervened. (It hasn't come up on screen, but Darjy is in fact dating a Liberion tank witch, and the two of them are likely to get some trouble from General Patton if he finds out. :)

>I know that I ragged on the Finns elsewhere, but only the Guhrkas are
>their equal in the "come if you think you're hard enough" department.

Ah, the Gurkhas; because the British forces needed a unit that could make even the Highland regiments say, "Those boys are right hard."

I like to think that the Einheri personifications of WWII's two HMS Gurkhas (a Tribal-class destroyer sunk off Norway in 1940, and her replacement, an L-class destroyer sunk in the Med two years later) are jointly and severally barred from a number of pubs in greater New Yokosuka for excessive headbutting.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Heh, cool! So, there is an in-universe version of Aarne, as well!
Aarne Juutilainen, Captain of the Finnish army, was generally known as the "Terror of Morocco" due to 5 years of serving with the Foreign Legion.
After he returned to Finland, he joined the Finnish army and was, as a Lieutenant, was directly adressed by Major General Woldemar Hägglund. Hägglund asked if the strategically important Kollaa would hold. Aarne responded that, unless ordered to run, Kollaa WOULD hold. The response came because he had, not a week earlier, been directly ordered to withdraw...an order he had blatantly ignored.

>Ah, the Gurkhas; because the British forces needed a unit that could
>make even the Highland regiments say, "Those boys are right
>hard."

Yeah, pretty much exactly that.

>I like to think that the Einheri personifications of WWII's two HMS
>Gurkhas (a Tribal-class destroyer sunk off Norway in 1940, and
>her replacement, an L-class destroyer sunk in the Med two years later)
>are jointly and severally barred from a number of pubs in greater New
>Yokosuka for excessive headbutting.

Well, if there is any people I could see being able to speak fluent Krogan as a national ability, it would be NepBat, as it were.

Simo Häyhä, meanwhile, was never a tanker. He was, however, the single most successful sniper in history. The number of kills varies, depending on source, but if one is to take his own word for it, he exceeded 500, in a war that ran for about 100 days. No wonder the Soviets called him "Белая смерть", White Death.

It might be that I'm fanboying a bit here, but take those number above. Then add to that the fact that this is winter in Finland, the number of daylight hours are limited. The temperature ran from about -4 to about -40, Fahrenheit. He is moving in massive amounts of snow(the camo he were is the OTHER reason for that nickname). And he is doing all of his shooting with an un-scoped rifle(incidentally, a Finnish Mosin-Nagant). The Soviets finally started to resort to ARTILLERY to stop this one man.

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-Covered Balls!"

We're an odd bunch, us.

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

Anyone who would WANT another 10 years of war is mentally deficient on a fundamental level.

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-Covered Balls!"

"The question ain't when he's gonna stop, but who's gonna stop him...."

Ebony the Black Dragon

"Life is like an anole. Sometimes it's green. Sometimes it's brown. But it's always a small Caribbean lizard."

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-Covered Balls!"

Yeah, I saw the BBC World report about that. I'm not sure which is more impressive: that the cargo door wasn't properly secured, or that the load wasn't, so that it was able to fall out of said door when it opened.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-Covered Balls!"

Oh, oops. Yeah, it was supposed to be that one.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.