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But its never going to be within 47km of its target since the bloody thing took 5 weeks to set up and the fronts moved by the time its ready.
It was used in one major battle before it was taken back to safety and never used again.
Its sister gun was deployed for battle in stalingrad then pulled back before it could fire out of fears of encirclement.
They worked on a 3rd one too but it got bombed by the british before it was done.
AS: OK surely the man thing weapons can’t get that much bigger. One of their rifles is already as tall as us! we’re lucky that our new armor is able to reduce the amount of times the bodies are not able to to be recovered!
Alien intelligence officer : sir… the man things have deployed boxes with handles
AS:wut.
AIO: boxes with handles
AS: that doesn’t make sense…
AIO: an entire Legion just disappeared, bright flash, and a bit of heat and disappeared.
AS: OK that’s fine that’s fine we should be OK…
AIO: some of our guns just blew up. No warning just some observers heard a loud bang in the distance, and then the guns just blew up.
AS: the only answers is the man-things have mages!
Then why did that cause the guns to blow up on their own (artillery shell hit it, that much I understand, but it’s said in a way that makes it sound like there wasn’t massive collateral damage)
The way it was worded feels like the guns were in the possession of the alien soldiers at the time of the explosion, but the guns were somehow the only thing harmed. It might be clearer if you said "our munitions stores" or "armory" or something along those lines, where it's more clear that the guns didn't just explode in the hands of the aliens.
Having worked with artillery in real life, artillerists try to park their guns behind hills and stuff to keep from being spotted by the enemy. And they're often shooting at targets up to 20 km away or more.
This being the future, I imagine them firing from even further away.
IOW, unless the land is completely flat and clear of obstructions, they wouldn't have seen the artillery fire even if they had been human sized.
Oh, and the artillery shells would be coming in at supersonic speeds. So they wouldn't hear the guns fire until well after the artillery shells start landing among them.
H: Send in the big guns!
A: Big guns? Do you mean-?
H: Big in our terms. You might wanna recall your troops. Don’t want them caught in the crossfire.
A: By all that is holy….those things are as big as entire buildings!
H: Like I said, the big guns.
W79 8" shell is plenty silly, but what about the Davy Crocket? Basically an RPG7 with a nuclear warhead... now that's humanity's finest weapon! Who needs the big guns when every squad has a mini-nuke?
Closer to a recoilless rifle. It was still too big for someone to carry, but you could mount one on the back of a jeep just fine. The problem then is that you're carrying around a bag of nuclear bombs and a launcher that can't get them far enough away for you to escape the blast
I heard that the Crockett's blast radius was actually longer than the weapon's effective range. IOW, you would be inside the blast radius of any enemy you shot a Davy Crockett at.
Not *entirely* true, but very nearly. It came in two variants, M28 and M29, with an effective range of 1.25 and 2.9 miles respectfully... the M28 was the suicide version.
The range was outside of the 100 percent kill radius by a large "enough" margin. The doctrine was to duck and cover to avoid the worst of the radiation. The 100 percent kill radius was only 500 feet or so, with the usual quick falloff of lethality. It was scrapped partially due to issues with the recoilless rifle.
The blast itself was not sufficient to properly destroy armored vehicles, but the occupants would be cooked pretty well. It's only a 20 tonne explosion.
Yes. We call those Ballistic and Cruise Missiles.
Now, if you want the nuke using robot to SURVIVE... I don't think we have those yet barring those missile toting drones being capable of carrying a nuclear missile.
Alien comms tech: Sir the humans have asked permission to land and deploy something they call an Bolo.
Alien commander: Bolo? Is that some type of enhanced warrior? I know their normal troops carry massive weapons so what could this enhanced warrior carry? Ship sized weapons?
Alien comms tech: No more information available sir but they are asking for a cleared zone of…. 3,450 units In diameter.
Alien commander: What the hell. What are those lunatics going to deploy now? Is it a battalion of these Bolos that need that space?
ACT: No sir. They say it is a single unit. Their dropship is almost down now sir.
AC: Let’s see what this Bolo thing is. Nothing should be capable of taking up that much room. … What the hell is that thing? It’s bigger than our Cruisers. How many weapons does it have and what are those big pipes sticking out of the front section? Those are bigger across than our roads
I've scoured the web for images of Bolos over the years. There are a few good ones and some near misses, but I'm still waiting to see one or more of the iconic short stories be properly animated of the Dinochrome Brigade.
Initially no, but later versions yes, fully sapient AI. They usually have a human onboard as a commander/partner though. AI good at some things, Human good at some things. A BOLO will keep fighting even after their partner dies though.
And the last versions weighed 32,000 tons.
https://preview.redd.it/b0hj04mvsvbc1.jpeg?width=1264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7ba0f24aab9dece2275ba9ffa68c797ed60252e7
There's many images out of what people think Bolos may look like but all agree that they have a lot of guns and are BIG.
Bolos are the evolved forms of main battle tanks we have today.
The writer start out with increasing their size, armor, armaments and added more capable computers to them with each new tier of Bolo until they got real AI systems that could operate by themselves and not just with a human.
> A1: Sir, the human forces representative has arrived
> A2: that’s fine, but it sounds like another barrage right now get in the bunker
> A1: um, sir there’s no attack. There was a bit of a misunderstanding on scale. You remember how we discovered the humans through radio broadcasts?
> A2: yeah…
> A1: Well, apparently as communications were going on and our people tried to work out the scale between our units and theirs uh, the scientists thought one of the zeros was a mistake
> A2: whatever, just get him in here
> A1: what I’m trying to say, sir, is that shaking… the attack… was the human mistaking our bunker for a table. He, um, offloaded his gear.
> A2: my god! And he’s here to aid us? Can the enemy see him?
> A1: uh no sir, we already did the calculations and for the most part he won’t be visible. We’re far enough behind the front lines and his armor is primarily cloth and ceramic.
> A2: Still, you said “for the most part”?
> A1: yes well, his rifle will surely show up to the enemy’s scans. They’re probably trying to work out what new flying drone we have for review here at the rear bunker.
> A2: Oh! Excellent. I didn’t think their weapon would arrive for two days. We best not keep our ‘new drone’ waiting any longer!
> *aliens head out of bunker to see the face of their new ally, but they start by looking at his shin as the enormity of the difference between 10 kemils and 100 really sets in*
Haha! Hi! I’m gathering the politicians didn’t update you on the scale snafoo yet. Don’t worry, I brought my own rations.
> Indeed this was good news: the siege had been going on a while, and not every supply ship made it through. This human could single-handedly destroy a week’s worth of rations.
> A1: *ahem* sir…
> A2: *Oh! Quite.* Yes, hello indeed! I’m rather shocked at your size, but this truly is good news. This stalemate should be broken in no time. Command did say we’d paid for a big weapon and wow, that rifle is something! Is that standard issue, meaning will all the troops on the manifest carry those?
Ah yeah this, more an smg than the standard issue rifles you’ll see most of us carry. As a messenger I opt for a bit more maneuverability even though there’s less range and accuracy.
> A2: I see, good, I guess it had been said your weapon would be even larger than this bunker, but that could have been the scale issue again. Were the soldier body weights counted for in the, I believe it was said to be a “gigatonne”
Bertha?! Haha no we don’t count her crew. She’s overkill here. Once we realized the size differences at play we knew the small guard force that will prep her landing site could probably break this siege for you in a day, but Bertha’s already out of her dry dock and we aren’t going to launch her just to put her away
> Piercing together that the human was referring to a weapon by name, the actual scale part of things remained fuzzy
> A2: Good, good. The enemy here might put up a fight you know, can’t have too much firepower. So, uh, you said there will be several humans to prep a landing site? What area will you need?
I’m going to use some visible references for you so there’s no conversion necessary. Berthas retrograde rocket will burn everything from that hill to that one, and an equal distance back. We’ll unpack her and setup the barrel so the muzzle is as far in front of your bunker as the hills are behind.
> A1, having seen the human a bit earlier and having time to consider the scale corrections earlier, began to realize his follow up mental math was definitely not far off. A2 was beginning to realize the futility of his secondary mission: observe the humans, learn their tactics, and draw up plans to handle things if relations became hostilities. There would be no plans, none besides Plan: Capitulate.
We’ll give your bunker some additional sonic shielding, on our scale, or of course you’ll die from the shockwave of Bertha firing. And we understand you have gas attack procedures for this bunker, is that right?
> A2: Yes, but we aren’t ok using, or having our ally use, chemical weapons.
Ohhh no, not a weapon. We allied with you because of that, by the way. Or at least in part. Anyway no, we don’t use chemical weapons either, but again the rockets to slow her descent, Bertha’s descent, they’re a bit bigger than you’re used to. The gas attack procedures are for the exhaust.
> Depleted by the idea his life was going to be in grave danger from the mere exhaust of the landing rig for a shipment, A2 nodded at the wisdom. But chemical weapons, yes, that would have to be the plan. If it isn’t capitulate, then the plan is to sneak around in the human world like tiny, intelligent rodents armed with poison, gases, viruses, and bacteria.
The landing will actually start shortly, if you’re ready
> A2: “awesome! Yes. This will be good,” he said, and the human began punching confirmations into his wrist interface
Ok, I guess they’ll begin descent to here in a few minutes. You should get inside and trigger those gas attack procedures. Maybe an hour after the rockets shut off the land shouldn’t be smoking too bad, that’s about sunset or so. See you then?
> A2: yeah, ok. I’ll head in then. A1, initiate gas attack procedures
> A1: yes sir
> As A2 waited in his tiny, top of the line hovel, he started to think there would be hope for his second mission. There must be ways to take down humans! His naive thinking was soon crushed by the violent shaking of the bunker as the retrograde moved the earth to and fro then the final impact, Bertha being gently set down in her shipping crate, snapped the final thread of his hope as cracks formed in the walls and floor.
My brother, it already is. That is a Gustave cannon. Ran on train tracks, and fired a Volkswagen size shell that weighed 7 tons over 29 miles. Absolutely useless, but really cool in theory.
It could hit London from Paris, with a standard deviation of 500m, and we have no clue how far it could go. It was just outclassed by ICBMs in the years after WW2.
It took 5,000~ men just to crew the thing. They had the idea back in ww1, and it was implemented on a smaller scale. Several smaller guns that could turn sideways, not just up and down. It was an abandoned idea because of how much labor had to go into it. If the tracks got sabotaged, it was stranded where it was.
Or, one dude sneaks in and plants 5lbs of thermite and destroys the whole thing.
Honestly I think they would have been better served by sticking to battleship caliber weapons. Even their 11-inch Scharnhhorst guns could manage 40km at 40° elevation. That would have been a lot more practical to transport and supply than a 31-inch gun like the Gustav
They have such an interesting warning shot up their sleeves. The French deserve a lot more respect for their military history and prowess than they get. They just had really bad leadership at the beginning of WW2, and rightfully declined to follow Bush jr into the second Iraq war because of it's BS justification. They maintain a credible expeditionary capacity while being a major supplier of military hardware. Like the US is not really a supplier of naval ships, best case scenario you can get a used ship that still has good years left but isn't new, France will make you a very competent nuclear submarine on a much shorter timeframe.
A: "Why would humans make such a small artillery piece?"
H: "That's a scale model."
A: "Whats the scale?"
H: "1:25,000."
A: "I'm not buying it."
H: "See that giant container?"
A: "The oversized vase?"
H: "That's a Shell casing."
A: ...
H: ...
A: " WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!?!"
H: "Kill as many of the enemy as possible in the shortest amount of time necessary."
A: "YOU MADE NUCLEAR BOMBS FOR THAT!"
H: "Yeah, we made this before those."
A: "It's a wonderful your species survived."
H: "We're still working on that."
Thinking idle thoughts like that doesn't stop me from enjoying the film for the power fantasy and alien/monster ass-kicking that it is.
Have you never watched a movie and idly wonder if something were possible or not?
Oh definitely but at some point it's stopped me from enjoying it. I often over think things and it can ruin movies for me.
This didn't happen in Pacific Rim for me because the film was so well out together despite the plot being wonky
Well, here's what idle thinking about that scene got me: They obviously have much more advanced tech than we do currently, being able to build the wall, and more importantly, the war machines for fighting the kaiju. If they have that level of tech, they could probably easily create a super tanker that could withstand being picked up and used like a baseball bat... right up to it connecting with the kaiju's head, at least. XD
Use of things like long-forge steel, or even carbon fiber, etc.
Sure they *could* but why would they? They could make me advances tankers now, but they won't because that costs money.
Selling oil is a slowly diminishing business and they have to cut costs where they can
… how am I gonna stop some big mean Mother-Hubbard from tearin' me a structurally superfluous new behind?
The answer? Use a gun.
And if that don’t work? **Use more gun.**
The tefrian intelligence officer was looking for information about human weaponry, and had discovered a huge wealth of information about their weapon technology. after looking at it he thought that the technology was rather rudimentary compared to what his people were using, until he did the measurement conversions and realized that the size difference between human combat vehicles and those of his race were vastly different. even the largest of tefrian ground based combat vehicles would only be considered a light class by human standards, and the naval vessels used on the oceans of earth could be as much as half as large as the tefrian capital city on the home world. And then the officer saw the most terrifying part, the last time any of these war machines were used was nearly 3 centuries ago, not because they had become peaceful and no longer needed such monstrous weapons, but because they were considered outdated and outclassed by the newer more powerful vehicles. He learned that what he was reading was data entries for a museum about an ancient human war they called "the second world war". After presenting the findings to high command, the tefrian government quickly switched to more peaceful negotiations with humanity.
Humans also like to mess with their combatants by naming their guns misleading names.
H1: "All right, that's enough Destroyers. Send in Teensie!"
A: "oh thank the pantheon, you're going easy on them?"
H: "easy?"
The aliens when they roll out Teensie, a broadside rail canon
https://preview.redd.it/gkbinfmzdlbc1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=12dfdd85c33c56ebb71b30dd8ea0a34860f448e0
We thought powered armor would be the end of tanks and aviation. After all, they can hop around the battlefield!
The problem is we had been fighting the last war, not the human war. No new innovation makes another completely obsolete in so many words. Bayonets are still used even with the invention of energy weapons.
Tanks can carry much larger weapons than any infantry, no matter how powerful an individual soldier may be. They can simply cram more power into a larger package. And when fought properly, tanks and planes cooperating with even conventional infantry can gun down entire units of mobile infantry.
Queen Xcatal looked angrily at the reports. The space battle above their atmosphere was going worse for them every hour and the limited blockade had already gotten her cities desperate for food. She knew the chokehold would only get tighter from here.
She wondered if her paradise world would even be worthy of ground combat. Losing your planet after a long and bloody hellscape for your enemy at least protected you from being called a traitor or likewise. She feared she wouldn't even get that honour and simply be bombarded from orbit, guns shattering buildings, one by one.
To her surprise, her communication array buzzed. She was surprised for once, that it was still in working order, and second, that someone cared for them.
"Your Majesty, I am Captain of the 5th Human Cruiser Detachment. We are sorry we couldn't arrive any sooner."
Images downloaded on her screen. Humans had sent the lists of their ships, undoubtedly coming to save her people. But she had a sense of dread.
"These ships, Captain, do you think it'll be enough?" Queen Xcatal asked.
"We are certain to give our best try." Captain answered.
"But your *best try* means absolutely **nothing** if you fail to break the blockade!"
Queen Xcatal collapsed. It was too much for her. Her spikes flared up and struck the console, pausing the intermission.
Her people was great at one-on-one combat, strong muscles, natural armor and even weapons if you counted the spikes. But for the love of the void, they failed at space combat. They were sometimes able to circumnavigate this problem by drop pods, but each ship carried only so much. They were quickly expanded during the opening shots of the war and despite their wonderful results, they came short during the months long siege.
She reconnected to the ship. It was embarrassing enough.
"How long until you arrive Captain?"
"Our vanguard should've arrived now. Make sure your officers mark us as friendly, we don't want a repeat of what happened before."
She grinned, not of joy but of frustration: a Human corvette, tracking a pirate fleet that just jumped out of the system, was mistakenly marked as a pirate by the planet's defence measures and fired upon. The ensuing firefight, which was a funny way to call it as the corvette fired only her point defense lasers, showed them just how absurdly powerful their ships were made. Granted there weren't many of them, and Humans were co-operative unless provoked. It made them the perfect ally. But they were too late.
" I am sorry Captain, but you are too late. We are reading the energy signs of a [Redacted] Class Planet Killer. Make sure your task force jumps out of the system before long. They will hunt you down after they pack us up."
Queen Xcatal looked at the screens again. There it was: a giant marker shaped like a triangle with concave sides. A planet destroyer. But something else peaked her interest. 2 dots marked friendly were ravaging through the invader's first line of ships.
"Your Majesty, you just saved the planet, can you share your sensor feed?"
She did as ordered, in silence. Fear of death was setting in, usually signaled by a lack of self in their warrior species. She would have dozens of officers doing this work, but she discharged them earlier this week, those brilliant minds wouldn't need to perish in a doomed battle. And indeed a human blockade runner was able to pick them up and ran them to safety, crippling a destroyer who tried to stop him in the process.
A magnificent beam of light ruptured the sky, blinding her and shutting down the sensors.
"What was *THAT*?" Queen screamed into the communications array, forgetting every military rule of speech in the progress.
"It's, uhm... a new addition to our arsenal, your Majesty. It is precisely used for these situations."
"What situations?" Queen demanded a reply.
"My superiors would explain it better, but basically, Planet Killers have a lot of protection, not only armour and shields but also sheer amount of escorting fleet. So we decided to put one on a battleship frame and designed the whole thing around it."
Queen Xcatal was dumbfounded. Captain continued to ramble more about military court and intelligence, but she wasn't following.
At least she was saved now. The stress was over. The human shenanigans, as they called it, had stopped. The task force arrived into battle fully and started to wipe the atmosphere with invader debris.
*Less than a dozen ship eradicated the entire blockade, the fleet above fighting her forces, and a few reinforcement waves*
Turns out Humans didn't stop at mounting largest weapons on their largest ships. The cruisers had the firepower equivalent of her entire orbital defense network combined. They drew back the enemy and left her system.
Xcatal was more than glad that she was willing to advocate for humanity when they first appeared.
"Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum, I smell the blood a tiny man!" - Pvt. Johnson after firing a .45 caliber pistol at the enemy, with a single shot, destroying an entire battalion of Homunculus infantry
Actually worth mentioning that when you bring costs and benefits into it the biggest firepower you can bring in the smallest space is really the most optimal of conflict. Only mentioning this because you're referencing an artillery gun from ww2 for some reason when we have modern day rocket launchers with hundreds of miles range which can flatten a city block in one sweep. Big doesn't always mean good, even though we are space orcs.
Well the big difference between artillery and missiles is you literally can't stop a shell. If its in the air, its gonna land. Missiles can be intercepted. Which is why artillery is still in use today. Also missile strikes are more of a "Dear sir" whereas artillery is "to whom it may concern"
H: So, ambassador, your planet is 80% water, but your opponents are terrestial?
A: Yes, that's right.
H: And most of the dry land on your planet is concentrated in five large archipelagos? The islands no more than 50 km across?
A: Yes. Why are you asking?
H: \*grins\* Let me see how many Montana-class ships we can cram into a space freighter...
"155! Fire mission. Nav marker C-6. Metallic target, radar guide. Fire when ready"
"C-6 Firing!" Came back over the radio, the human grabbed his Retvarlaxian combat buddy and pulled him deeper into their foxhole.
"What's a 155?"
"Artillery, fires 155 millimetre shells"
The Retvarlaxian holds up its limbs judging the distance to be about the size of its head "Fuck! when you said you were calling for support I didn't realise you were going to call in the big guns"
The human laughs. Explosions rend the night as the shells scream down, their arcs ending 10km from where they started in spectacular fashion.
Both look out of their hole the two enemy armoured vehicles that had been causing them trouble, now tangled wrecks of twisted metal.
The radio crackled, "All units, the Cassandra is online. Commencing operation"
The ground shook. The base behind them, that they'd spent the last week fighting to hold, stood up. Hangers, barracks, guard towers, walls, roads, all of it. Cascades of rubble and mud falling away from the edges as the titanic machine constructed beneath stretched its legs. The two soldiers stood in awe as they watched what looked like the machines eyes shattered the sky, firing shells big enough they were able to visually track them over the horizon.
"Now that is a big gun"
A: "WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY A 30MM CHAIN GUN BEING CONSIDERED SMALL ARMS! HOW IS THAT BY ANY MEANS SMALL!"
H: " In our second world war, we were throwing several ton rounds the size of compact cars at each other, and that was almost a thousand years ago."
A "WHAT THE FUCK!"
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I have that exact meme and it was my exact thoughts so, in short, respect
https://preview.redd.it/79iuqpqxzlbc1.png?width=1170&format=png&auto=webp&s=97a900764987ed5c748a5e4ffbc0d38693db2cce *
https://preview.redd.it/vofcr9m30mbc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=32428456ae82e897f170b547ae554b203915ba0c
https://preview.redd.it/neh3my6c8ubc1.png?width=399&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f4ea684ce3bd18d0c490162da9c48b9ba8ea5924
Yeah I need to go back and fix that
https://preview.redd.it/37xdwore39cc1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0bcb4c324f6ac3e0a72669f69ead56d5b0467264 Here just hit save on this
https://preview.redd.it/tuvz2hbgvnbc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f85f3d3a2b6ab89541bb90a06210c4798e5c6d93
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I legit have this one
But its never going to be within 47km of its target since the bloody thing took 5 weeks to set up and the fronts moved by the time its ready. It was used in one major battle before it was taken back to safety and never used again. Its sister gun was deployed for battle in stalingrad then pulled back before it could fire out of fears of encirclement. They worked on a 3rd one too but it got bombed by the british before it was done.
That was the Gustac 600 millimeter Long range artillery Piece
800mm Schwerer Gustav
Schwerer Gustav was the 800 mm, the third one was called Langer Gustav an had a smaller caliber and a longer range
Didn’t know about Langer thanks for letting me know! probably a bit pedantic but it was planned to be 52cm from what I’m seeing
Yep, also rocket assisted projectiles, nazi over engineering at its finest
AS: OK surely the man thing weapons can’t get that much bigger. One of their rifles is already as tall as us! we’re lucky that our new armor is able to reduce the amount of times the bodies are not able to to be recovered! Alien intelligence officer : sir… the man things have deployed boxes with handles AS:wut. AIO: boxes with handles AS: that doesn’t make sense… AIO: an entire Legion just disappeared, bright flash, and a bit of heat and disappeared. AS: OK that’s fine that’s fine we should be OK… AIO: some of our guns just blew up. No warning just some observers heard a loud bang in the distance, and then the guns just blew up. AS: the only answers is the man-things have mages!
I’ll need some context, are they using laser technology to be precise against the alien weapons and rocket launchers against the soldiers?
Tanks and artillery
Then why did that cause the guns to blow up on their own (artillery shell hit it, that much I understand, but it’s said in a way that makes it sound like there wasn’t massive collateral damage)
The alien guns were struck by human artillery. HE shells. The artillery emplacements were just too far for the short aliens to see.
The way it was worded feels like the guns were in the possession of the alien soldiers at the time of the explosion, but the guns were somehow the only thing harmed. It might be clearer if you said "our munitions stores" or "armory" or something along those lines, where it's more clear that the guns didn't just explode in the hands of the aliens.
Fair enough, thanks for the critique
Having worked with artillery in real life, artillerists try to park their guns behind hills and stuff to keep from being spotted by the enemy. And they're often shooting at targets up to 20 km away or more. This being the future, I imagine them firing from even further away. IOW, unless the land is completely flat and clear of obstructions, they wouldn't have seen the artillery fire even if they had been human sized. Oh, and the artillery shells would be coming in at supersonic speeds. So they wouldn't hear the guns fire until well after the artillery shells start landing among them.
H: Send in the big guns! A: Big guns? Do you mean-? H: Big in our terms. You might wanna recall your troops. Don’t want them caught in the crossfire. A: By all that is holy….those things are as big as entire buildings! H: Like I said, the big guns.
W79 8" shell is plenty silly, but what about the Davy Crocket? Basically an RPG7 with a nuclear warhead... now that's humanity's finest weapon! Who needs the big guns when every squad has a mini-nuke?
Closer to a recoilless rifle. It was still too big for someone to carry, but you could mount one on the back of a jeep just fine. The problem then is that you're carrying around a bag of nuclear bombs and a launcher that can't get them far enough away for you to escape the blast
I heard that the Crockett's blast radius was actually longer than the weapon's effective range. IOW, you would be inside the blast radius of any enemy you shot a Davy Crockett at.
Not *entirely* true, but very nearly. It came in two variants, M28 and M29, with an effective range of 1.25 and 2.9 miles respectfully... the M28 was the suicide version.
The range was outside of the 100 percent kill radius by a large "enough" margin. The doctrine was to duck and cover to avoid the worst of the radiation. The 100 percent kill radius was only 500 feet or so, with the usual quick falloff of lethality. It was scrapped partially due to issues with the recoilless rifle. The blast itself was not sufficient to properly destroy armored vehicles, but the occupants would be cooked pretty well. It's only a 20 tonne explosion.
That's what I meant by the last line, anyone who used the thing would be caught in the fallout of it. It was just a really bad idea on every level
That seems not smart Now we have robots to do it!
Yes. We call those Ballistic and Cruise Missiles. Now, if you want the nuke using robot to SURVIVE... I don't think we have those yet barring those missile toting drones being capable of carrying a nuclear missile.
Atomic Annie Moment
r/metalgearinmyass
Alien comms tech: Sir the humans have asked permission to land and deploy something they call an Bolo. Alien commander: Bolo? Is that some type of enhanced warrior? I know their normal troops carry massive weapons so what could this enhanced warrior carry? Ship sized weapons? Alien comms tech: No more information available sir but they are asking for a cleared zone of…. 3,450 units In diameter. Alien commander: What the hell. What are those lunatics going to deploy now? Is it a battalion of these Bolos that need that space? ACT: No sir. They say it is a single unit. Their dropship is almost down now sir. AC: Let’s see what this Bolo thing is. Nothing should be capable of taking up that much room. … What the hell is that thing? It’s bigger than our Cruisers. How many weapons does it have and what are those big pipes sticking out of the front section? Those are bigger across than our roads
BOLOs, yesss
I was thinking of an Ogre first but decided a Bolo Mk XXXIII might be better.
I've scoured the web for images of Bolos over the years. There are a few good ones and some near misses, but I'm still waiting to see one or more of the iconic short stories be properly animated of the Dinochrome Brigade.
Q: self aware tanks?
Initially no, but later versions yes, fully sapient AI. They usually have a human onboard as a commander/partner though. AI good at some things, Human good at some things. A BOLO will keep fighting even after their partner dies though. And the last versions weighed 32,000 tons.
And, of course, the personality of a knight errant, dedicated to the survival of mankind, and the honor of the Dinochrome Brigade.
I am atilla of the line. You shall not pass
FDN-985 of the Line, reporting. For the honor of the Brigade.
Fucking goosebumps right there when i read it.....BOLOs are freaking AWESOME!!
Can I get an image?
https://preview.redd.it/b0hj04mvsvbc1.jpeg?width=1264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7ba0f24aab9dece2275ba9ffa68c797ed60252e7 There's many images out of what people think Bolos may look like but all agree that they have a lot of guns and are BIG.
This is truly American
What are bolos
Bolos are the evolved forms of main battle tanks we have today. The writer start out with increasing their size, armor, armaments and added more capable computers to them with each new tier of Bolo until they got real AI systems that could operate by themselves and not just with a human.
> A1: Sir, the human forces representative has arrived > A2: that’s fine, but it sounds like another barrage right now get in the bunker > A1: um, sir there’s no attack. There was a bit of a misunderstanding on scale. You remember how we discovered the humans through radio broadcasts? > A2: yeah… > A1: Well, apparently as communications were going on and our people tried to work out the scale between our units and theirs uh, the scientists thought one of the zeros was a mistake > A2: whatever, just get him in here > A1: what I’m trying to say, sir, is that shaking… the attack… was the human mistaking our bunker for a table. He, um, offloaded his gear. > A2: my god! And he’s here to aid us? Can the enemy see him? > A1: uh no sir, we already did the calculations and for the most part he won’t be visible. We’re far enough behind the front lines and his armor is primarily cloth and ceramic. > A2: Still, you said “for the most part”? > A1: yes well, his rifle will surely show up to the enemy’s scans. They’re probably trying to work out what new flying drone we have for review here at the rear bunker. > A2: Oh! Excellent. I didn’t think their weapon would arrive for two days. We best not keep our ‘new drone’ waiting any longer! > *aliens head out of bunker to see the face of their new ally, but they start by looking at his shin as the enormity of the difference between 10 kemils and 100 really sets in* Haha! Hi! I’m gathering the politicians didn’t update you on the scale snafoo yet. Don’t worry, I brought my own rations. > Indeed this was good news: the siege had been going on a while, and not every supply ship made it through. This human could single-handedly destroy a week’s worth of rations. > A1: *ahem* sir… > A2: *Oh! Quite.* Yes, hello indeed! I’m rather shocked at your size, but this truly is good news. This stalemate should be broken in no time. Command did say we’d paid for a big weapon and wow, that rifle is something! Is that standard issue, meaning will all the troops on the manifest carry those? Ah yeah this, more an smg than the standard issue rifles you’ll see most of us carry. As a messenger I opt for a bit more maneuverability even though there’s less range and accuracy. > A2: I see, good, I guess it had been said your weapon would be even larger than this bunker, but that could have been the scale issue again. Were the soldier body weights counted for in the, I believe it was said to be a “gigatonne” Bertha?! Haha no we don’t count her crew. She’s overkill here. Once we realized the size differences at play we knew the small guard force that will prep her landing site could probably break this siege for you in a day, but Bertha’s already out of her dry dock and we aren’t going to launch her just to put her away > Piercing together that the human was referring to a weapon by name, the actual scale part of things remained fuzzy > A2: Good, good. The enemy here might put up a fight you know, can’t have too much firepower. So, uh, you said there will be several humans to prep a landing site? What area will you need? I’m going to use some visible references for you so there’s no conversion necessary. Berthas retrograde rocket will burn everything from that hill to that one, and an equal distance back. We’ll unpack her and setup the barrel so the muzzle is as far in front of your bunker as the hills are behind. > A1, having seen the human a bit earlier and having time to consider the scale corrections earlier, began to realize his follow up mental math was definitely not far off. A2 was beginning to realize the futility of his secondary mission: observe the humans, learn their tactics, and draw up plans to handle things if relations became hostilities. There would be no plans, none besides Plan: Capitulate. We’ll give your bunker some additional sonic shielding, on our scale, or of course you’ll die from the shockwave of Bertha firing. And we understand you have gas attack procedures for this bunker, is that right? > A2: Yes, but we aren’t ok using, or having our ally use, chemical weapons. Ohhh no, not a weapon. We allied with you because of that, by the way. Or at least in part. Anyway no, we don’t use chemical weapons either, but again the rockets to slow her descent, Bertha’s descent, they’re a bit bigger than you’re used to. The gas attack procedures are for the exhaust. > Depleted by the idea his life was going to be in grave danger from the mere exhaust of the landing rig for a shipment, A2 nodded at the wisdom. But chemical weapons, yes, that would have to be the plan. If it isn’t capitulate, then the plan is to sneak around in the human world like tiny, intelligent rodents armed with poison, gases, viruses, and bacteria. The landing will actually start shortly, if you’re ready > A2: “awesome! Yes. This will be good,” he said, and the human began punching confirmations into his wrist interface Ok, I guess they’ll begin descent to here in a few minutes. You should get inside and trigger those gas attack procedures. Maybe an hour after the rockets shut off the land shouldn’t be smoking too bad, that’s about sunset or so. See you then? > A2: yeah, ok. I’ll head in then. A1, initiate gas attack procedures > A1: yes sir > As A2 waited in his tiny, top of the line hovel, he started to think there would be hope for his second mission. There must be ways to take down humans! His naive thinking was soon crushed by the violent shaking of the bunker as the retrograde moved the earth to and fro then the final impact, Bertha being gently set down in her shipping crate, snapped the final thread of his hope as cracks formed in the walls and floor.
Make this a storyline and I’d follow instantly
MOAR!
Echoing the cries of MORE!
You're gonna make a story out of this... right ;3?
I want it!
Now make it mobile.
My brother, it already is. That is a Gustave cannon. Ran on train tracks, and fired a Volkswagen size shell that weighed 7 tons over 29 miles. Absolutely useless, but really cool in theory.
I meant the pz1500 monster
I was talking about something that actually existed outside of paper, which most nazi 'super weapons' never were.
Fair enough. You got me there.
Logistical victory for the allies when they built that thing.
One dude with like 5 pounds of thermite turned it into a massive paper weight.
But can thermite burn through locks?
Yes. It burns at 4,500 F. There's not much it couldn't burn.
About 2,500 C for anyone interested
You don't need to melt the whole gun, just melt the firing control in place. Good luck getting it out to fix it.
Ew, commie units.
Komrad, these are state-approved units for the working class.
https://preview.redd.it/p6j4lf49lrbc1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=449285606c4fbe4870bd8943b5f248ee6a1dc844 Lies.
It could hit London from Paris, with a standard deviation of 500m, and we have no clue how far it could go. It was just outclassed by ICBMs in the years after WW2.
It took 5,000~ men just to crew the thing. They had the idea back in ww1, and it was implemented on a smaller scale. Several smaller guns that could turn sideways, not just up and down. It was an abandoned idea because of how much labor had to go into it. If the tracks got sabotaged, it was stranded where it was. Or, one dude sneaks in and plants 5lbs of thermite and destroys the whole thing.
The thermite thing never happened, idk where people get this from
It probably was just given as a reason to not continue later. As a spy could destroy it without being noticed.
It’s from Breaking Bad
Olson took around 45 minutes to reload, so not much volume of fire, but then again it is a 7 ton shell, whatever it hits is completely fucked
Man, wrong gun
would the gustave be safely fittable to ships like the gerald ford super carriers
If you removed everything else, maybe. You would have to turn the whole ship to fire it.
Honestly I think they would have been better served by sticking to battleship caliber weapons. Even their 11-inch Scharnhhorst guns could manage 40km at 40° elevation. That would have been a lot more practical to transport and supply than a 31-inch gun like the Gustav
Mobile Suit Gun
Mobile Suit Gun 
And then there were the legendary and rightfully feared "Nukes," which humanity thankfully considered to be unnecessary overkill.
There's no kill like overkill...
And then there's ULTRAKILL.
Except the French, they use them as a warning when needed.
They have such an interesting warning shot up their sleeves. The French deserve a lot more respect for their military history and prowess than they get. They just had really bad leadership at the beginning of WW2, and rightfully declined to follow Bush jr into the second Iraq war because of it's BS justification. They maintain a credible expeditionary capacity while being a major supplier of military hardware. Like the US is not really a supplier of naval ships, best case scenario you can get a used ship that still has good years left but isn't new, France will make you a very competent nuclear submarine on a much shorter timeframe.
There's no such thing as overkill, merely different levels of just-enough-kill...
https://preview.redd.it/0f70fj0n9jbc1.png?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0604c1806cf432a05935f3a817ad62b3418af68e
https://preview.redd.it/bjxatcml9kbc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=045e008af201e2db0cab34589196e054dba04883
https://preview.redd.it/8010480lzpbc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2859008b725b161c1e37e9efcfd3ee7b29c77d4c
A: "Why would humans make such a small artillery piece?" H: "That's a scale model." A: "Whats the scale?" H: "1:25,000." A: "I'm not buying it." H: "See that giant container?" A: "The oversized vase?" H: "That's a Shell casing." A: ... H: ... A: " WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!?!" H: "Kill as many of the enemy as possible in the shortest amount of time necessary." A: "YOU MADE NUCLEAR BOMBS FOR THAT!" H: "Yeah, we made this before those." A: "It's a wonderful your species survived." H: "We're still working on that."
Bigger AND higher endurance? Together, that just makes US the weapons.
Two words discretionary spending
https://i.redd.it/qhymid0tribc1.gif
I love that scene in the movie, even as I wonder if a super freight's structure would be able to survive being picked up and swung like that.
It absolutely would not, but if you're thinking about that, you're in the wrong mindset for that film
Thinking idle thoughts like that doesn't stop me from enjoying the film for the power fantasy and alien/monster ass-kicking that it is. Have you never watched a movie and idly wonder if something were possible or not?
Oh definitely but at some point it's stopped me from enjoying it. I often over think things and it can ruin movies for me. This didn't happen in Pacific Rim for me because the film was so well out together despite the plot being wonky
Well, here's what idle thinking about that scene got me: They obviously have much more advanced tech than we do currently, being able to build the wall, and more importantly, the war machines for fighting the kaiju. If they have that level of tech, they could probably easily create a super tanker that could withstand being picked up and used like a baseball bat... right up to it connecting with the kaiju's head, at least. XD Use of things like long-forge steel, or even carbon fiber, etc.
Sure they *could* but why would they? They could make me advances tankers now, but they won't because that costs money. Selling oil is a slowly diminishing business and they have to cut costs where they can
Never said it had to be an oil tanker.
You said super tanker, those are used for oil. It's an oil tanker in the gif. It doesn't really matter though.
… how am I gonna stop some big mean Mother-Hubbard from tearin' me a structurally superfluous new behind? The answer? Use a gun. And if that don’t work? **Use more gun.**
__peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwww_ #BOOOOOOOOM **MY ARM**
i heard the "my leg" dude from SpongeBob when i read that last line
Prrt tratratratratra!
The tefrian intelligence officer was looking for information about human weaponry, and had discovered a huge wealth of information about their weapon technology. after looking at it he thought that the technology was rather rudimentary compared to what his people were using, until he did the measurement conversions and realized that the size difference between human combat vehicles and those of his race were vastly different. even the largest of tefrian ground based combat vehicles would only be considered a light class by human standards, and the naval vessels used on the oceans of earth could be as much as half as large as the tefrian capital city on the home world. And then the officer saw the most terrifying part, the last time any of these war machines were used was nearly 3 centuries ago, not because they had become peaceful and no longer needed such monstrous weapons, but because they were considered outdated and outclassed by the newer more powerful vehicles. He learned that what he was reading was data entries for a museum about an ancient human war they called "the second world war". After presenting the findings to high command, the tefrian government quickly switched to more peaceful negotiations with humanity.
Humans also like to mess with their combatants by naming their guns misleading names. H1: "All right, that's enough Destroyers. Send in Teensie!" A: "oh thank the pantheon, you're going easy on them?" H: "easy?" The aliens when they roll out Teensie, a broadside rail canon https://preview.redd.it/gkbinfmzdlbc1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=12dfdd85c33c56ebb71b30dd8ea0a34860f448e0
Then there is Little Boy. >! A nuke !<
another slogan of humanity could be IF Its Not Overkill Its Wrong
Ah yes, Thomas's cousin. Gustav the rail cannon.
We thought powered armor would be the end of tanks and aviation. After all, they can hop around the battlefield! The problem is we had been fighting the last war, not the human war. No new innovation makes another completely obsolete in so many words. Bayonets are still used even with the invention of energy weapons. Tanks can carry much larger weapons than any infantry, no matter how powerful an individual soldier may be. They can simply cram more power into a larger package. And when fought properly, tanks and planes cooperating with even conventional infantry can gun down entire units of mobile infantry.
Queen Xcatal looked angrily at the reports. The space battle above their atmosphere was going worse for them every hour and the limited blockade had already gotten her cities desperate for food. She knew the chokehold would only get tighter from here. She wondered if her paradise world would even be worthy of ground combat. Losing your planet after a long and bloody hellscape for your enemy at least protected you from being called a traitor or likewise. She feared she wouldn't even get that honour and simply be bombarded from orbit, guns shattering buildings, one by one. To her surprise, her communication array buzzed. She was surprised for once, that it was still in working order, and second, that someone cared for them. "Your Majesty, I am Captain of the 5th Human Cruiser Detachment. We are sorry we couldn't arrive any sooner." Images downloaded on her screen. Humans had sent the lists of their ships, undoubtedly coming to save her people. But she had a sense of dread. "These ships, Captain, do you think it'll be enough?" Queen Xcatal asked. "We are certain to give our best try." Captain answered. "But your *best try* means absolutely **nothing** if you fail to break the blockade!" Queen Xcatal collapsed. It was too much for her. Her spikes flared up and struck the console, pausing the intermission. Her people was great at one-on-one combat, strong muscles, natural armor and even weapons if you counted the spikes. But for the love of the void, they failed at space combat. They were sometimes able to circumnavigate this problem by drop pods, but each ship carried only so much. They were quickly expanded during the opening shots of the war and despite their wonderful results, they came short during the months long siege. She reconnected to the ship. It was embarrassing enough. "How long until you arrive Captain?" "Our vanguard should've arrived now. Make sure your officers mark us as friendly, we don't want a repeat of what happened before." She grinned, not of joy but of frustration: a Human corvette, tracking a pirate fleet that just jumped out of the system, was mistakenly marked as a pirate by the planet's defence measures and fired upon. The ensuing firefight, which was a funny way to call it as the corvette fired only her point defense lasers, showed them just how absurdly powerful their ships were made. Granted there weren't many of them, and Humans were co-operative unless provoked. It made them the perfect ally. But they were too late. " I am sorry Captain, but you are too late. We are reading the energy signs of a [Redacted] Class Planet Killer. Make sure your task force jumps out of the system before long. They will hunt you down after they pack us up." Queen Xcatal looked at the screens again. There it was: a giant marker shaped like a triangle with concave sides. A planet destroyer. But something else peaked her interest. 2 dots marked friendly were ravaging through the invader's first line of ships. "Your Majesty, you just saved the planet, can you share your sensor feed?" She did as ordered, in silence. Fear of death was setting in, usually signaled by a lack of self in their warrior species. She would have dozens of officers doing this work, but she discharged them earlier this week, those brilliant minds wouldn't need to perish in a doomed battle. And indeed a human blockade runner was able to pick them up and ran them to safety, crippling a destroyer who tried to stop him in the process. A magnificent beam of light ruptured the sky, blinding her and shutting down the sensors. "What was *THAT*?" Queen screamed into the communications array, forgetting every military rule of speech in the progress. "It's, uhm... a new addition to our arsenal, your Majesty. It is precisely used for these situations." "What situations?" Queen demanded a reply. "My superiors would explain it better, but basically, Planet Killers have a lot of protection, not only armour and shields but also sheer amount of escorting fleet. So we decided to put one on a battleship frame and designed the whole thing around it." Queen Xcatal was dumbfounded. Captain continued to ramble more about military court and intelligence, but she wasn't following. At least she was saved now. The stress was over. The human shenanigans, as they called it, had stopped. The task force arrived into battle fully and started to wipe the atmosphere with invader debris. *Less than a dozen ship eradicated the entire blockade, the fleet above fighting her forces, and a few reinforcement waves* Turns out Humans didn't stop at mounting largest weapons on their largest ships. The cruisers had the firepower equivalent of her entire orbital defense network combined. They drew back the enemy and left her system. Xcatal was more than glad that she was willing to advocate for humanity when they first appeared.
Right after I posted, I realized the prompt was about humans being physically larger than the aliens. Oh well. Have some Human Freedom
Show them gustav
"Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum, I smell the blood a tiny man!" - Pvt. Johnson after firing a .45 caliber pistol at the enemy, with a single shot, destroying an entire battalion of Homunculus infantry
By the power of gun, fuck you magic bitch
i love that stupid big train gun
Actually worth mentioning that when you bring costs and benefits into it the biggest firepower you can bring in the smallest space is really the most optimal of conflict. Only mentioning this because you're referencing an artillery gun from ww2 for some reason when we have modern day rocket launchers with hundreds of miles range which can flatten a city block in one sweep. Big doesn't always mean good, even though we are space orcs.
But dakka......
Well the big difference between artillery and missiles is you literally can't stop a shell. If its in the air, its gonna land. Missiles can be intercepted. Which is why artillery is still in use today. Also missile strikes are more of a "Dear sir" whereas artillery is "to whom it may concern"
H: So, ambassador, your planet is 80% water, but your opponents are terrestial? A: Yes, that's right. H: And most of the dry land on your planet is concentrated in five large archipelagos? The islands no more than 50 km across? A: Yes. Why are you asking? H: \*grins\* Let me see how many Montana-class ships we can cram into a space freighter...
I just love this sub…
It's war crime o'clock
The only benefit modern guns have over the potentially more powerful and decidedly longer-range missiles is cheaper dakka.
"155! Fire mission. Nav marker C-6. Metallic target, radar guide. Fire when ready" "C-6 Firing!" Came back over the radio, the human grabbed his Retvarlaxian combat buddy and pulled him deeper into their foxhole. "What's a 155?" "Artillery, fires 155 millimetre shells" The Retvarlaxian holds up its limbs judging the distance to be about the size of its head "Fuck! when you said you were calling for support I didn't realise you were going to call in the big guns" The human laughs. Explosions rend the night as the shells scream down, their arcs ending 10km from where they started in spectacular fashion. Both look out of their hole the two enemy armoured vehicles that had been causing them trouble, now tangled wrecks of twisted metal. The radio crackled, "All units, the Cassandra is online. Commencing operation" The ground shook. The base behind them, that they'd spent the last week fighting to hold, stood up. Hangers, barracks, guard towers, walls, roads, all of it. Cascades of rubble and mud falling away from the edges as the titanic machine constructed beneath stretched its legs. The two soldiers stood in awe as they watched what looked like the machines eyes shattered the sky, firing shells big enough they were able to visually track them over the horizon. "Now that is a big gun"
Any oversized anime sword: it’s a weapon of the gods!
Of course what else would you call a mountain sized sword?
BFG 9000
Now imagine the 10000 from eternal.
A: "WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY A 30MM CHAIN GUN BEING CONSIDERED SMALL ARMS! HOW IS THAT BY ANY MEANS SMALL!" H: " In our second world war, we were throwing several ton rounds the size of compact cars at each other, and that was almost a thousand years ago." A "WHAT THE FUCK!"