Military History Archiving and General Chat

[Nilgiri]

It is noted with interest that these is a distinct nautical flavour to your posts. In view of the forthcoming simulations on CMO that we hope @Oscar will curate this is a welcome development.

Its been that way a while ever since i became less of a landlubber in various ways/acquisitions.

Though my greatest expertise is with another type of fluid than water (though things like the buckingham-pi connect them so deeply).

In short as ratty said to mole, "there is nothing, absolutely nothing....half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats"

The larger sea wayfaring arc though never happened as much as ratty was tempted (a very long convo i once had with a fellow fond enthusiast of the The Wind in the Willows).

Secondly there's Captain Nemo whom I identify much with in certain ways, especially the anti-imperial attitude and my larger animosity to neo-imperialism, authoritarianism in the current day,

I have been told a number of times pretty consistently I present something of an enigma to many.....a tinge of the anti-hero...sometimes loved and despised in equal measure, shrug. The contexts these arrive to me often amuse me in the end. I can't change who I am on certain things.

Thirdly with the appeal of the nautical in the heart, one of best Tamil songs of all time (atho andha paravai), rarely fails to uplift me when im feeling down

Ore vaanile , ore maanile....ore geetham urimai geetham paaduvom!
(One sky, one earth, one song... a song of rights we will sing!, .......the rest of the lyrics really lose lustre with translation so I'll stop here)

The movie itself ("One in a thousand") is not as good overall as say captain blood...but Tamil songs in it are done in typical unsurpassed fashion typical to that era (though there is some bias I have too I suppose).

Find me one equivalent at any point in time anywhere for overcharged combo of TMS, Suseela, Kannadasan, Vaali, MSV and TKR. One cannot. One in a thousand indeed!

 

[Shanlung]

Not trying to derail this thread.

But since
Joe Shearer said:
It is noted with interest that these is a distinct nautical flavour to your posts.

I thought of writng in PM to Nilgri, but then perhaps others might enjoy this bit of my own nautical past in mist of memories

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

https://www.facebook.com/shanlung/posts/pfbid02vw4H3J4UEwW5MFQdLqaFVJ3sfncJC8veynYCDNJhRtjKN94aDU5aZrAV5p1BTKyTl

​

 

[Joe Shearer]

Not trying to derail this thread.

But since
Joe Shearer said:
It is noted with interest that these is a distinct nautical flavour to your posts.

I thought of writng in PM to Nilgri, but then perhaps others might enjoy this bit of my own nautical past in mist of memories

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

https://www.facebook.com/shanlung/posts/pfbid02vw4H3J4UEwW5MFQdLqaFVJ3sfncJC8veynYCDNJhRtjKN94aDU5aZrAV5p1BTKyTl

​

FABULOUS!

 

[Joe Shearer]

Not trying to derail this thread.

But since
Joe Shearer said:
It is noted with interest that these is a distinct nautical flavour to your posts.

I thought of writng in PM to Nilgri, but then perhaps others might enjoy this bit of my own nautical past in mist of memories

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

https://www.facebook.com/shanlung/posts/pfbid02vw4H3J4UEwW5MFQdLqaFVJ3sfncJC8veynYCDNJhRtjKN94aDU5aZrAV5p1BTKyTl

​

What the HELL were you doing sailing solo at night?
Didn't they have rules about it?

 

[Joe Shearer]

FABULOUS!

It should have been a scuba divers' paradise; THAT close to Singapore, and well within reach of charter diving boats. AND nice, warm water......and so on.

 

[Shanlung]

What the HELL were you doing sailing solo at night?
Didn't they have rules about it?

Same kind of thingee about checking out charts .

And I not known for intelligence now, and even less when I was much much younger as then.

And lots of excuses as wind dying which miraclously coming back up when time to return .

And the gorgeous riding on chariots of green and blue fire still engrained in my soul and heart to these days.

 

[Joe Shearer]

Same kind of thingee about checking out charts .

And I not known for intelligence now, and even less when I was much much younger as then.

And lots of excuses as wind dying which miraclously coming back up when time to return .

And the gorgeous riding on chariots of green and blue fire still engrained in my soul and heart to these days.

Forgivable, then.

 

[Nilgiri]

Writing on the Mongols is relatively easy

Somewhat, but there are sentimental personal connections and nuances that are rarely found in (say English) literature. It also takes some essential sustained living among the Chinese people. That would be some of the angle I hope to add to whats been well written already out there (some really good YT documentaries too).

You see long before HK was even a small collection of hamlets and pirate dens (and even entered into the parlance as some place), there was the greater establishment of what is now called Guangzhou (or Canton) of the pearl river delta area.

In proximity to all this occurred the final tragic swan song of the song.

The naval battle is well recounted in places.... but it is always sad the minister in the finale and surrounded.... took the boy emperor in his grasp and jumped together off the cliff....rather than be subject to whatever came next.

To me it always stood in marked contrast to when one could, like Octavian, have a great, trusted and soundly competent admiral like Agrippa and not even watch the battle but simply lie on the shore staring at the sky waiting for it to end in victory. At least I think thats how Suetonius described it, (or was it Livy I forget)...anecdotally or not shrug.

I've mentioned Kowloon a few times recently to @Fatman17 , you also saw me mention "long" as dragon as well to friend sketching a wood dragon for the new year.

But did you know the name Kowloon means 9 dragons in Cantonese....sounding markedly different to how it would in mandarin (jiu long)?

From Kowloon or the island... you can see the 8 peaks fairly easily from number of vantage points (each a dragon per se)

The 9th dragon commemorates that boy emperor of the Song, and strikes a deeper chord with Chinese mythology regd 9 dragons (9 sons of the dragon king).

That is not all though, where I went to school had nearby one of the greatest temples of HK (in Tai Wai). Famous Song general (Che Kung) is venerated there as a protector deity....for his great fealty and loyalty to the last uninterrupted Han dynasty. I have passed by on the train so many times as a kid and knew none of this story at all. As a kid Tai Wai rather heralded that the long beacon hill tunnel would soon come, with the ear popping effect that it would always produce. That and the station had a giant ferris wheel nearby and driving school.....these all would be what I would observe rather than the plainer temple heh.

As great as the Ming were (and the redemption arc promised till the Manchus ended that too), there are deep psyche things vested with the Song. There is deep essence in this stuff thats hard to put in words....the kinds of things these all represent.

There is an immense amount of mythology regarding the sea as well in HK (and China by extension) that have their own connections to these themes from say a more tragic + yearning seafaring sense.

One would pass under the great lion rock as well (by road) to get from Tai Wai to Kowloon....memories still so clear to me. One could just about glimpse the lion rock for a few seconds on the top level of double decker bus before entering the tunnel when a clearing appeared.

2 of the 4 houses at school were also lion and dragon as well (all 4 were technically named after bridges close to my school). I was of another house with yet another deep story past the school.

Never really could make the deep connections as a kid though, these are only seen a lot later in life looking back.

 

[Nilgiri]

Not trying to derail this thread.

But since
Joe Shearer said:
It is noted with interest that these is a distinct nautical flavour to your posts.

I thought of writng in PM to Nilgri, but then perhaps others might enjoy this bit of my own nautical past in mist of memories

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

https://www.facebook.com/shanlung/posts/pfbid02vw4H3J4UEwW5MFQdLqaFVJ3sfncJC8veynYCDNJhRtjKN94aDU5aZrAV5p1BTKyTl

​

Shanlung, no kidding, seletar? small world...you still live in SG? what a fascinating account you had back then....Singapore would have been quite different back then heh.

Spent better part of my teenage years growing up in Yishun lol (Nee soon in hokkien ofc)
I know seletar reservoir area like back of my hand lol (I'd bike to it so much, and lot of stories from just that)

RAF seletar, I'd be busy studying/reading in my room....I'd keep the window open for the breeze (preferred it to AC)....this meant i would at times hear (and easily observe) the propeller training a/c from seletar airbase,

Both AF and also they had a gen av. flying club there too and my folks apt was adjacent to VLS approach lol...and the cessna could easily be observed flying by with its distinct sound.

Don't worry about derailing, i will be re-doing the initial posts again in separate thread later now that i figured out better way to do this.

I will repurpose this thread as something more generic later related to say history and current affairs debate etc.

Retagging some folks who may enjoy reading the conversation taking place here over last cpl pages.

@VCheng @RescueRanger @Waz @Hyde @Waj Sal et al.

 

[Nilgiri]

It should have been a scuba divers' paradise; THAT close to Singapore, and well within reach of charter diving boats. AND nice, warm water......and so on.

I'll get into some of this a bit later.

 

[Shanlung]

Shanlung, no kidding, seletar? small world...you still live in SG? what a fascinating account you had back then....Singapore would have been quite different back then heh.

Spent better part of my teenage years growing up in Yishun lol (Nee soon in hokkien ofc)
I know seletar reservoir area like back of my hand lol (I'd bike to it so much, and lot of stories from just that)

What a small world this is

That you lived within a few dozen stone throws of Seletar Yacht Club.

Dont get me started on Seletar Reservoir. I knew it when it was called Mandai Reservoir r and that time slightly bigger than the pond at Singapore Botanic Garden.

Streams going into Mandai Reservoir black water from the peat and clear, and chocked full of rasboras and tiger barbs. One can almost walk across the stream on the fishes.

And the fireflies were so plentiful then, that I sadly incarcerate in glass jars so I could be amused by their lights before they died.

I think those were not sights seen during your time there.


Kind of hidden amonge the comments of that posting on nautical matters.

I was very very aware that kids read me for my postings on Tinkerbell , and so I self censored myself.
And alas much of those memories so vivid and clear then and now lost to me unless I wrote it

, I did not go into exquisite details of all I seen when those memories still clear and vivid then. Of dancing nekkid guys on roof of public toilet at Bugis Street. Or mud wrestlings in bars of Sembawang. Alas, with my entry into Dotardhood, those exquisite lurid details no longer as sharp as they were at point of first writing. down.

I was a hustler foil to my chess master friend Arthur during those times.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

plagiarised from comments in nautical saga


Shan Lung
Since you folks like my recollection of how I mispend my earlier days, here is one. Sadly as then the forums I wrote to had many little boys and girls that love to read me, I did not go into exquisite details

FORUM KEPT COMPLAINING I SEND MORE THAN 6 IMAGES WHEN NO IMAGES SEND.
SO BETTER GO INTO COMMENTS AND READ

 

[Nilgiri]

The archiving is proceeding so much better/faster now with pic heavy stuff (austerlitz battle reports). The pics are worth it if you read the threads I just did now in this section.

Thanks @Mr X @RescueRanger et al.

Will we have this elite member setting for a few more days, rest of month? I should be done with austerlitz stuff soon. Rest of the threads I saved are not so pic heavy so its not so much issue.

 

[Nilgiri]

This was austerlitz longest battle report that I had saved and it feels good to have gotten it done:

BATTLE REPORT - Ulm-Austerlitz 1805

Original PDF Author: Austerlitz Original link: https://pdf.defence.pk/threads/battle-report-15-ulm-austerlitz-1805.310635/post-5567784 Original date posted: April 23, 2014 AUSTERLITZ CAMPAIGN 1805 - MASTERY OF EUROPE BACKGROUND : December 2, 1804 Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.Napoleon...

defencepk.com

I stumbled into some image errors halfway through (on page 4) and I had to resort to manual uploads of those (some images I skipped over as result, but nothing important) which was a bit slow and frustrating....but thankfully then the errors ended for pages 5 and 6 and it was smooth sailing again.

I have 4 of austerlitz battle report series remaining to be uploaded and about 8 or so of other interesting PDF threads. Will get to those with time later.

@RescueRanger @Mr X @VCheng @Waz @Waj Sal et al.

 

[RescueRanger]

This was austerlitz longest battle report that I had saved and it feels good to have gotten it done:

BATTLE REPORT - Ulm-Austerlitz 1805

Original PDF Author: Austerlitz Original link: https://pdf.defence.pk/threads/battle-report-15-ulm-austerlitz-1805.310635/post-5567784 Original date posted: April 23, 2014 AUSTERLITZ CAMPAIGN 1805 - MASTERY OF EUROPE BACKGROUND : December 2, 1804 Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.Napoleon...

defencepk.com

I stumbled into some image errors halfway through (on page 4) and I had to resort to manual uploads of those (some images I skipped over as result, but nothing important) which was a bit slow and frustrating....but thankfully then the errors ended for pages 5 and 6 and it was smooth sailing again.

I have 4 of austerlitz battle report series remaining to be uploaded and about 8 or so of other interesting PDF threads. Will get to those with time later.

@RescueRanger @Mr X @VCheng @Waz @Waj Sal et al.

Much obliged sir. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

 

[Mr X]

This was austerlitz longest battle report that I had saved and it feels good to have gotten it done:

BATTLE REPORT - Ulm-Austerlitz 1805

Original PDF Author: Austerlitz Original link: https://pdf.defence.pk/threads/battle-report-15-ulm-austerlitz-1805.310635/post-5567784 Original date posted: April 23, 2014 AUSTERLITZ CAMPAIGN 1805 - MASTERY OF EUROPE BACKGROUND : December 2, 1804 Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.Napoleon...

defencepk.com

I stumbled into some image errors halfway through (on page 4) and I had to resort to manual uploads of those (some images I skipped over as result, but nothing important) which was a bit slow and frustrating....but thankfully then the errors ended for pages 5 and 6 and it was smooth sailing again.

I have 4 of austerlitz battle report series remaining to be uploaded and about 8 or so of other interesting PDF threads. Will get to those with time later.

@RescueRanger @Mr X @VCheng @Waz @Waj Sal et al.

I reduced the upload limit thinking you are down with the uploads. Do you want me to increase it again?