Your Favourite Stupid Death in Battle

[Dragunov]

good something all,

on the contrary to comerade Commissar's post, i, Yevgeni Fedorovich Dragunov would like to hear your favourite stupid death in battle. it could be stupid like getting slugged in the chest with a PIAT (actually happened) or stupid like eating a landmine. your choice.

mine would be this though i dont remember the specifics:

a coloum of 20 or so Russians (POWs?) were trudging along a road like most unhappy russkies do when their (drunken?) leader pointed at a german 'frog mine' (s-mine) and told them all his plan.
" i will set it off and then catch it before it explodes!" the russian claimed.

as the group huddled around, true to his word, the Russian set off the mine and then things didnt go as planned. the Russian (and 15 others) were instantly killed as the fragmentation turned them into croc fodder.

i found that one on iremember.ru .

and just wondering, do Tom and Jason check absolutely EVERY post?

cheers, Dragunov

[Brigadefuhrer_Grim]

I guess there where alot of that going on, soldiers having smart plans of how to fix the problem of getting of an mine without dieng. Offcaurse, most of them never got to tell about their smart bulletproof ideas.

[sniper1shot]

If Jason or Tom doesn't then the rest of us do.....WHY?

[Tom Houlihan]

...and just wondering, do Tom and Jason check absolutely EVERY post?

Not all, but most!

I read today, in an as-yet-unpublished manuscript, about a stupid death during the Spanish Civil War. A man was helping another man up over an embankment. The lower man held his rifle up, and the upper many was tugging him using the rifle. Somehow, the lower man's hand hit the trigger, and the upper man was killed. Bad way to go.

[Uncle Joe]

Now, these almost classify like "those famous last words!" This didn´t lead to death, but one Finnish vet remembers how they tested if a 6" dud shell explodes if fired at with rifles from a distance of 5 metres...

[phylo_roadking]

Along the same lines, but not a death "in battle" .....Apparently 1.5 Australians die ever year by testing if 3v batteries are flat by touching the contacts to their tongues.......zzzzzzzzzt!

[Uncle Joe]

How can it kill since 9V dry-cell battery doesn´t do the trick? BTW, the voltage isn´t the killer, the current is ("high"* current causes chemical changes within human body). That is why 100 kiloVolt stun guns are quite safe. And DC is safer than AC (especially mains AC at 50-60 Hz is dangerous due to potential disruption heart´s rhythm).

*less than 1 ampere may be fatal.

[phylo_roadking]

Don't know! ask the Health & Safety people, theyre their figures!

[Dragunov]

that is why you don't fool around with live explosives, even 60 year old ones. the unexploded shells and mines at Stalingrad still claim lives, as the spring thaw reveals them.
they all say to listen to vets, and when i mentioned that i like to pick up fired blanks a base i sometimes go to (for bird banding ), a vet of somalia (i believe) nearly exploded. i know what i'm doing (arguably) and wont do anything too stupid. i promise. brings me to another story...

the same vet told me that they had distribuated pamphlets to kids instructing them NOT to pick up mines and cartriges. the pamphlet featured Superman, who comes to save someone from their firey fate at the end. as things go, the local kids thought that if they played with live ordinance, Superman would come to save them. Bad idea. after several deaths, the peacekeepers (haha, Canada doesnt fight, we peacekeep even though there is no peace ) had to go back and distribute new pamphlets and told, with empasis that Superman was not real, and thus, would not save them from being ripped apart from shrapnel. sure, they're kids, and kids know nothing, but that's reallyreallyreally stupid, especially when your country has been torn by war.

cheers, and more stories please!,
Dragunov

[Commissar D, the Evil]

Hmmm, I like this topic....

Reminds me of the Tiger tank that encountered a JS2 with a dead crew. It was ordered to "finish the tank off" so it fire an 88 into the Soviet tank. Unfortunately, the detonation set off the 122mm shell chambered in JS2's cannon, which, of course, knocked out the Tiger and killed the crew......


Irony is a bitch...

Best,
~D, the EviL

[Tom Houlihan]

Unfortunately, the detonation set off the 122mm shell chambered in JS2's cannon, which, of course, knocked out the Tiger and killed the crew......

Oh, now that just sucks!!!

BTW, the voltage isn´t the killer, the current is...

Yup! That's why yours truly got to take a ride on a 50,000 volt Taser, and live to talk about it!

Suggestion: If a cop ever points a Taser at you, just prone yourself out and let him handcuff you. I don't care if you didn't do anything, just surrender. Trust me, you don't want to take that "ride!"

[Commissar D, the Evil]

Unfortunately, the detonation set off the 122mm shell chambered in JS2's cannon, which, of course, knocked out the Tiger and killed the crew......


Oh, now that just sucks!!

Yeah, just think about it, everyone knew the crew was dead, the purpose was simply to prevent the rcovery of the tank by the Russians. So no one thought of keeping clear of the JS2's gun. What a way to go.......

War is full of stupid deaths, like the sargent in Vietnam--a "lifer"--whose grenade pin caught on a piece of foilage and pulled out with fatal consequences.

I suppose, though, that men should not be blamed for the accidents of war. We civilians bump our heads or knees every day against tables and doorways, but we're not carrying live ordinance. Perhaps a better title to this thread would be "Accidental Deaths" or "Unfortunate Accidents in War"?

Best,
David

[Prit]

Not a death, but:

When I was in Hong Kong, I looked after a couple of Gurkhas who had been patrolling the border and were brought into the hospital. Apparently, the conversation went something like this:

Gurkha 1: Hey, Yambahadur, what's that in the tree?

Gurkha 2: I think it's a hornets' nest.

Gurkha 1: No, it looks nothing like a hornet's nest.

Gurkha 2: Well, let's hit it with your rifle and see what happens...

[Commissar D, the Evil]

Well, I suppose it seemed like a good idea at the time.......


Best,
David

[Alex Coles]

they're kids, and kids know nothing, but that's reallyreallyreally stupid, especially when your country has been torn by war.

I'm a kid, and I find that insulting.