Wow, so Sepp has been issued a Gewehr, some of whose parts have survived two wars? On a similar topic, I've heard the Danish border guards on Greenland carried American WW1 era Model 1917 rifles into the 21st century to give themselves something that has a chance against polar bears. Maybe they...
PM, I certainly agree with your description of Little League play. As a LL umpire, I used to call an enormous strike zone to encourage players to put the ball in play and get the defense into the game. I was on occasion targeted by a beer bottle from the stands for my efforts.
"...more than upsetting the applecart, she had blown it apart with a howitzer." Nice turn of phrase. Your description of Kiki's response to the chaos she found had phrases like "upsetting the applecart" and "kicking over the anthill" coming to my mind. Poor Freddy.
Based on the unit histories on the excellent corregidor.org website, air attacks did not significantly affect the open batteries of the harbor defenses of Manila Bay. Significant degradation of their capabilities didn't occur until the attackers were able to emplace 240 mm siege guns on Bataan.
Damage reports from all the harbor defenses of Manila bay can be found at corregidor.org. The major casualty I can find at Ft. Drum after the AA guns was the ventilating system.
Fort Drum apparently wouldn't have been effective for much longer. I seem to remember an account of the status of the harbor defenses of the due to damage from the 240mm howitzers of the Japanese siege train. Drum had been hit enough that several feet of concrete had been chewed off its...
We wouldn't have had the push for passive automotive safety devices that Elvis' death promoted. Cadillac would never have gained its worldwide reputation for safety engineering.