Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

ferdi254

Banned
Not really being an expert on infantry weapons but the MG 3 was introduced 1969 OTL and that was a very nice one man MG which is until today the standard MG of the Bundeswehr so it cannot be that bad.
 

ferdi254

Banned
And just imagine an ad for an astronaut which as one part of the job description has:

Has to deal with wild animals up to bears.
 
Not really being an expert on infantry weapons but the MG 3 was introduced 1969 OTL and that was a very nice one man MG which is until today the standard MG of the Bundeswehr so it cannot be that bad.
It's also about 2 kg heavier than the weapon that PM is referring to here. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_vz._59 )

Which is in keeping with the Bohemian army developing "Similar, but lighter and different" equipment that they have been doing in this story for a while now.

The gist is that while the MG3 is a one man weapon in theory, the reality is that it still requires a gunner and ammo carrier. The lighter the weapon, the more ammo the gunner can carry, and if that is light enough, you can eliminate the entire idea of an ammo carrier.

And if the weapon is designed to also use the standard 30 round magazines that everyone else is carrying, it increases the gunner's ammo capacity because anyone else in the section can throw him a mag to use.

It's an idea that's been around almost as long as LMG's have been a thing, some versions of the idea work (The FN Minimi) some versions fail horribly (Type 11).

While I don't doubt that the Bohemians will give it a damn good try, the system is, inherently, flawed because when under live fire, short contained bursts are hard, and a 30 round mag even fired in such a method, runs out quickly.
 
With the Russians joining forces with the ESA, this brings the total number of launch facilities available to the ESA to three; Cam Ranh Bay, Guiana Space Centre and Baikonur Cosmodrome. This will greatly enhance their ability to launch & supply any orbital platform that they choose to build. Although they probably should start calling themselves the ISA (International Space Agency) since so many other nations are participating in some way.

Can some please refresh my memory, as I honestly cannot remember if NASA has managed to out anyone in orbit yet ITTL.
 
I think that the whole Diskussion about ammunition types for the MG is a matter of doctrine.

Do you use a rifle caliber GPMG as the central element of the squad, where everyone else carriers an extra load of ammunition for the MG's and a squads main fire power is the MG?

Or do you use a lighter SAW, that uses the same intermediate cartridge as the carbines in a squad, where the SAW is mainly there to provide superior suppressive fire and the squad engages the enemy at ranges around less than 100 meters with aimed semiautomatic fire and enhanced optics?
 
In this discussion of the various space programs we must defer to this timeline's Director of Space Operations Peabody-Martini, it has been established that ITTL 1957 the United States sent Virgil "Gus" Grissom in to orbit and are now working on a different Saturn V booster rocket.
If the United States can't be first to the Moon it may want to instead put the largest manmade object in space an Earth Orbital Laboratory built in a modular form so that more pods can be added to it.
The US. can trade access to the EOL to the ESA in return for American Astronauts getting to go to the Moon with the Europeans and as an added bonus this will reduce the duplication of efforts and allow for more and different space missions.
 

ferdi254

Banned
The question like with some other projects is how would the USA fare without twice getting the German knowledge and the engineers. No Werner von Braun on USA side and something similar to Apollo ITTL? USA wank
 
Maybe not an USA wank with NASA.
The USA has the population to demestically create the personal it needs.
But on the other hand, the monetary situation in ATL should be vastely different then OTL. So the USA has to be much more economical with what it spends money on.

An lastely, the near total absense of racial tension after the big buildup before is concerning as Germany seems to tumble from one problem (Papaen) to another (Polish nationalism). And while it is nice to see a 20th centurie without the overdominance of the USA, it is still a major player and the racial tensions of OTL and ATL should have a bigger impect right now.
 
In this discussion of the various space programs we must defer to this timeline's Director of Space Operations Peabody-Martini, it has been established that ITTL 1957 the United States sent Virgil "Gus" Grissom in to orbit and are now working on a different Saturn V booster rocket.
If the United States can't be first to the Moon it may want to instead put the largest manmade object in space an Earth Orbital Laboratory built in a modular form so that more pods can be added to it.
The US. can trade access to the EOL to the ESA in return for American Astronauts getting to go to the Moon with the Europeans and as an added bonus this will reduce the duplication of efforts and allow for more and different space missions.

Thanks for that, I knew they were having rocketry issues, but just could remember who, when or even if they'd chucked someone up there yet. As for an EOL, I just don't see the Yanks going that way. NASA will want to build one, but good old national pride & hysteria whipped up by the media will demand that they at least try to match the Europeans.
 
Thanks for that, I knew they were having rocketry issues, but just could remember who, when or even if they'd chucked someone up there yet. As for an EOL, I just don't see the Yanks going that way. NASA will want to build one, but good old national pride & hysteria whipped up by the media will demand that they at least try to match the Europeans.
The prestige would be having the biggest man made object in space and setting endurance records but a manned moon landing may be attempted just to show that the US. can do it also.
ITTL the United States has a much lower debt to GDP ratio then IOTL because of no American participation in OTL WW II and there is no Vietnam War sucking every dollar not mailed down.
This will allow the US to have more flexibility in spending money and IOTL Long Island had a lot of aerospace companies involved in the space program and I have no doubt that ITTL President Rockefeller would like to see the dollars flow in to Long Island.
 
Part 109, Chapter 1780
Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Eighty



27th January 1967

Cam Ranh, Vietnam

It was astonishing how many people from around the world were making their way to Cam Ranh Bay because this wasn’t going to be a typical launch according to Zella who had been out to tape their presence for the last couple hours. Sigi couldn’t see it from the area where she was waiting until she would put on the suit and take the elevator up the tower to enter Hansa I, as the Command Module for Taxidiotis IV had been dubbed. Supposedly the beaches, fields, and roads outside the perimeter were already crowded with tens of thousands of spectators though the launch wasn’t scheduled for another couple hours and it was still early in the morning. Even without the Launch Center located here the area was becoming known as a resort hotspot. The Government of Vietnam had originally seen this as a means of bringing jobs to the area that were not seasonal. Instead, it was swiftly becoming one of the most famous locations on the planet.

It while she was waiting that Sigi was handed a phone and discovered that she was talking to an American Anchorman from the Columbia Broadcasting Service. Apparently, she was supposed to be mindful that what she said would be going out on the air.

“Do you have time to talk Miss Grimmelshausen?” Walter Cronkite asked, “Just a few questions.”

“I have time” Sigi replied, looking at the countdown clock that was ticking down. In New York it would be early evening.

It took a moment for Cronkite to introduce her. Lieutenant Colonel Sieglinde Grimmelshausen, a decorated Pilot from the German Army Air Service. The first woman in orbit and now she was about to command the first manned expedition to the Moon.

“Today is the big day for you Colonel” Cronkite said, “All the preparation and planning have come down to this. Your thoughts?”

“This mission has been years in the planning, we have assembled the best crew, the engineering in the Taxidiotis Program is second to none and I anticipate success if all goes to plan” Sigi replied. Glancing over she saw Gagarin and Hartmann throwing small wads of paper at Pierre’s back trying to get one down the back of his collar, Leonov had somehow fallen asleep.

“You have broken through the glass ceiling like few other women have” Cronkite said, “Do you have anything to say to any young woman following your example?”

It took Sigi a second to consider the meaning of the American term that he had just used. She had heard it used before, that women could only rise so far before they hit an invisible ceiling. Having an Emperor for a half-brother and the patronage of a Fürstin had prevented that from happening to her. She couldn’t exactly spread that around, now could she.

“With perseverance you can achieve anything” Sigi replied. It was the sort of answers that she had been coached to give.

“Do you have anything to say to Commander Shepard?” Cronkite asked.

It was a reminder that if today’s launch was scrubbed, NASA was planning on launching Apollo IV next week. There was a good chance that Alan Shepard would take Sigi’s place in the history books if Taxidiotis IV got delayed for a substantial period of time.

“I wish him luck and my hope is that our flights can advance the understanding of our place in the Universe” Sigi replied, “I look forward to working with him and his colleagues in the spirt of international cooperation.”

Sigi mostly meant what she said, she just didn’t like the idea of coming in second place behind a bunch of cowboys.



28th January 1967

Halle (Saale), Anhalt

Her first days in Halle had been difficult. This was not because Kiki had too much to do, but because after years of frenetic activity she suddenly found herself with periods of time with nothing to do but wait for the next patent. The most exciting case so far had been of a patent who had suffered a heart attack while shoveling snow. She had assisted in that one, expected to learn from the Doctor who was actually treating the patent. Mostly, Kiki had watched quietly and did what she was told, which was what she had been informed was her primary task as a first-year Intern. She occasionally talked to patents who were more comfortable talking to her than the male Doctors, that led directly to hearing a lot about women’s issues that she would need to translate into terms that would help with treatment. There was also the exhausting commute to and from Jena. Kiki found herself looking forward to her time out in the field because it would be an escape from the Emergency Department.

Today, Kiki had been watching Sigi being interviewed from Orbit on the television in the Staff Room when one of the Doctors had asked if she wanted handle a case herself, with supervision of course. The patient was a man in his forties who had a badly swollen foot with a substantial abscess growing out the side of it.

“Why didn’t you come in sooner?” Kiki asked to the patient who just shrugged.

“I’ve been busy” The patient replied.

He had been too busy not to notice this, Kiki thought to herself. How was that possible? She couldn’t figure out how he had managed to get a shoe onto that foot for the prior weeks.

“What are our options with Herr Glücks’ foot?” The Doctor supervising Kiki asked.

“Administer a local anastatic and drain the abscess” Kiki said to the Doctor who nodded. “Does he have any allergies?”

“Not according to his file” The Doctor said, and Kiki wondered why Glücks didn’t seem to be having an issue with being a teaching aid.

Kiki found a syringe and a vial of Lidocaine. After numbing the area around the abscess with a series of injections, Kiki picked up a scalpel and looked at the Doctor who nodded. Something about the look on the Doctor’s face suggested that she needed to consider every angle. She had seen abscesses like this before and they often had one thing in common, Kiki reached for a tray and couple rolls of gauze. She would need it because the contents of an abscess tended to be under pressure, and she would need to pack the wound after the abscess had been cleaned out. The Doctor had been prepared to let her make a horrible mess if she had gotten that part wrong.
 
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I'm sorry, but I kinda don't like how fast the space programmes are going tbh, it took nasa 2 flights to the moon before they attempted the landing, and they don't seem to have even tested the landing vehicle, that's just plain stupid as even when just focusing on landing, with the moons strange gravity fields could and will mess with navigation. Hell it nearly led Apollo 11 into a crater/boulder field.
 
With all the problems NASA has had ITTL with its rockets, especially the Saturns, an attempted Moon mission by them has to be driven by political pressure to "catch up". True the ESA has had similar issues, but they seem to have to sorted theirs out and their time table doesn't appear to be anywhere near as rushed. Whereas we know that the White House has expressed its disappointment with NASA on more than one occasion & is in need of a good PR moment to help paper over the cracks for a while.

That said, its space. Anything and everything can and will go wrong. It is ruled by the Demon Murphy after all.
 
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I just assumed all the testing had occured off camera unless it was in someway interesting*.
But then few people other than other testers appreciate the work that goes into testing, well, everything.



*interesting in a way that inolves some bright light, very loud noises or lots of heat.
If you're unlucky, all at the same time. If you're really unlucky, it's only for a fraction of a second.
 
I'm sorry, but I kinda don't like how fast the space programmes are going tbh, it took nasa 2 flights to the moon before they attempted the landing, and they don't seem to have even tested the landing vehicle, that's just plain stupid as even when just focusing on landing, with the moons strange gravity fields could and will mess with navigation. Hell it nearly led Apollo 11 into a crater/boulder field.
I just assumed all the testing had occured off camera unless it was in someway interesting*.

This is my assumption. The testing didn't involve POV characters and wouldn't be particularly thrilling to read about, so...we can assume it happened.
 
This is my assumption. The testing didn't involve POV characters and wouldn't be particularly thrilling to read about, so...we can assume it happened.
But still, there has been no testing between Ben'[s Mission and Sigi's mission, for example, they didn't take the Lander with them on Ben's trip, but now they expect the lander to work first time.there was no telling how the lander and the Command Module would react in space together. That's not just Stupid, its suicidal.
 
But still, there has been no testing between Ben'[s Mission and Sigi's mission, for example, they didn't take the Lander with them on Ben's trip, but now they expect the lander to work first time.there was no telling how the lander and the Command Module would react in space together. That's not just Stupid, its suicidal.

Again, probably there was another launch off-screen where they did test that but it didn't involve our heroes.
 
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