shiftysgarand
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Post by shiftysgarand on Jan 13, 2018 15:01:54 GMT -5
Since quizzes are always fun, I thought that I would add some to 2nd Bat's list of quizzes he's made. As such, this quiz has the same format and rules as his quizzes.
1. What does the phrase "tenno heika banzai" (天皇陛下萬歳) mean in English? (2nd Bat (or rather his wife’s aunt) was correct. The nearest English is something like “May the Emperor reign for 10,000 years” or more naturally “Long Live His Majesty the Emperor.”)
2. What is the most plausible reason as to why so many Type 38 and Type 99 Arisaka rifles are missing their dust covers today? (Stuka got this one. American troops most likely tossed them.)
3. What was the average height of Japanese soldiers during WW2? (Stuka was correct. The most commonly cited figure is 5’3”, much shorter than the American average of 5’8” and shorter than the modern Japanese male average of 5’7”.)
4. Why was the Type 11 light machine gun so unique? (Volks answered correctly. Rather than a belt or magazine, it used a problem-prone hopper fed by Type 38 stripper clips.)
5. What were SNLF units? (特別陸戦隊) Volks got this one too. SNLF, the English translation of their name, is short for "Special Naval Landing Forces." These were Japanese naval infantry units.
6. T/F The emperor ordered the invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the date some Chinese consider WWII to have begun. (2nd Bat was close enough. False, the Japanese Army acted on its own without the Emperor's authorization and without him knowing their plan.)
7. T/F Kamikaze pilots were all fanatical volunteers who were eager to die for their country. (2nd Bat was correct. FALSE, many were forced to or felt their honor and/or duty required it. Peer pressure is a crazy thing..)
8. T/F The Imperial Japanese Army developed their own assault aircraft carriers. (Volks got this one. TRUE, the IJA had carriers as well as the Navy, though not nearly as prevalently.)
9. What was referred to as "tako-ashi" ("Octopus legs") by Japanese soldiers? (Stuka was correct. The Type 99 pack had a multitude of straps to tie soldiers’ gear to it that resembled octopus tentacles.)
10. Did any of the Axis Powers succesfully bomb/shell the Continental 48 states? If so, how? (2 answers here) (Volks got this one too. Balloon bombs riding the jet stream killed a few civilians, and Japanese submarines shelled at least 2 locations on the West Coast.)
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Post by volkssturm on Jan 13, 2018 15:41:17 GMT -5
4. Why was the Type 11 LMG so unique. Instead of a magazine or belt it was fed by the same 5 round stripper clips the rifles used. Loaded stripper clips were stacked up in a hopper on the left side of the weapon and the mechanism stripped cartridges off them and chambered them. In one respect it was a brilliant idea, in that everyone used the same ammo system. On the downside it made for a complicated mechanism that lacked reliability under field conditions. I'm not aware of any other lmg that used something like that.
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stuka
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Post by stuka on Jan 13, 2018 16:00:58 GMT -5
2. I blame GI's for that but supposedly they'd create too much noise so Japanese soldiers would remove them, which I disagree with since their equipment was given by the emporer who was seen as a god. You wouldn't see a Christian tossing away something they believe jesus gave them for example and that it doesn't make sense that it would be too loud unless you aren't loaded before a firefight as there is no way it's going to be heard during a firefight if the M1 Garand's ping can't be heard during one.
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shiftysgarand
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Post by shiftysgarand on Jan 13, 2018 16:22:51 GMT -5
Both of you are correct. The Type 11 was a fairly poor execution of a potentially clever idea, and its mechanism was not replicated on future Japanese automatic weapons.
The most commonly cited reason for the dust cover was that they rattled so Japanese soldiers removed them, but like Stuka, most experts disagree with this. Other items, like sling swivels, rattle too, but they remained on the rifles, and the dust cover was very effective in keeping the action clean. Additionally, as Stuka said, it will be drowned out by gunfire during a firefight. However, they are a little tricky to put back on the rifle during reassembly and it is likely many GIs tossed them when bringing home rifles as trophies.
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Post by volkssturm on Jan 14, 2018 13:21:52 GMT -5
10. Did any of the Axis Powers succesfully bomb/shell the Continental 48 states? If so, how? (2 answers here)
Japanese submarines shelled the West Coast on at least two occasions. Once near Santa Barbara and once near Ft. Stevens, Washington, near the mouth of the Columbia. No significant damage but they did cause fear of an invasion. There was also the infamous incendiary balloon campaign. The Japanese released balloons with incendiary bombs that rode the jet stream to the Pacific northwest. They hoped to start massive wildfires but they had very little effect. A party of civilians out on a picnic came on one of the bombs and several were killed.
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2nd Bat
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Post by 2nd Bat on Jan 14, 2018 15:22:38 GMT -5
Classified for many years was the fact that forest fires caused by the Japanese paper, incendiary balloons cut power lines supporting the efforts in Hanford WA causing a halt and near destruction in the refinement process of fissionable uranium used in producing the first nuclear bombs.
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2nd Bat
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Post by 2nd Bat on Jan 14, 2018 15:24:08 GMT -5
I would consider question number 6 as the true start of WW2. However it could be easily argued that the Japanese War Ministry lead by TOJO rather than the Emperor is who ordered it.
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shiftysgarand
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Post by shiftysgarand on Jan 14, 2018 15:56:14 GMT -5
Volks, you are once again correct. The balloon bombs are well known, but the submarine shellings less so.
2nd Bat, you are partially correct about number 6. The Emperor did not order the invasion, but neither did the War Ministry. Along with bushido, the Japanese military was also governed by the policy of gekokujo, translating as something like "loyal insubordination." Junior officers in the Japanese Army stationed in China, feeling it was in the best interest of Japan, engineered justification to invade Manchuria and invaded in direct violation of orders from Tokyo. It is obvious how this concept would cause problems for the Japanese down the road.
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Post by volkssturm on Jan 15, 2018 12:33:22 GMT -5
5. What were SNLF units? Special Naval Landing Forces. The Japanese Marines.
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Post by shiftysgarand on Jan 16, 2018 16:20:46 GMT -5
Once again correct! They were not technically trained as Marines (just sailors with some infantry training,) but they were frequently used as Marines.
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Post by volkssturm on Jan 16, 2018 17:21:16 GMT -5
The rest of you, y'all feel free to jump in here. I don't want to hog all the questions.
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2nd Bat
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Post by 2nd Bat on Jan 16, 2018 23:44:22 GMT -5
awesome quiz Shifty. 7 is definitely false as there are many remorseful letters written by Kamakazi pilots who out of honor and a feeling of obligatory duty NOT fanatasism or a desire to die lead them to their final flights. It is ironic and fascinating that the first recorded incident of a pilot purposely crashing his aircraft into an enemy ship was an American flyer!
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Post by shiftysgarand on Jan 17, 2018 18:41:00 GMT -5
Correct! Kamikaze pilots (especially early on) were very young as they were recruited from universities, where untapped resources of able-bodied young men remained. I am amazed that Japan recovered as well as it did from the devastating losses it sustained in the war.
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stuka
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Post by stuka on Jan 18, 2018 10:02:19 GMT -5
3. 5'3"?
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Post by shiftysgarand on Jan 18, 2018 17:48:57 GMT -5
正解!Stuka, that is the most commonly cited figure, and I believe it is accurate. Japanese peasants did not have full bellies like 21st century Americans, coupled with East Asian genetics leading to frequently smaller stature created some short soldiers. You can see how a 50 inch rifle plus a 16 inch bayonet may not have been the best idea in practical use... *That’s not to say ALL Japanese troops were that small. Australian vets who fought on the Kokoda recount encountering a unit of Japanese made of entirely soldiers over 6 feet.*
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2nd Bat
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Post by 2nd Bat on Jan 19, 2018 22:18:23 GMT -5
5'3" seems remarkably short even for those days. I was going to guess 5'5" based on group photos of Japanese soldiers relative to their rifles. At our entry into WW2 according to quartermaster records the average chest size of a US soldier entering the Army was 34" s. Not sure what the average height was but I would guess only 5'9 or 5'10. Average shoe size was a 9. By wars end the average chest size was 36. My father said as a result of the depression he and his 10 brothers and sisters never had 3 meals in a day. He said his first day in the Army was the first time he had regular food, ANY item of clothing that was brand new and a bunk to himself.
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Post by volkssturm on Jan 23, 2018 13:17:00 GMT -5
I've read that about a third of all the prospective WWII draftees were declared unfit because of poor childhood nutrition, bad teeth, etc., resulting from the Depression. People don't recall how bad conditions were for a lot of the country. Question 8: True. (I had to look this one up). The Japanese built the Shinshu Maru, the first ship designed to carry landing craft and aircraft to support amphibious operations. Very much like our modern amphibious assault ships. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_amphibious_assault_ship_Shinshū_Maru
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Post by 2nd Bat on Jan 23, 2018 18:59:31 GMT -5
I cheated on question #1 and asked my wife's aunt who is from Japan. She was frankly somewhat uncomfortable with the question as it has taken on a somewhat nationalistic tone in contemporary Japan. According to her it was a patriotic cheer during the war (We are all familiar with "Banzai" charges. Banzai is a shortened version of the full phrase which means "May the Empires live 10,000 years."
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stuka
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Post by stuka on Jan 24, 2018 6:41:05 GMT -5
9 if I remember correctly that is in reference to the type 99 (?) Pack. Tako meaning octopus and the pack was nicknamed this because of the canves' multiple straps resembling those of an octopus or at least having a similar amount of "tentacles"
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shiftysgarand
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Post by shiftysgarand on Jan 24, 2018 19:08:44 GMT -5
Volks: correct! I will give you partial credit for looking it up (that was one of the more obscure and harder ones.) I always found it interesting that such was the interservice rivalry between the IJA and IJN that the Army went over the Navy’s head and got their own carrier (obviously for different purposes, but the US Army does not have its own aircraft carriers today.) 2nd Bat: I will give you partial credit as well for using outside resources. “Tenno heika”(天皇陛下) means “His Majesty the Emperor” and “banzai”(万歳) literally means “ten thousand years,” so put together it approximates your translation. The words themselves do not have intrinsically evil meanings, but it is not a phrase commonly used in modern Japan (for obvious reasons) and I completely understand your source’s discomfort. Stuka: correct! I’m impressed, as that was written with being a tough one in mind. Japanese packs had many straps to tie everything to it that would resemble octopus tentacles to a private from Osaka.
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stuka
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Post by stuka on Jan 25, 2018 14:54:21 GMT -5
I actually had a repro one a while ago and wondered about its name.
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2nd Bat
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Post by 2nd Bat on Feb 13, 2018 22:34:17 GMT -5
Fun quiz. Thanks for putting it together. I have a PTO question to pose: What weapon was nicknamed the wood pecker and why?
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stuka
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Post by stuka on Feb 14, 2018 1:44:23 GMT -5
Type 92? Because its rate of fire resembled the noise of a wood pecker pecking well wood
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Post by volkssturm on Feb 14, 2018 12:59:14 GMT -5
"Octopus tentacles." Reminds me of a funny story. Years ago my girlfriend and I went to Cabo San Lucas. One night we're in a restaurant and she orders some kind of Mexican seafood stew. I told her I was surprised, because I knew she didn't like stuff with tentacles, like calamari, and told her so. And she said, "Why?" And I said the stew has octopus in it." And she said "No, it doesn't." They bring the bowl and sure enough there's a piece of tentacle, sucker side up, sitting right on top. The look on her face was priceless, as they say.
(We broke up not much later. I probably shouldn't have laughed.)
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