World's rioters put to shame by Hungarians.

[California Tanker]

"Dum de dum... Rubber bullets at this mob... nice... Oooh, watercannon that crowd over there... cool... Say, what's that rumbling sound?"

show spoiler

WWII era T-34/85.

Got to hand it to the Russians, they build them solid and reliable. Got to hand it to the Hungarian rioters too, for nicking it and getting it running!

NTM

[Watser?]

Budapest's police chief said protest organisers had broken an agreement with them and there was a "considerable quantity" of knives and other weapons.

Beeb

"other weapons"

[Adam]

That's hilarious. Is there an accompanying story or just the pic?

[Watser?]

It is in the link I just posted (so is the pic)

[Clutch Munny]

Originally Posted by California Tanker

Got to hand it to the Russians, they build them solid and reliable.

"Ask a Soviet engineer to design a pair of shoes and he'll come up with something that looks like the boxes that the shoes came in. Ask him to make something that will massacre Germans, and he turns into Thomas fucking Edison."

--Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon

[California Tanker]

Heres another picture.

him to make something that will massacre Germans, and he turns into Thomas fucking Edison

And that's exactly what the T-34 did. Best tank of the war.

NTM

[godfry n. glad]

Aw, cheeses... These are also the people who came up with the antidote: the Molotov cocktail. They ought to have plenty of soda bottles around Budapest these days.

Hey...Isn't next week the 50th anniversary of the Hungaro-Ruskie face-off?

[California Tanker]

Originally Posted by godfry n. glad

These are also the people who came up with the antidote: the Molotov cocktail.

That was Finland, in the Winter War. (1939)

Isn't next week the 50th anniversary of the Hungaro-Ruskie face-off?

Yes, that's kindof what all this kicked off from.

NTM

[godfry n. glad]

Originally Posted by California Tanker

That was Finland, in the Winter War. (1939)

oh.

okay.

That provides a better understanding of how the Finns could tweak the bear, then get their butts kicked, and still come out an independent nation.

Just think if they'd figured out the whole dishsoap angle, too...

[ChuckF]

Originally Posted by godfry n. glad

Hey...Isn't next week the 50th anniversary of the Hungaro-Ruskie face-off?

Depends on how you count. The protesters toppled the Stalin statue and massed around the radio building fifty years ago today, on October 23, 1956. While there was some fighting with Soviet troops in Budapest starting on the 24th, the full-scale Soviet invasion and intense street fighting didn't start until next week, November 1.

[California Tanker]

Video clip.

http://mf.index.hu/belfold/okt23_tank.mov



Basic, basic tactical errors. Leaving the hatches open, and leaving your infantry support behind. (Police dropped gas cannisters into the tank). Considering they knew enough to put batteries in it, fuel it up and drive it...

NTM

[mountain_hare]

CT:

That was Finland, in the Winter War. (1939)

Weren't they used in the Spanish Civil War?

[California Tanker]

Not that I'm aware of, but it's possible. They certainly wouldn't have been called 'Molotov Cocktails' though.

NTM

[Watser?]

Originally Posted by California Tanker

Not that I'm aware of, but it's possible. They certainly wouldn't have been called 'Molotov Cocktails' though.

NTM

The heavily-outnumbered Finnish Army, facing Red Army tanks in what came to be known as the Winter War, borrowed an improvised incendiary device design from the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War; in that conflict, the Spanish Nationalists under the orders of General Francisco Franco had used the weapon against Soviet T-26 tanks supporting the Spanish Republicans in a failed 1936 Soviet assault near Toledo, 30 km from Madrid.[1]

When Molotov claimed in radio broadcasts that the Soviet Union was not dropping bombs but rather delivering food to the starving Finns, the Finns started to call the air bombs satirically "Molotov picnic baskets." Soon they responded by saluting the advancing tanks with "Molotov cocktails."

Wikipedia

[California Tanker]

Well, there you go then. What he said.

NTM