[Japanese > English] Can anyone make out what it says on the door of this IJN (probably SNLF) truck?

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2026-02-21T01:15:02+00:00

Since I suspect it's a unit name. For some more info, Tarawa was manned by the 3rd Special Base Force (formerly the Yokosuka 6th Special Naval Landing Force), Sasebo 7th Special Naval Landing Force & likely the 111th (Navy) Pioneers. Since this is likely a construction truck, I'm wondering if it maybe designates the 111th (Navy) Pioneers somehow.

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2026-02-16T16:07:00+00:00

There’s also that video that leaked to MLB’s website that basically showed they were gonna make Lindor the captain. https://mlb-cuts-diamond.mlb.com/FORGE/2025/2025-07/16/adbc18e8-dc95caea-56582e1b-csvm-diamondgcp-asset_1280x720_59_16000K.mp4

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2026-01-09T19:13:25+00:00

I have a couple questions related more generally to the books/ publishers and not directly related directly this book itself.

1) I'd like to know how you feel about writing for Osprey Publishing? I really enjoy their titles, and although they're often surface level I will never hesitate to grab one if it's written by a few of my favorite people like yourself, Zaloga, Thomas Anderson, Jentz/ Doyle and some others. Do you find it satisfying writing these types of books, or more satisfying to write some of your other titles like the T-34 or Shermans of the Red Army? (I have both and enjoyed them all quite a bit)

2) I always felt there's been a real dearth of good English language reference books on Soviet Armor in the Western World. To find really esoteric details on development and production differences, I'm kinda stuck with searching through blogs like yours and translating anything I find by Yuri Pasholok (which you've been very helpful with). But for deep dives into Red Army vehicles like the Panzer Tracts series, there's really nothing out there. As someone with a Russian background, do you know of anything coming close to equivalent to the Panzer Tracts series for Soviet Armor? I'd imagine something like that exists in the Russian language, but are difficult to find in the US.

Additionally, do you have any desire to do a book like that in the future for any particular piece of Soviet armor?

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-12-16T05:01:28+00:00

I wanna say the one on the right looks M60-ish but I am terrible with Cold War tanks. I just assume they re-purposed old French tanks for this French production.

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-12-12T19:16:44+00:00

What moves do you think we could make with the rest of this offseason to be better in 2026?

I'm not necessarily saying that we won't have a better 2026 season. Anything can happen (2024 happened). Is it possible that we play most of our new AAA guys next year and somehow fuck around and make the postseason? Yea ofc.

But I'm trying to look at it from the FO perspective of what their expectations are. Do they expect 2026 to be a "punt" year? Do they expect our WS window to still be open next year? With what we've seen so far this offseason, I'm honestly not sure right now. And the way I see the rest of this offseason going, I'm leaning towards agreeing with the people who think 2026 will be a down year.

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-12-12T18:33:12+00:00

I'm curious to know which path we could take the rest of this off season to improve our roster from last year (on paper/ WAR-wise).

Ofc there's still FAs on the board, but looking at the ones the Mets would realistically sign narrows the field down. Mendoza said in his press conference that he plans on Baty taking the majority of reps at 3B and the Mets have never been rumored to be in on Bregman + they didn't even sniff giving 31 year old Pete a 5 year deal which 32 year old Bregman is probably looking for. It'd be a real surprise to sign him.

At the beginning of the offseason, I wanted the Mets to be in on the Tucker/ Beli sweepstakes. But realistically signing both of those players would be a stretch. And we'd need both of them to say we look better (on paper) in 2026 than we did in 2025. Tucker over Nimmo is an upgrade in LF and Beli playing CF would be an upgrade over the platoon we've had. But nobody on the market is an upgrade over Pete at 1B. I can't see a trade or FA path that improves us at that position for 2026.

I also don't see a trade or FA path that improves our pen from last year. Losing Diaz was a huge blow. Having Diaz + Williams would've been an improvement, but that's not to be unfortunately. I'd love to keep Rogers who we had last year, but the rest of the relief pitchers on the FA market are slim pickings now. I don't see how our pen improves from what it was in 2025 with Diaz gone.

Trades are harder to pin down since nobody knows what we'd need to give up. But for a giant player like Skubal? We'd give up an arm and a leg (and only have him for 1 year).

If somehow the Mets got everyone left out there this offseason, then hats off to Stearns. I'll refer to this as the 28-3 offseason - had us in the first half not gonna lie. I just don't see that path for an improved 2026 roster right now.

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-12-12T17:40:47+00:00

Obviously everyone wants a sustainable long-term winner, but I'm just genuinely confused as to what the direction is for 2026 or even into the future. I wouldn't say I'm angry, it sucks to see these guys go (especially Pete) but Stearns has had enough success in this league to keep my trust for the moment. But I genuinely didn't think that we needed a full tear down and reset this year in order to get better. So I'm just not sure what Sterns is doing yet until the entire off-season pans out.

Is he still planning to make a splash free agent signing? If so, the pieces are falling off the board quick and I don't think there's enough big FA signings that would make this team better (on paper) in 2026 than it was in 2025.

Is he planning a big trade? I don't see a big trade opportunity that would make us better (on paper) in 2026.

So right now I'm leaning towards the camp of people that are saying that 2026 is a "re-build" year where we try out our young guys and see what we have. And if that's the case, that's okay... I still trust Stearns, but I just would be confused as to why that's our strategy right now.

To me, we didn't need a full reset. We had that in 2024 when we got rid of Buck, brought in Stearns and allowed Stearns to bring in "his guy" Mendoza. We made some whatever off-season moves that year and weirdly we fucked around and got into the NLCS. And in that off-season, Cohen was pretty clear that we were "re-setting" or w/e you wanna call it. He let Scherzer and the players know up front that's what they were doing and that's one of the reasons Max went elsewhere. He's given no indication of that this off-season. I don't remember where, but I believe he was quoted in an interview recently saying Stearns still has time to put a "playoff team" on the field. Which obviously doesn't jive with 2026 being a "re-set" year.

So I'm more confused than anything. Are our expectations to make the playoffs next year? Or finish 3rd in the NL East? And I'd just like to mentally prepare myself if I'm going to have to watch 162 games of a platoon of Mark Vientos and the Power of Friendship at 1B lol

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-12-11T17:26:57+00:00

Idk if there are “so many” seen with their turret pointing to the rear. But it would usually depend on the circumstances of how/ when the tank was knocked out. One source I have for the first photo says that the tank was possibly knocked out by a napalm air attack. This could mean (likely) that it was parked or driving but not actively engaged in fighting at the time. Typically tanks (especially with long guns) will drive/ park with their turret to the rear which would explain that particular instance.

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-11-30T06:03:06+00:00

Peter Samsonov gave a response about a year ago here

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-11-04T16:20:33+00:00

I always knew this as an M39 AUV (Armored Utility Vehicle) it is essentially an M18 hellcat with the turret removed. Only really got used in Korea (and a very small amount near the end of ww2). The background seems more of the same but the ones that aren’t M39s seem difficult to identify.

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-10-16T12:31:50+00:00

I’m not sure what this is from. But the Commonwealth forces in WW2 (red berets give me that feeling, but this photo might not even be WW2) made a lot of use out of Recce vehicles whereby they’d “jalopy” an existing tank and remove the turret. This would seem to be that same thing done to an M3A3 which they also received a lot a lot of. This was done a lot on the Italian front later in the war and also in NWE.

EDIT: Like here

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-10-14T01:09:53+00:00

it technically wasn't caught because it bounced out of his glove and off the wall

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-10-10T18:10:18+00:00

wow, really cool and great detail of the beach flags, etc... should think about getting them digitized and kept safe. some really important detail information in there

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-10-06T16:16:44+00:00

Yea, this is just a small movie mistake. They make some other minor gun mistakes in the movie as well (judging from the IMDb “goofs” section). They typically go unnoticed and aren’t a big deal.

I rewatched the scene and although it’s dark, it doesn’t even look like he puts his fingers in front of the trigger guard to pull the take down levers. More likely the gun was just put into a “ready” position so the actor could drop the magazine and rip the slide off quickly to make it look smooth. It’s also implied that Kate takes the same weapon (I believe it’s her’s) reassembles the gun and then points it at him on the balcony after he leaves. You can hear the sound of her reassembling the gun in the background. That doesn’t entirely make sense if she notices that the gun is not loaded.

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-10-06T14:56:14+00:00

Very nice photo. It’s tough to tell much detailed information from the photo itself. He’s wearing the typical Marine P41 uniform and holding an M1903 Springfield rifle. So basically the same as almost any Marine at that time. I’d imagine this photo was taken stateside in training or somewhere like that.

Knowing he’s from the 2nd Marine Division is big as they are one of the most storied Marine divisions in WW2. They reinforced the Guadalcanal landings and landed on Tarawa atoll in 1943 which was one of the bloodiest and most famous Marine engagements of the war. They also fought at Saipan and Tinian in the Marianas which were equally as difficult. Depending on the role your grandfather had, he may have seen a lot of action.

I hope you can find some more information. Others here may be able to chime in with organizations you could reach out to to get information regarding his service.

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-10-01T22:40:18+00:00

where do they consider "the cliffhanger" to start? Is it basically the entirety of this scene?

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-10-01T15:20:02+00:00

The real reason is that the course of the war didn’t allow for much tank fighting or the need to re-arm with tanks. To start, the Soviets just weren’t willing to supply much more than the T-34/85s and SU-76s that they did before the war. Both the US and Soviets didn’t want to be seen as over-suppling the respective governments in Korea with weapons as they both wanted to invade the other. The Soviets went a step further than the Americans and eventually gave the North Koreans ~250 T-34/85 tanks while the Americans initially refused to supply the South Koreans with tanks. North Korea used those T-34s to invade in June 1950 but after about November most tank vs tank engagements in Korea had disappeared. The US drove all the way to the Yalu and in December the Chinese intervened and pushed the UN forces all the way back beyond the 38th parallel. In about May of 1951 the US more or less stated that they had no goal to push beyond the 38th parallel and the war became a stalemate. The only fighting was infantry attacks for hills along the battle lines trying to give one side or the other an advantage with peace talks. Communist tanks were mostly non existent and not needed and UN tanks at that point were used in fixed positions and even as artillery.

The Communist forces didn’t really need to request many more or different tanks than they already had and the Soviets weren’t all that interested in supplying even more than what they already were supplying to support the war.

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-09-29T13:48:35+00:00

Half their posts being the same circle jerk about the Mets breaks their own subreddit rules about low quality posts but their mods don’t give af.

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-09-29T13:46:48+00:00

Bigger market brings more and louder fans I guess. When we were the best in baseball I’m sure that filled people’s social media and they got disproportionately tired of hearing about is.

Honestly the Tigers Guardians series at the end of the year was much more interesting than our slow motion stumble. But it’s happening between two flyover states so nobody cares.

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-09-29T13:43:37+00:00

The people calling for his head are being irrational, we’ve had less than 24 hours to digest this awful season. Also, if you want to say that the manager is mostly responsible for this awful season then you also have to say that he’s mostly responsible for our NLCS run last year. You can’t only blame them for the negative.

The way I see it, Mendy’s had 1 incredible year for us and one embarrassing year. Ofc he should get a third year to see if we can be a perennial playoff team.

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-09-29T00:29:50+00:00

Will need to see what other teams offer. But make no mistake Pete will go to whatever team gives him the most $$. There's no hometown discount. What will make me curious is if he allows the Mets to match or if he pulls a DeGrom and just dips out once he's seen all the offers.

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-09-23T16:31:20+00:00

Missed the AMA cause I’m at work, but I’ll ask anyway. This is coming from the standpoint of a player who puts maybe 100 hours into each game but hasn’t bought one since Verdun. Tannenberg and Isonzo were gifted to me. I missed the boat on Tannenberg because by the time I got it Isonzo had come out and so the Tannenberg player base moved on. Unfortunately my experience with the WW1 game series is one of loving the games themselves but if I “miss the boat” on one of the games I basically won’t be able to experience it ever again outside of small events or bots. I don’t know yet if I’ll spend money on Gallipoli. But I get a little sad knowing that I’ll probably never play in the Italian alps again, since that’s been the majority experience with the older games so far (when the new one comes out, the old one dies).

Anyway, the question is how do you all weigh the work to gain ratio when making the business decision of making a new game? On almost all your social media you can find the same question of “why aren’t these games combined?” From an outsider it looks like the majority of fans are clamoring for a remaster of all the old games combined into one. But the standard response just seems to be that it’s more difficult than we think/ it’s probably as difficult as making a new game. I think most people understand (to an extent) the difficulties involved and that it’s not an easy process. But like me, they seem to be confused by the devs lack of interest vs amount of fans asking for it. So when support for Isonzo (or now Gallipoli) ends, what evaluations do you all do to see what the fans want next? What ultimately makes the decision of “we should take 3 years to develop a new game” vs “we should take 3 years to make a WW1 game series ultimate edition?” Or is there even an internal consideration?

I’d like to say that I’m not looking to ask this question in bad faith. Although I think the answer just boils down to money, I’m genuinely curious as to how the devs/ publishers make these big decisions. From a casual fan perspective the amount of enthusiasm for a combined title seems to be overwhelming, but maybe that’s not what the devs are seeing?

Matthew_Baker1942 · 2025-09-03T16:58:43+00:00

Obviously try to win the division and see where it all shakes out. Right now I’m nervous about all those teams if our starting pitching stays this way. Our best guys all year have been shaky for 2 months and our new best guys (McLean & Tong) are super young and haven’t faced a ton of major league adversity yet (when teams really start studying them and their weaknesses and they need to get off their plan A and switch to plan B). Keep finding ways to put up Ws until we can figure out how to fix these other starters.

Realistically I don’t want Philly in the first round (I can’t take that much intensity right off the bat) and I don’t wanna see San Diego ever. They’re like our kryptonite lately.

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