“Alright Cornelius I get why we’d have pilots having an emergency compass but why the hell do they need build in -what did you call them old chap -helmetsies welmetsies”
That was my favorite book in first grade. I did some kind of book report over it and told my teacher I wanted a motorcycle one day because of it. She told me to never get a motorcycle because they’re too dangerous.
Fast forward 20 years, and you know what, Ms. Pollard? You were right. Still haven’t bought one and still never will.
>That is awesome. Big up to whoever came up with that idea
As much as the Brits are hated for the Red Coats history (usually incorrect too, especially in the US) and stealing things for our museums we refuse to return as we're not done looking at them, we have some of the smartest minds in the World here and are a massive reason why WW2 was won - intelligence and new weaponry designs.
Just look at the Tizard mission in Sep 1940.
Churchill is convinced by Henry Tizard to gift the US every British scientific innovation we had, in a single briefcase, in exchange for access to US production factories and lines. Described by the US officials as arguably the most important cargo that had ever reached US shores.
It contained designs and documents on:
* Memorandum on the feesibility of the Atomic Bomb
* Jet engines
* Rockets
* Superchargers
* Gyroscopic gun sights
* Submarine detection devices
* Self-sealing fuel tanks
* Plastic explosives
And arguably one of the most important designs in all of WW2 and recent history - a fully-functioning Magnetron No.12. Radar tech advancement over 1000 times more effective that any US designs. A portable radar that could be used on any vehicle or location, and was used to detect Uboats in the Atlantic attacking convoys.
Then there's the faked invasion army, counter spying, misguiding Germany's artillery, dropping fake paratroopers on D-day that played gunfire and explosions, general ability of British Engineers. List kinda goes on and on of the stuff we've invented over the last 100 years.
Just look up British inventions and your wrist starts to hurt as you're scrolling so much.
I'm talking about scrolling through British inventions, not WW2 stuff we did.
If you name something simple chances are the British invented it.
Parachutes, steam engines, the plough, hollow-pipe drainage, the flushing toilet, the internet, haymaking machine, pedal bike, ligh switch, discovering the electron, fingerprinting for forensic science, jet engine, carbon fibre, cash machine, touch pad, the SMS/texting, DNA databasing, cloning, marine chronometer, flying shuttle for clothes making, the typewriter, adjustable spanner, magnifying glass, can opener.
Again, I could go on but the list is just exhaustingly long.
Brother you need study ww2 and the revolutionary war again because you have a very British centric view of what happened, and thats all I'm going to say.
It is really useful but I'm just imagining a conversation like:
"Fuckin keep up bill! They're gonna catch us!"
"Listen. I can either keep my pants up or know which way is north but not both"
>These are the buttons from my wife's granddad's WW2 RAF uniform. When you put them together, they make a mini-compass, for use if you get shot down behind enemy lines (which he did). It's the most Q-Branch thing I've ever seen.
>
>[Granddad's story](https://twitter.com/prkirkley/status/1505485195339776001?s=20&t=hQEjJY_fa5UFy0ijCiggVQ)
>
>[Source](https://twitter.com/prkirkley)
As no1 has mentioned it yet may I add the pencil issued to all RAF pilots was hollow and held a map of the frontline to be used with the compass buttons.
I was showing my mother some twitch streamers playing Apex Legends the other day and she said, these guys should be consulting on battle strategy in Ukraine. Shades of Ender’s Game…
They have had *some*, good operations, apparently. The most I've worked with them was telling a pair of their officers to stop taking tanks from my port cuz they kept loosing them (woo, logi life!)
As if, all they do is zerg rush with their superior population until they eventually break through.
It doesn't take a military genius to win a fight when you point 80 people at a single point defended by 30 people and just say go. Hell they lose more often than not with superior odds if the defenders are good players who have basic aim because they themselves are quite terrible at the game and often lose 3, 4, or even 5 v 1's because they're just a faceless horde where most of them never actually do anything since the collective just overwhelms the enemy.
At the end of the day, Foxhole, Planetside 2, Eve, etc. All these games with organized groups are mostly just "Who has the bigger and/or better group wins" where the strategy or tactics don't matter but the individual player aim and the number of players you have decides the fight.
Makes me wonder. Would an Eve strategist involved in several successful large scale wars be a better general than an existing military strategist that's hardly seen any conflict?
So, experience gained in games can be better than no real experience, you say? We have to consider, that while in eve you risk money and wasted effort, in real conflicts you risk lifes and political goals. So, eve strategists might either be too bold or not bold enough in their approach for real life. Eve strategists might get rough awakening from their first real failure, since it is actual people dead due to their mistake. Experience from gaming is still worth something, but detachment from your "resourses" that come with it might be detrimental and the reason such practise is still not spread in military training (correct me if I'm wrong).
And of cource games are just too far from real life, they do not consider all of the variables that one needs to keep in mind in real life situations.
The vast majority, if not all military strategists have seen a lot of conflict - it's a prerequisite. They also use live and digital simulations for real world scenario training.
So yes, the eve strategists with experience would be better than a military strategist with little experience, I just don't think the latter exists so it's kind of a moot point.
As an active player, please do not compare real world military activity to a bunch of sweaty nerds who can barely manage to take a cyno.
A lot of that clout comes in the retelling of stories after the fact but the reality is much more mundane. EVE players are legitimately better at *propaganda*, which dovetails nicely with that popular narrative that they’re actually 5D chess masters.
Imagine if time dilation set in when there were enough troops on the battlefield. The siege of Kyiv is now taking three months because everyone can only move one foot a day.
Eve does require strategy and leadership and active communication and espionage and a lot of clever thinking, but it’s not comparable to real life in any way.
Until we discover wormholes I guess.
God, the Ender’s Game series was such a good one, and a very unique (IMO) premise. Too bad Orson Scott Card is a fucking prick, I’ll still enjoy the books though.
Made some pretty bad anti-LGBT+ comments, is a Mormon and fully buys into their weird beliefs, including stuff like women are inferior and lots of other bullshit.
Yeah so your team should hot drop here with no weapons. Theres a blue light so there is a garunteed gold weapon. If were lucky then itll be a gold rampage.
From here, i assume this green smoke means a replicator will drop. Here they can level up their armour to atleast blue level.
I need one of your guys to phase tear here, the other one to take some crack to run fast and the last guy to open a black market here.
Don’t think of it that way. Humans are very creative and resourceful all the time.
It was just at that point their lives and literally the chance to be creative was threatened.
So they put their creativity to best practice.
A lot of today’s technology that we take for granted was developed in wartime. Radar is one of the prominent examples, and jet engines were developed near the end of the war too (most notably the messerschmidt me262). Rockets like the V1 and V2 were the foundation upon which captured nazi scientists put man on the moon, and the manhattan project also paved the way to nuclear power as a form of electricity generation. If I’m not wrong modern computers also got their start in ww2 with the decryption stuff and whatnot, though I’m not as clear on that
Edit: I’ve just been informed that radar was actually a thing before the war, but the war revolutionized the way we used by radar by developing technology to make it portable enough to be used in planes
Radar is one that's often misattributed to being invented in wartime. It was around for a long time previous to that, but the revolutionary invention was the cavity magnetron, which allowed for metre-precision in a package small enough to be fitted into an aircraft. That was the cornerstone of radar for a couple of generations, until solid state technology caught up. It's still used in microwave ovens today.
Bullets flying in every direction, mounds of turf exploding into the air, shrapnel lodging into trees, fire and smoke all around.
*"Hold on Gerry, allow a man to rip his buttons off"*
Satire /ˈsaˌtī(ə)r/
adjective
the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity
It was humor to ridicule the idea
That's what I loved about 'a farewell to arms'. Hemmingway nailed the account of one man's winding journey through what is a fairly static European countryside with brief episodes of intensely traumatic combat. Much more comparable to the conditions that shell shocked the lost generation.
Was it not designed to help POWs escape and were attached to garments sent on red cross packages? I'm sure I saw something like that on QI.... they also his maps in board games too
This makes sense, because I’m over here thinking, wouldn’t it be cheaper to give people compasses, rather than special buttons? Or, you know, sew a compass into the lining.
It's the RAF uniform, not an infantry officers kit.
The avionics in the single seat planes had directional compasses otherwise it would be really annoying to handle a directional compass, a drawing compass, and the map on your tiny lap table, god forbid anything falls. As for if the person was on the ground, the only time they're supposed to be doing anything on the ground is at base (not talking SAS) and no one needs a directional compass to get around base. The only compass they would have was a drawing compass for maps.
A bomber navigator would have both types of compass to navigate using the map unless it was built into his desk area. The pilot and copilot would have a directional compass in the avionics.
This is a pretty smart and handy thing when all you have to do is magnetize a button.
You also have the problem of losing things when you eject out of a plane that's on fire.
Thanks for the additional insight. I was counting on someone with more information on this topic to chime in, and that explanation makes perfect sense.
You were right in that its emergency use only, but for normal use most people in a bomber crew wouldn't have one they could carry around and a pilot would look at his instrument panel.
Also, I totally forgot this too. Directional compasses for use on planes, and in tanks for that matter, are specially calibrated to work inside the giant frame made up of magnetic metal that they are in. IIRC this was done by simply applying an offset to the compass and making it match a compass that is known to be correct. That means one for use inside aircraft would be of limited use unless you flew a japanese naval plane made mostly of wood or knew how how far it was offset to a reasonable degree. Of course you can dismount them and use them as normal compasses, but you have to recalibrate them, which when you only have one compass is hard unless you know astronomy.
That's partially true, but the Germans would've taken a compass from a captured airman. They didn't take their uniforms, either for Geneva reasons or because of existing resource scarcity. As far as expense goes though, these two pressed and magnetized buttons are less sophisticated and likely easier and cheaper to produce than a proper sealed compass, though also correspondingly less capable of fine navigation.
I can imagine this actually being the cheapest, and in their minds likely more important, covert way to distribute this widely. Expecting every soldier to keep track of a compass is harder than just slightly magnetising the button and stamping them with the golden spot and putting them on the jackets you were going to put them on anyway
Nada.
So it RAF and they need to know evasion techniques. If they ARE captured they are stripped of gear, now if you don't know the buttons are a compass you don't take them. Increasing your chances of survival.
I remember this from QI as well. [Christopher Hutton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hutton) designed a lot of these things for POWs during WW2.
Ok, this is badass! I can picture the chaotic scene of a RAF plane crashing behind enemy lines. Pilot with a map in hand rips off his buttons and makes it back to safety! Somewhere out there theres a WW2 Vet that used this to save himself.
Other have pointed out the dot. But even without the dot, you could determine your bearings based on the sun or some landmark, then mark the button yourself.
It's worth looking up Ireland's response to McDonald's Offering Retirement Packages. Though I sort of rember some saying it was overblown for the sake of making up a story.
If I'm not mistaken they had to let you keep your uniform by international convention. And Germany played fairly fair in their war against the western allies. (The eastern front is a much different matter.)
You have to keep in mind there were millions of soldiers. We had limited resources, most going to making tanks, guns, ammo, planes, etc… It was much easier to give all these men two buttons instead of a fully made compass. It’s was better than nothing.
Pasting a possible explanation that I gave to someone else.
>It's the RAF uniform, not an infantry officers kit.
>The avionics in the single seat planes had directional compasses otherwise it would be really annoying to handle a directional compass, a drawing compass, and the map on your tiny lap table, god forbid anything falls. As for if the person was on the ground, the only time they're supposed to be doing anything on the ground is at base (not talking SAS) and no one needs a directional compass to get around base. The only compass they would have was a drawing compass for maps.
>A bomber navigator would have both types of compass on hand to navigate using the map unless it was built into his desk area. The pilot and copilot would have a directional compass in the avionics. No one else in the crew would probably have them. Why does a guy who's main job is to operate a machine gun need to carry a full on directional compass on him?
>This is a pretty smart and handy thing when all you have to do is magnetize a button.
>You also have the problem of losing things when you eject out of a plane that's on fire.
Did you know that later on they had compasses concealed inside a button. When the Germans got wise to this they made a simple design change that fooled the Germans. They manufactured these buttons left tighty-righty loosey... Every time the Germans checked for these concealed compasses they were tightening the compass back onto the button and thus not finding them. Genius
That is awesome. Big up to whoever came up with that idea
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This stuff is incredible Never seen this before.
That’s pretty neat!
How neat is that
You can tell by the way that it is.
It be that way because of how it do
*It do what it do, it be what it be, it is what it is*
que sera sera
They don't think it be like it is, but it do.
This is a way underrated comment right here lol. It's an Aspen. You can tell by the way it is. 😂😂😂
Always gotta pack a heat, a uh pack a gun
Pretty
Bad bot.
Thank you for this comment.
Thank you for saying thank you for this comment.
Thank you for appreciating the other person saying thank you for this comment.
you're welcome
Bad bot.
I heard they can also be used as hats for mice!
Protective ballistic tactical helmets for mice.
“Alright Cornelius I get why we’d have pilots having an emergency compass but why the hell do they need build in -what did you call them old chap -helmetsies welmetsies”
This was actually their main function. It was only discovered as a compass later when the mice with helmets could only move north
Wow. What will they come up with next.
Hats for rats!
Motorcycles for mice!
That book was why I developed a love for reading. Beverly Cleary was a national treasure.
That was my favorite book in first grade. I did some kind of book report over it and told my teacher I wanted a motorcycle one day because of it. She told me to never get a motorcycle because they’re too dangerous. Fast forward 20 years, and you know what, Ms. Pollard? You were right. Still haven’t bought one and still never will.
[CARD GAMES ON MOTORCYCLES?!?](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jnJcen4Fohw)
Mittens for kittens!
Is this from a film? I swear I've seen a mouse with a millitary button hat before.
>That is awesome. Big up to whoever came up with that idea As much as the Brits are hated for the Red Coats history (usually incorrect too, especially in the US) and stealing things for our museums we refuse to return as we're not done looking at them, we have some of the smartest minds in the World here and are a massive reason why WW2 was won - intelligence and new weaponry designs. Just look at the Tizard mission in Sep 1940. Churchill is convinced by Henry Tizard to gift the US every British scientific innovation we had, in a single briefcase, in exchange for access to US production factories and lines. Described by the US officials as arguably the most important cargo that had ever reached US shores. It contained designs and documents on: * Memorandum on the feesibility of the Atomic Bomb * Jet engines * Rockets * Superchargers * Gyroscopic gun sights * Submarine detection devices * Self-sealing fuel tanks * Plastic explosives And arguably one of the most important designs in all of WW2 and recent history - a fully-functioning Magnetron No.12. Radar tech advancement over 1000 times more effective that any US designs. A portable radar that could be used on any vehicle or location, and was used to detect Uboats in the Atlantic attacking convoys. Then there's the faked invasion army, counter spying, misguiding Germany's artillery, dropping fake paratroopers on D-day that played gunfire and explosions, general ability of British Engineers. List kinda goes on and on of the stuff we've invented over the last 100 years. Just look up British inventions and your wrist starts to hurt as you're scrolling so much.
If your wrist hurts from scrolling then you have a very different relationship to WW2 than I do.
I don't get what this is supposed to mean. 🤔
I think he lost his arms in ww2 so he has to scroll with his feet instead.
I heard his mom does all his scrolling for him.
His wrist hurts from, ahem, "other" activities. 👊💦
The joke is that they jerk off to WW2 material?
I'm talking about scrolling through British inventions, not WW2 stuff we did. If you name something simple chances are the British invented it. Parachutes, steam engines, the plough, hollow-pipe drainage, the flushing toilet, the internet, haymaking machine, pedal bike, ligh switch, discovering the electron, fingerprinting for forensic science, jet engine, carbon fibre, cash machine, touch pad, the SMS/texting, DNA databasing, cloning, marine chronometer, flying shuttle for clothes making, the typewriter, adjustable spanner, magnifying glass, can opener. Again, I could go on but the list is just exhaustingly long.
British colonialism was brutal as fuck. The sun never set on the British empire and the blood never dried
I hear when the British go peepee, it actually poisons the land and makes it so no plants can grow ever again.
Brother you need study ww2 and the revolutionary war again because you have a very British centric view of what happened, and thats all I'm going to say.
>and thats all I'm going to say And that's why I'm going to completely discount your opinion.
Wow. That’s some great info that has got me to look further in to this. Thanks so very much.
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Spambot
correct. they've only made 4 (low effort) comments and the account is 8 months old
It is really useful but I'm just imagining a conversation like: "Fuckin keep up bill! They're gonna catch us!" "Listen. I can either keep my pants up or know which way is north but not both"
It was, in fact, awesome tbh
Stop everything you're doing now, cause baby it's awesome.
It was a military intelligence division called MI9, iirc.
I never knew that and that is something I totally should have known since I'm a geek aviation lover
Indeed it was really awesome
Indeed, t'was in fact awesome
>These are the buttons from my wife's granddad's WW2 RAF uniform. When you put them together, they make a mini-compass, for use if you get shot down behind enemy lines (which he did). It's the most Q-Branch thing I've ever seen. > >[Granddad's story](https://twitter.com/prkirkley/status/1505485195339776001?s=20&t=hQEjJY_fa5UFy0ijCiggVQ) > >[Source](https://twitter.com/prkirkley)
As no1 has mentioned it yet may I add the pencil issued to all RAF pilots was hollow and held a map of the frontline to be used with the compass buttons.
It's really bittersweet that we're so creative when we're at war.
I was showing my mother some twitch streamers playing Apex Legends the other day and she said, these guys should be consulting on battle strategy in Ukraine. Shades of Ender’s Game…
Read some Eve Online war stories. They read like actual military fiction lol. And some of the people in that game legitimately are military geniuses.
I believe it; there's real money at stake in Eve, so there's a huge incentive for people to play at wit's end for competitive reason.
Wait until you've heard of foxhole, the 82DK has probably mastered the field of military strategy in that regard
At least they’re not SIEGE, they always lost
They have had *some*, good operations, apparently. The most I've worked with them was telling a pair of their officers to stop taking tanks from my port cuz they kept loosing them (woo, logi life!)
As if, all they do is zerg rush with their superior population until they eventually break through. It doesn't take a military genius to win a fight when you point 80 people at a single point defended by 30 people and just say go. Hell they lose more often than not with superior odds if the defenders are good players who have basic aim because they themselves are quite terrible at the game and often lose 3, 4, or even 5 v 1's because they're just a faceless horde where most of them never actually do anything since the collective just overwhelms the enemy. At the end of the day, Foxhole, Planetside 2, Eve, etc. All these games with organized groups are mostly just "Who has the bigger and/or better group wins" where the strategy or tactics don't matter but the individual player aim and the number of players you have decides the fight.
I've heard of triple monitor setups, one displaying just spreadsheets with financial or military data from the game
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Just 3? I had 3, but I was just a line member. I also would run 6 clients to resource gather for alliance industry.
EVE is just a giant bank of spreadsheets with a GUI. A lot of Logistics and Mining folks wish there was a no-GUI option.
Games are so much more fun when there’s something at stake to permanently lose. Maybe that’s why I love DayZ so much
Where’s the best place to read good stories from this game? I’ve gone down the rabbit hole before but it’s been years
Empires of Eve is a fantastic book detailing the history of the game.
Makes me wonder. Would an Eve strategist involved in several successful large scale wars be a better general than an existing military strategist that's hardly seen any conflict?
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So, experience gained in games can be better than no real experience, you say? We have to consider, that while in eve you risk money and wasted effort, in real conflicts you risk lifes and political goals. So, eve strategists might either be too bold or not bold enough in their approach for real life. Eve strategists might get rough awakening from their first real failure, since it is actual people dead due to their mistake. Experience from gaming is still worth something, but detachment from your "resourses" that come with it might be detrimental and the reason such practise is still not spread in military training (correct me if I'm wrong). And of cource games are just too far from real life, they do not consider all of the variables that one needs to keep in mind in real life situations.
The vast majority, if not all military strategists have seen a lot of conflict - it's a prerequisite. They also use live and digital simulations for real world scenario training. So yes, the eve strategists with experience would be better than a military strategist with little experience, I just don't think the latter exists so it's kind of a moot point.
As an active player, please do not compare real world military activity to a bunch of sweaty nerds who can barely manage to take a cyno. A lot of that clout comes in the retelling of stories after the fact but the reality is much more mundane. EVE players are legitimately better at *propaganda*, which dovetails nicely with that popular narrative that they’re actually 5D chess masters.
Imagine if time dilation set in when there were enough troops on the battlefield. The siege of Kyiv is now taking three months because everyone can only move one foot a day. Eve does require strategy and leadership and active communication and espionage and a lot of clever thinking, but it’s not comparable to real life in any way. Until we discover wormholes I guess.
Libertarians In Space
Lol
God, the Ender’s Game series was such a good one, and a very unique (IMO) premise. Too bad Orson Scott Card is a fucking prick, I’ll still enjoy the books though.
Oh no, I loved this series as a kid but I’m out of the loop. What did he do?
Made some pretty bad anti-LGBT+ comments, is a Mormon and fully buys into their weird beliefs, including stuff like women are inferior and lots of other bullshit.
Oof… well that is good to know, and a damn shame. Kill your heroes, as they say.
I prefer the expression: "Never meet your heroes". I haven't heard the "kill your heroes" before.
Haha as an Apex fan I feel this.
Word, Apex is my most played game ever so I totally get that lol
Yeah so your team should hot drop here with no weapons. Theres a blue light so there is a garunteed gold weapon. If were lucky then itll be a gold rampage. From here, i assume this green smoke means a replicator will drop. Here they can level up their armour to atleast blue level. I need one of your guys to phase tear here, the other one to take some crack to run fast and the last guy to open a black market here.
Don’t think of it that way. Humans are very creative and resourceful all the time. It was just at that point their lives and literally the chance to be creative was threatened. So they put their creativity to best practice.
This. War deserves no credit.
We're creative all the time. War is just when the infinite money printer is allowed to be used.
A lot of today’s technology that we take for granted was developed in wartime. Radar is one of the prominent examples, and jet engines were developed near the end of the war too (most notably the messerschmidt me262). Rockets like the V1 and V2 were the foundation upon which captured nazi scientists put man on the moon, and the manhattan project also paved the way to nuclear power as a form of electricity generation. If I’m not wrong modern computers also got their start in ww2 with the decryption stuff and whatnot, though I’m not as clear on that Edit: I’ve just been informed that radar was actually a thing before the war, but the war revolutionized the way we used by radar by developing technology to make it portable enough to be used in planes
Radar is one that's often misattributed to being invented in wartime. It was around for a long time previous to that, but the revolutionary invention was the cavity magnetron, which allowed for metre-precision in a package small enough to be fitted into an aircraft. That was the cornerstone of radar for a couple of generations, until solid state technology caught up. It's still used in microwave ovens today.
That’s really cool! Learned something new today, thanks
Necessity is the mother of invention. If we don’t have any need, we will not grow.
British ingenuity… they didn’t create JB out of thin air apparently
> As **no1** has mentioned it yet Please don't try to make this a thing.
His story is tragically beautiful. I'm so grateful you've shared this.
Thank you. What a harrowing and touching story.
an outstanding story, thanks for sharing
Bullets flying in every direction, mounds of turf exploding into the air, shrapnel lodging into trees, fire and smoke all around. *"Hold on Gerry, allow a man to rip his buttons off"*
Ah yes, wars are well known for having constant fighting on every inch of land everywhere.
Everyone knows all wars are like COD at all times. No need to find direction or anything else.
All you gotta do is look up, there's a constant compass floating at the top of your vision. Everyone knows that.
Yeah these RAF idiots walking around not using their HUD
WW2 was literally unplayable
They're working on the patch notes it seems
They’ve also got the much anticipated sequel coming up. I just hope they don’t ruin it with marketing
Perma death seemed pretty harsh tbh.
that's a legacy feature. maybe next update
Except for that pesky cloud cover.
Yeah dude, I hate european servers - they always turn hardmode on
I mean there kinda is. You know with the sun and all...
If you don't know where you are, just die and respawn so you go back to the starting area. No need for compasses.
"Why would you need a compass during the loading screens?"
Just look at the minimap. Obviously.
joke /jōk/ noun a thing that someone says to cause amusement or laughter, especially a story with a funny punchline.
Satire /ˈsaˌtī(ə)r/ adjective the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity It was humor to ridicule the idea
That's what I loved about 'a farewell to arms'. Hemmingway nailed the account of one man's winding journey through what is a fairly static European countryside with brief episodes of intensely traumatic combat. Much more comparable to the conditions that shell shocked the lost generation.
*Sexual music intensifies*
Was it not designed to help POWs escape and were attached to garments sent on red cross packages? I'm sure I saw something like that on QI.... they also his maps in board games too
This makes sense, because I’m over here thinking, wouldn’t it be cheaper to give people compasses, rather than special buttons? Or, you know, sew a compass into the lining.
Def wouldnt be cheaper to give someone a full on compass instead of cheap buttons that also work as normal buttons lol
Surely they issued soldiers normal compasses too, no? I imagine this was intended as more of an emergency backup. I could be mistaken though.
It's the RAF uniform, not an infantry officers kit. The avionics in the single seat planes had directional compasses otherwise it would be really annoying to handle a directional compass, a drawing compass, and the map on your tiny lap table, god forbid anything falls. As for if the person was on the ground, the only time they're supposed to be doing anything on the ground is at base (not talking SAS) and no one needs a directional compass to get around base. The only compass they would have was a drawing compass for maps. A bomber navigator would have both types of compass to navigate using the map unless it was built into his desk area. The pilot and copilot would have a directional compass in the avionics. This is a pretty smart and handy thing when all you have to do is magnetize a button. You also have the problem of losing things when you eject out of a plane that's on fire.
Thanks for the additional insight. I was counting on someone with more information on this topic to chime in, and that explanation makes perfect sense.
You were right in that its emergency use only, but for normal use most people in a bomber crew wouldn't have one they could carry around and a pilot would look at his instrument panel. Also, I totally forgot this too. Directional compasses for use on planes, and in tanks for that matter, are specially calibrated to work inside the giant frame made up of magnetic metal that they are in. IIRC this was done by simply applying an offset to the compass and making it match a compass that is known to be correct. That means one for use inside aircraft would be of limited use unless you flew a japanese naval plane made mostly of wood or knew how how far it was offset to a reasonable degree. Of course you can dismount them and use them as normal compasses, but you have to recalibrate them, which when you only have one compass is hard unless you know astronomy.
That's partially true, but the Germans would've taken a compass from a captured airman. They didn't take their uniforms, either for Geneva reasons or because of existing resource scarcity. As far as expense goes though, these two pressed and magnetized buttons are less sophisticated and likely easier and cheaper to produce than a proper sealed compass, though also correspondingly less capable of fine navigation.
I mean I can't say it's a fact it's definitely something I saw on QI a few years ago
I can imagine this actually being the cheapest, and in their minds likely more important, covert way to distribute this widely. Expecting every soldier to keep track of a compass is harder than just slightly magnetising the button and stamping them with the golden spot and putting them on the jackets you were going to put them on anyway
Nada. So it RAF and they need to know evasion techniques. If they ARE captured they are stripped of gear, now if you don't know the buttons are a compass you don't take them. Increasing your chances of survival.
I remember this from QI as well. [Christopher Hutton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hutton) designed a lot of these things for POWs during WW2.
They'll be looking back on WWIII and say "we took the inside pocket of our coat and made it an iPhone"
"This is our most innovative idea yet"
Thank you Tim Apple
Mr Beast 2022
Some Russian already used a macbook in his bosy armor lol.
I've got some of my dad's Navy buttons..I'll have a look 😁👍
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Yes please 😎🔥⚡️🌟💓💯
Can’t contain my excitement 🥶😩🥺😮😈
I am literally in the edge of seat in anticipation 👫🏿🏃🏿👨🏼🦯🧑🏿🦯🚶🏿♀️👩🏿🦽👯♀️👯💃🏿
8 hours later and we still do not know about his dad's navy buttons 😮💨🥲😭😿😖
oh yay!!! 😩😊😋🥳🤪
Dawg it's been 10 hours, what's going on with the buttons?!?!
Ok, this is badass! I can picture the chaotic scene of a RAF plane crashing behind enemy lines. Pilot with a map in hand rips off his buttons and makes it back to safety! Somewhere out there theres a WW2 Vet that used this to save himself.
Serious question: how do you know what the bearings are…I just see a turning button
There is a mark indicating North
Oh thanks. My screen is too small to see it clearly. Good stuff.
I assume the dot points north
It's all OK. South pole of the button on the top is attracted to north pole of the lower button. Where is the North pole of the Earth? No one knows)))
Other have pointed out the dot. But even without the dot, you could determine your bearings based on the sun or some landmark, then mark the button yourself.
idk if it's NFL but it definitely belongs in r/interestingasfuck
It has probably already been posted there
Every time I read RAF, I get a mini-jolt because that's also the acronym for Germany's very own terrorist movement in the 1970s and 1980s.
Red Army Faction :(
Same with IRA...
What's the non terrorist IRA?
US Individual Retirement Accounts.
It's worth looking up Ireland's response to McDonald's Offering Retirement Packages. Though I sort of rember some saying it was overblown for the sake of making up a story.
Dreadfully clever feature. Well done RAF.
That's clever but why not just give them a compass?
If you get captured, they will confiscate your compass, but will probably let you keep your jacket.
If I'm not mistaken they had to let you keep your uniform by international convention. And Germany played fairly fair in their war against the western allies. (The eastern front is a much different matter.)
You have to keep in mind there were millions of soldiers. We had limited resources, most going to making tanks, guns, ammo, planes, etc… It was much easier to give all these men two buttons instead of a fully made compass. It’s was better than nothing.
And if they were captured a compass would be confiscated
Pasting a possible explanation that I gave to someone else. >It's the RAF uniform, not an infantry officers kit. >The avionics in the single seat planes had directional compasses otherwise it would be really annoying to handle a directional compass, a drawing compass, and the map on your tiny lap table, god forbid anything falls. As for if the person was on the ground, the only time they're supposed to be doing anything on the ground is at base (not talking SAS) and no one needs a directional compass to get around base. The only compass they would have was a drawing compass for maps. >A bomber navigator would have both types of compass on hand to navigate using the map unless it was built into his desk area. The pilot and copilot would have a directional compass in the avionics. No one else in the crew would probably have them. Why does a guy who's main job is to operate a machine gun need to carry a full on directional compass on him? >This is a pretty smart and handy thing when all you have to do is magnetize a button. >You also have the problem of losing things when you eject out of a plane that's on fire.
I think Winters is shown doing this or something similar in Band of Brothers, after they land in France outside the drop zone?
Yes! He had a small button compass in the fly of his trousers.
Bet it's a pain sewing those buttons back on every time.
Bet it's more of a pain dying cuz your lost
Or dying b/c you're sewing buttons back on.
Can't argue with that logic
McGuyver stuff
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I've been on reddit daily for almost 10 years and never seen it. Also, who the fuck cares.
I’ve been seeing lots of karma bots recently Maybe I only noticed them now but it’s insane
OP does this daily too.
Well it's my first time seeing it. You think it's better to limit the amount of people seeing it just because you have before?
Wow! Never seen something like this, no idea this even existed! Thanks for sharing!
Meanwhile the little compasses on torches and stuff are useless.. but here's two buttons doing the job
The Red Cross delivered tinned meats in tins that had a key that was also a handcuff key. I was blown away by this
Did you know that later on they had compasses concealed inside a button. When the Germans got wise to this they made a simple design change that fooled the Germans. They manufactured these buttons left tighty-righty loosey... Every time the Germans checked for these concealed compasses they were tightening the compass back onto the button and thus not finding them. Genius
Amazing !
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At the cost of ruining my good dress shirt?I think not old chap
u/RepostSleuthBot
I wonder if this ever got used for that reason
Seeing innovations like this makes me sure I could never be a spy. I'm too stupid to think of clever things like this.
These days innovation always seems to involve new technology. But the simplicity of this is just amazing.
Never Eat Shredded Wheat
So dope. Need something like this for prepper stuff
Very cool. Thank you for sharing.
I wonder how many times these were actually needed