> There is however one counterexample I can think of to the discussion you
> outline below. In the first movie, when Yang's ship flies up underneath
> the Brunhild in order to stop the fighting, Reinhard gets angry and
> shouts "Kircheis! We can't give up this victory just for my life and
> this ship! Attack!", Whereupon Steinmetz, captain of the Brunhild,
> stands up and says "Excellency, you are in command of the fleet but I am
> captain of this ship!"
>
actually, i think this instance is something of an anomaly. no doubt,
it took a lot of balls for steinmetz to stand his ground to reinhard,
something that reinhard probably picked him for anyway to command his
flagship Brunhild.
when you think about it, every other flagship commander meekly allows
the admiral to give orders despite it being tantamount to suicide, and is
rewarded by being blown up. erlache comes to mind.
imagine if instead of reinhard, steinmetz had stood up to mittermeyer.
personally, i think that mittermeyer might have had him shot on the spot!
relieved of command of the Beowolf, at least. how about meckenberger? i
don't think so!
yeah, walter, this whole thing is anomalous WRT the rest of the series.
-- Wayne H. Yin why@mail.utexas.edu