[TML] Personal Armor Noise was Re: Current USAF fleet

[Tom B]

>  Hm, I may disagree with you on that. I think mail would have to be worn
>  with an under-armour.

My understanding was, in some PoV, mail developed while the main
threats were pole weapons (including the spear) and swords. The
original underpadding was very light. Thus, they sometimes suffered
broken bits, but the mail stopped the cuts. Then of course, flails,
morningstars, bec-de-corbins, military picks, and maces became potent
weapons for fighting other guys in mail. Part of their threat was the
bludgeoning. This lead both to heavier mail (including double mail)
and then plate. Concussion weapons remained potent but mail and plate
tended to reduce even their effect.

Of course, that's a gross simplification of a progression and of the
varied nature of weapons and armour development in different parts of
the world. Things moved at different rates in different places.
Mongols and other barbarians had some very high draw weight bows
looooong before western european bows became terribly potent military
instruments. Vastly different construction, but functionally very
dangerous. That's just one example. Obviously cultural factors and
economics also dictated military developments from time to time.

The thing to keep in mind about history:

1) Those that were there may not have documented completely or without a slant.

2) Those that are researching it may drop the ball noticably much like
the assumptions about the actual size of medieval knights as being all
small guys based on limited evidence and assumptions that you couldn't
move nimbly in plate mail, subsequently disproven by further research.

So you have to read a lot of sources, study and allow for bias and
other issues, and make sure a whole bunch of secondary or tertiary
sources aren't drawing conclusions from the same primary source. This
means most conclusions about how things were should be somewhat
guarded, even if some academic somewhere said it was so in a book.