The “just sit and wait for the Phony War to end in April 1940” option is a bit perplexing as an answer to “You are the German High Command! What is your next Combat Movement?” because it seems to imply that the Phony War was operating on a fixed timetable, and that this timetable was in someone else’s hands. The lack of action on land on the Western Front is certainly due in part to inaction by France and Britain (whose strategy was basically to sit around for a couple of years to built up their strength for a showdown, while simultaneously hoping that the Nazi regime would be overthrown by a coup), but it was also very much a deliberate choice by Germany. The Wehrmacht needed to analyze the Polish Campaign, fix the tactical and operational elements that hadn’t worked as well as expected, plan the upcoming campaign against France and the Low Countries, rest and replenish its forces, give them more training, provide them with additional equipment, and redeploy them to the west. Doing this properly took time, but Germany could afford to take the time to do the job right because of the lack of Anglo-French pressure on the western front. ( In other words, by sitting on their collective hindquarters France and Britain surrendered the strategic initiative to Germany, which gave the Wehrmacht the luxury of attacking at the time and place of its own choosing.) Moreover, the time period during which these activities took place were the fall of 1939 and the winter of 1939-1940, which was conveniently timed because this meant that the Wehrmacht wouldn’t have to fight in the fall (manageable, but rainy and muddy) or in the winter (far less harsh in the West than in Russia, but still potentially nasty as veterans of the Battle of the Bulge will recall). The late spring / early summer period chosen for the offensive in the West was much more congenial for military operations.
Favorite WW2 Bomber
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Favorite WW2 Bomber?
How about SAAB 18? That bomber will easily give you a penalty of 3 ipc if you dare to invade neutral Sweden.
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Col Cool, you should make a poll question.
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For me…it would have to be the B-24 Liberator…my grandfather served as a gunner on one in the European Theater
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I like the stuka because of the siren noise.
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For Heavy bomber, I am going to have to side with the Avro Lancaster over the B-29. Even though the B-29 was more advanced and could out preform the Lancaster, it was almost too advanced and suffered early on from many malfunctions, this counts against it. It was also not nearly as versatile as the Lancaster which had many variants including para drop resupply, airborne assault, heavy bombing using the Tall Boy bomb, Dam busting, incendiary bombing of cities, ELINT, Electronic Warfare, and Radar equipped versions to lead and cover the strike group.
Both were modified and used in Korea (the Lancaster as the Avro Lincoln)For a Ground Attack aircraft, no question, the IL-2 Sturmovik.
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This is not really about what you think is the best aircraft of WW2, but what your favorite aircraft of WW2 is. Discuss why you like each aircraft and maybe some nice lively debates will spring up.
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Oh, well then I like the big one cause, … its big, and the shiny one because its shiny, its just my favorite.
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didnt see much action in the war cuz it was almost over…but the B36 Peacemaker was one BIG sucker!!!
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