German/Russian Front Summary of WW2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSaScGMPJi0

It is pretty obvious that if UK bombed Russia, then Russia had no other choice than to declare war against UK, and the only way Russia could stop the air raids was to occupy Iran, where the UK airfields were. So yes, the War would have taken a different path

All of the above

An american in europe because i dont want to get tortured raped and killed by Japanese soldiers in POW camps

@abworsham4

I think there are two possible problems with this strategy:

Firstly, whilst it would have been indeed much easier to produce, could Germany have produced enough of them to match Soviet production with Western Allied bombing and fighting in North Africa and later in France and Italy? At least Germany would have a qualitative advantage due to crew training.

Secondly, could Germany hypothetically had enough manpower to equip those tanks? I admit this is a lesser problem, as I would favour having one tank than 3-6 infantrymen.

@CWO:

I have no idea if this is a joke or not, but according to this web page (which claims to be quoting a book called “Psychological Operations American Style”), during WWII the U.S. considered and even tested (in Central Park, of all places) the idea of painting large numbers of foxes with luminescent paint and unleashing them against the civilian population of Japan, in a bid to create mass superstitious terror among them.

http://theglyptodon.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/glow-in-the-dark-foxes-and-wwii-project-fantasia/

Good article. And funny. :)

Project Pigeon was another American attempt to use animals for war.

The idea was to create a large, gliding bomb. One - three lenses would be mounted on the outside of this bomb. They would be used to project an image onto a screen placed inside the gliding bomb. Pigeons–specially trained to recognize the bomb’s intended target–would peck at the screen. The screen was attached to a steering mechanism. Pecks at the center of the screen would cause the bomb to continue its current course. Off-center pecks would steer the bomb in a different direction. The project was canceled in late '44; perhaps because humans didn’t trust birds to steer large, expensive weapons.

America’s bat bomb project solved that trust problem. Instead of allowing birds or bats to steer one big bomb–as in Project Pigeon–each individual bat was attached to a small quantity of explosive. The plan was to release large numbers of bats at night over Japanese cities. The bats would fly around for a while. Then at dawn they would hide in man-made structures. The bats’ bombs were timed to go off shortly after dawn. Japanese buildings tended to be made of wood, bamboo, or other flammable materials. A homeowner would not initially realize his home had been penetrated by a bomb-laden bat; or that the bat’s bomb had started a small fire. Only after the fire had really taken hold would the homeowner become aware of the problem.

It was a promising project–at least if the goal was to burn Japan to the ground. But it was eventually abandoned, after the atomic bomb had made it redundant.

People who own land do not own the stuff like oil underneath.  There is alot of natural gas around here and I know people who have gas wells.  But big gas companies can set up shop next door and drill at an angle to get the gas under your property.  Again, property owners own the surface, not mineral rights underneath.

I agree with you 100% Garg on the refining/price of gasoline issue.

Oil consumption link peeps might find interesting:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2174rank.html

The US consumes a little over 19 mega barrels per day

On the production side:
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPUS2&f=A

So the US production is going up slowly but still below 6 mega barrels per day.

The US strategic oil reserve holds about 727 mega barrels a day according to a few sites I checked:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Petroleum_Reserve_(United_States)
http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/reserves/spr/spr-facts.html

So with domestic production the US would last about 55 days with their reserves.  If you include Canadian exports then the US would last about 77 days.

Garg  totally right on the refinery side.  In fact, Canada is getting screwed by about $30 a barrel for oil it sends to the US due to supply gluts and lack of refining capacity due to inability to get the oil to the Gulf Coast.  I wonder if Obama’s blocking of the Keystone pipeline is some Machiavellian plan to get cheap Canadian Oil?  Those Americans can be cunningly evil in their genius!

Why Canada just pumps out cheap oil….
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2012/04/20/oil-refining-canada.html

Garg, I am somewhat skeptical about the additives to petroleum to make it unable to be stored.

The real prize was the fleet at Toulon under Admiral Jean de Laborde. Even with Darlan’s ceding of his fleet to the Allies, Toulon had 77 available french ships.  Darlan tried to barter with his old rival to throw his lot in with his, but laborde remained silent over the topic  In occupying Vichy France after the African landings, the Germans stopped short of Toulon  demanding the surrender of the fleet.  Soon the German’s grew tired of waiting for a reply and moved in to take the fleet by force.  Quoted as “one of the greatest acts of self immolation in military history”, Laborde scuttled his fleet and sabatoged it before it could get into German hands. In all 3 battleships, seven cruisers, and thirty-two destroyers were lost amongst the fleet.  Eisenhower had mixed feelings, he was dismayed that the fleet was gone, but relieved the prize was not in German hands.