Posts made by legion3

Yes if Germany could have some of those occur they might have been in a position to end the war under some sort of terms in their favor. But it had to occur before late 1942, as anything past that date simply would have postponed the war and led to germany getting nuked. Germany was never serious about developing the A-Bomb (Read Albert Speers book Inside the Third Reich)

The US did not seriously begin working on the A-bomb until 1943 and if Britain did not exist in late 1942 maybe the US makes the commitment, maybe they don’t. More likely is the British Government flees to Canada and with the US help continues to fight as a Free British force.

Hitler made many mentions of Europe only and the Urals were at least advocated as the end of Europe.

I think in Speer’s book he mentioned Hitler’s greater Germany having the Urals as one end.

My aunt was a US History teacher who lived outside D.C. so

Every Civil war battlefield within driving distance form DC. Multiple times. I can not think of a single Army of Northern Virginia battlefield I have not visited.

Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Chicamauga, Little big Horn, Fetterman Fight, Dade battlefield (2nd Seminole war), Atlanta, Olustee, FL, Yorktown, Franklin, Nashville, the OK Corral  :wink:

The only real big Civil War Battlefields that has elluded me are Shiloh and Stones River TN.

Next year we are taking a trip to the French countryside to see the WW1 battlefields. We will be traveling from Verdun to Ypres and in between.

I am pretty sure I read that the F6F Hellcat destroyed more enemy aircraft than any other design. More US aces flew the F6F than any other designs. The plane (and its opponents) were “ACE MAKERS”.

The F6F accounted for 75% of all aerial victories recorded by the U.S. Navy in the Pacific.

The F6F destroyed 5,163 (56% of all Naval/Marine air victories of the war) at a cost of 270 Hellcats (an overall kill-to-loss ratio of 19:1).

But the list shows just what a remarkable industry the US had that all of the planes mentioned had a role and many not mentioned too.

Yep, I agree, based on everything I have read Hitler’s own experience with the weapon during the first war had a huge impact on him. Warlimont and Speer both mention in their books the discussions of the use of chemical and biological weapons, and that Hitler seemed quite disinterested at best.

Couple the shock of being gassed and blinded with a serious threat of retaliation in kind, seems logical as to why the Germans did not use those weapons.

And it does appear that some of his commanders did try to persuade him to use it on the approaching Russians in 1944-45, particually after the destruction of Army Group Center in the summer of 44. The Russian infantry of 44-45 did not carry gas masks generally, they tended to travel light. It could have decimated them.

The thought of Nerve Gas getting dropped on civilian populations is evil. Glad the war did not drop to that level of depravity.

No they just nuked them instead.  :|

Has anybody read about the plan to defoliate and kill the rice crop in Japan? The US had a plan to go after the rice crop with some form of early defoliate or poison dropped from planes in 1943. It was assumed that massive starvation (beyond what was already being felt on the home islands) would help to crush the Japanese will to fight. FDR nixed the plan after several of his senior military staff opposed the plan and viewing it as just to inhumane.

I agree that the only listed choice would be the ME-262. The V2 the second choice but after watching Scud’s smacking Israel and Saudi Arabia, the V2 alone was not enough. These rockets are just to random to make a difference.

However, I agree about the Atom Bomb, as long as the US was on track to develop it by 1945 and the German’s weren’t, the end would have been the same, eventually. Also remember both the UK and US had flown their Glouster E28/39 and Bell XP-59 prototype jet planes by 1942. The allies certainly would have worked hard to develop jet fighters of their own to counter the Germans.

The Germans flew the first Jet plane the Heinkel He 178 on August 27, 1939. A few days before Poland. At that time they were to busy to anything but tinker with Jets but what if they had thrown the full weight into them?

German economic production could only do so much.

Without the code breakers the US Carriers would probably have been in Hawaiian waters and would have had to react, with the IJN waiting for them and the Yorktown might not have had such expedited patch repairs, they might have seriously began to repair her where she might not have been able to be put back together quickly. She also might have been sent to San Diego for repairs.

I know you didn’t ask me but, If I could have set up a rondezvous with a supply ship, with food, fuel and ammo (although I am pretty sure the GS had plenty even after the fight) and had enough food and fuel to make that rondevous then I might have risked making a run for it, at night, trying to avoid a general fight. Get past the cruisers, try to out run them and lose them if possible. But it would have been difficult and all the cruisers had to do was shadow. German (or even Spanish)  ports were awfully far away. And eventually something bigger would show up if I couldn’t lose them.

If I could not arrange the resupply then no, it would have been a waste to even try
and ship’s captains rarely make suicide charges…some do but not most. A ship would have to have a decent shot at making some friendly port.

And the River Plate while wide at its mouth and looks very big in maps/photos (Montivedio is on the big entrence) is not a very manueverable body of water, (we were in port at Buenos Aires once) you would be forced to stay in the channel for quite some distance and given how the Brits fight they probably would have violated the soverignty and fired on the ship in the channel. Who knows?

I spent 6 years at sea and any sailor with an ounce of salt learns to respect the power and danger of the seas. Sailors have two enemies, the other guy on the other ship and the ocean. Get beaten by one and you might not (if they don’t pick you up) survive the other.

German ships did elude the British Radar many times during the war, not sure if any of these ships had it.

You know the more I think about it making a run was probably, given the cirumstances, not a good idea.

@Imperious:

They were jungle fighters and not snow fighters.

Actually, there is snow in Japan, there are no jungles in Japan. Japanese soliders did not receive any jungle training except on the job.

Guadalcanal was as terrible for them (perhaps even more so) as it was for us. The jungle was brutal on the Japanese soldiers.

Approximately 70%-75% of US war production went against Germany during WW2.

I read that the Pacific never got more than 18% (And averaged less usually 15% or so) of US military/economic output. Some went to Russia and Britain and some was used on domestic defense needs.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t dislike the Japanese and give them credit for being willing to fight impossible odds but…

can you imagine if the Pacific got 75 %, the Japs would have been plowed under

This was a tough poll. I really wasn’t sure which really applied, I agree with those who say supply was the key. Rommel could have all the tanks in the world but without fuel and ammo who cares?

The Italian Navy was really the key. The British navy established that it was going to do battle in the Med and not back down no matter what, the Italian’s tried to counter them but after a few painful defeats, and particually after Tarranto and the air attack forced the Italians to move the fleet farther north and away from the action, the Axis in N. Africa were for all practical purposes cut off from the amount of supplies they would need.

The British were willing to risk capital ships to win, the Axis navies seemed adverse to losing ships, but that was the difference in experience.

I agree that the lack of coordination between the Germans and Italians, particually the German Luftwaffe and the Italian navy was unacceptable. When they wanted to get a convoy through, they did. But that dedication was not always present.

An Italian AC would have been a big target that the Brits would have made every effort to take out. You can’t just invent Naval aviation you have to know what you are doing.

Simply put the Italian Navy tried, sort of, to control the Central Med and when it did not come easy they seemed to lose stomach for the fight.

A modern example is the Falklands War of 82. When the Argentinian Navy lost the Belgrano, its big cruiser, to the sub stike, the Navy which had a key part in the plan to defend the Falklands, lost heart and retreated to their home waters. Giving the Brits free run of the battle zone. The Argentinian Air Force did what it could and fought bravely but given the flying distances it had to operate and the lack of coordination between the services they had to deal with, it was not enough.

Call me old school but I really like John Toland’s The Rising Sun a history of the Pacific war from the Japanese point of view. In this you will find that they viewed Guadalcanal as a bigger defeat than Midway.

His Biography on Hitler (Adolf Hitler)is very good too. In both books he had the advantage of interviewing many of the survivors and participants involved.

He also wrote a very good book on WW1 called No Man’s Land, 1918 the Last Year of the Great War. = excellent. I got him to autograph a copy for me years ago.

And speaking of WW1 John Mosier’s Myth of the Great War is a very good modern “new” military history of WW1

I also like Albert Speer’s book Inside the Third Reich.

And I will give a shout out to Time-Life for the Third Reich Series, for what it is its a pretty decent series.

I’m afraid I don’t read fiction history books very often. The only one I can remember was Fatherland which was later made into a TV movie with Rutger Hauer about Germany getting the Bomb at the same time as the US and a sort of new cold war and a meeting between Hitler and President Kennedy (Joe Kennedy) in 1964. But that pesky Holocaust was the fly in the ointment to the meeting going off. I did read The Eagle has Landed too.

The World at War is a must have. The interviews alone make it one of a kind.

Recently I have been watching a show on the Military Channel called Hitler’s Bodyguard some of those episodes are really cool. There is one episode on when Hitler flew, the types of planes and security plans and features, one about his Armored command Train and another about his Automobile’s and his driving security and protection. There is also an entire episode about the Wolf’s Lair.

Zeppelin - with Michael York and Elke Sommer - always had a thing for airships.

The Blue Max - A classic tale of air combat.

Anzacs (the war down under)- a 1985 Australian film/mini-series, had Paul Hogan in it a year before Crocodile Dundee.

All quiet on the Western Front is a given.

And as honorable mention for a TV show : Blackadder Goes Forth.

Favorite fictional ship “The Sea Wolf” Operation Petticoat heh heh

Operation Petticoat sub was called the Sea Tiger.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Sea_Tiger

Pacific: Letters from Iwo Jima - fantastic film and being in Japanese makes all the better. This movie was way better than Flags of our Fathers. And there is a lack of really good authentic Pacific war movies. Lots of them just not always that good.

Europe: Saving Private Ryan - an epic

Honorable mention;

Cross of Iron, Patton, The Great Raid, Tora Tora Tora, Enemy at the Gates.

Non WW2 I always like to add…Zulu.  :wink:

I’ll sum up the two battles in football terms. Midway was the shocking interception that was returned for a touchdown, it stopped the Japanese momentum. Guadalcanal was the fifteen play drive for 98 yard that took 7 minutes off the clock for the U.S forces.

Fantastic analogy. +2

He was ordered to scuttle his ship. Hitler did not want internment. He did not know the strength of the forces that were waiting for him. He probably could have tried to slip past the Brits (only 3 cruisers) in the dark of night but he would have likely taken some more damage. And as German naval officers were not in the habit of pretending they were Japanese Naval officers, suicide missions were not of the German liking.

His mistake was heading for Montivedo in the first place. True he had some issues with the damage but it was not seaworthiness. His biggest problem was that his galley had been wrecked so feeding his men was a problem, but that could have been delt with perhaps by a supply ship.

And in the inital battle, closing to close to the three cruisers thus not taking advantage of the range of his guns.

All in all a Brit victory based more on bluff and luck than actual firepower or tactics.

What always gets lost in a study of Sealion is the Luftwaffe plan for the invasion of England. The day after the Dunkirk evacuation, Field Marshall Milch and other officers developed an aerial paratroop/glider assault on Southern England, it would have required Luftwaffe air superiority over only southern England, (which would have been possible) and had limited German Navy involvement early on. It was similar in scope to the Crete invasion.

Paratroops and glider forces would attempt to sieze several airfields and once secured regular forces would be brought in by transport escorted by fighters. The paratroop forces were not used much in the Battle of France as it was and were available for such an immediate operation. They had worked out logistics, transport and had the forces available, which would have still allowed operations to go in the Battle of France.

If all went well the Germans could deploy at least a full division within hours and more within days. Given the condition of the Brits evacuated from Dunkirk (with most of their armor and artillery sitting at Dunkirk) just digging in southern England might have done a great deal of harm.

The plan was presented to Goering before the fall of France who eventually presented the plan to Hitler. Hitler as usual was not interested as it did not coincide with his plans and beliefs than England would quit the game once France was gone. The Germans did not know that France would fall within two weeks, they assumed a much more lengthy fight. Both the Army and the Navy resisted the Luftwaffe’s plan mostly because of inter service disagreements and they felt it was treading on their turf.

By the time of the Battle of Britain England had reconstituted and reorganized most of their land forces and airforce and the window of opportunity had slipped away. And the bigger Operation Sealion was now required which of course the Germans would have been hard pressed to have done.

Would it have worked? Who knows? but I think it should have been tried. And the Brits defending Crete, who slaughtered the German paratroops were prepared, they were not in Southern England in 1940.

Naturally though, I voted for the USSR,  :wink: the opportunity to knock them out of the war or at least to take and hold Moscow, a major road, rail and communication hub with no equal in the Soviet Union, was available in the early fall of 41 had the Germans not been diverted and thus delayed in the turn south into the Ukraine. Another Hitler directive.

I would prefer an experienced crew and a proven vehicle over one that has had only simulated practice or operations. The M-60 and its crew I commanded in Kuwait, would I feel have had a good chance to take out any of the tanks on the list.  Provided I got the first shot off  :lol:

And I would prefer a tank that has a full crew (4 tankers) as opposed to the auto loader system as so much on the tank is physical and the needs to check so many things that the extra body is really a positive. The auto loader can’t check the track or the oil or stand watch in the turret.