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Posted: 8/26/2019 10:41:19 PM EDT
[#1]
Saying the US pressured Japan into war is like saying a woman pressured a man to rape her by wearing a skirt.
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Posted: 8/26/2019 10:55:19 PM EDT
[#2]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Saying the US pressured Japan into war is like saying a woman pressured a man to rape her by wearing a skirt. |
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Posted: 8/26/2019 11:56:12 PM EDT
[#3]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Saying the US pressured Japan into war is like saying a woman pressured a man to rape her by wearing a skirt. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 12:04:21 AM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Google the amount of manpower and equipment Germany expended fighting the Russians. It's not made up. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
The US did perform the impossible but it is historical fact that over 70% of Germany's military and resources were occupied fighting the Soviets. So in the European theater at least, it was literally Germany vs. Russia. The luftwaffe used the most resources out of all branches, and was destroyed in the west. Your stat is completely made up. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 7:59:24 AM EDT
[#5]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Jets, if Hitler had 12 more months we'd be speaking German. 
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Posted: 8/27/2019 8:15:17 AM EDT
[#6]
Quoted:
Theater of operation, group of people, time period, subconflict, etc. Forest Brothers Armija Krakowa The fact that there were several technologies that could have turned the tide for the Axis if their leadership hadn't been idiots. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 12:38:22 PM EDT
[#7]
Just read up on this. Wow that is absolutely horrific sounding. Good read for anyone interested
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/10/11/an-army-of-1000-japanese-soldiers-was-decimated-by-saltwater-crocodiles-during-the-battle-of-ramree-island-of-world-war-ii/ |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 12:43:50 PM EDT
[#8]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Most interesting? The fact that the US was able wage war on 3+ continents, field entire navies to battle simultaneously across multiple oceans, all while providing food, fuel, and war materials for Britain, France, and the Soviet Union...and had to cross hostile seas just to get into the fight. Oh yeah, while this was going on, also developed and used nuclear weapons. The sheer logistics involved is damn near mind boggling. It also blew my mind near the end of Band Of Brothers where they find the concentration camps and you realize how hard they fought without even knowing what Hitler was doing to those people. We take that information for granted now, he had to be stopped because of these bad things he did. But a lot of those soldiers fighting didn't even know that stuff. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 12:47:45 PM EDT
[#9]
The industrial complex and how it ramped up to build equipment and munitions.
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Posted: 8/27/2019 12:47:54 PM EDT
[#10]
For me, it is how quickly the Nazis were able to start their “final solution” and disarm the population. It sends shivers down my spine.
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Posted: 8/27/2019 12:50:13 PM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
On one hand they were a professional force only matched by the US/our grandfathers. Towards the end some terrible decisions were made on the eastern front that seemed destined to fail. Sabotage? Perhaps the red army was that formidable with its numbers of bodies. Tons of documentaries of the fall of hitler and his Reich. It's hard to believe it could all fall apart so quickly after so much success militarily. It was long ago, perhaps we will never know all of it. Buried in the past. History is written by the victors. My grandfather was there. His company was responsible for liberating one of the Dachau sub camps. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
I think to this day more people have been killed by the 7.92x57 mm German cartridge than any other. Tons of documentaries of the fall of hitler and his Reich. It's hard to believe it could all fall apart so quickly after so much success militarily. It was long ago, perhaps we will never know all of it. Buried in the past. History is written by the victors. My grandfather was there. His company was responsible for liberating one of the Dachau sub camps. Yes their plan was ambitious to say the least but what other world power did they actually succeed over? |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 12:52:48 PM EDT
[#12]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
To me, the most interesting thing about WWII is that at it's core, it was a race war and a resource war. A lot of people miss the glaring fact that the Nazis, as exemplified by the SS, were fighting a war against people whom they viewed as oppositional races. The Japanese were guilty of this, too. And racism also became a motivator for allied troops as well. And it was a resource war. The German economy could not even provide sufficient socks to put on the feet of little German children. The poverty of the global economy outside of the U.S. was shocking. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 12:58:04 PM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Most interesting? The fact that the US was able wage war on 3+ continents, field entire navies to battle simultaneously across multiple oceans, all while providing food, fuel, and war materials for Britain, France, and the Soviet Union...and had to cross hostile seas just to get into the fight. Oh yeah, while this was going on, also developed and used nuclear weapons. The sheer logistics involved is damn near mind boggling. Back when America was starting to have the communist influence imported from Europe because the Nazis would have killed them. This is probably the only regerts I have for Nazi failure. Not enough dead commies. The fucking cultural communist virus that eventually infiltrated academia, gov, entertainment and destroyed America, making it what it is today. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 1:02:10 PM EDT
[#14]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Can do attitude. Back when America was starting to have the communist influence imported from Europe because the Nazis would have killed them. This is probably the only regerts I have for Nazi failure. Not enough dead commies. The fucking cultural communist virus that eventually infiltrated academia, gov, entertainment and destroyed America, making it what it is today. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 1:04:17 PM EDT
[#15]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I'm only on my first WWII documentary but it looks to me like much of Germany's early success was because of surprise and the lack of preparations by it's enemies. It wasn't until after they had taken over a lot of real estate before anyone with any actual capabilities got their shit together and fought back. France rolled over, Poland was nothing, Italy was on board. When Germany made it to another "serious" country they were slowed / stopped (Battle of Britain, Russia, Rommel eventually got run out of Africa). Yes their plan was ambitious to say the least but what other world power did they actually succeed over? What is interesting is that for the Invasion of France, almost the entire German general staff thought it was suicide. The German general staff all felt the German military was at least 2-3 years away from being ready to fight JUST THE FRENCH on equal terms, let alone Britain and the Soviet Union. Hitler, Guderian and Mannstein were about the only ones who believed in it. The German invasion of France was obviously was the most commonly war gamed scenario by the French, British and Germans. When everyone war gamed this scenario, the French always stopped the German army cold. Apparently the German officers enjoyed playing the part of the French during the war game scenario because it was seen as such an easy win. The British and French were beaten with the ideas of a British officer in WW1 that no one really wanted to listen to. Problem is a handful of Germans were paying attention during the inter war years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._F._C._Fuller |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 1:09:31 PM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The amount of technological innovation during the war may never been matched. It's baffling to me how much the world changed in 5 years. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 1:15:11 PM EDT
[#17]
The effort it took to build a Nuke. Done and delivered in 3 years.
All the while fighting on two fronts. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 1:15:22 PM EDT
[#18]
the airwar over Europe has always been my favorite with a serious hat tip to the battle of Leyte Gulf since I live within site of where the PT boat base on north Bolhol was.
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Posted: 8/27/2019 1:22:25 PM EDT
[#19]
The fact that everybody in the USA was involved in the war either directly as a member of the Armed Forces or in a support role in industry, science and even as a housewife who diligently saved tin foil, tended a V-garden or shopped for rationed goods. This will never happen again and is another reason we call them 'The Greatest Generation'.
As an interesting corollary to the total acceptance of the war by the populace, it is believed by some to this day that the government (FDR) knew the attack was coming on Pearl Harbor, and the casualties were sacrificed in order to make use of the revenge fever that was sure to sweep the nation, to propel us into the war with a kick that could not be had any other way. One more: because of FDR's many programs to put millions of men to work during the depression of the '30s on various federal projects, when the war broke out we had those millions already used to being in a camp environment, wearing uniforms and working together to accomplish hard work - basically a ready-made army, only needing to swap the shovel for the rifle and get a little training. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 1:28:15 PM EDT
[#20]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Jets, if Hitler had 12 more months we'd be speaking German. It makes me wonder what would have happened if the Krauts had waited a year or 2 to address weapons & stash critical resources—then started the war. Their well-supported/well-planned Blitzkrieg may have ended differently. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 1:36:26 PM EDT
[#21]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Actually, the Krauts were ahead of the tech curve re: jets, tanks, tactics, etc. & they were “winning” up until their men & materiel ran out due to multiple fronts.... It makes me wonder what would have happened if the Krauts had waited a year or 2 to address weapons & stash critical resources—then started the war. Their well-supported/well-planned Blitzkrieg may have ended differently. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 1:42:56 PM EDT
[#22]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Something many people don't know is that until the Germans actually won the Battle of France in May 1940, the German general staff were terrified of the French army. WW2 could have been stopped, had the French sent their troops in when Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland in 1936. What is interesting is that for the Invasion of France, almost the entire German general staff thought it was suicide. The German general staff all felt the German military was at least 2-3 years away from being ready to fight JUST THE FRENCH on equal terms, let alone Britain and the Soviet Union. Hitler, Guderian and Mannstein were about the only ones who believed in it. The German invasion of France was obviously was the most commonly war gamed scenario by the French, British and Germans. When everyone war gamed this scenario, the French always stopped the German army cold. Apparently the German officers enjoyed playing the part of the French during the war game scenario because it was seen as such an easy win. The British and French were beaten with the ideas of a British officer in WW1 that no one really wanted to listen to. Problem is a handful of Germans were paying attention during the inter war years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._F._C._Fuller No, you want to know why the Germans so thoroughly flubbed the predictions for the Battle of France, you have to go look at how reliant they were on everyone in the front line being doped to the gills with meth. That was the only way they maintained the operations tempo through the Ardennes, and why the pre-war predictions were so far off--They didn't account for the ability that Pervitin would give the drivers and commanders to operate for up to 72 hours without sleep, nor did it account for the extreme aggression that the drug would cause. Both the French and the German projections were correct, but they didn't allow for methed-up front-line soldiers driving balls to the wall all night long for days at a stretch. The French came to think the attacking Germans were superhuman, and to a degree, they were. Meth is a helluva drug... |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 1:51:22 PM EDT
[#23]
The overall advances in technology.
Then the use of really out of the box type of weapons systems or subterfuge. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 1:54:14 PM EDT
[#24]
I see Hydra has infiltrated GD and made sure no posts about it in this thread
 Attached File |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 1:57:40 PM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I understand the Admirals and Generals wanted to. And that idiot Chamberlain was more than willing to roll over and play dead if only the Nazis had pretended to have some modicum of restraint. May have been a different war, thank heavens it wasn’t. The Nazis would have been as bad as the Commies, only a bit more methodical about exterminating people. At least this way we kept part of Europe out from behind the Iron Curtain; I suspect Hitler’s would have covered the continent. Had the British wanted to put their foot down at Munich in 1938 they couldn't have. The RAF had barely 2 squadrons of modern fighters at the time of Munich. By the time they needed them in 1940, the RAF had almost 40 squadrons of modern fighters. Without the RAF, Britain is forced to sign a peace deal. Chamberlain played Hitler. He signed a peace deal with Hitler, then went home and put the British military and industry on a war footing. Remember, you can't ever trust the British, whatever they publicly claim, they are usually doing the opposite. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 1:58:41 PM EDT
[#26]
The fascinating part for me is how fast humankind progressed in just 8 or 9 years....from bi-planes to the seeds of the space program, in a sense.
From horse drawn armies to nuclear weapons. The computer age was really born in the war, from the seeds of ancient codes. It's really unprecedented in the history of our species how quickly we pushed forward. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 2:05:34 PM EDT
[#27]
For the U.S., practically overnight the entire country engaged in total industrial mobilization for war and managed to supply not only ourselves but most of the Allies. The logistics of that is almost unimaginable.
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Posted: 8/27/2019 2:08:50 PM EDT
[#28]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Logistics https://www.historynet.com/the-battle-before-the-battle.htm |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 2:16:21 PM EDT
[#29]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Fuller's "contributions" have been pretty thoroughly debunked. The German generals claimed that they got everything from him mostly during the post-war interrogations--They were trying to make nice with the interrogators. You go back and look, and most of the pre-war German writings on tactics and so forth don't even mention him, nor are there records showing his work was even that available in Germany. No, you want to know why the Germans so thoroughly flubbed the predictions for the Battle of France, you have to go look at how reliant they were on everyone in the front line being doped to the gills with meth. That was the only way they maintained the operations tempo through the Ardennes, and why the pre-war predictions were so far off--They didn't account for the ability that Pervitin would give the drivers and commanders to operate for up to 72 hours without sleep, nor did it account for the extreme aggression that the drug would cause. Both the French and the German projections were correct, but they didn't allow for methed-up front-line soldiers driving balls to the wall all night long for days at a stretch. The French came to think the attacking Germans were superhuman, and to a degree, they were. Meth is a helluva drug... You do realize Fuller was in Nazi Germany meeting with Hitler and the German general staff BEFORE the war, from 1935-1939. Let's be honest, "people" like to discredit the massive influence of Fuller's ideas on modern warfare, due to his political sympathies. Standard communist operating procedure. Just like how now they feel the need to re-write the history NASA, man's crowning scientific achievement couldn't possibly be done by a bunch of Nazis. I don't personally agree with Fuller's political sympathies, but I do have the intellectual honesty to give him credit for the brilliance of his ideas. The same for men like Werner Von Braun, Kurt Tank, Karl Marx, James Madison and Sergei Korolev. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 2:18:51 PM EDT
[#30]
Logistics and centralized-control of manufacturing (and the dramatic end of the same) of war materiel in a age of slow communications.
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Posted: 8/27/2019 2:22:16 PM EDT
[#31]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The worst death camps were in Poland. Despite playing the victim card well, I doubt many were overly concerned about what may have been going on. The Poles cooperated willingly. The Germans made it all possible. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 2:29:57 PM EDT
[#32]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Chamberlain was a hero. Chamberlain bought the British time. Had the British wanted to put their foot down at Munich in 1938 they couldn't have. The RAF had barely 2 squadrons of modern fighters at the time of Munich. By the time they needed them in 1940, the RAF had almost 40 squadrons of modern fighters. Without the RAF, Britain is forced to sign a peace deal. Chamberlain played Hitler. He signed a peace deal with Hitler, then went home and put the British military and industry on a war footing. Remember, you can't ever trust the British, whatever they publicly claim, they are usually doing the opposite. . Mister “Peace in our time”? Some people think that, Churchill sure as heck didn’t. From what I’ve read, he believed Germany truly could have been placated. The RAF rebuild...great. Maybe it helped. Maybe attacking the Germans full out in ‘38 would have ended things earlier. Given the German rebuild as well, I fall in the majority camp of thinking he should have stopped them then and there rather than rolling over for Hitler.
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Posted: 8/27/2019 2:47:02 PM EDT
[#33]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
. Mister “Peace in our time”? Some people think that, Churchill sure as heck didn’t. From what I’ve read, he believed Germany truly could have been placated. The RAF rebuild...great. Maybe it helped. Maybe attacking the Germans full out in ‘38 would have ended things earlier. Given the German rebuild as well, I fall in the majority camp of thinking he should have stopped them then and there rather than rolling over for Hitler.It remains the most critical point of the entire war. It determined would it be a 2 front war or a 1 front war for the Germans. Germany wins WW2 if Britain takes the peace deal after losing the Battle of France. Part of any British peace deal, would eventually end up in Britain supplying Germany with oil from the Middle East. Call me crazy but you need an Air Force to fight an air war. Only a wanker telegraphs their true intentions in poker and war. The British are a lot things, stupid isn't one of them. They knew to fight a modern war, the military and industry need to be put on a war footing and you need this thing called a modern air force. History doesn't always have to conform to the 8th grade narrative so many of us were spoon fed. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 2:50:38 PM EDT
[#34]
When the IJN decided to run Yamato aground on the invasion beaches at Okinawa, the US Navy dutifully launched 400 combat aircraft from 8 fleet carriers and turned Yamato into a smoking hole in the water. Admiral Mitscher launched these aircraft on his own authority. I've always thought that had Yamato somehow survived the assault from these 400 aircraft, that I would not be alive today as my grandfather was off the beaches that day aboard USS Ancon......I was very much mistaken.
As the carriers launched, Admiral Spruance detailed 6 fast battleships (3 South Dakota Class and 3 Iowa Class), 7 cruisers including both Alaska Class, and 21 destroyers to intercept the Japanese surface group comprised to Yamato, a light cruiser, and 8 destroyers. Assuming Yamato survived that, there were a further 10 older battleships, various cruisers and destroyers, and a fairly large fleet of British warships conducting shore bombardment at the invasion beaches that also could have sailed against whatever was left of the Japanese flotilla. I've always been into WW2 history, read about it almost daily. But I honestly had no idea how powerful the US Navy had become by 1945. It's absolutely astonishing to me, and I didn't even mention submarines. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 2:56:25 PM EDT
[#35]
1) the Logistical might of the United States.
2) The Bomb, and how we brought Japan to its knees. They HAD considered the Emperor to be a living god. We killed that myth when we insisted on the "Humanity Declaration": "The ties between Us and Our people have always stood upon mutual trust and affection. They do not depend upon mere legends and myths. They are not predicated on the false conception that the Emperor is divine, and that the Japanese people are superior to other races and fated to rule the world." |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 2:59:18 PM EDT
[#36]
Quote HistoryQuoted: On one hand they were a professional force only matched by the US/our grandfathers. Towards the end some terrible decisions were made on the eastern front that seemed destined to fail. Sabotage? Perhaps the red army was that formidable with its numbers of bodies. Tons of documentaries of the fall of hitler and his Reich. It’s hard to believe it could all fall apart so quickly after so much success militarily. It was long ago, perhaps we will never know all of it. Buried in the past. History is written by the victors. My grandfather was there. His company was responsible for liberating one of the Dachau sub camps. - what unit was he in? Was his last name anything like “Gallinoto?” |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 3:02:16 PM EDT
[#37]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Local history Living in northern Ohio, my maternal grandfather (1916-2005) worked 16 hours a day 6 days a week at Plum Brook Ordnance Works in Sandusky Ohio. He ran the third nitrater making TNT. I wonder how many of the bastards his tnt blew up during the war. My Paternal grandfather (1906-1981) worked as a firefighter at Marathon Oil. Akron Ohio built Corsairs Toledo Ohio Jeeps Cleveland Ohio Tanks half tracks and armored cars. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 3:04:41 PM EDT
[#38]
Had been there i think I would have wanted to command a PT boat.
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Posted: 8/27/2019 3:06:19 PM EDT
[#39]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
When the IJN decided to run Yamato aground on the invasion beaches at Okinawa, the US Navy dutifully launched 400 combat aircraft from 8 fleet carriers and turned Yamato into a smoking hole in the water. Admiral Mitscher launched these aircraft on his own authority. I've always thought that had Yamato somehow survived the assault from these 400 aircraft, that I would not be alive today as my grandfather was off the beaches that day aboard USS Ancon......I was very much mistaken. As the carriers launched, Admiral Spruance detailed 6 fast battleships (3 South Dakota Class and 3 Iowa Class), 7 cruisers including both Alaska Class, and 21 destroyers to intercept the Japanese surface group comprised to Yamato, a light cruiser, and 8 destroyers. Assuming Yamato survived that, there were a further 10 older battleships, various cruisers and destroyers, and a fairly large fleet of British warships conducting shore bombardment at the invasion beaches that also could have sailed against whatever was left of the Japanese flotilla. I've always been into WW2 history, read about it almost daily. But I honestly had no idea how powerful the US Navy had become by 1945. It's absolutely astonishing to me, and I didn't even mention submarines. Japan attacked the US with 6 aircraft carriers. America went on to field 100 aircraft carriers in WW2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_of_World_War_II Oh and there's that issue of Japan having no domestic oil producing capability. The US was the world's largest oil producer. The moral of WW2 is don't fuck with America. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 3:10:13 PM EDT
[#40]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
We gave Stalin too much material aid. We should have bled both sides of the eastern front completely white. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted: Can do attitude. Back when America was starting to have the communist influence imported from Europe because the Nazis would have killed them. This is probably the only regerts I have for Nazi failure. Not enough dead commies. The fucking cultural communist virus that eventually infiltrated academia, gov, entertainment and destroyed America, making it what it is today. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 3:12:00 PM EDT
[#41]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Yeah, in the US we tend to forget that Europe was in terrible straights right after the war. The ‘50s in the US were boom times because we rebuilt much of Europe and were the only Western industrial power left unscathed, but in Europe people were starving and rationing was common. Totally different experience. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted: Europe was totally exhausted of all resources by the end of the war. More than half of Europe was starving by the end of the war. My grandfather and his group of friends in the POW camp were allowed to have a pet dog. They had to kill the poor thing for something to eat, in order to survive, things were that bad. They remember starving during the winter of 46; then the family dog suddenly “ran away,” but they somehow had a little meat on the dinner table for a week after that. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 3:12:04 PM EDT
[#42]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Actually, the Krauts were ahead of the tech curve re: jets, tanks, tactics, etc. & they were “winning” up until their men & materiel ran out due to multiple fronts.... It makes me wonder what would have happened if the Krauts had waited a year or 2 to address weapons & stash critical resources—then started the war. Their well-supported/well-planned Blitzkrieg may have ended differently. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Jets, if Hitler had 12 more months we'd be speaking German. It makes me wonder what would have happened if the Krauts had waited a year or 2 to address weapons & stash critical resources—then started the war. Their well-supported/well-planned Blitzkrieg may have ended differently. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 3:17:54 PM EDT
[#43]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
The Germans do not get a pass because they used Poland as their butcher board. There were more Jews in Poland than Germany. They did not want death camps in the Fatherland proper. The Poles cooperated willingly. The Germans made it all possible. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted: The worst death camps were in Poland. Despite playing the victim card well, I doubt many were overly concerned about what may have been going on. The Poles cooperated willingly. The Germans made it all possible. They'd work them to death in Germany, just not unload them off a train and take them straight into a disguised death chamber. Weird they'd only shoot them to death on the Soviet side of the Molotov-Ribbentrop line too. As a means of mass killing. Guess it was an ethos. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 3:18:50 PM EDT
[#44]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Poverty in the US at that time was extreme as well. Massive slums in the major cities and rural areas, especially in the South, were amazingly poor. Many places in the South are still that way. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 3:22:25 PM EDT
[#45]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The Battle of Britain was the first time someone in WW2 showed the Germans weren't invincible. It remains the most critical point of the entire war. It determined would it be a 2 front war or a 1 front war for the Germans. Germany wins WW2 if Britain takes the peace deal after losing the Battle of France. Part of any British peace deal, would eventually end up in Britain supplying Germany with oil from the Middle East. Call me crazy but you need an Air Force to fight an air war. Only a wanker telegraphs their true intentions in poker and war. The British are a lot things, stupid isn't one of them. They knew to fight a modern war, the military and industry need to be put on a war footing and you need this thing called a modern air force. History doesn't always have to conform to the 8th grade narrative so many of us were spoon fed. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 3:22:54 PM EDT
[#46]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Most interesting? The fact that the US was able wage war on 3+ continents, field entire navies to battle simultaneously across multiple oceans, all while providing food, fuel, and war materials for Britain, France, and the Soviet Union...and had to cross hostile seas just to get into the fight. Oh yeah, while this was going on, also developed and used nuclear weapons. The sheer logistics involved is damn near mind boggling. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 3:29:07 PM EDT
[#47]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
The power of the US navy in WW2 is mind blowing. Japan attacked the US with 6 aircraft carriers. America went on to field 100 aircraft carriers in WW2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_of_World_War_II Oh and there's that issue of Japan having no domestic oil producing capability. The US was the world's largest oil producer. The moral of WW2 is don't fuck with America. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
When the IJN decided to run Yamato aground on the invasion beaches at Okinawa, the US Navy dutifully launched 400 combat aircraft from 8 fleet carriers and turned Yamato into a smoking hole in the water. Admiral Mitscher launched these aircraft on his own authority. I've always thought that had Yamato somehow survived the assault from these 400 aircraft, that I would not be alive today as my grandfather was off the beaches that day aboard USS Ancon......I was very much mistaken. As the carriers launched, Admiral Spruance detailed 6 fast battleships (3 South Dakota Class and 3 Iowa Class), 7 cruisers including both Alaska Class, and 21 destroyers to intercept the Japanese surface group comprised to Yamato, a light cruiser, and 8 destroyers. Assuming Yamato survived that, there were a further 10 older battleships, various cruisers and destroyers, and a fairly large fleet of British warships conducting shore bombardment at the invasion beaches that also could have sailed against whatever was left of the Japanese flotilla. I've always been into WW2 history, read about it almost daily. But I honestly had no idea how powerful the US Navy had become by 1945. It's absolutely astonishing to me, and I didn't even mention submarines. Japan attacked the US with 6 aircraft carriers. America went on to field 100 aircraft carriers in WW2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_of_World_War_II Oh and there's that issue of Japan having no domestic oil producing capability. The US was the world's largest oil producer. The moral of WW2 is don't fuck with America.  Attached File |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 3:30:46 PM EDT
[#48]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
8th grade narrative? You mean the standard historical appraisal: Churchill thought so and vehemently stated so in the House of Commons at the time, Truman thought so, LeMay thought so...I could go on, but I won’t. You want to read, go ahead.. To me this sounds more like revisionism: Chamberlain has been a byword for failed attempts at appeasement for several generations now. To claim he was the sneakiest guy alive, telling everyone, including family, that he did one thing, while super sneakily doing another and then pretending to have believed his earlier stuff the rest of his life...I don’t buy it. He wasn’t an idiot, pumping up the UK military just in case made sense, but that doesn’t mean he hadn’t believed in “Peace in our time”. But you do you. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted: The Battle of Britain was the first time someone in WW2 showed the Germans weren't invincible. It remains the most critical point of the entire war. It determined would it be a 2 front war or a 1 front war for the Germans. Germany wins WW2 if Britain takes the peace deal after losing the Battle of France. Part of any British peace deal, would eventually end up in Britain supplying Germany with oil from the Middle East. Call me crazy but you need an Air Force to fight an air war. Only a wanker telegraphs their true intentions in poker and war. The British are a lot things, stupid isn't one of them. They knew to fight a modern war, the military and industry need to be put on a war footing and you need this thing called a modern air force. History doesn't always have to conform to the 8th grade narrative so many of us were spoon fed. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 3:38:38 PM EDT
[#49]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
The industrial complex and how it ramped up to build equipment and munitions. Quote HistoryQuoted:
The industrial complex and how it ramped up to build equipment and munitions. In 1940, President Roosevelt, at the recommendation of Bernard Baruch, asked Knudsen to come to Washington to help with war production. Knudsen was appointed as Chairman of the Office of Production Management and member of the National Defense Advisory Commission, for which he received a salary of $1 per year.
In January 1942, Knudsen received a commission as a lieutenant general in the U.S. Army, the only civilian ever to join the Army at such a high initial rank, and appointed as Director of Production, Office of the Under Secretary of War. In this capacity, he worked as a consultant and a troubleshooter for the War Department. In both of these positions, Knudsen used his extensive experience in manufacturing and industry respect to facilitate the largest production job in history. In response to the demand for war materiel, production of machine tools tripled. Total aircraft produced for the US military in 1939 was less than 3,000 planes. By the end of the war, America produced over 300,000 planes, of which the Boeing B-29 Superfortress benefitted greatly from Knudsen's direction. Production of both cargo and Navy ships also increased astronomically. Knudsen's influence not only smoothed government procurement procedures, but also led companies that had never produced military hardware to enter the market. America outproduced its enemies. As Knudsen said, "We won because we smothered the enemy in an avalanche of production, the like of which he had never seen, nor dreamed possible." He was appointed Director of the Air Technical Service Command when it was founded in July 1944 at Patterson Field, Ohio. He served in the Army until his resignation on June 1, 1945. |
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Posted: 8/27/2019 3:39:35 PM EDT
[#50]
One of the most interesting things is the outsized personalities on all sides of the conflict. Roosevelt might have been a socialist and a colossal asshole, but he had the brass to negotiate more or less successfully with the likes of Stalin. Churchill was seemingly born to lead the UK through the war and understood the theatrics of leadership. Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo and the rest were all unafraid to roll the dice for all or nothing.
There were fascinating personalities through the ranks of all of these nations at all levels. |
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