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JerryHatake
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04 Aug 2008, 8:41 pm

Yeah the Desert Fox was very feared and yet no one invincible in the end.


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Prof_Pretorius
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04 Aug 2008, 10:08 pm

Stalin constantly told his Generals what to do. They were hamstrung with his megalomania. But they exercised what creativity they could. The German Panzers had problems due to frost on their tracks, so the Russian Generals told their troops to attack at dawn, before the Germans could start rolling. Check any history of the battle at Kursk, it's a truly amazing chapter in mechanized warfare.
By the by, the Russsians refer to it as "The Great Patriotic War."


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05 Aug 2008, 12:22 am

Not to mention that but even Panzers were very prone to break down after certain distances. Whereas the Blitzcrieg on the Western Front was in an area of about 500 miles, the Eastern Front was much longer and deeper, thus the same tactics weren't necessarily viable due to mechanical failure and incredibly long supply lines. Zhukov was quite the general on the Russian's part, he probably did more work then Dwight and Marshall combined and had Stalin breathing down his neck. Definitely a true soldier.



Prof_Pretorius
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05 Aug 2008, 11:25 am

Vigilans wrote:
Not to mention that but even Panzers were very prone to break down after certain distances. Whereas the Blitzcrieg on the Western Front was in an area of about 500 miles, the Eastern Front was much longer and deeper, thus the same tactics weren't necessarily viable due to mechanical failure and incredibly long supply lines. Zhukov was quite the general on the Russian's part, he probably did more work then Dwight and Marshall combined and had Stalin breathing down his neck. Definitely a true soldier.


I've haven't heard that the Panzers were prone to breakdowns. I have read that the Germans were, of course, quite regimented. A Tank crew wouldn't work on the tank if there was a problem, they waited for the mechanic crew. The Yanks however were good at this, the "Farmboys" weren't afraid to pick up a spanner ....


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05 Aug 2008, 4:49 pm

Like I said, in the early part of the war the mechanical failures were not as obvious because the Panzers were traveling considerably shorter distances then they were in Russia



Prof_Pretorius
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05 Aug 2008, 6:14 pm

Vigilans wrote:
Like I said, in the early part of the war the mechanical failures were not as obvious because the Panzers were traveling considerably shorter distances then they were in Russia


They were deadly accurate with the gun, though. A disabled Tiger was still formidable.


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05 Aug 2008, 6:33 pm

JerryHatake wrote:
^Just to let you know Tim, its really called the Japanese-American Pacific War.


I think this depends on which historians (or politicians) you ask. Of course it is undeniable that the US played the biggest role in this theatre but taking all credit from the British, Australian, Chinese, Soviet and resistance wihin the occupied countries hardly seem fair.

I have studied history for most of my life and I have never heard this phrase before, it can hardly be said to originate from any historians seeking objectivity in their work. It reminds me a bit of the retoric used against France in recent years, history with a political agenda.



Prof_Pretorius
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05 Aug 2008, 6:36 pm

This just in ....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... years.html

Interesting article. Note the second paragraph. Obviously these lads weren't like any that I've had a pint with. Surrender with half a bottle of schnapps left behind??
"Right!! Let's finish this, and the last one sober enuf to speak Danish can surrender for all of us ! !"


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BoabDil
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05 Aug 2008, 6:52 pm

Prof_Pretorius wrote:
This just in ....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... years.html

Interesting article. Note the second paragraph. Obviously these lads weren't like any that I've had a pint with. Surrender with half a bottle of schnapps left behind??
"Right!! Let's finish this, and the last one sober enuf to speak Danish can surrender for all of us ! !"


haha great find :)

The truth is that the normal german soldier serving in Denmark in 1945 was a middleaged Austrian, a 16 year old boy or a war invalid. No direct fighting took place here, the country wasnt bombed and Danish Snaps has always been far better than german and we had plenty of it :) I am sure they left the german behind and took all the danish bottles they could carry.

The surrender happened peacefully when Montgomery´s advancing north army group forced the German Commander of The Netherland, North Germany and Denmark to surrender. The German troops in Denmark then simply gathered their belongings and marched to the border, with no allied troops to disarm or escort them. The war was lost and everybody just wanted to go home.



Prof_Pretorius
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05 Aug 2008, 7:56 pm

If I remember correctly (always a dicey proposition) the Nazis invaded Denmark, and rolled up to the Royal Palace. Expecting no resistance they climbed out of their vehicles and were promptly fired upon by the Palace Guard who had sworn to protect the King no matter the cost ...


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05 Aug 2008, 8:43 pm

Towards the close of the war, as well, the Soviets were racing the British to Denmark. In fact there was a moment where the British threatened to open fire on a Soviet column if they did not turn back on the road to Copenhagen.



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05 Aug 2008, 8:47 pm

I am mainly interested in the planes of WWII. I saw a documentary about the pilots of Helldiver squadrons like Jerry mentioned. Formidable

I got the bug when I witnessed a Lancaster flyover as a kid. Once you hear four Merlin engines roaring there is no going back! One of my uncles served against Rommel in the Allied tanks in North Africa. He still will not talk about much of what he saw. The idea of those big 88s trained on him must have been daunting to say the least.



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05 Aug 2008, 9:21 pm

Lets just say I have a hard time finding stuff about WW2 I do not know or know an inkling of. Its one of the few childhood must-know obsessions I still persue.


So much in fact my favorite online games are about ww2.

WORLD WAR 2 ONLINE
www.wwiionline.com
(infantry/tank/sea/air/artillery simulator with 1000's of opponents online)

ACES HIGH
www.hitechcreations.com
(ww2 combat sim)

The first one is more historical-based and its a combined arms game while Aces High is more of a detailed aircraft simulator but the game takes place in a fantasy world. That is, in WW2 Online its axis vs allies whereas Aces High its three fictional countries and they all fly airplanes from both sides of the conflict.



JerryHatake
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05 Aug 2008, 9:33 pm

BoabDil wrote:
JerryHatake wrote:
^Just to let you know Tim, its really called the Japanese-American Pacific War.


I think this depends on which historians (or politicians) you ask. Of course it is undeniable that the US played the biggest role in this theatre but taking all credit from the British, Australian, Chinese, Soviet and resistance wihin the occupied countries hardly seem fair.

I have studied history for most of my life and I have never heard this phrase before, it can hardly be said to originate from any historians seeking objectivity in their work. It reminds me a bit of the retoric used against France in recent years, history with a political agenda.


I don't understand where the name came from but yeah the British and the countries that served with her do deserved credit where they do along with the Chinese. The Russians though weren't much invovled in the Pacific until August 8th, 1945 when they declared war on Japan the day before Nagasaki was bombed by the Plutonium powered "Fat Man" bomb which didn't much damage as the Uranium powered "Little Boy" bomb on Hiroshima (U.S. Navy helped supplied the uranium for the "Little Boy" bomb. Well Nagasaki was more in a valley while Hiroshima was flat land.

Quote:
The major Allied participants were the United States (including forces of the Commonwealth of the Philippines), China, the United Kingdom, (including the forces of British India), Australia, The Netherlands (as possessor of the Dutch East Indies), and New Zealand. Canada, Mexico, Free France and many other countries also took part, especially forces from other British colonies.

The Soviet Union fought two short, undeclared border conflicts with Japan in 1938 and 1939, then remained neutral until August 1945, when it joined the Allies and invaded the territory of Manchukuo, Republic of China, Inner Mongolia, the Japanese protectorate of Korea and Japanese-claimed islands such as Sakhalin coordinated notably between the Red Banner Pacific Fleet and the US Navy's Task Force 38.[citation needed]


I think Japanese-American Pacific War doesn't exist because just search it and the Japanese-American War comes up but some History Professor at Mason calls it by the name I mentioned.

However, since everyone doesn't see both sides of a story most of the time. I just watch Letters from Iwo Jima and it bring the cold harsh truth that is evil makes everyone think your enemy is a savage when in reality they are just like you. We're all living human beings in the end.

The Beast wasn't as good as the Dauntless was but times changes. The Whistling Death was something to fear because it was fast even faster than P-51 (This is true because post war models were more faster than during wartime). The Lighting was a beauty for sure. Everyone says the P-51 was the best fighter BS because the plane that have over 5000 confirmed kills was the F6F Hellcat.


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Ishmael
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06 Aug 2008, 7:47 am

This may seem cynical; but the best thing that happened to Japan was getting nuclear bombed.
If they didn't; land battles would have been fought. The damage to Japans cities, economy, population and infrastructure would have been much, much higher - not to mention the Allied losses.
Japan would have been, today, if not for the nuclear bombs that forced their surrender, likely a third-world islander nation like Indonesia.
As it stands, Japan is a technological super-power - and very different to Imperial Japan of last century.


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JerryHatake
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06 Aug 2008, 8:28 am

^Yep because the estimated number of causlities on Kyushu was 250,000 Allied troops it could have easily reached 1 million within a year upon Honshu after it was invaded. Anyone who says the Atomic Bombs are immoral then you're give a non-living object a human quality when only humans can be immoral. Yet with Japan's war crimes other Asia nations still haven't forgiven them for it, we did somehow but our veterans don't sometimes like my Grandpa Jerry.


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