Good WW-II read - many things I wasn't aware of...!

[AJMD429]

This book - "Nothing Less the Full Victory" - was given to me by my cousin, and is VERY interesting read.


http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Less-Than ... 1591144949

The 'angle' is about the evolution of the army in terms of logistics and supply and manpower, between the 'constabulary' nature it had in the early 20th Century, and the end of World War Two. It is fascinating how BAD things were even in the year or two after Pearl Harbor. I also learned that it all wasn't "Rosy the Riveter" in the industrial front, either, with Unions striking over integration, and punishing workers who dared exceed production minimums. We also made many tactical errors, compounded by equipment thirty or forty years old and often in poor condition on top of obsolescence.

I highly recommend the book.

Hopefully we won't repeat the same kinds of errors ever again - we really lucked out that time.

The other thing of interest is reading about meetings between Eisenhower and his generals, and the depth of strategy the president was actually involved in. His decisions weren't perfect, but he clearly understood the doctrine of war, and the equipment and issues soldiers faced. His current replacement would probably be straining his grey matter simply by playing the board-game 'Battleship'...

[tom deinek]

"Hopefully we won't repeat the same kinds of errors ever again"

Such error are integral in our approriations philosophy.

Your eally don't think we approriate $ every year so we have up to the minute, state of the art equipment.

Rather, we have gear that was up to the minute of the last time the gov't funded acquisition that equipment.

This is a constant complaint among our military.

[MrMurphy]

We repeated the problem every war since.

Tossing all our stuff in 1945 so in 1950 we were short of everything. Dropping so many bombs in Vietnam and not making more that we started dropping WW2 stuff.

Ignoring every single limited warfare campaign in the world and not having any mine-resistant vehicles, despite seeing Rhodesia and the South Africans using them against IEDs for over 25 years.....

[Grizz]

we have Reagan class carriers that DON'T HAVE AIR WINGS

it doesn't get much stupider than that

[Model 52B]

Read up on Henry Ford and the whole Willow Run problem with B-24 production. It was an impressive plant once it got into production, but Ford wasted about 18 months getting it up and running in part due to his difficulties working with labor, not wanting women in the workforce, etc. It basically started producing once the government pulled Henry out of the mix.

[bdhold]

unfortunately, it has to be worse next time. We're living in the most narcissistic generation in history, and it's not going to get better.

here we have a publication editor asking for an invasion of our nation by foreign governments
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... rol-porter

[MrMurphy]

The Guardian is England's equivalent of the trash news you see in the supermarket checkout.


Really? He wants 'the world' to intervene taking out the US? Who? The 'world' can't agree to even cooperate to take out Syria.....and you're going after the largest military in the world....uh.....yeah.....

Even Russia AND China together would have issues.

[bdhold]

The Guardian is England's equivalent of the trash news you see in the supermarket checkout.

fair enough - I was drug into the publication from another board for the article on nuking North Carolina
While I recognized the editorial stance, I didn't recognize the geography.
Thanks for your insight.

[Bruce Scott]

The other thing of interest is reading about meetings between Eisenhower and his generals, and the depth of strategy the president was actually involved in. His decisions weren't perfect, but he clearly understood the doctrine of war, and the equipment and issues soldiers faced. His current replacement would probably be straining his grey matter simply by playing the board-game 'Battleship'...

Roosevelt...?

[Sixgun]

Well, we won. We were the best then and still are.

If it was not for all of the political garbage, we really could make a parking lot out of the entire Middle East, which by the way, needs to be done.-----6

[AJMD429]

The other thing of interest is reading about meetings between Eisenhower and his generals,

Roosevelt...?

Sorry, I was just reading the part about Operation Torch, and Eisenhower (as an Allied commander) meeting with the President (Roosevelt), and got all dyslexic.

I was actually musing about how even a socialist like F.D.R. could run rings around our current POtuS intellectually or strategically.

[Ysabel Kid]

The other thing of interest is reading about meetings between Eisenhower and his generals, and the depth of strategy the president was actually involved in. His decisions weren't perfect, but he clearly understood the doctrine of war, and the equipment and issues soldiers faced. His current replacement would probably be straining his grey matter simply by playing the board-game 'Battleship'...

The current occupant of the White House would strain himself playing "Chutes & Ladders"...

[3leggedturtle]

Well, we won. We were the best then and still are.

If it was not for all of the political garbage, we really could make a parking lot out of the entire Middle East, which by the way, needs to be done.-----6

Yep, I been saying that since the 1st Gulf War. All the "let's talk it out" pukes don't ask me what I think about current events anymore.

[piller]

Read up on Henry Ford and the whole Willow Run problem with B-24 production. It was an impressive plant once it got into production, but Ford wasted about 18 months getting it up and running in part due to his difficulties working with labor, not wanting women in the workforce, etc. It basically started producing once the government pulled Henry out of the mix.

Henry Ford was a friend of, and admirer of, Adolph Hitler. It is easily found that he helped set up much of Germany's production for assembly line production. Without Henry Ford's help, Germany would not have had the total numbers of vehicles, tanks, and airplanes it had. Unfortunately, Hitler had many admirers in the U.S. at the time.

[AJMD429]

Unfortunately, Hitler had many admirers in the U.S. at the time.

He still does; the surprising thing to me is that so many of them are liberal Democrats, who don't even realize that he is one whose political philosophies they agree with. They just hate rural Caucasian Christians, instead of Jews...