Posted on 04/01/2016 6:35:45 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Well, even with Obama’s candy-ass pink military we could probably still handle Japanese Zeros.
With today’s media? Heck no!
D-day +1 Sergeant NCO in charge of Mark XX radar units.
My dad.
Uncle Mitch was a Marine in the Pacific. Never talked about it. Had a wall full of Navy ship models he built after the war to help with his memories. Never would buy a Japanese car.
The precious Snowflake Generation would last two seconds in combat against the Japanese on Okinawa. Sergeant, I need a safe space!
Grandpa was part of Normandy landing and eventually made it about ten miles inland before being severely wounded. He was reticent to talk about the carnage he witnessed. He spoke several times about the trip from the US across the Atlantic and was obviously bothered by one casualty. Apparently, there was one GI that ran up some large gambling debts and vanished. They were all young and scared, and knew something big was coming so his disapearrance was thought to be a suicide. My grandpa wasn’t convinced that it was. He later figured out that the survival rate of the people on that ship wasn’t very high and wondered if being thrown overboard in the dark had been a better fate. He had a brother that was “lost in the Pacific” but would never elaborate— even which service— so I imagined that his brother’s experience weighed even more heavily on him than his own.
Grandpa was part of Normandy landing and eventually made it about ten miles inland before being severely wounded. He was reticent to talk about the carnage he witnessed. He spoke several times about the trip from the US across the Atlantic and was obviously bothered by one casualty. Apparently, there was one GI that ran up some large gambling debts and vanished. They were all young and scared, and knew something big was coming so his disapearrance was thought to be a suicide. My grandpa wasn’t convinced that it was. He later figured out that the survival rate of the people on that ship wasn’t very high and wondered if being thrown overboard in the dark had been a better fate. He had a brother that was “lost in the Pacific” but would never elaborate— even which service— so I imagined that his brother’s experience weighed even more heavily on him than his own.
We would not have gotten involved in Europe at all, because the European Axis powers had not attacked us. We would have been limited to actions against Japan only. And we would not have set the goal of total victory.
You don’t understand. After the fall of France in May, 1940, the Establishment was more terrified of Hitler than it is of Donald Trump now.You know that Britain was terrified of Hitler by then, because that is when Britain sent over a pallet load of secrets to America. An Army officer was sent to pick up what was assumed to be a briefcase of secrets, and found himself seriously embarrassed for lack of manpower to secure and transport a pallet load of paper and exhibits documenting British military technology. FDR was afraid of the possible fall of Britain resulting in the takeover of the Royal Navy by Hitler. So FDR was not waiting for Pearl Harbor to begin preparations for entering the war.
goes into the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the US military buildup prior to Pearl Harbor. You will object that the US was woefully unprepared when it entered WWII, and you will be absolutely right - and dead wrong. True, the US did not have the inventory of military equipment it sorely needed. But what it did have is the physical plant and modern machinery in place to produce them. And that was not because it had been in place in 1939, but because FDR had gone around Congress to get that plant and equipment built. WWII ended the Depression, and it did so before Pearl Harbor.
- Freedom's Forge:
- How American Business Produced Victory in World War II
Arthur HermanThat plant and equipment was already busy producing, and ramping up production rates, before Pearl Harbor. The reason we had scant military resources in being in America was that we were already sending them to Britain as fast as we could. So the cupboard was pretty much bare, but that was strictly a temporary situation. US production exceeded that of all Axis powers during the war.
So in a sense, Hitler’s mistake was to delay declaring war on the US until after Pearl Harbor; the US was functioning as best it could to help his enemies, including the USSR, before Pearl Harbor. FDR knew he needed 18 months to ramp up production; he was far from wanting to fight before that 18 months was up. Which just happened, if you believe in coincidences, to coincide with December 1941 . . .
I’d include the BBC’s “The World at War” to that list.
all true, but for the sake of historical accuracy, Hitler and Germany DID declare war on the United States.
So, we would have been compelled to fight, regardless.
I think...
to read a compelling personal story, read “With the Old Breed:, by EB Sledge.
He was one of the characters in the HBO series “The Pacific”, a few years ago
the book is his personal memoir...well worth reading.
That’s one I don’t know- I see some episodes are posted on youtube so I’ll have to check it out.
Okinawa? Battle of the Bulge? Chosin Reservoir? Ia Drang Valley?
Nothing an infantry comprised of one-third women couldn’t handle just as well as their grandfather’s all-male battalions. And besides, isn’t a commitment to Diversity and Inclusion more important than any so-called “winning”?
It was done in the 70’s so many interesting folks were still alive to be interviewed, plus the war was still close enough that the PC didn’t creep in.
My grandfather my (Mom’s dad), was there
“Sorry General Buckner, you cannot invade Okinawa. Our latest intel indicates that it would decimate the Okinawan Spotted Rat population, which makes it illegal.”
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