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Universe Master posted:Nazi sympathizer Charles Lindbergh shot down a Japanese plane as a civilian because he just showed up at an island airfield one day. When Lindbergh visited the Pacific island where Navy Lieutenant Richard Nixon was stationed, Nixon skipped seeing him so he could play more poker.
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Jul 17, 2020 17:49
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 06:28 |
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If you’re looking for a fascinating book about WWII outside the usual topics, The Tango War covers Latin and South America’s roles. Huge German population in Brazil had to be kept in check, Mexican oil fueling u boats, Brazilians helping liberate Italy, Orson Welles filming a doomed project, it is top tier reading.
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Jul 19, 2020 04:23
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:Also Prince Paul and his government were conferencing with British and American officials right up to signing the Pact begging them for some kind of plan or guarantee or something other than just throwing Yugoslavia on the loving fire like what happened with Poland. They got nothing. He literally said to the American ambassador Seconding recommendation for Shattered Sword. It was fascinating to learn about how the Japanese tendency to favor specialization meant they had an excellent fire fighting team on their carriers. When said team got wiped out, this led to a lot of uncontrollable fires and burned out husks. Max Hastings is another great WWII author, especially regarding different mentalities to the war. He had a quote about how if England were invaded they’d fight hard to keep London, but would surrender before eating their dead. It was a different war in the east.
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Jul 20, 2020 06:19
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Kevin DuBrow posted:I was listening to an interview of Tom Hanks by Dan Carlin from Hardcore History about Greyhound, the WW2 movie he wrote and starred in. Hanks seemed like a good guy who genuinely loves history, but he said a few things that were really iffy that Carlin never challenged. I listened to Hanks being interviewed by Conan O'Brien (definite recommend both are hilarious) and yeah Hanks knows a lot but a few of his facts weren't quite right. He mentioned that same idea that before Stalingrad (concluded in Feb 1943) the Axis hadn't enduring a major defeat, somehow forgetting Midway was in June 1942. Some more stuff that's interesting: -Japan placed a low priority on feeding their troops properly and they were expected to prepare their own rice each day and forage in the field. This led to devastating troop losses from malnutrition especially at Guadalcanal. Contrast to the US supply chain, that even put ice cream making machines on ships. -Hundreds of elephants perished on the Burma campaign where the were used as porters by the British. -Germans greatly preferred fighting American/British troops on the Western front as they didn't commonly use night attacks, as had been routine practice on the Eastern Front.
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Jul 20, 2020 23:05
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:No, never. No. Not with that political climate, not with the war as it was. Counterfactuals are loving stupid. Alternate history is the worst. I've read every book Turtledove ever wrote, even the obscure ones. His output quality is inconsistent, no argument there. But How Few Remain is pretty darn good, especially as setting it in 1881 made it harder for him to copy/paste WWII battles, and some ideas like Lincoln becoming a socialist leader were interesting. Plus I got to meet him at a signing and he was super nice towards the young goon’s questions. Nowadays his full length books aren’t worth your time but his short fiction from a few years ago on Tor.com is excellent. Vilcabamba and Shtetl Days are fantastic, and Cayos in the Stream is fun. For other alt history, there is a lot of junk but some standouts like the Yiddish Policeman’s Union or Resurrection Day are worth your time. Hyrax Attack! fucked around with this message at 02:47 on Jul 22, 2020 |
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Jul 22, 2020 02:43
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One of the most consequential and unforced errors was Germany declaring war on the US. The US had clear justification for war with Japan, but as Germany had no involvement with Pearl Harbor it could have been difficult for the US to declare war on them without appearing to be an aggressor. After Germany declared war the problem was solved and the US could join the fight without having to explain why America was at war with a country that hadn't attacked them. If Germany hadn't done this the Allies would still probably have won but it's likely the war would have gone much longer as it would have been difficult for FDR to get public support for sending millions of men to Europe, probably not until after Japan were defeated.
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Jul 22, 2020 19:25
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It was odd to learn that as they didn't go to war until 1945, Soviet freighters could sail to California to load up on lend-lease then go across the Pacific without being targeted by the Japanese. Also really sends home how little Japanese leadership cared about their troops when you read a list of maritime disasters during the war. Many many unescorted troop ships sunk with thousands aboard. Often they were prisoner ships, which is another nightmare.
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Jul 22, 2020 23:27
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Blistex posted:Someone who is in the know should do an effort post on the bonkers infighting between the Japanese army and navy. Makes the dysfunctional Nazi power structure look reasonable at times. Oh for sure, the book Shattered Sword got into that a bit. Exact opposite of how combined branches should cooperate, to the point where senior leadership got into fistfights in meetings and the Army having to build their own ships, which was a ridiculous strain on already limited resources.
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Jul 23, 2020 01:13
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Surprised that “critically injured in Italy and they wrote an M on his forehead with his own blood to indicate he’d been given morphine” Bob Dole, and “shot down in France, escaped into Spain, later shot down a German jet” Chuck Yeager are still with us. Was interesting how while I’m sure there were exceptions, was our last war where the rich and famous didn’t all try to evade service. All four of FDR’s sons were in real roles, JFK’s older brother died attacking a V2 site, even golf champ Bobby Jones refused to play exhibition games and went into the Air Force.
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Jul 24, 2020 04:04
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