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There is an ongoing debate on tanks. While the T-34 85 was one of the
best anks in WWII, once the Germans worked the bugs out of the Panther
(Mk IV) it is pretty darn close. There is no doubt that they were far
and away superior to the US M4 Sherman. But as the Germans commented
you killed a Sherman and shortly there were two more shooting at you.
We made lots of them. And there was a conscious decision to stike with
a known design that could be massed produced rather than evolve the
tank. Tough on tank crews, but it won the war.
Also, and I will admit to a certain bias (being retired US artillery),
my reading indicates that where the Soviets had massive ammounts of
artillery, they didn't use it very well. And the German sources I have
seen indicate that the US artillery scared the hell out of them. We had
a very well developed system for acquiring targets and massing fires. A
German unit would fire and shortly thereafter get pasted by every
available American unit within range. The same was true of manuever
units. It has only gotten worse. During the first Gulf War most Iraqi
artillery units only fired once, then they were destroyued by counter
battery fire.
On Aug 2, 2004, at 7:13 AM, Iain Stuart wrote:
> Paul,
>
> Truth be told in WWII the Russians probably won the war
> and certainly had the best tanks and artillery and infantry weapons.
> They
> also had some very interesting strategic thinking (in particular the
> development of operational level warfare) which was quite different
> from
> that of the Allies.
>
> In short it is our national myths that we are talking about.
>
> What did you think of two men in a trench, a great example of military
> archaeology?
>
> yours
>
> Iain Stuart
>
> [log in to unmask]
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "paul courtney" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2004 11:16 PM
> Subject: history films
>
>
> In regard to the recent thread on films there was a piece in the
> Independent
> on Sunday today in which Simon Thurley, head of English Heritage
> attacked
> Holywood history films
> http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=546798
>
> I think he was a little unfair on Segeant Ryan for not portraying
> British
> involvement in Normandy as British and American soldiers mostly fought
> in
> their own sectors- to the relief of many British soldiers whose war
> diaries
> reveal they thought American friendly fire was dangerous as the Germans
> (Ammunition was regarded as expensive and not to be wasted in the
> British
> army, my grandad went over the trenches in the Somme with six bullets
> and
> one of those was unofficial, and killed six men that day but he was a
> genuine Lincolnshire poacher). I also think the criticism made in the
> states
> over the German TV series Heimat a few years back not showing
> concentration
> camps was silly as it was about the experiences of an ordinary German
> family. This and its post-war set sequel Heimat 2 are among the best
> historical films ever and Heimat 1 explains a lot about the popularity
> of
> Nazism. Heimat 3 is due soon. I saw the Thirteenth Warrior the other
> night
> on TV and thought it actually made a good job of its historical setting
> despite being an outright fantasy plus it had a muslim hero. One of my
> worries about Hollywood is not just rewriting history (I am sure a film
> showing the Americans winning Stalingrad is only prevented by the fact
> the
> Russians still have a nuclear arsenal ) but the underlying racism of
> many
> such films. Hollywood dehumanisation of
> Muslims/Arabs/English/French/Russians like the 1930s racist schools of
> Germany and Japan is not a joke and I am sure has real consequences in
> the
> modern world (I will say no more).
>
> paul courtney
> leicester
> UK
>
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