Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > History
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 05-20-2014, 07:06 PM
 
Location: Montgomery County, PA
16,569 posts, read 15,167,579 times
Reputation: 14589

Advertisements

There were 4 major parties to WW2; Germany, Japan, US and Russia. Of the 3, Germany commands the lion share of interest with regards to weapons, planes, rockets, ships, subs tanks etc. If you browse the news stands you see cover story after cover story about German hardware as well as military tactics. The US side gets some coverage as do the Russians but virtually nothing Japanese. Can't think of a single Japanese light arm that impressed anybody. It is not explicit but you sense a certain admiration for the German military from the leadership on down even when they end up on the losing side of battles. For example, WW2 memorabilia is predominantly German.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 05-20-2014, 07:15 PM
 
Location: StlNoco Mo, where the woodbine twineth
10,001 posts, read 8,540,282 times
Reputation: 14550
Tiger tanks were cool.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-20-2014, 07:41 PM
 
31,387 posts, read 36,950,999 times
Reputation: 15038
[quote=HappyRider;34887185]There were 4 major parties to WW2; Germany, Japan, US and Russia. Of the 3, Germany commands the lion share of interest with regards to weapons, planes, rockets, ships, subs tanks etc. If you browse the news stands you see cover story after cover story about German hardware as well as military tactics.


Quote:
Can't think of a single Japanese light arm that impressed anybody.
I suppose that is because no one else is either.

The Type 38 6.5×50mm Arisaka rifle wasn't anything to write home about. Their sub-machine gun was the Bergmann MP 18 (German made) until late in the war when they came up with their own - too late to matter. Their tanks were about as impressive as their small arms, tanks that were absolutely crushed by the Soviets. So what are we left with? The Zero was an impressive fighter, until the introduction of the Hellcat took the airs and essentially brought an end to Japanese air superiority. Now the truly impressive weapon in the Japanese arsenal was the Type 93 torpedo that had an effective range of 22,000 meters at an unreal speed of 52 knots!

When it came to Japanese ground tactics, aside from the defeat of the British in Singapore and the defense of Iwo Jima there wasn't anything particularly note worthy unless you are interested in how to wage a battle like you were Gen Pickett at Gettysburg. On the other hand, plenty has been written about the sea battles in the Pacific, and I would suggest that they have been covered as well as any other theater of combat.

So what do we have, decidedly lack luster weapons with the exceptions that I noted above, disastrous ground tactics and aside from broken codes, unbelievable misfortune at sea (see Midway).


[quote]It is not explicit but you sense a certain admiration for the German military from the leadership on down even when they end up on the losing side of battles.[quote]

Well when you think about its hard not to. They had incredibly innovative weapons, a military that was man for man second to none, and to say nothing of their ground breaking use of armored and airborne units. I don't think that many would disagree that many of the ideas promoted by the Germans can still be seen in modern weapons and tactics.

Quote:
WW2 memorabilia is predominantly German.
That is a subject that is a bit more complex and one I won't touch unless I am forced to.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-21-2014, 01:00 AM
 
Location: SoCal
5,899 posts, read 5,770,777 times
Reputation: 1930
Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyRider View Post
It is not explicit but you sense a certain admiration for the German military from the leadership on down even when they end up on the losing side of battles.
This is purely speculation on my part, but this might at least partially be due to the fact that while Germany ultimately lost World War II, it still unfortunately had some/many large military successes beforehand. After all, in late 1941, most of Europe was either directly or indirectly under Nazi German control or under Nazi German influence.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-21-2014, 07:34 AM
 
Location: Montgomery County, PA
16,569 posts, read 15,167,579 times
Reputation: 14589
I must confess I don't know how they lasted as long as they did. Here we are in a country of 320 some million with the most fearsome firepower ever but we are told we are tapped out after invading two dusty medieval countries with no military to speak of whose most advanced weapons were home made explosives put together on kitchen tables, and we still lost. What was Germany's population at the time and how could they man and supply their war effort at 4 corners of the world for 6 years? What kind of social fabric does it require to sustain such an effort?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-21-2014, 10:57 AM
 
31,387 posts, read 36,950,999 times
Reputation: 15038
Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyRider View Post
I must confess I don't know how they lasted as long as they did. Here we are in a country of 320 some million with the most fearsome firepower ever but we are told we are tapped out after invading two dusty medieval countries with no military to speak of whose most advanced weapons were home made explosives put together on kitchen tables, and we still lost. What was Germany's population at the time and how could they man and supply their war effort at 4 corners of the world for 6 years? What kind of social fabric does it require to sustain such an effort?
Well I suppose we could have been more like the Germans if the issue was just about "winning." Every time an IED went off in Iraq or Afghanistan I suppose we should have taken 100 or so hostages put them up against a wall and just shot them or better yet, simply deported all the Sunnis we could find and send them through the killing chambers. Different worlds, different ideas of about what is civilized, and with totally different objectives.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-21-2014, 11:21 AM
 
2,516 posts, read 5,671,947 times
Reputation: 4672
Look at what they did/accomplished. You had one Country conquer nearly all of Europe and in a very short time. Had it not been for a couple of critical mistakes (Hitler deciding to go after Russia, thus fighting a 2 front war; an extremely tall task. And Japan bombing Pearl harbor, thus bringing us into the war) due to his ego, things might have been very very different.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-21-2014, 12:02 PM
 
Location: Texas
38,859 posts, read 25,422,751 times
Reputation: 24780
Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyRider View Post
There were 4 major parties to WW2; Germany, Japan, US and Russia. Of the 3, Germany commands the lion share of interest with regards to weapons, planes, rockets, ships, subs tanks etc. If you browse the news stands you see cover story after cover story about German hardware as well as military tactics. The US side gets some coverage as do the Russians but virtually nothing Japanese. Can't think of a single Japanese light arm that impressed anybody. It is not explicit but you sense a certain admiration for the German military from the leadership on down even when they end up on the losing side of battles. For example, WW2 memorabilia is predominantly German.

Germany produced the best armored vehicles in WW2, but not nearly enough to make a difference. In the war's first year or so, an argument could be made that they had superior tactical aircraft, but past that point, they lost the edge. Their naval power was never much beyond pipsqueak status.

On the other hand, it could be said that in the opening months of the Pacific war that Japan's navy was the world's best. They laid thrashing after beating on both the US and British fleets, even for some time after their disastrous defeat at Midway. Their industrial capacity was never strong enough for them replace their losses, let alone grow their fleet, though. They succumbed to the much superior US ability to launch an overwhelming force they could never hope to match. It was never going to be a close fight.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-21-2014, 02:44 PM
 
Location: San Francisco, California
1,949 posts, read 6,444,400 times
Reputation: 2294
some of this fascination also has to do with racial / ethnic pride, I notice a lot of the Nazi regalia collectors have German ancestry and they admire the German military of WWII

they say the opposite of the Japanese Forces with much hatred because of racial or cultural differences, I never hear them compliment the Japanese

the same reason you never hear Americans say the VC / NVA kicked out butts in the Vietnam War
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-21-2014, 03:27 PM
 
12,073 posts, read 23,155,986 times
Reputation: 27188
Because they were snappy dressers.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > History

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 03:46 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top