Recent content by MarcH

I would want to see the outcome if he did.

I was talking specifically about the Battle of Passchendaele and comparing the Attacks of Gough and Plumer. As a microcosm of two competing styles of Trench warfare offensive it is a good place to look. As part of a wider picture then yes the open, mobile warfare produced the highest casualties.

On the first point your right and this is why the Germans were more worried about Bite and Hold rather than the Breakthrough attacks. The problem the Germans ran into is that in order to defeat each type of attack required a different response. If they got it wrong then the response would be a...

Bite and hold tactics weren't the answer on the western front, they were actually worse than break through attempts. There were a few problems with bite and hold tactics. The first is that for them to take enough ground to be effective you need to launch a massive number of them. Lets be...

This, there are only a few ways we see fewer Vickers guns made. The first is the earlier introduction of Mortars and proper tactics for their use. The second is a shorter war.

Another thing to point out is that an LMG as a concept doesn't really exist right now. With Machine guns sustained fire is a very desirable attribute. Any weapon being looked at in the context of being adopted in 1914-15 will be looked at from that perspective. It was tactical developments...

So BSA started working on the Lewis around 1911 and had it pretty much ready by 1913, this is when the Belgians get involved and start both purchasing from BSA and starting their own production. In addition the Lewis was combat ready by 1914, most of the kinks and quirks had been worked out by...

On tank production I always go back to this graph. While British production will be slightly higher, perhaps hitting 10000 total in 1942, the difference in available tank numbers will be larger than that. As others have pointed out the greater number of still serviceable tanks combined with...

Aussie Engineer: wait, actually give it back and get me another. I'm gonna need a few for this one.

IIRC a lot of work is already being done on various "support" tanks as well as a dedicated APC type design. The APC is being worked on by Leslie Little from memory, this should prevent much of the mish mash of converted tanks being used in other roles we see in OTL, at least in Europe. What...

I'm not sure the Ram/Jumbuck will see service in Europe, at least not on mainland Europe. The Dominion tanks while based on the Valliant aren't just Valliant's with a 25 pounder gun in the turret. They use different Engines and suspension along with the ancillary parts that come along with...

Direct battlefield experience from WW1 contradicts you both. Couple of reasons for this. Suspension was either very crude or non-existent on early vehicles making aiming very difficult unless stationary. Machinegun's got around this by volume of fire and were still effective. The early HE...

Anything more than a Machinegun is overkill at this stage of the war. Combat experience from WW1 showed that Machineguns were far more effective than cannon in combat. That was why early WW2 British tanks had those daft mini MG turrets and the Matilda 1 exists the way it did (in part anyway) You...

How much of that did the Soviet's know? Also it's not just submarines that conduct merchant warfare, surface ships are actually a bigger threat. If the Japanese wanted to stop shipping with surface units how would the soviets counter them?

If that is the case then its a redundant acronym. I was sure it was Dutch though. Can an willing to be proven wrong.