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  1. Why were WWII Japanese Army losses so disproportionate?

    True. But the understanding that the modern battlefield is a meat grinder and not a more robust chess match or game of Go is likely to have officers and NCOs keep there troops in their fighting positions and fight to the last cartridge rather than charge M1919 and M2 machine guns in hasty...
  2. How professional was the IJA compared to the Heer/Waffen SS?

    You are expecting logic from folks who WANTED to fight on after two nuclear weapons AND a declaration of war by the USSR? There excuse was that the Emperor had been "misled by his advisors". This sort of mental gymnastics is rather commonn going back through Japanese history, clear back to the...
  3. The Anglo/American - Nazi War

    Pure author fiat. I personally HATE the bullpup design and the fact that the TADEN used a non disintegrating belt is a major turn off.
  4. Question on Naval Vessels on Patrol/Convoy Escort Mission during WW2

    The Soviets used versions of a couple Italian designs (the Italians exported the weapon to a number of countries) that they, well stole/reverse engineered. The designs were less sophisticated than those used by the other big players, but they generally ran hot, straight, and normal, which all...
  5. Why were WWII Japanese Army losses so disproportionate?

    And here we have the reason that the IJA would attack positions with heavy weapons emplaced and backed by Artillery. The IJA hadn't had the concept of elan as a force multiplier beaten out of the on the Western Front.
  6. How professional was the IJA compared to the Heer/Waffen SS?

    The German Army Staff was brilliant until early 1941, when Hitler's influence overtook the decades of professional training. Soviet officers training was never to the planning level of the Heer, far too much instruction at even Frunze were political in nature, and the inclusion of political...
  7. How professional was the IJA compared to the Heer/Waffen SS?

    If you are going to push into the middle of the War then the most professional Command Staff was the American Joint Chiefs. The German General Staff by then had been effectively destroyed by Hitler's on-going interference, the British had Churchill with his "one brilliant, followed by one...
  8. Question on Naval Vessels on Patrol/Convoy Escort Mission during WW2

    Norway. She was in a fjord, making air attack very difficult with torpedo attack virtually impossible. The Marat, a pre-WW I dreadnought, was an active part of the defense of Leningrad as a fixed battery (even AFTER being sunk at her moorings, the upper works of the ship were above the...
  9. How professional was the IJA compared to the Heer/Waffen SS?

    Not really. The massacre at the Tenaru River was the direct result of Colonel Ichiki Kiyonao (this is the same officer who was scheduled to lead the amphibious assault on Midway) violating specific orders and attacking 11,000 Marine with ONE battalion of his 28th Infantry Regiment, not even...
  10. How professional was the IJA compared to the Heer/Waffen SS?

    Stavka? Really? IMO it was worse than a joke. Politics above plan, even when the Red Army was rolling up the Heer. Stalin, as head of Stavka, actually delayed the capture of Berlin in order to ensure that that the WAllies didn't cross the Elbe. Prior to that time, Stavka was the source of the...
  11. Question on Naval Vessels on Patrol/Convoy Escort Mission during WW2

    The Tirpitz was hard to sink because of where it was, not due to any superiority in design. The British did obsess over her, but as was demonstrated by her sister ship the design was far from invulnerable.
  12. How professional was the IJA compared to the Heer/Waffen SS?

    The German General Staff was likely the best in the world, with only the British Imperial General Staff. The IJA was far too deeply involved in politics, with the Army (and Navy) having the ability to bring down a government at will. This led to any number of questionable political AND military...
  13. WI - Doolittle Raid using catapults?

    Thanks. Landing a friggin' F4U on a CVE must have been... interesting.
  14. The Anglo/American - Nazi War

    The U.S. and Australians used the M1A1, effectively OTL's M-14 in .30-06. The Commonwealth forces (at least those that mainly draw from British supply lines) use something similar to the the FN FAL in concept in .280. Both weapons have their supporters and detractors. The M1A1 can lay down a...
  15. The Anglo/American - Nazi War

    Those of you who have purchased the Kindle version on Amazon should be getting a message soon from Amazon that an updated (i.e. all my dumb errors corrected) version is available and you should update to the new version (this is SUPPOSED to be free, let me know if it isn't). No word yet on the...
  16. WI - Doolittle Raid using catapults?

    How much relief space did you need to allow for the JATO backblast? As you can see from the model photo that was posted the aircraft were cheek to jowl on the deck. Considering the combat record of the Dragon, or more properly the utter lack of one, expending half the production run on a one...
  17. 911 & The WASP

    I'll repeat what I mentioned above. Potential evacuation number exceeds 30,000. The sort of things shown on the attachment would work for a few people, maybe as many as 100, maybe only half that. If you have 50 people in a office, which four (or 10) get to use the system? Which floor get the...
  18. 911 & The WASP

    The other practical reasons as I noted above. Mainly it would be doable if you needed to pull a few hundred people out in the scenario (leaving cost to the side), but it isn't a few hundred. It is thousands, or tens of thousands.
  19. 911 & The WASP

    Almost anything is workable if you throw enough money at it and make enough compromises (See: F-35). If you have bottomless barrel of money the problem then becomes the practical. Using WTC 1 as an example the roof of the building was square 208 feet on a side. That would allow (assuming the...
  20. 911 & The WASP

    First problem is that scaling it up from a one man design, and a marginal one man design at that, is that it is close to impossible. Your thrust requirements rapidly go off the end of the table since you need better than a 1:1 ratio and some sort of usable control surfaces would need to be...
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