Re: Starting to build a tank [TANKS]

[Steve Edwards <sedwards-at-awger.net>]

Steve Tyng wrote:

>Since German wasn't a mandatory subject in school, I figure Rommel and
>the rest of Germany lost WW2!  ;-)
>  
>

Well, American history is (allegedly) a mandatory subject in school, and 
yet most of the people I know under 25 can't recite the preamble to our 
Constitution, think the Civil War was fought over slavery, and have only 
heard of John Adams because his name is on a beer bottle.

:-)

Most of the top air aces of all time are German, and the tally starts at 
100 confirmed kills. Number 1 is Eric "Bubi" Hartmann, with 352; Adolf 
Galland, commanding general of fighters (was grounded much of the time), 
had 104. The highest scoring Allied ace was Aleksandr Pokryshkin, 59; 
highest scoring American was Dick Bong, 40.

In 1945, shortly after Germany's surrender, U-2511 (type XXI) snuck past 
the destroyer screen and escorts and closed to firing range on the HMS 
Norfolk (heavy cruiser); the captain is reputed to have looked at the 
cruiser through the periscope, cursed, and then left; U-2511 slipped 
away, with the Brits never knowing she was there.

Point being... Rommel may have been defeated, but I don't think he was a 
"loser."

>Germany, Italy, and Japan lost the war before the first bomb was
>dropped.  They didn't have the resource base needed to win.  
>

I can't accept that as a foregone conclusion. Considering how well they 
did militarily in spite of Hitler's meddling and insanity, and how close 
Britian came (on multiple occasions) from getting knocked or starved out 
of the war, we were damned lucky. Imagine how differently things might 
be if Goering hadn't convinced Hitler to hold back the Wermacht so that 
the Luftwaffe could destroy the BEF at Dunkirk, or if the Polish hadn't 
done so much background work on Enigma and then escaped to France and 
England when the Germans invaded, or if the U-Boats in the Atlantic had 
bagged a few more transports.

The US certainly had the industrial resources, and the USSR had the 
manpower, but if we didn't have England as a staging area and the 
Russians hadn't stopped the Germans at Stalingrad it would have been 
hell putting the squeeze on 'em.

    - Steve "Not even a P-51 could escort bombers across the Atlantic 
and back" Edwards


P.S.

1)  From memory: "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, 
establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common 
defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of 
liberty for ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this 
Constitution for the United States of America." (and I got one word 
wrong... which one is left as an exercise for the reader).

2)  State's rights vs federal powers

3)  Lawyer, statesman, signatory of the Declaration of Independence, 
emmisary to France, secured loan guarantees from the Netherlands (which 
was the first European power to recognize the sovereignty of the United 
States), first ambassador to England, author of Massachusett's 
Constitution, and second president.