World War 1 and 2 History and Discussion Thread - And other military themed media

[MrJokerRager]

Found these great videos on the battle lines of the eastern front. You see how the fall happens in hindsight while keeping on mind that was a lot of manpower on both sides that never gets discussed much.

What did World War 1 Imperial Germany do different than World War 2 Germany that led to their defenses failing massively.

 

[SwollenGorl]

Such a shame what has become of such a great nation, I'm only half german and I am ashamed of modern Germany

 

[HeyItsHarveyMacClout]

*sips mountain dew* yeppp, time to let the world know how I would’ve won WWII if I was in charge

 

[Arctic Fox]

Fun fact; The United States military was the only military on Earth to have semi-automatic rifles during WWII. The M1 Garand was the only semi-automatic rifle in WWII, and was the standard issue battle weapon of the Army, Marines, and Navy. This was, for obvious reasons, a great advantage over the bolt-action German Karabiner 98 Kurz, and the Japanese Arisaka variants. (There are two main rifles but both are commonly known as Ariskas)

 

[Sexy Senior Citizen]

After the concentration camps were liberated, many Jews went on to forgive their tormentors.
Many more went on to inflict even worse atrocities upon the Nazis.

 

[inexplicable ethos]

Fun fact; The United States military was the only military on Earth to have semi-automatic rifles during WWII. The M1 Garand was the only semi-automatic rifle in WWII, and was the standard issue battle weapon of the Army, Marines, and Navy. This was, for obvious reasons, a great advantage over the bolt-action German Karabiner 98 Kurz, and the Japanese Arisaka variants. (There are two main rifles but both are commonly known as Ariskas)

The US was the only military with standard-issue semi-automatic rifles during WWII. Both Germany (Gewehr 43, StG 44) and the USSR (SVT-40, SKS) had semi-automatic or select-fire rifles, just not enough to arm all of their troops due to manufacturing and supply issues suffered by both countries in the later portion of the war.

 

[Furina]

My Grandfather fought in World War II for the British, fighting in France as one of the later waves of D-Day, Belgium (where he was wounded and spent the rest of the war in hospital), and North Africa as both a radioman and artilleryman. One of the biggest regrets of my life is that i didn't talk to him about his experiences more as I was too young to fully appreciate what he had gone through.

 

[Slimy Time]

Netflix has a great series on WW2 on there called WWII in Colour. Cover a number of things with top university history professors explaining matters. The explanation of Midway, how ill equipped the American forces were at the time and much it actually relied on luck is quite incredible. Highlights the immense bravery of the pilots during that battle, going up in planes they knew were going to be shot down and being equipped with topedos that only went off 1/10 times. Never have I felt as much pride and awe at the immense courage of the men who fought in that war while watching that series.

 

[WhoBusTank69]

What did World War 1 Imperial Germany do different than World War 2 Germany that led to their defenses failing massively.

World War 1 Germany had the problem of sitting on the defensive too much despite their decent offensive capabilities. They were convinced, by way of their strategists, to turn it into a war of attrition that they themselves could not win. The French sent everyone they could to fight leading to cruelly embarrassing losses, the British were struggling to keep up with the French, the Canadians really didn't like being there, the Russians were revolting - if the Germans decided to keep walking across and into France, they probably could have won. Austria-Hungary was a weak link, however, and certainly did weigh them down with worry that, when they would fall, Germany would be exposed.
something, something, tanks arrive, combined arms, starvation and misery, the Central Powers lose

World War 2 Germany learned a bit too little from WW1's failures in that they focused on the offensive as much as possible; but it only worked out of dumb luck and sheer coincidence. Blitzkrieg wasn't effective without Russia aiding in their invasion of Poland, France only surrendered because they were afraid of another stupidly-high death count, Britain didn't have nearly enough soldiers after their empire fell apart and the extreme distaste for the war, and the US was so bitter that they wanted to firmly hold their isolationist stance. Russia, with its history of arms shortages, had to beg for aid from its allies to stay in the fight, and with no blockades from Axis forces there was a real possibility they could pull through.
As soon as the Allies were ready and pissed off, everything fell apart with that same war of attrition.

 

[Cedric_Eff]

Okinawa should’ve been an US State to spite the Japanese.

 

[Judge Holden]

World War 1 Germany had the problem of sitting on the defensive too much despite their decent offensive capabilities. They were convinced, by way of their strategists, to turn it into a war of attrition that they themselves could not win. The French sent everyone they could to fight leading to cruelly embarrassing losses, the British were struggling to keep up with the French, the Canadians really didn't like being there, the Russians were revolting - if the Germans decided to keep walking across and into France, they probably could have won. Austria-Hungary was a weak link, however, and certainly did weigh them down with worry that, when they would fall, Germany would be exposed.
something, something, tanks arrive, combined arms, starvation and misery, the Central Powers lose

World War 2 Germany learned a bit too little from WW1's failures in that they focused on the offensive as much as possible; but it only worked out of dumb luck and sheer coincidence. Blitzkrieg wasn't effective without Russia aiding in their invasion of Poland, France only surrendered because they were afraid of another stupidly-high death count, Britain didn't have nearly enough soldiers after their empire fell apart and the extreme distaste for the war, and the US was so bitter that they wanted to firmly hold their isolationist stance. Russia, with its history of arms shortages, had to beg for aid from its allies to stay in the fight, and with no blockades from Axis forces there was a real possibility they could pull through.
As soon as the Allies were ready and pissed off, everything fell apart with that same war of attrition.

In both cases Germany was fatally undone by seriously misreading the foreign policy and foreign opinions of the other world powers in the years leading up to war, since they wound up creating all their military plans and having their military build up reliant on certain nations like the US or the UK either not intervening or swiftly choosing to pull out and make peace at the first opportunity due to a lack of public and political will to fight a costly war, or other nations like Russia/The USSR to be so inept and fragmented as to quickly collapse and cease to function after the initial german victories due to panic and infighting

This was why in both wars germany's strategy was basically a swift knock-out punch to take out france by exploiting gaps in their northern defence lines and then throwing everything at russia before they could fully prepare for war, with the UK either never getting involved or immediately pulling out the moment shit got nasty and the US remaining on the other side of the planet, and why things started to quickly fall apart behind the scenes when these nations behaved "unpredicatably" and thus forced high command to somehow try and make do with now useless plans and dangerously unbalanced military forces that were incapable of properly carrying out the war they found themselves in

 

[MrTroll]

I'm still waiting to see real evidence for the so-called "Holocaust".

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Okinawa should’ve been an US State to spite the Japanese.

They’re not even real Japs, they’re a distinct people and Japs consider them inferiors.

 

[Slimy Time]

They’re not even real Japs, they’re a distinct people and Japs consider them inferiors.

They were their own seperate kingdom iirc. The Ryukyuan Kingdom. Language/Dialect is different as well. They were persecuted for speaking their native tongue by the Japs when they took over.

 

[Cedric_Eff]

They’re not even real Japs, they’re a distinct people and Japs consider them inferiors.

i know but still, spite them and also what would’ve been if Hokkaido was given up to the Soviet Union?

 

[edibleBulimia]

imagine what would have happened if hitler hadn’t killed himself.

and if hirohito actually were tried for war crimes.

 

[Doctor Placebo]

They were their own seperate kingdom iirc. The Ryukyuan Kingdom. Language/Dialect is different as well. They were persecuted for speaking their native tongue by the Japs when they took over.

Wasn't it also essentially Japanese Australia, in that for a long time Japan exiled prisoners there?

i know but still, spite them and also what would’ve been if Hokkaido was given up to the Soviet Union?

Fuck the giving the Soviet Union any part of Japan. They got way more than should ever have been allowed to begin with. Even without getting into their own genocides and engineered famines, imagine teaming up with the Nazis to start the war by invading Poland and then getting handed Poland at the end of the war as a reward for being such a good ally who helped beat the Nazis.

imagine what would have happened if hitler hadn’t killed himself.

and if hirohito actually were tried for war crimes.

If Hitler hadn't killed himself he probably would have lived for like another ten years in hiding and then died from all the health problems that his doctors were giving him a million drugs for.

If Hirohito had been tried, there would almost certainly have been a Japanese revolt. Considering he was mostly a figurehead during the war, there was far more to lose than to gain by putting him on trial.

 

[Cedric_Eff]

If Hirohito had been tried, there would almost certainly have been a Japanese revolt. Considering he was mostly a figurehead during the war, there was far more to lose than to gain by putting him on trial.

His rule was ironic. Ruled during the most devastating period in Japanese history and yet he also ruled during the most prosperous period in Japanese history.

 

[millais]

Late in the war, my grandfather watched a dogfight between twin-engined USAAF P-38s and some single-engined Japanese fighter aircraft. The P-38s came in high, presumably escorting a group of American bombers that he couldn't see from the ground, and the Jap fighters had to climb up to reach the American planes to begin the battle. He saw the P-38s shoot down what appeared to be the entire Japanese force in a complete turkey shoot. It was all happening so high up in the sky that he could only distinguish between the combatants by whether they had one or two engines. After the Japs got knocked out of the sky, he seemed to remember that the P-38s came down to strafe targets of opportunity on the ground at low level, and from this, he distinctly remembered the big, slow muzzle flash of the 20mm nose cannon, compared to the smaller, faster flash of the .50 cal machine guns. Although he remembered where it happened, he didn't remember the exact date or anything like that, so unfortunately I can't go full history-sperg and look up in the USAAF campaign record what aerial engagement he saw and which units were fighting on each side.

Judging from the location and it being late in the war though, I'm guessing the P-38s were flying out of the Philippines after the reconquest of that territory by American forces, and the Japanese fighters were definitely land-based as well judging by the location and it being late war too, though there's no easy way I can tell if they were Jap Army or Jap Navy since both had airfields within range.

Several years ago, I visited the location, and maybe just 1-2 miles inland from there, there was a historical building with preserved bullet impact craters in the concrete of the upper floors, from an American fighter pilot's strafing run. Probably a different engagement than the aforementioned dogfight, since there were many bombing and air raids in that same area throughout the later years of the war, but an interesting and tangible relic of the war nonetheless.

 

[MrJokerRager]

The Harlem Hellfighter's unit patch is way to similar to the Don't Tread on me flag.

I guess the real life version:

Battlefield 1 version:

Dont Tread on me flag:

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Here is the 442nd Infantry Regiment emblem, the most decorated US regiment of WW2.

I am surprised no movie has been made on them since the 1950s when they made Go For Broke. The most decorated US unit of the war and no mention made of them in any games like for fucks sake, they should have been in Battlefield V like they gave Battlefield 1 to the Harlem Hellfighters. Both regiments share the same history of fighting for a country that treated them like doodoo at home by FDR and Woodrow Wilson, the progressive democrats of their era.