From: Joe Foley (redmenaced@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Jan 06 2003 - 22:18:21 PST
> >In 1942 the US Army was still buying horse drawn
> >wagons, the German army still had horse cavalry.
>
> This has nothing to do with technology, everything
> to do with politics.
+++++++++
Sure it does, trucks and jeeps were in short supply in
1941, heavy trucks weren't all that common, all wheel
drive trucks were really rare! Amphibious vehicles=
space shuttle!
>
> Remember, someone had to pay for mechanization.
> During peace time this
> was a hard pill to swallow for people just pulling
> their butts out of the
> Great Depression. The Germans didn't even kick
> mobilize their economy
> until 1943 for this very reason! One of the biggest
> reasons they lost
> the war.
++++++++
Well, that and the Nazis finally realized they didn't
have the stranglehold on the German people that they
thought they had, just how many assassination attempts
were made on Hitler's life? I think the effects of
the purges in his military after the Capt. Hans
Langsdorf/Graf Spee incident finally came home to
roost, too. I think the large German population of
South America told him to stuff it, kept his
battleship and sat on his stooges to keep them out of
the war. They also offered aid and refuge to anyone
who could get out of Germany during the war,
especially Capt. Langsdorf and the crew of the Graf
Spee.
To allow that the Graf Spee couldn't make it to Africa
because the kitchen was destroyed misses the point
that they had met with their tender just before they
engaged the British ships in that short battle. The
tender was still out there.
> This was not something limited to Germans. Radios
> were VERY rare at this
> point in time all the way to the end of the war with
> nearly all nations
> except the US and the Commonwealth (1944/45, not
> earlier). Therefore
> troops were taught all sorts of "primative" ways of
> communicating when
> radios and field phones were not available.
> However, in practice carrier
> pigeons were hardly used during the war.
+++++++
Radio operators weren't too hard to find either but
techs were all too rare.
> This was more true for Europeans and Asians than
> Americans (Canadians
> too?). One of the reasons US mechanization was so
> successful was that
> more often than that some grunt in the vehicle knew
> how to get it to work
> again. This was less of the case for Western
> European countries, even
> less for the Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.
> And Asia?
> Feeeeeergeddaboutit :-)
++++++++++
That's right! But our small population was spread all
over the world, too. Industry was screaming for help.
I really doubt we could have kept up that pace for
another year.
>
> True, but only because TV was simply a novelty
> invention at the time.
+++++++
So was radio for that matter, its importance wasn't
fully realized until during the war.
It
> did not do much of anything until the late 1940s.
> Radios were fairly
> common though. And if you didn't have a radio,
> chances are you knew
> someone who did and therefore got information
> through them.
++++++++
Sure, for entertainment, or one way broadcasts, not
for communications. A lot of people had no use for
telephones!
>
> The above are all reasons for why mechanization was
> not difficult to
> obtain and maintain, but it doesn't have much to do
> with technology. The
> Germans had guided AA missles, man portable AA
> missles, guided bombs,
> infra red scopes for assault rifles and tanks, jet
> engines in the 1930s,
> etc. just for example. Cost was a major factor for
> their development
> being hindered more than anything.
+++++
Yes, they had it. But it was difficult to maintain
because the techs weren't available, it took too long
to train them and the Nazis, especially, weren't
focussing on that type of training, they
inherited/stole the people who developed that stuff,
many of them left the country and fought against them.
The Nazis also stole American inventions and put them
to use.
Ok, so we agree for different reasons.
Golly, what a windbag I am,
Joe
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