Brian Ross wrote on May 19
th, 2013 at 8:04pm:
Chard wrote on May 19
th, 2013 at 2:39pm:
Quote:ToT is a poor man's use of his artillery.
Do you even know what ToT is or how it works?
Yes, I've seen it done by eye with a 81mm mortar, have you ever even seen it?
I didn't ask if you've seen it, I asked if you know what a time-on-target artillery strike is. And yes, I've seen it, seen it from multiple weapon systems, and seen it from both outgoing fire at the gun battery and down range effects at the impact site.
Quote:Funny, thats not what Arthur “Butch” Harris wrote. As a disciple of Hugh Trenchard and Giulio Douhet, he always maintained it's ultimate purpose was to “break the will of the enemy”. IIRC that was what Jimmy Dolittle and Curtis Lemay also maintained.
That was also one of the purposes. Still remains that athe Allied strategic bombing campaign over Europe broke Speer's Miracle and produced a huge virtual attrition effect by forcing the Germans to divert dozens of divisions and tens of thousands of 88mm guns and tens of millions of 88mm shells away from the Eastern Front to Western Europe for air defenses.
Quote:Yet, German production actually increased substantially in 1944, reaching it's peak in the end of that year, when the Strategic Bombing campaign had obviously failed to achieve it's objective.
Peak production that couldn't keep pace with loses. Seriously, I thought you said you studied logistics, guy.
Quote:It wasn't until targets were switched away from industrial targets to fuel supplies and transport systems, that industrial production started to decrease and as I pointed it, even then it wasn't until the Russians raised their flag on the Reichstag, was Germany forced to surrender.
Wasn't even the Russians taking Berlin. It was Hitler finally offing himself that removed the only obstacle to a German surrender. Then again, by that point it wouldn't have mattered if Germany had surrendered before the Red Army marched into Berlin. The Red Army was out for blood at that point, so were we, and it was a race between Zukov and Patton to see who'd get to teabag Hitler's body first.
Quote:No, some sections, outside of the government were. The Imperial Army had no interest in peace and was preparing all out by the end of 1944 for the invasion of the home islands.
At the time Hirohito was the official head of government with full authority to override Tojo and the general staff for the IJN and IJA. The surrender agreement changed that to the Empror being a figurehead in the same vien as most European monarchs. Even then, I'd hardly consider Prime Minister Kuniaki Koiso t have been "outside of the government".
Quote:Even at the last moment, the militarist fanatics attempted to stop the transmission of the Emperor's order to surrender, to “bear the unbearable” by staging a putsch that failed. The Imperial Japanese Army had fully sussed out the plans for Operation Olympic and had made the invasion beaches death traps. They wanted a “final battle”, to make it (in their minds) too costly for the Allies to demand unconditional peace.
Hence why we dropped two atomic bombs on them and threatened to keep dropping them until Japan surrendered or there weren't any Japanese people anymore. To be fair we also did it to the world know the days of total war were now over.
Quote:It is you who should acquaint yourself with the history of the final days of the day in the Pacific.
I take it back, you seem to actually know your history. Congrats, I think you're the first person on this board I've ever said that to.
Quote:SIGH, Tojo wasn't even Prime Minister in August 1945. He had been forced to resign nearly a year earlier.
He still continued to hold a lot of influence with Koiso and the IJA General Staff to the point a very high degree up until the Surrender was signed and MacAurthur ordered his arrest.
Quote:von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu suggested that there was a much greater purpose to war than merely “blowing stuff up and killing people”. “War is but politics by another means,” von Clausewitz. “And therefore the general who in advancing does not seek personal fame, and in withdrawing is not concerned with avoiding punishment, but whose only purpose is to protect the people and promote the best interests of his sovereign, is the precious jewel of the state...” Sun Tzu
Christ on a smacking crutch... Killing people and breaking sh*t is how wars are ultimately won, not why wars are fought. Or are you suggesting that von Clauswitz was somehow able to fight actual shooting wars without ever having to kill enemy troops?
Quote:And murder is a morally defensible act?
Depends on the circumstances.