80
No.
The general argument goes something like this:
Japan was running out of trained pilots
Japan couldn't spare the fuel to properly train more pilots
But they had plenty of planes.
Thus untrained kamikaze pilots are more effective than untrained conventional pilots, and they used less fuel.
It can be argued that it was the most effective tactic for the ...
18
As a strategy (i.e. something to win the war with)?:
No. Japan should have avoided direct war with the US, as a question of national survival. Kamikazes were not going to help in the long run. They were only a symptom of Japan's hopeless "strategy" of inflicting unpalatable losses on the US and forcing the US to accept a draw and ceasefire.
As a ...
answered Apr 22 at 16:17
Italian Philosophers 4 Monica
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14
Prior to the adoption of Mountbatten in February 1947, Prince Philip did not use a surname. In the navy during World War II, he was known as HRH Prince Philip. Thus, while serving as First Lieutenant on HMS Wallace (Oct. 1942 to Jan. 1944), he was Lt HRH Prince Philip, RN. He was also referred to as Sub-Lieutenant Prince Philip of Greece in the 12th of ...
13
Various reasons, from demographics to communist system
First we need to start with the period before WW1. Russian Empire was mostly rural and agricultural. According to census from 1897, 77.5% of population were peasants, and this does not include Cossacks who were also rural population but with different status. This corresponds well with the low literacy ...
11
There was a lot of rapidly changing technology in the B-29's guns during the lifetime of the aircraft, and hence a lot of change in nomenclature for different crew roles. It seems that EMG was used at the end of the war for "Electrical Mechanical Gunner", as seen in crew rosters such as the ones given here in spelled out form, and here in ...
9
Considering the circumstances, definitely yes
Before we start, we must understand and define what kamikaze were. In its essence, kamikaze were form of anti-ship aerial attack. Of course, they were not only form of such attacks. In WW2 Japan had technology to perform conventional bomb or torpedo strikes using aircraft based both on land and sea (carriers and ...
9
Uncommon, but not Unusual
The US Army went through a MASSIVE increase in numbers during WWII. In 1942 there were between 1.5 million and 3 men in the US Army. (1.5 in 1941, I believe 3 million by the end of '42, so your Father joined somewhere in there.) That's already a massive increase over the 189,000-odd strong force of 1939, and the army would be 8.2 ...
8
There were two key effects of the strategic bombing campaign for the composition and deployment of the Luftwaffe. The first was the shift in production to emphasise fighters for defence, with a resultant decrease in bomber production (in March 1943 962 fighters and 757 bombers were produced; in December 1944 it was 2,630 fighters and 262 bombers), and thus ...
7
There are several reasons
Up until late June/July of 1944 Germans still occupied large parts of Soviet territory like Belarus, parts of Ukraine and Baltic republics. Only after Bagration (started on June 22/23) and Lvov–Sandomierz (started in July, ended in August) we could say that main part of USSR was liberated, although some German pockets like Courland ...
6
I would suggest studying Krivosheyev's work for the Soviet losses and Overmans for the German ones. Losses comparison needs to be done with care, as there are many nuances, as such: like counting casualties of the same type (only killed or wounded killed an missing, etc.) on both sides, counting all the allies for Germans, adding up Soviet soldiers who ...
4
Japan wasn't relinquishing its empire
From various sources available today we could conclude that there was no general plan for "retreat" into home islands, and defense of it. Some units were withdrawn, but overall it was expected from Japanese armies abroad to fight where they were, and local defensive plans to that end were drawn. Let's go ...
4
Major reason:
Lack of experienced leadership
Lack of experienced personnel
Lack of good equipment. (WW2)
A lot of this had to do with the politics in 1930. During the Great Purge, Stalin either incarcerated or executed many people he didn’t feel were “loyal” to him. In November of 1939 when Russia invaded Finnland, Stalin had done away with a lot of his ...
3
RAF Operations Record Books (ORBs) are available at The National Archives; 130 Squadron's ORB for November 1944 is: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8387862 (a free download for registered users at the time of writing). Usually there would be both a Form 540 (general summary of events) and a Form 541 (detailed records of events), but it ...
2
Occam's Razor (i.e. the simplest explanation wins) applies to the Holocaust as a whole:
What's in it for all the parties who pleaded guilty, from individual Nazis to the Germany as a country? Why would they accept blame for something which hadn't happened?
How are the myriad of stories about individual losses of family members kept consistent? If it was ...
answered Apr 30 at 17:15
Italian Philosophers 4 Monica
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2
"I didn't think it made much sense, since diplomacy exists" - But, GIVEN war, defeat or stalemate are not as good as winning.
"...and no country is unbeatable" - Obviously, but I don't know how this could support your confusion over the quote.
2
It means that it's difficult to imagine that armies that just defend, without attacking, will win any war. Of course Patton was speaking from the context of having a large materiel superiority, and having numerical manpower advantages. But, stepping back, the quote was meant to instill the spirit of aggression in his armies and perhaps also the home front.
1
It would be better to add more details, mainly what you understand as 'US HQ in Munich'.
The source below gives some details about the establishment of the Office of Military Government for Bavaria (OMGBY), which took place between the 14th of May and the 14th of June 1945.
It doesn't give any exact details as to where in Munich they were stationed, but ...
1
Douglas MacArthur is one of the most notorious Military leaders in modern warfare possibly only seconded by Patton himself. He said this in a speech in 1951 during the height of the Red Scare.
But once war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to
apply every available means to bring it to a swift end.
War's very object is victory, not ...
1
On the Pacific theater, there was a plan to invade Japan (Operation Downfall), and it is very helpful to have land bases for your B-24s, P-51, etc. So bypassing Iwo Jima or Okinawa is not really helpful, since you need a large island for the troops and airfields, and there aren't that many options. Also a month is not enough time. Rabaul was bypassed in ...
1
Railway guns were outdated by WW2, But it's complicated. They were designed to be artillery, bunker-buster and defensive. Though the German examples during WW2 were the most notable, the British, French, American, Italian... Even Polish and Russian examples had niches. For example, Gladiator (British) was used to train Naval crews on the guns without having ...
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