Jesus, you'd think this was made by the Nazis. The narrator is so brutal about the Allies getting their asses handed to them in '41 and '42 that I feel like I should start polishing up on my German.

11/11/2010 10:17:00 AM

I find your commentary shallow and pedantic.

11/11/2010 10:18:10 AM

Why We Fight had a similar vibe

11/11/2010 10:18:39 AM

In truth, it is kind of refreshing. Very matter of fact about what is going on. Definitely made for an audience used to hardship and perseverance.

11/11/2010 10:20:21 AM

Quote :

"The narrator is so brutal about the Allies getting their asses handed to them in '41 and '42 that I feel like I should start polishing up on my German."

I'd say that's just being intellectually honest. There's not really another way to describe that period of the war, especially in the Pacific. It was the brutal truth of being years behind in manufacturing and development in the area of naval warfare.

That said, we caught up quickly, and dropped the ass hammer...go USA

11/11/2010 10:48:09 AM

I think it had more to do with the majority of the pacific fleet being wiped out at Pearl Harbor

11/11/2010 10:54:01 AM

Quote :

"I think it had more to do with the majority of the pacific fleet being wiped out at Pearl Harbor"

That was certainly a big part of it...although we still had the carrier task forces and fast attack groups that were arguably far more effective than a battleship-centric task force.

11/11/2010 11:04:04 AM

Quote :

"I think it had more to do with the majority of the pacific fleet being wiped out at Pearl Harbor "

this ships at Pearl Harbor were old and outdated. Our newer ships were out at sea that day. I'm sure it would have been helpful to have a bigger fleet though.

11/11/2010 11:10:10 AM

Yeah, IIRC Yamamoto was very upset that he did not get any of the carriers. Most of what has been shown today has been the Atlantic though. I'm going to tell you, the guys doing ASW work out of Rio had it made.

11/11/2010 11:20:23 AM

I wonder if things would have played out differently had the germans actually finished their two aircraft carriers instead of putting them on the backburner while they focused on submarine warfare.

11/20/2010 8:48:35 PM

nope. they almost broke England's back w/ the subs. Carriers played almost no role in WWII in the atlantic. The North Atlantic just simply wasn't hospitable for such tactics during WWII. If anything, switching focus to subs probably helped the Germans.

11/20/2010 8:58:25 PM

Yeah, submarine use was a needed bit of asymmetric warfare to counter the british domination of the seas. Though if they'd managed to deploy them in the atlantic prior to US entry it could have made the blockade much tighter - or they could have ended up like the Bismark.

Oddly enough, due to branch rivalry in the third reich the ship would have been under the jurisdiction of the kriegsmarine while the aircraft and their crews would have been luftwaffe.

FWIW, escort carriers played a large role in the Atlantic.

11/20/2010 10:41:09 PM

yeah, but only when it came to spotting ships and subs.

11/20/2010 10:52:09 PM

they managed to fuck the u-boats pretty hard

11/20/2010 11:14:16 PM