Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/01/14

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] There's something about German design ...
From: wrs111445 at yahoo.com (Bill Smith)
Date: Sun Jan 14 23:39:43 2007

Marc:
   
  Recently the P51 was honored by The Discovery Channel as No. 4 or 5 of the 
all-time greatest fighters--what they failed to mention is that it took only 
6 or 8 mos. as I recall from idea to flying prototype. 
   
  Bill
   
  

Marc James Small <marcsmall@comcast.net> wrote:
  At 12:33 AM 1/15/2007, Bill Smith wrote:
>Marc:
>
> Obviously you are more informed about this subject than me--thanks
>for your comments. About all I know is what I see on The Discovery
>Channel. They've pointed out the complexities of the Tiger tank and as
>I recall the 88mm howitzer as opposed to the simple (but deadly to the
>crew) Sherman and 105mm field howitzer.
>
> Their parts supply/ maintenace problems they had remind me of the 9
>miserable years I owned a 1971 BMW 2002.

1971 was a miserable year for BMW, as they were 
concentrated on moving "up market". Those were 
the years when the selling price of their cars 
rose by twice the factor caused by the 
Deutschmark re-evalution -- and, in the end, 
their sales trebled, so they did something right 
by going to the high end of the spectrum.

Patton was once asked whether he would have 
preferred to fight with Panther tanks and he 
laughed and pointed out that none of his tanks 
would have made it out of Normandy without a 
Depot rebuild. German gear suffered from a 
number of problems but poor maintenance doctrine 
and a lack of quality material dogged them from 
1942 to the end. Yes, their gear was complex but 
then so was some of ours: around half of the 
P-38 pilots had to be given remedial training on 
their aircraft and one of the great names in The 
Old Warbirds recently was killed when he seems to 
have forgotten the order for using his fuel tanks in a P-38.

The M4 Sherman has received a lot of hostility 
from the Disdain and Hysteria Channels in recent 
years but this is undeserved. It was a solid 
vehicle capable of solid work. Sure, it had 
limitations but one part of doctrine is to teach 
soldiers how to make the best of their gear and, 
in the end, the Sherman turned into a real 
workhorse which effectively crushed German armor by early 1945.

To put it a different way, if the Panther and the 
Tiger were so great, and the Sherman so lousy, 
how then did we win the War? If the 
Messerschmidt and the Focke-Wulf were so 
superior, and the P-47 and P-51 so bad, why did 
the Germans have no air cover left by the time of 
OVERLORD? The true answer, of course, is that 
our gear worked better, all in all, than did 
theirs, and our doctrine was superior, so that we 
were able to grind them into little bitty pieces by early 1945.

The German 88 was a great gun and, in two 
different designs in both Wars, served well as an 
anti-aircraft gun and for ground defense 
purposes. But our 90mm AA gun was equally 
capable and cost a lot less to make. In that regard, you are right.

Marc


msmall@aya.yale.edu
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!



_______________________________________________
Leica Users Group.
See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information


 
---------------------------------
Bored stiff? Loosen up...
Download and play hundreds of games for free on Yahoo! Games.

In reply to: Message from marcsmall at comcast.net (Marc James Small) ([Leica] There's something about German design ...)