Quotulatiousness

November 18, 2019

The Opium War – Lost in Compensation l HISTORY OF CHINA

Filed under: Britain, China, Economics, History, Military — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

IT’S HISTORY
Published 22 Aug 2015

The Opium War started as a dispute over trading rights between China and Great Britain. Regular trade between Europe and the Chinese had been ongoing for centuries. But China’s trading restrictions frustrated the British who were eager to supply the Chinese people with the increasingly popular narcotic opium. Circumventing the government’s attempts to ban opium trade by smuggling and bribery, China declared the death sentence on Opium smuggling and refused to compensate British tradesmen for any losses. Furiously, the Brits sent out a fleet to demand compensation and end the Cohong trading monopoly. Fierce battles and attacks on the Chinese coast were followed. Find out all about the First Opium War from Indy in our new episode of Battlefields!

» SOURCES
Videos: British Pathé (https://www.youtube.com/user/britishp…)
Pictures: mainly Picture Alliance
Content:
Lovell, Julia: The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China
Wei, Yuan: Chinese Account of the Opium War
McPherson, Duncan: The First Opium War – The Chinese Expedition 1840-1842
Merwin, Samuel: Drugging a Nation – The Story of China and the Opium Curse
Bernard, William Dallas; Hall, Sir William Hutcheon: Narrative of the Voyages and Services of the Nemesis, from 1840 to 1843.
Isabel Hilton (The Guardian): “The Opium War by Julia Lovell – review”
Perdue, Peter C. (MIT): The First Opium War http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.02…

» ABOUT US
IT’S HISTORY is a ride through history – Join us discovering the world’s most important eras in IN TIME, BIOGRAPHIES of the GREATEST MINDS and the most important INVENTIONS.

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» CREDITS
Presented by: Guy Kiddey
Script by: Dan Hungerford
Directed by: Daniel Czepelczauer
Director of Photography: Markus Kretzschmar
Music: Markus Kretzschmar
Sound Design: Bojan Novic
Editing: Markus Kretzschmar

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Contains material licensed from British Pathé
All rights reserved – © Mediakraft Networks GmbH, 2015

November 17, 2019

Britain shows Japan how to Attack Pearl Harbor – WW2 – 064 – November 16, 1940

Filed under: Britain, Europe, Greece, History, Italy, Japan, Military, Russia, WW2 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 16 Nov 2019

Japan has two wins this week, and one might turn out to be very consequential for the rest of the war. In the meantime, the British RAF fights the Luftwaffe and Italy struggles in their offensive against Greece.

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Archive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.

Sources:
– Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
– IWM: CM 164, C 1244
– Destroyed house icon by Gan Khoon Lay, people icon by Gregor Cresnar from the Noun Project

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

From the comments:

World War Two
2 days ago
Do you want more World War Two in realtime? We have a great Instagram page, where we make a daily post about what happened in the war on that day. This might be something completely different from what’s covered in these videos, or might add some more details. You can follow it by searching @world_war_two_realtime or by clicking here: https://www.instagram.com/world_war_two_realtime/. See you there!
Cheers, Joram

The three cycles of a naval ship’s career

Filed under: Britain, Military — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 03:00

Last month, there was some concern over the state of the Royal Navy’s current fleet, based on things the Secretary of State for Defence had said to the Commons Defence Select Committee:

While discussing the size of the navy, and the minister made a valid point that it is hard to go to the Treasury and argue for more new warships when the RN is unable to make full use of the vessels already in service. “If I had more of our current fleet working, then I would have much more freedom to deploy to meet some of our ambitions and tasks. I’ve made it very clear to the First Sea Lord one of my priorities is to get what we’ve got working” he said.

Unfortunately the Minister then rather confused the issue by stating that the RN has “only” 57 of its 76 surface ships available. This statement is technically true but it needs a great deal of context. It is only possible to reach the 76 figure by counting absolutely everything in commission that floats including the MCMVs, OPVs, Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels, the hydrographic ships and the two small boats of the Gibraltar Squadron. 16 small unarmed P2000 patrol/training boats and inshore survey boat HMS Magpie are also included in this total. These vessels all have important roles to play but major surface combat vessels number just 23, even if both aircraft carriers and both LPDs are counted. Of that 23, about 10 are active at the time of writing. (HMS Queen Elizabeth (not yet fully operational) Albion, Defender, Dragon, Montrose, Kent, Argyll, Sutherland, Northumberland and Westminster)

In fact, 57 vessels “available” from a fleet of 76 would be very impressive. Any navy that has 75% of its ships ready for operations would be doing exceptionally well. But it rather depends on your definition of “available” as ships are in constant cycle at differing levels of readiness. A more normal approximate ‘rule of thirds’ would apply for most serious navies; a third on operations, a third preparing for operations, in transit, training or maintenance and a third at very low readiness in deep refit. This cycle is simply unavoidable, warships are highly complex pieces of engineering that are exposed to the harsh marine environment and must be maintained.

What Ben Wallace was really talking about is improving the readiness of the frigates and destroyers. As we have reported before, delays to the frigate LIFEX refits are contributing to lower than usual numbers of ships available. Currently, more than half of the frigate fleet are all either awaiting refit or undergoing refit at Devonport.

A view of Royal Navy ships at Devonport, 19th October 2019. (Top) HMS Monmouth out of routine and awaiting refit. (Middle) The depressing sight of the decommissioned nuclear submarine “flotilla” awaiting disposal, comprising more boats than are currently active. In the basin are (top) HMS Richmond, first of the frigates to receive new engines and (bottom) HMS St. Albans. HMS Portland, Somerset and Iron Duke are inside the covered refit complex to the right. (Left) alongside at No.1 Wharf is HMS Lancaster.
Photo by Andy Amor, originally posted at Save The Royal Navy, 2019-10-25.

November 16, 2019

Report on the collision that sank HNoMS Helge Ingstad last year

Filed under: Europe, Military — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

The Norwegian frigate HNoMS Helge Ingstad was eventually declared a total loss due to the damage from the collision and the resulting water damage as the ship sank near the Sture Terminal in November 2018. The first part of the report on the accident has been released:

HNoMS Helge Ingstad, a Fridtjof Nansen-class frigate commissioned in 2009.
Photo detail via Wikimedia Commons.

The frigate HNoMS Helge Ingstad and the tanker Sola TS collided in the Hjeltefjord in the early hours of 8 November 2018. The frigate had 137 persons on board with a mix of conscripts and permanent crew. A total of seven watchstanding personnel were present on the bridge, including two trainees. The tanker Sola TS was operated by the Greek shipping company Tsakos Columbia Shipmanagement (TCM) S.A. There was a total of 24 persons on board. The bridge was manned by four persons, including the pilot.

HNoMS Helge Ingstad sailed south at a speed of approximately 17–18 knots with the automatic identification system (AIS) in passive mode, i.e. no transmission of AIS-signal. The frigate’s bridge team had notified Fedje Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) of entering the area and followed the reported voyage. Sola TS had been loaded with crude oil at the Sture Terminal, and notified Fedje VTS of departure from the terminal. Sola TS exhibited navigation lights. In addition some of the deck lights were turned on to light up the deck for the crew who were securing equipment etc. for the passage.

In advance of the collision, Fedje VTS had not followed the frigate’s passage south through the Hjeltefjord. The crew and pilot on Sola TS had observed HNoMS Helge Ingstad and tried to warn of the danger and prevent a collision. The crew on HNoMS Helge Ingstad did not realise that they were on collision course until it was too late.

At 04:01:15, HNoMS Helge Ingstad collided with the tanker Sola TS. The first point of impact was Sola TS‘ starboard anchor and the area just in front of HNoMS Helge Ingstad‘s starboard torpedo magazine.

HNoMS Helge Ingstad suffered extensive damage along the starboard side. Seven crew members sustained minor physical injuries. Sola TS received minor damages and none of the crew were injured. Marine gas oil leaked out into the Hjeltefjord. The Institute of Marine Research has ascertained the effect of the oil spill had little impact on the marine environment.

HNoMS Helge Ingstad after grounding, 13 November 2018. Due to the steep nature of the seabed at the shoreline, the frigate slid down until it was almost totally underwater after initial grounding.
Photo via The Drive.

There is an embedded video with the report that neatly summarizes the series of events leading up to the collision.

November 12, 2019

Speculations on South Korean or Japanese F-35 deployment

Filed under: Asia, Japan — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

Last week, Strategy Page considered the options available for both South Korea and Japan to convert some of their F-35 orders to F-35B variants which would allow operations from small helicopter carriers in service or in plan for both navies:

The Republic of Korea Navy amphibious landing ship ROKS Dokdo (LPH 6111) and the aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) transit the Sea of Japan (July 27, 2010).
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Charles Oki via Wikimedia Commons.

In October South Korea announced it was buying 20 more F-35 stealth fighters. There are already 40 on order and South Korea will have received 13 by the end of 2019. Those 60 F-35s will cost $9.7 billion and a decision still has to be made as to whether any of the second 20 will be the VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) F-35B version. The first 40 will all be the basic F-35A which just operates from land-based airfields. But South Korea has ships that F-35Bs could operate from.

By 2018 South Korea had two 14,500 ton Dokdo class large amphibious ships. These South Korea LPHs (Landing Platform Helicopter) are similar in appearance and operation to the larger American amphibious ships. The LPH flight deck can handle helicopters, as well as vertical takeoff jets like the F-35B. The Koreans deny that the ship will be used with these jets, but the capability is there. The LPH normally carries 720 combat troops and their heavy equipment. Dokdos also carry fifteen aircraft; two V-22 vertical takeoff transports and 13 helicopters. Marado, the second Dokdo, has a redesigned flight deck that can handle two V-22s at once instead of just one. In addition to a more powerful 3-D surveillance radar for tracking aircraft, Marado has to Phalanx anti-missile system.

JS Izumo DDH-183

South Korea is also planning to build one or more 30,000 ton ships that look like the Japanese DDH (destroyer helicopter carrier) and could handle a dozen F-35Bs. Neighboring Japan has already ordered some F-35Bs so that it can experiment with some of these aircraft aboard the existing Japanese DDHs. Since 2017 Japan has had two 27,000 ton “destroyers” (DDH type ships) that look exactly like an aircraft carrier. These Izumo class ships can carry up to 28 helicopters or up to ten vertical takeoff aircraft. The carriers are armed only with two 20mm Phalanx anti-missile cannon and launchers with sixteen ESSM missiles for anti-missile defense. The DDH have powerful engines capable of destroyer-like speeds of over fifty-four kilometers an hour. Izumo has considerable cargo capacity, which is intended for moving disaster relief supplies quickly to where they are needed. Apparently, some of these cargo spaces can be converted to carry additional weapons and equipment needed to support F-35B fighter-bombers. Izumo could carry and operate at least ten F-35Bs once modifications are made to the flight deck to deal with the extremely high temperatures the F-35B generates when taking off or landing vertically (like a helicopter). When the first DDH entered service in 2015 Japan made no mention of buying F-35Bs or modifying the LPH flight decks to handle the very high temperatures. The Izumos already have an elevator (to the hanger deck under the flight deck) powerful enough to carry an F-35B fighter.

Another factor that makes operating F-35Bs from an LPH or DDH possible is the availability of smart bombs and small air-to-ground guided missiles for warplanes. A LPH or DDH was not designed to haul a lot of munitions for aircraft but, the amount of smart bombs and missiles needed to make five or ten F-35Bs effective would not be large. These ships already carry a lot of fuel for helicopters and have space for maintenance gear to support many helicopters. South Korean and Japanese naval planners noted this when they suggested using LPHs and DDHs as platforms for F-35Bs.

November 11, 2019

In memoriam

Filed under: Britain, History, Military, WW1, WW2 — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

A simple recognition of some of our family members who served in the First and Second World Wars:

The Great War

  • A Poppy is to RememberPrivate William Penman, Scots Guards, died 16 May, 1915 at Le Touret, age 25
    (Elizabeth’s great uncle)
  • Private Archibald Turner Mulholland, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, mortally wounded 25 September, 1915 at Loos, age 27
    (Elizabeth’s great uncle)
  • Private David Buller, Highland Light Infantry, died 21 October, 1915 at Loos, age 35
    (Elizabeth’s great grandfather)
  • Private Harold Edgar Brand, East Yorkshire Regiment. died 4 June, 1917 at Tournai.
    (My first cousin, three times removed)
  • Private Walter Porteous, Durham Light Infantry, died 4 October, 1917 at Passchendaele, age 18
    (my great uncle)
  • Corporal John Mulholland, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, wounded 2 September, 1914 (shortly before the First Battle of the Aisne), wounded again 29 June, 1918, lived through the war.
    (Elizabeth’s great uncle)

The Second World War

  • Flying Officer Richard Porteous, RAF, survived the defeat in Malaya and lived through the war
    (my great uncle)
  • Able Seaman John Penman, RN, served in the Defensively Equipped Merchant fleet on the Murmansk Run (and other convoy routes), lived through the war
    (Elizabeth’s father)
  • Private Archie Black (commissioned after the war and retired as a Major), Gordon Highlanders, captured at Singapore (aged 15) and survived a Japanese POW camp
    (Elizabeth’s uncle)
  • Elizabeth Buller, “Lumberjill” in the Women’s Land Army in Scotland through the war.
    (Elizabeth’s mother)
  • Trooper Leslie Taplan Russon, 3rd Royal Tank Regiment, died at Tobruk, 19 December, 1942 (aged 23).
    Leslie was my father’s first cousin, once removed (and therefore my first cousin, twice removed).

For the curious, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission the Royal British Legion, and the Library and Archives Canada WW1 and WW2 records site provide search engines you can use to look up your family name. The RBL’s Every One Remembered site shows you everyone who died in the Great War in British or Empire service (Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans and other Imperial countries). The CWGC site also includes those who died in the Second World War.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD Canadian Army Medical Corps (1872-1918)

October 31, 2019

“Big Lizzie” (HMS Queen Elizabeth) to sail into disputed waters in 2021

Filed under: Britain, China, Military — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

UK Defence Journal reported a few days back that the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier will take on her first active deployment in 2021, including a possible Freedom of Navigation exercise (FONOPS) in the South China Sea:

Aerial view of HMS Queen Elizabeth with Type 23 frigates HMS Iron Duke (centre) and HMS Sutherland (right) in June 2017 off the coast of Scotland.

Photo by MOD via Wikimedia Commons.

Commodore Michael Utley, Commander United Kingdom Carrier Strike Group, is reported by Save The Royal Navy here as saying that HMS Queen Elizabeth will be escorted by two Type 45 destroyers, two Type 23 frigates, a nuclear submarine, a Tide-class tanker and RFA Fort Victoria.

The ship will also carry 24 F-35B jets, including US Marine Corps aircraft, in addition to a number of helicopters.

Prior to the deployment, it is understood that the Queen Elizabeth carrier strike group will go through a work-up trial off the west Hebrides range sometime in early 2021.

When asked about whether or not the UK has enough escorts to do this without impacting other commitment, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said:

    The size and the scale of the escort depends on the deployments and the task that the carrier is involved in. If it is a NATO tasking in the north Atlantic, for example, you would expect an international contribution to those types of taskings, in the same way as we sometimes escort the French carrier or American carriers to make up that.

    It is definitely our intention, though, that the carrier strike group will be able to be a wholly UK sovereign deployable group. Now, it is probably not necessary to do that every single time we do it, depending on the tasking, but we want to do that and test doing it. Once we have done that, depending on the deployment, of course, we will cut our cloth as required.

Gareth Corfield expands on this in The Register:

Although the initial plan was for Britain’s biggest ever warship to sail through the South China Sea, which China claims as its own territory in defiance of international laws and norms, and despite claims from at least six other countries including Vietnam and the Philippines, this detail was noticeably absent from the UKDJ report.

Over 200 islands, also subject to disputes between China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines, also lie in the area, which stretches across 3.5 million square kilometres and is visited by one-third of the world’s shipping traffic.

A US presence on the South China Sea deployment will be a useful political tool for the administration as a show of strength to China as well as asserting the right to freedom of navigation in the sea. In addition, it reinforces the idea that the UK supports US foreign policy – Queen Elizabeth is effectively replacing a US carrier on her Far Eastern tour as part of the superpower’s standing naval presence.

Of the jets aboard QE, around half will be supplied by the US Marine Corps, as has been reported for years.

The Dutch Navy will definitely join the deployment, most likely with a De Zeven Provinciën-class frigate – replacing one of the British Type 23 frigates in the mooted carrier battle group. Similarly, UKDJ reckons that an American destroyer will join the 2021 deployment (named Carrier Strike Group 21), freeing up a British Type 45 destroyer.

Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08) underway in the Atlantic on 17 October 2019, participating in exercise “WESTLANT 19”. The first operational deployment for HMS Queen Elizabeth with No. 617 Squadron and a squadron of USMC Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightnings is planned for 2021.
Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Nathan T. Beard, US Navy, via Wikimedia Commons

October 28, 2019

The Surrender of the Imperial German High Seas Fleet

Filed under: Britain, Germany, History, Military, WW1 — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

Historigraph
Published 26 Oct 2019

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Kaiserlicher Marinemarsch “Gruß an Kiel“

October 25, 2019

The World Takes Advantage of American Isolationism | BETWEEN TWO WARS | 1933 part 3 of 3

Filed under: History, Japan, Military, Pacific, USA — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

TimeGhost History
Published 24 Oct 2019

America is very unprepared for rising tensions in the Pacific and in Europe. US President Franklin Roosevelt tries his best to re-arm the American Army and Navy, but the isolationist opposition is a fierce obstacle.

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Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Written by: Joram Appel
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Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Rune Vaever Hartvig, Sietse Kenter and Joram Appel
Edited by: Daniel Weiss
Sound design: Marek Kaminski

Picture colorizations by: Norman Stewart, Julius Jääskeläinen, Daniel Weiss and Joram Appel

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

From the comments:

TimeGhost History
1 day ago (edited)
This episode is very much about the global ramifications of the US’s foreign policy. American inaction and isolationism left room for other nations to develop imperialist ambitions. There are of course a lot of other factors that influenced the rise of expansionist and militarist governments in Europe and East-Asia, many of which are explained in our other Between Two Wars episodes. In no way does this video have any connection to current-day events or our opinion on them. This is what happened, our future episodes will be about what followed. We’re historians and that’s all we want to do here.
Cheers,
Joram

October 18, 2019

7 Brutal Days for the Kriegsmarine – Battle for Norway

Filed under: Britain, Germany, History, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

iChaseGaming
Published on 9 Sep 2019

The first few days of Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway, cost the Kriegsmarine‘s surface fleet dearly. While the invasion and occupation was successful the German Navy would be hampered for the remainder of the war.

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October 12, 2019

“Midway” – The Battle of Midway – Sabaton History 036 [Official]

Filed under: History, Japan, Media, Military, USA, WW2 — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

Sabaton History
Published 11 Oct 2019

The Battle of Midway in June 1942 was one of the decisive battles on the Pacific front during World War Two. The Sabaton song “Midway” is about that battle and the men who sailed, flew, fought and died there.

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Music by Sabaton.

Sources:
National Security Agency
Letter icon by Mochammad Kafi from the Noun Project
Ship icon by Edward Boatman from the Noun Project

An OnLion Entertainment GmbH and Raging Beaver Publishing AB co-Production.

© Raging Beaver Publishing AB, 2019 – all rights reserved.

September 28, 2019

The Freikorps Fights On – Estonia and Latvia War For Independence I THE GREAT WAR 1919

Filed under: Britain, Germany, History, Military, Russia, WW1 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

The Great War
Published 27 Sep 2019

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After the Battle of Cesis it seemed the situation in Latvia and Estonia was about to quieten down. But the German soldiers in the region and the ongoing conflict with Bolshevik Russia meant the 2nd half of 1919 saw even more fighting in the Baltics.

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All rights reserved – Real Time History GmbH 2019

QotD: Ship availability in the Royal Navy

Filed under: Britain, Military, Quotations — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

[T]he traditional metric of how a navy can deploy is that it requires a roughly 3:1 ratio to sustain a vessel on a task indefinitely — in very rough terms this means that when a ship is deployed on OP KIPION, her successor is nominated and working up through to being on passage to join her (e.g. HMS Daring saw HMS Monmouth sail sometime before being relieved). At least one more ship is going to be somewhere in the refit system requiring essential maintenance, upkeep and life extension work too. This 3:1 ratio is something which can be broken, and availability can vary over time — but as a general rule if you want to keep a ship on task for the long haul, you’ll need three ships to do this.

In the case of the current RN, the force of 19 hulls is actually 17, with two in long term “harbour training ship” (NOT reserve which has a specific and different meaning) roles to save on manpower levels. This means the RN is sweating its assets incredibly hard to keep ships on task for the long haul — particularly at a point when the T23 fleet is starting to show its age, and also go through a complex Mid Life Update process — at its simplest, ships designed for 18 years of life will be nearly 40 before they leave service, and it’s showing.

But, the risk is that in looking at the headline figure of “only” 6 escorts, we lose the ability to explain that this is actually pretty good by any navy’s standards. If you look at the world’s navies right now, there are very few which are able to deploy and sustain more than one or two ships at distance from home — the USN, occasionally the French and Russians and that’s about it. Others can do some quite impressive training deployments, more for showing the flag than delivering effect. Other navies may deploy escorts, but to do so occupies a big chunk of their naval training and output for the year to deliver this, at the hidden cost of keeping other ships alongside.

Don’t make the lethal mistake of assuming that because the RN “only” has 6 ships out there that every other navy is laughing at it. In fact the RN’s ability to sweat its force so hard remains a real point of awe for other nations, who are amazed at how much the RN can do at one time.

Sir Humphrey, “Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics”, Thin Pinstriped Line, 2017-07-09.

September 4, 2019

Viewing WW2 as “the Air-Sea Super Battlefield”

Filed under: Economics, Germany, History, Japan, Military, Russia, WW2 — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

According to Phillips Payson O’Brien, it’s old-fashioned to view large land battles as being “decisive” in modern warfare:

Kombat (Russian: Комбат, lit. “battalion commander”) is a black-and-white photograph by the Soviet photographer Max Alpert. It depicts a Soviet military officer armed with a TT pistol who is raising his unit for an attack during World War II. This work is regarded as one of the most iconic Soviet World War II photographs, yet neither the date nor the subject is known with certainty. According to the most widely accepted version, the photograph depicts junior politruk (political officer) Aleksei Gordeyevich Yeryomenko, minutes before his death on 12 July 1942, in Voroshilovgrad Oblast, Ukraine.
Wikimedia Commons.

Allied victory in WWII is usually viewed through the lens of large land battles, from Stalingrad to Kursk to D-Day. However, battlefield losses of equipment in these “great” land battles were relatively small and easily replaceable. This column demonstrates that the real effort of the major powers was put into the construction of air and sea weapons. The Allies used their air and sea power to destroy the Axis’s in a multi-layered campaign. This was the true battlefield of WWII: a massive air-sea super battlefield that stretched for thousands of miles. Victory in this super-battlefield led to victory in the war.

Every aspect of WWII is discussed in a vast literature. Considering its diversity, explanations of why Germany lost the war are surprisingly predictable. It remains widely argued that the Nazis were beaten mostly by the Soviet Union’s powerful Red Army (Hastings 2005: 508, Kennedy 2013: 183).

From June 1941 to May 1945, German “power” was supposedly engaged and destroyed by the Russians. At some points, more than two-thirds of German infantry were engaged against the Red Army. The famous battles of the Eastern Front, such as Stalingrad and Kursk, supposedly caused the Germans’ crippling losses. The upshot of this lopsided deployment was that most German soldiers died in the East. Fighting against the Americans and British, conversely, is often portrayed as a secondary concern (Roberts 2010: 573).

What’s wrong with a focus on battles?

This battle-centric view, like much history of WWII, is old-fashioned. Historians of strategy have moved away from seeing battles as determinative. Nolan (2017) has argued that attrition losses are more important than battle losses in explaining outcomes.

The battle-centric analysis implies that infantry deployment is the best way to analyse effort. Yet, human-power was rarely the key factor in deciding combat in WWII. Equipment and specialised training mattered more. Possessing and operating the largest stores of modern weapons, not only tanks and artillery but also aircraft and naval vessels, determined the course of battles and the war.

If we reframe the discussion of the war to look not only at what equipment was made but also at how it was destroyed, it emerges that the war was decided far from the land battlefield (O’Brien 2015). The most striking sign of this is how little war production went to the land war and how much went to the combined air-sea war. This was the case for all the powers except the USSR.

August 31, 2019

Young Recruits, French Planes, and Graf Spee – WW2 – OOTF 003

Filed under: Britain, France, Germany, History, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 06:00

World War Two
Published on 30 Aug 2019

How young were British soldiers? Could Graf Spee have gotten away? What was the French air force like? Questions, questions, questions – from you no less! With answers from us Out of the Foxholes.

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From the comments:

World War Two
39 minutes ago
One day before the war has being going on for a whole year, we look back at some stuff from 1939 and 1940. And once again Nicholas Moran, the Chieftain https://www.youtube.com/user/TheChieftainWoT joins us to answer your questions. This time he leaves his main turf (tanks) to dive into his other area of expertise; naval battles. Please remember that we can’t field questions from the comments so if you want submit a new question do it here: https://community.timeghost.tv/c/Out-of-the-Foxholes-Qs

Coming out with Out of the Foxholes has been a bit of a challenge as we try to master the crazy amount of stuff going on in our main episodes. But thanks to the fantastic collaboration of the TimeGhost Army on https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory and https://timeghost.tv we are constantly expanding our capacity and we hope to come out with these a bit more often now! For now, enjoy and remember that tomorrow our first anniversary episode comes out!

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