Re: Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood
So you're telling me that Guam, Wake Island, The Phillipines, Hawaii, The coast of California, the East coast, Merchant ship bound for UK, the Allutian Islands, Midway, and the Marshall Isalnds were never infact invaded by Japanese forces. Those are just off the top of my head. In order:
1. Guam: If you don't know this, go get a better education.
2. Wake Island: see 1.
3. The Phillipines: Lots of men lost theri lives there, Batan Death March rings a bell here. MacArthur: "I will return" as in "I will return to save American citizens (at the time) from being enslaved and slaughtered by Imperial forces."
4. Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. By the your way of thinking, this never happened. Japanese planes invaded American soil with their planes with their bombs.
5. California: Japanese subs were sighted, and bombs with balloons attached to them followed the Jetstream to hit N. CA and Oregon, killing several civilians.
6. The East Coast, German subs were sunk and sighted on the East coast of the USA, in our national waters, 11 miles out to sea.
7. Mearchant ships: going from US to UK delivering supplies and weapons to the Britih forces. German subs sank millions of tons of cargo, and kiled thousands of sailors on those ships.
8. Allutian Islands: Japanese forces took these islands that are considered part of Alaska.
9. Midway: 2 US carriers were sunk/badly damaged fighting for this US province that they just barely repeled the invadeing Japanese forces.
10. Marshall Islands: Named after the man who cmmanded the forces who re-took the islands from Japanese foces.
So don't tell me that the US was never invaded by someone durring WWII. Many civilains and soldiers died in these uncalled for attacks.
And what did America have in the Pacific in the opening days in the War? 3 carriers groups, 1 of which was sunk, and the other so badly damaged it had to limp to San Franciso to be repaired. 1 full carrier group, 1 carrier, 2 support carriers, a couple destroyers, a battle ship (maybe) a few crusiers, and ammo/supply ships. Less then 10,000 men to defend the entire Pacific Ocean.
America had an army of 100,000 men before Pearl Harbor. America was using a bolt action rifle until 1936, America was lucky to have had less then 500 outdated Stewart tanks. America had 10 year old aircraft that copuldn't break 400 mph unless they were diving from 30,000 feet. America had almost nothing until Pearl Harbor.
I understand that Russia lost over 10 million forces, but Russian had 10 million forces to spend. We didn't. Every man counted for us, and for Russia, they could throw away 10 million men, and have another 10 million take their place.
I will continue if need be.