[Homer_J_Simpson]

If you would like to be added to or deleted from the Real Time +/- 70 Years ping list, send me a freepmail. You can also search for these articles by the keyword realtime, going back to the first one on January 27, 2008.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

This is from the Sunday supplement, “News of the Week in Review.”

[Since March 1, 1933] the army has been increased from an enlisted strength of 116,000 men to 165,000 . . .

That may not be enough. It is about the number of American troops who landed in North Africa in 1942. What is the ratio of support personnel to front-line troops? Something like 3 to 1?

[PeterPrinciple]

Somewhere I read that the planners thought we would need around 250 division. I think this was closer to 1939 or 1940. This was reduced as time passed and we ended up with around 100 divisions but NO reserves in the final stages of the war. We were not prepared for surprises at the end of the war. Thus another explanzation for the use of the atomic bomb.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

The plans are “tentative and secret” but the NY Times still prints the details. LOL.

[BroJoeK]

"It is far more difficult to assess relative air strengths. QUALITATIVELY WE STILL LEAD THE RACE, (though by a small margin) for technological superiority. Numerically we are not in the lead, though our exact position is difficult to determine."

Well, well, not really...

By December 1938, the German Messerschmidt Bf109 had been flying for three years, and would see a total of 34,000 produced by war's end.

And the Japanese were also rapidly working on their new fighter -- the A6M Mitsubishi Zero -- first flown in March 1939, and eventually 11,000 produced.

Of course, I'm no expert, but would guess that both those planes were vastly superior to anything our guys were even thinking of building in 1938.

[M Kehoe]

An accurate, and terse summation of the articles above comes down to this:

A year late and a dollar short. - ACQ

(Arm Chair Quarterback)

Oh, and you've got to love the NYT publishing the details...Pinch, you and your boys are going under. LOL!

5.56mm