Posted on 05/15/2020 8:19:13 AM PDT by Rummyfan
Most people today assume that our understanding of WWII is largely complete, thanks to the enormous quantity of books, TV series such as ITV’s classic 1970s documentary The World at War, the myriad of documentaries that aired in the early days of the History Channel cable TV network, and the unending series of movies produced by Hollywood, particularly when compared to its predecessor, WWI. But classicist historian and fellow PJM columnist Victor Davis Hanson does yeoman’s work unpacking the events of 1939-1945.
Starting with the plurality in the title, Hanson’s 2017 book, The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won emphasizes the disparate nature of the War’s myriad battles. Hanson also explores the enormous difference in mindsets between the leaders of the Axis and Allied powers. He makes plain their difference in desired outcomes right on page three, when he notes, “The Axis losers killed or starved to death about 80 percent of all those who died during the war. The Allied victors largely killed Axis soldiers; the defeated Axis, mostly civilians.”
Curtis LeMay Repurposes the B-29
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
If you have listened to VDH’s many lectures that are on youtube he constantly draws from history to explain other events or even current events.
It is baked into the cake with him. While it can sometimes be a bit tedious, many of his parallels to other events in history are interesting. I enjoyed his macro view of the war very much though and there are many lessons for our “national defense” that can be inferred.
The BBC’s ‘’World At War’’ or ‘’How England Won The Second World War(With A Little Timely Assistance From The United States’’).Narrated by Sir Laurence Oliver.
It wasn't nearly so clear when Germany had a non-aggression pact with Russia and the United States was neutral.
Churchill's strategy to win the war was, essentially: get America into the war!
Our family had a church model Hammond organ. One evening we got a knock on the door while my mother was playing. It was Gen Lemay dressed in civvies.
It turns out that he too loved to play the organ and was very good at it. He just came by to ask if he could play a few tunes for awhile.
He was a regular guy but had a pipe instead of his trademark cigar. He talked awhile about his daughter and family, had some coffee and bid us a good evening.
Very cool story!
The Left painted him as a monster.
Japan always suffered from a dysfunctional rivalry between its own Navy and Army. Tojo and the Army came to ultimate power because of their headstart success in Manchuria and China.
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Admiral Yamamoto strongly opposed allying with Germany and had deep reservations about war with the US, it was a long shot at best. Yamamoto spoke fluent English and had traveled widely through the US.
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He knew that our heartland was safe from bombing and Japan’s was not. Yamamoto often related his road trip across the US, where he drove for 4 days without seeing a break in the cornfields of the Midwest.
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He hoped we would negotiate after Pearl Harbor, but fundamentally misread American anger and determination because it was not an Asian concept.
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Japan’s lack of combined arms along with our industrial and agricultural might determined the outcome.
I would love to be in his classes.
I’m in. Looking forward to these.
I didn’t realize his lectures were available.
I’ll check them out
LeMay was a real legitimate American stalwart. But for him thousands of Americans in the euro and pacific would have died.
It is possible, had we had to take Japan that my Dad would have had a greatly shortened life. As would many other Americans. Lemay mused that he could have faced trial as a war criminal. Maybe, but he never would have been convicted.
Same war in this era—who knows?
LeMay and one of his targeting analysis officers, Robert McNamara, systematically flattened 59 Japanese civilian population centers in order to break the will of the Japanese.
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About 500,000 Japanese died outright and likely that many died of starvation and disease. That was the basis for LeMay’s concern for war crimes.
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Incredibly, the communication system was so controlled, the Japanese people didn’t largely know of the widespread destruction. Most were unaware of the atomic bombings. They would have fought to the death.
Whoa!... hold on. There was a second world war?
I wondered what that noise was.
Yes it is Euro-centric. But I found the best thing about it was that many of the participants were still alive at the time it was made and you get their personal input. Even Albert Speer is featured in it. And Hitler's personal secretary, just to name two examples. Fantastic.
Thirty-three fast carriers alone from 1942 - 1945. Battleships, cruiser, destroyers, submarines, armor, small arms., ammunition.... it was an unprecedented industrial output. And tens of thousands of aircraft. Many of those C-47s are still flying today.
From a standpoint of industrial production, that's true. But the fighting and dying still needed to be done. And also keep the Soviets in the war, tying down the Wehrmacht. I don't believe it was a foregone conclusion, and it took the Allies holding to the unconditional surrender demand that prevented some kind of other peace, which would have probably led to another big war in the future. Plus, to win it quickly enough to keep the Germans from developing the bomb and other advanced weapons. They did manage very limited production of jet aircraft. And if they had been able to attach more lethal warheads to the V-2....
Tibbets in particular had no brief with anyone Monday morning quarterbacking about decisions made during the war and the conduct of it. He said none of those people ever had theirs b*lls on the anvil.
A true American hero deserved more.
Well, granted, inevitable is a pretty big word. And lots of stuff had to happen. But mainly, the three big powers were going to prevail if they just didn’t screw up too badly.
Hanson addresses German weapons and the Allies’ coordinated war planning. I think you would find his comments interesting as to the cost/benefit trade offs of big tanks, big ships, the V-2, etc.
VDH is a gem of an analyst and instructor. I urge you to watch the videos from Hillsdale. Each is about 45-55 minutes long and quite watchable. (If that’s even a word, LOL).
Cabaret was probably my parents’ generation. I’ve never seen it. I will check it out though.
If we are talking about the BBC series it is very good. Primarily because it covers the years before the US got involved.
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