XPost: aalt.war.world-war-two

Clifton Byrd
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Scrum Master (2010–present)Wed

What was it like to fight the Americans during World War II?
There is an old joke that if you see troops you can’t identify in a
distant wood, fire a shot that them. If they respond with accurate rifle
fire, they are British troops. If they respond with accurate machine gun
fire, they are German troops. If you get swarmed by hundreds of people screaming in unison, they are Soviet troops. If there is no initial
response but then ten minutes later your position is obliterated by a
massive artillery barrage, they are American troops. American doctrine
was to use infantry and even armor to fix the enemy positions and then
use artillery to defeat the enemy. As long as you had the logistical infrastructure and capacity, and the Americans did, to move mountains of artillery ammunition across beaches, over destroyed road and bridge
systems, and through wrecked cities this doctrine worked extremely well
and the American forces moved steadily forward with no setbacks on the
ground in Europe of strategic significance.

In the Pacific, the doctrine was similar but the artillery in this case
were big guns on battleships and cruisers, relentless bombing from
aircraft, and submarines. I once read the autobiography of a Japanese
soldier that was on a transport ship sailing to an island that was about
to be attacked by American forces. First his transport ship was
torpedoed by a submarine but he was one of a few dozen of the over 800
soldiers on the ship survived and were picked up by another Japanese
ship in the convoy. When they reached the island, the first day the base
he was at was bombed into dust by American planes and he was part of a
still smaller group from the original transport ship that survived that.
On the third day in another base they were shelled for hours by the 16
inch guns of an American battleship and he was the sole survivor from
the original group off the transport. On the fourth day American troops
landed and he (dazed and shell shocked) surrendered. Over 800 soldiers
on the original transport ship, and not one of them fired a shot at an
American soldier because of torpedoes, bombs, and naval guns.

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