ErikViking
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- #21
Been thinking the same thing - but at some point things have sped up? We seem so quick to evolve military technology. Almost as if civil technologies are surplus from the military development.Sorry to tell you but tradition and honour have never really been a part of war. In essence it's always been about killing the other side as efficiently as possible. The difference being that a nuke is so efficient that actually using it is unthinkable. The American civil war for instance was between people who grew up together in the case of a lot of the officer corps. It didn't stop them from developing the concept of total war in order to win it. They might have called each other sir but that did not stop them from killing hundreds of thousands, including woman and children. Developing trench warfare and so called total war.Will do. Sounds very interesting! Thanks!To me that's what makes history so interesting. We watch war movies. The more adept among us read history books. But and here is the interesting bit, these books are all colored a certain way. Quite often the use tainted sources or color their conclusions one way or another. In fact it's rarely ever as straightforward as one might imagine. I can recommend a guy on youtube called Tik. He has very detailed and very contrary viewpoints on the official history of WW2; In my viewpoint he does brilliantly at dissuading some preconceptions.This is fascinating.The Germans actually had little choice but to adapt their tank to operate in concentrated groups. Their operational plans in the antebellum quickly recognized that they didn't have the manpower or the material to defeat the allies force on force. In essence they were forced to be creative in the use of their tanks. People nowadays don't know how uncertain the concept of Blitzkrieg was when the Germans used it in France. The French had more and better tanks and the Germans left their flanks wide open. If not for the novelty of the tactics it would have never worked.Of course! The tank was an offensive weapon. But personal armour was out - defensive capability reduced to trenches. I got too fixated on the personal protection of the tank. Good.
Also, the only “victim” of tank warfare was the first to integrate them into combined arms. The Germans knew what to do with this new weapon. But then, WWII, it became only a race of technology - concept in place.
Still, if I today invented something... like, I can transport 2 tons of anything, anywhere in a second. I’m planning to what... for the environment or shipping food to starving people or what not. This invention would instantly be turned into a weapon and put to use. We seem to be more “open” about how to conduct war. Less tradition and honour. So perhaps tanks evolved in a paradigm shift?