quote:Originally posted by Harry: The misuse of tanks is only a minor nuisance compared to the complete impossibilty of Hitler invading the United States.
Oh, I know, but I think I already mentioned that (though maybe it wasn't here... I think it may have been on the soc.history.what-if NG, where people agree on the impossibility of a successful Operation Sea Lion -the invasion of the British Isles-, so invading the U.S. would be considered even more impossible, if there's such a thing as relative degrees of impossibility)
(oh, and Sturmtigers aren't tanks, they are assault guns/tank hunters)
Registered: Feb 2004
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wouldn't Hitler turn on the aliens? since theyre obviously not of the master race.. or can prove that he isn't
Registered: Nov 2002
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But still that leaves the Soviet Union and the UK to worry about. Or am I supposed to believe that Stalin and Churchill were also replaced by VAMPIRES FROM SPAAAAACE?
quote:Originally posted by machf: (oh, and Sturmtigers aren't tanks, they are assault guns/tank hunters)
For the record, Sturmtigers were 'self propelled guns'...more specifically a modified Tiger I tank chassis with a mounted naval 380 mm RTg launcher. A mean fucker.
Flakpanzers would have been an ideal choice for resolving whatever the hell started this tangent.
-------------------- Hey, it only took 13 years for me to figure out my password...
Registered: Jan 2003
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Perhaps you're supposed to believe that this is an alternate timeline, in which (no doubt to the aliens' advice and behind-the-scenes assistance, who would have the hindsight of our modern historians and then some) the war proceeded in a different fashion than as we know. Perhaps Hitler never broke his nonagression pact with Stalin. Perhaps the Luftwaffe *was* successful in winning the Battle of Britain. And so on...
I hardly think it appropriate to argue about whether any of this could have really happen in real life, when the whole premise of the episode is that history has been ALTERED, and what's more, altered by outside beings with likely-superior technology and a knowledge of what the long-term results of specific strategic/tactical decisions will be.
And as for Americans being obsessed with the Nazis, you've got to keep in mind that they were just about the greatest enemy we ever fought, in the biggest (and some would say, the most glorious) war. And their "take over the world in the name of the master race" plot makes them perfectly suited as comic book/sci-fi villains.
-MMoM
-------------------- The flaws we find most objectionable in others are often those we recognize in ourselves.
Registered: Jun 2001
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"And as for Americans being obsessed with the Nazis, you've got to keep in mind that they were just about the greatest enemy we ever fought, in the biggest (and some would say, the most glorious) war."
Well, I'd think that would apply more to Europe. We ought to be more obsessed with Japan. After all, they're the ones who actually attacked us. And it took longer to beat them than Germany (at least in terms of how long the US fought each).
Registered: Mar 1999
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But the Japanese were more or less Hitler's underlings. (Though admittedly less so than the Italians.) And they were latecomers to the war, whose impetus lay in Germany and the aftermath of the previous world war. And the battles fought with them were almost entirely out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, not the farms and cities of the populated world. While they were the ones who attacked us, everyone pretty much agreed that Germany was actually the bigger threat in the grand scheme of things. (Hence why the Atlantic/European front was made our priority from the get-go.)
Besides, Pearl Harbor was just our "excuse" to officially enter the ful-blown war. We had already been not-so-covertly aiding the fight against Germany for quite some time beforehand.
-MMoM
-------------------- The flaws we find most objectionable in others are often those we recognize in ourselves.
Registered: Jun 2001
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quote:But the Japanese were more or less Hitler's underlings.
This is so wrong.
But accurate descriptions of the war are likely to spill over the hard drives of our server, so can't we all agree to go read one of the $BIGNUMBER (I totally stole that from people who know about computers or Unix or FORTRAN or something) books published about it, or watch the WWII Channel?
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote: Perhaps you're supposed to believe that this is an alternate timeline, in which (no doubt to the aliens' advice and behind-the-scenes assistance, who would have the hindsight of our modern historians and then some) the war proceeded in a different fashion than as we know. Perhaps Hitler never broke his nonagression pact with Stalin. Perhaps the Luftwaffe *was* successful in winning the Battle of Britain. And so on...
It really all depends on the level of technology the aliens give the Nazis. An invasion accross the Atlantic using 1940s technology would be nigh-on impossible I'd think. Not to mention the state of troops who's just spent however many days crossing an ocean. They'd hardly be in the best shape for mounting an invasion.
As for why the Nazis were used (again), it's simply because they're instantly recongnized by most people as being evil. It saves time as they don't have to do much to establish that the aliens are not nice. Just show them in a Nazi uniform.
-------------------- "I am an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman, which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when it suits me." --Jubal Harshaw
Registered: Feb 2002
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Teh PW
Self Impossed Exile (This Space for rent)
Member # 1203
posted
quote:We ought to be more obsessed with Japan.
we are obsessed. or have you not seen Macross Zero lately? or Love Hina? Gundam SEED? Kitty Grade? Akira?
and if any of you fucks talks shit about Zero, i will offer complimentory skull fucks for the slight