History & Military History
World wars, the Cold War, ancient and medieval history, military technology, Dutch history and the past behind today’s news.
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US Navy Pacific campaign: What was the most strategically important fleet carrier loss that the US Navy suffered?
I'm not going to include any escort carriers or anything after 1943 because it's a bit academic at that point. USS Lexington - May 1942 - Battle of the Coral Sea USS Yorktown - June 1942 - Battle of Midway USS Wasp - September 1942 - Guadalcanal USS Hornet - October 1942 - Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands Edit: I guess another way of asking is which fleet carrier loss hurt the US navy the most during the early pacific campaign? Double edit: maybe the wording should be strategically significant submitted by /u/RivetCounter
How do the outcomes of modern COIN operations actually compare to historical operations?
Occasionally I will see discussion online about how counter insurgency doctrine has advanced over time. Obviously the tools are completely different in the 2020s even compared to the 2000s not to mention the 1960s or earlier. But does modern doctrine and equipment really result in better outcomes against insurgents? Or is it a question of political will and resource dedication more so than the specific tactics and equipment? submitted by /u/Phantrum [link] [comments]
Were there any notable proposals, plans or attempts to employ military jet-skis?
Do note this is not a question of the feasibility of military jet-skis. The issues with jet-skis in a military setting are many and if they were effective then we'd be seeing their deployment as good ideas spread as quickly as bad ones. However as fans of military history, we all know that a bad idea has never stopped military theorists before.
Illustrated positions/diagrams for Defense of Duffer's Drift?
Basically what the title says, anyone have them or know where I can find them? The original book has a very high level map for each dream but the copies I can find are fairly blurry and indistinct, not that there is a ton of detail to begin with. I'm hoping that at some point in the last *century* since it's been written someone has actually taken the time to illustrate the various entrenchments and positions described in the text! submitted by /u/rmzgrimes [link] [comments]
When would a bayonet charge be conducted (Napoleonic era)?
As I understand, most bayonet charges never really connect as the opposing side has likely fled long before. Despite bayonet charges being a staple on Napoleonic era warfare there surprisingly isn't a lot of casualties produced by bayonet charges with the most common weapons inflicting casualties being muskets followed by sabres and cannons (using this source as reference). Even with muskets being the primary source of casualties countries still used bayonet charges as a shock tactic.
The Lebel 1886 is a personal fascination of mine; what was the context of French military thinking at the time?
So it’s the first smokeless powder rifle, with a tube capacity of 10 rounds. What were French generals/logisticians expecting with this? Why did they adopt it and why was smokeless powder so important in their doing so? Also: It has a really complex and weird loading process. Did this affect their decisions in any way? submitted by /u/GloriousOctagon [link] [comments]
Why not send spies to start fires in port cities that housed naval bases? (between the 16th and 18th centuries)
This might be a silly question—I’m not sure—but the other day I was watching a video about the Great Fire of London in 1666, and I found myself wondering: given all the naval wars between France and England from the 16th to the 18th century, why didn't either country send a small team—say, three people—into enemy territory via a neutral merchant ship to start fires in port cities using torches? After all, this was a time when cities were full of timber structures and firefighting forces were scarce and ill-equipped.
Post-WW2, were there any arguments in favor of fixed-wing combat aircraft for the army?
At least for the USA, the air force was initially part of the army before splitting off, leaving the army with helicopters with most fixed-wing combat aircraft going to the air force. During Vietnam, the US Army went as far as hiding an air-to-air kill by an OV-1 from the air force in order to keep their planes. Ever since losing their share of fixed-wing warplanes, has there been any argument about the benefit of the army having its own fixed-wing combat aviation?
It seems quite a few officers in the USN right now are worried about the loss of "Early command" opportunities. But is there actually much of anywhere that ships sized to enable that could have a function in the current USN force structure?
In the past Lieutenant Commanders would command Ocean Escorts and minesweepers, and Lieutenants would command things like the Asheville and Cyclone class.
Unguided rocket AA, what were they thinking?
I came across several anti-air rocket systems from WW2 recently. No, not guided by any means. Fliegerfaust (dude), unrotated projectile and the z-battery. Perhaps there was more too. I struggle to find more information on this, especially the fliegerfaust-system.... Did it actually work out in any way at all? submitted by /u/Thermawrench [link] [comments]
How did AWACS communicate and coordinate its data to the Allied Coalition forces during the 1991 Gulf War? Was it all by voice?
Question as titled. These days, data links are all over the place, but I was wondering how AWACS communicated back during the Gulf War when they identified bandits or had to provide confirmation of shoot/no-shoot on potential targets. Particularly interested in that time period as, as far as I know, it was probably one of the busiest time to be an AWACS crew to deconflict who knows how many hundreds of allied planes in the air at the same time
Honest question, what exactly is the role of a sniper?
(this is a follow-up to my previous question) The pop-culture depiction of a sniper (which is the one I primarily know of) is usually that of an uber-elite operator who hunts down and kills high-ranking enemy targets; outside of this exaggerated depiction, the role of a sniper becomes much more murkier and generally unknown to the public outside of "kill bad people from long range".
John B George published his memoir "Shots fired in anger" in 1947 about sniping Japanese soldiers on Guadalcanal and then becoming an intelligence officer in the Merrill Marauders in Burma
I wanted to share this here because this is one of the few memoirs written by an American Army soldier that fought in the Pacific theater soon after the war. Also, he brought his own personal rifle to combat, a model 70 Winchester attached with an Alaskan rifle scope and even went on sniping trips in his free time. Later in 1982 he published an extended and revised edition of "shots fired in anger" about his time in the Merrill Marauders.
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