The European theater was a Charlie Foxtrot(1) and so it was also in the Asian theater.
As a result of WWI most of the countries were militarily gutted and political wimps.
If you seriously watch the variety of films from WWII and read accurate books it becomes very obvious.
Tactics and weapons were generally dismal - Generals were generally more politicians than fighters and tacticians.
The troops on the ground had inadequate and inferior equipment combined with flaky officers. Our tanks were inferior to the Germans depending on sheer volume of production to compensate.
One of the things that saved us was breaking the German and Japanese codes.
2nd was the huge missteps by Hitler and the Japanese Military.
3rd was the inherent lack of needed war materials by German and Japan.
4th was scientific advancements mostly by accident that increased the effectiveness of our attack and defensive systems.
Thankfully the whole mess came out with our side winning, but few really understand how close the result was…
Malcolm T. Hedges
1)
a. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Charlie_Foxtrot
b. Charlie Foxtrot
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