The allies could of ended the U-boat war much earlier.

[Sailor Steve]

LOL no, but with 50+ years of reading behind me I grind my teeth when I read things I think should be obvious. Not that they are obvious to everyone, just that I think so.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

LOL no, but with 50+ years of reading behind me I grind my teeth when I read things I think should be obvious. Not that they are obvious to everyone, just that I thing so.

Good luck trying to correct this on the WWW

just that I thing so

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by reallydedpoet

:rotfl: Typos. They'll get you every time. At least I make an effort to catch them. Still not the same as lazy grammar.

Originally Posted by irish1958

My pet peeve is the misuse of the past perfect. As Henry Higgens said "English....Why in America, they haven't used it in years."

Never heard of him.

[irish1958]

Originally Posted by irish1958

My pet peeve is the misuse of the past perfect. As Henry Higgens said "English....Why in America, they haven't used it in years."

Never heard of him.[/quote]


My Fair Lady, and before that Pygmalion by G. B. Shaw;
Or perhaps you mean I misspelled his name: you're right, it is Higgins.

[Jimbuna]

Rex Harrison....The rain in Spain

[Sailor Steve]

Sorry Jim, you missed it.

Originally Posted by irish1958

Or perhaps you mean I misspelled his name: you're right, it is Higgins.

Yep. We're all correcting each other correcting each other, and we're all making mistakes doing it.

And it's all my fault. Sorry about that, One Shot. Didn't mean to turn this into a hijack.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Sorry Jim, you missed it.

Yep. We're all correcting each other correcting each other, and we're all making mistakes doing it.

And it's all my fault. Sorry about that, One Shot. Didn't mean to turn this into a hijack.

No prob

[Coyote88]

Originally Posted by reallydedpoet

Good luck trying to correct this on the WWW

Regrettably common in undergraduate papers, too. "Could have" contracts to "could've," misheard as "could of." It means someone hasn't been reading enough!

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

I don't know why the Brits didn't let the SOE or the SAS have a crack at taking down the factory? If they couldn't do it I know one person who could, a British citizen turned German spy, turned double agent codename: Agent Zigzaz (german codename Fritz or Fritzen).

[A Very Super Market]

It is a factory in the Ruhr valley, most important region in all of Germany for industrial production, and the most important factory in that region. Moreover, it isn't anywhere near the coast, so the SAS would have to be air-dropped, in years when escorts were far and few in between, and at quite a risk of being shot down, or at least alerting the entire garrison of a city against at best, 100 men.

[goggles]

as others have stated all the allied bombers did was drive the germans underground and force them to become more effcient with the materials they had

that being said...

allied bombers did indeed strangle germany the destruction of synthetic fuel facilities was a death blow to german military efforts the luftwaffe didnt have enough fuel to protect the factories, the heer had no fuel to shunt thier king tigers around and the u boats had no fuel to go on patrol

another nail in the coffin was the destruction of germanys railway infastructure it was being bombed faster than it could be repaired and rail was the primary means of transporting raw materials to the factorys causing crippling shortages

another valid point is the fact that germany did not moblize its women for the factories when the men left for war leaving them desprately short of skilled workers(the germans often sent engineers and scientists to the front rather put them to work in design and constuction) which lead to ever incresing dependance on slave labor and with an increasing number of workers being made homeless by bombing raids fewer and fewer showed up for work

the end result of fewer and less skilled workers greatly exagerated existing design flaws in late war designs the main reason late war tanks were so unreliable was partly due to sabotage by unwilling slave larborers and poor workmanship(cigarette butts jammed in oil galleys, teeth deliberately chipped off gears)

had germany taken the british or american approach to mass war production the war would have certainly dragged on longer and german victory would ahve been a possiblity

[A Very Super Market]

Oh... you kid, good sir.

A German victory after 1940 was impossible. Perhaps if Germany managed to invade Britain, it may have been within grasp, but not after Moscow. It would hardly have mattered if their industrial output was better, since the weight of three gigantic nations and their combined output would outmatch it completely.

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

Originally Posted by A Very Super Market

It is a factory in the Ruhr valley, most important region in all of Germany for industrial production, and the most important factory in that region. Moreover, it isn't anywhere near the coast, so the SAS would have to be air-dropped, in years when escorts were far and few in between, and at quite a risk of being shot down, or at least alerting the entire garrison of a city against at best, 100 men.

Well the SAS wouldn't have to be parachuted into enemy territory, they could have been sent in by boat to the Dutch or Danish coast dressed in civilan clothes or German uniforms and make their way to the target zone as seperate units and then infultrate the local populis or garrison. Then after some time infultrate the target, sent charges, and exfultrate and then make their way to the coast to be picked up. Yeah I do realize it sound far fetched but who knows it could have worked, not a bad idea for a book though .

[RoaldLarsen]

Originally Posted by Kptlt. Hellmut Neuerburg

Well the SAS wouldn't have to be parachuted into enemy territory, they could have been sent in by boat to the Dutch or Danish coast dressed in civilan clothes or German uniforms and make their way to the target zone as seperate units and then infultrate the local populis or garrison. Then after some time infultrate the target, sent charges, and exfultrate and then make their way to the coast to be picked up. Yeah I do realize it sound far fetched but who knows it could have worked, not a bad idea for a book though .

Ah, romantic military fiction!

There are a few slight problems with the idea.

The SAS wasn't formed until late 1941, and they were a unit organised in North Africa for operation in North Africa. Originally, air drop was their method of deployment, and it did not work very well. Later they switched to primarily vehicle-based approaches. They eventually operated in Sicily, Italy and Northwest Europe, but always at the operational, not strategic level.

They did have a few German speakers in the unit, but not enough of the men were fluent for them to pass in a major cross-country trip like what would be required to attack the factory in question.

The quantity of explosives necessary to destroy the factory would require vehicle transport, and there was no way the SAS could have got a vehicle into Germany, or the explosives without a vechicle, before late 1944.

The only practical way to destroy the factory would be the same as was used for other strategic targets: bombing by aircraft. And has been pointed out, to do that, they would have to know where the factory was, and would have to have known that production was concentrated at the one location.

[irish1958]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

LOL no, but with 50+ years of reading behind me I grind my teeth when I read things I think should be obvious. Not that they are obvious to everyone, just that I thing so.

My pet peeve is the misuse of the past perfect. As Henry Higgens said "English....Why in America, they haven't used it in years."