The spoils of war - Dunkirk ...

[dogtag]

The libs in an attempt to dignify Biden's Afghan fu*k up like to draw
the comparison between the Afghan withdrawal to the one at Dunkirk.
Trouble is, there's a huge difference. Dunkirk was forced on both the
British and French by a far superior force. The Afghan withdrawal was
an arbitrary decision by a vastly inferior force, namely Biden. Any
opposition to it was by poorly armed men in nightdresses. In addition,
most of the vehicles abandoned at Dunkirk were sabotaged, forcing
the Germans to repair those that could be repaired.
Admiral Ramsey's evacuation was masterful as was his plan for D Day.

Here's what the Germans inherited:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ned-Nazis.html

[Johnny P]

The U.S. didn't have to leave the equipment in Afghanistan except through the stupidity and ineptness of Joe Biden and his bunch of bobble-head staffers.

[lyman]

a lot of the equipment was bought and paid for by us but it was property of the ANA,

re Dunkirk,

there was a plan, just in case, and it worked well

[togor]

DT,

The 1940 French campaign is known on all sides. Very little untold there.

Specifically, the Anglo-French armies assumed another Schlieffen plan, and executed the countermeasure for it, 26 years too late!

Hitler wanted something different this time, and what they came up with was sort of the mirror image of the French Plan 17--a powerful thrust to the center. The ironies between August 1914 and May 1940 are profound!

Anyways the Brits and French blundered in letting their forces get trapped, and hence Dunkirk.

[dogtag]

I've always wondered why the German attack at Bastoign wcame as such a surprise.
At the start of WW1 the Germans attacked France through the Ardenne.
At the start of WW2 the Germans attacked France through the Ardenne

Sorry about spelling.

The French were in charge including the BEF but the French leadership was abysmal
French troops were fine but had no instructions, It was chaos for all concerned,
the Belgiums, the Dutch and the Brits as well as the French. Plus, two tank divisions were closing in
one with Rommel, the other with Guderain - no wonder the Brits said Enough.

[BudT]

They didn't attack through the Arden's during the winter until The Battle of the Bulge, the Germans hadn't mounted a winter campaign since Fredrick the Great, if memory serves correct. The Germans needed the port of Antwerp, again memory. The 106 Inf. Division was untested in combat and they were the ones pushed out by the massive German counter attack. By the way the Battle of the Bulge is to this day the largest American engagement in our history. Dad was there. It was risky to say the least and in the end we won, the 101st will tell you to a man that they didn't need Patton's relief, they could shoot in any direction and be shooting at Germans.

[Vern Humphrey]

I've always wondered why the German attack at Bastoign wcame as such a surprise.
At the start of WW1 the Germans attacked France through the Ardenne.
At the start of WW2 the Germans attacked France through the Ardenne

Sorry about spelling.

The French were in charge including the BEF but the French leadership was abysmal
French troops were fine but had no instructions, It was chaos for all concerned,
the Belgiums, the Dutch and the Brits as well as the French. Plus, two tank divisions were closing in
one with Rommel, the other with Guderain - no wonder the Brits said Enough.

The German attack in WWII was extemporized -- a copy of t he German plan was in a plane that wend down in French territory. The Germans quickly re-worked the plan and came through the Ardennes.

The key was Blitzkrieg -- "Lightning War." In WWI, the Germans found the solution to the trench warfare stalemate. Instead of attacking on a broad front, like the French and British, and then "reversing" the enemy trench to repel the coming counter-attack, the Germans attacked on a narrow front and kept going, driving deeper.

In the Interwar Period, the German Army (Not the German Government) made an arrangement with the Soviet Army (Not the Soviet Government) to establish training facilities in Russia. They had realized that deep penetration was the secret, and expanded it from a tactical concept to a strategic concept. They realized tanks were the ideal means of penetrating rapidly and deeply.

But they had a problem -- When the going gets tough, the tanks needed Infantry. And Infantry can only advance at a foot pace. So they developed the half track so the Infantry could ride along with the tanks.

But they also needed fuel, ammo, rations, etc. How can horse-drawn supply wagons keep up with tanks and motorized Infantry? So they mounted EVERYONE in motor vehicles. The Panzer division could move at astounding speeds. They also adopted two American inventions, FM radio, so every tank and half track had a radio, and dive bombing (first used by the Marines at the Battle of Ocotal in 1927.)

The French and British had nothing like this. In 1940 the French and British had more tanks, with thicker armor and bigger guns, but they couldn't match the speed and agility of the Panzer divisions.