Were there only wusses in WWII besides Russians, Germans and Americans?

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

Which undoubtedly explains Bataan and Corregidor and the fall of the Philippines too. Yawn.

You'll notice that we took those places back.

Yeah, well of course you had the Australians in New Guinea to set you such a good example.

I'm having a hard time thinking of any places the Brits managed to take back from the Japs, on the other hand...

Can't find Burma on a map ? Haven't seen a Hollywood movie devoted to that theatre of the war ?

Too bad....

It's already been established that the Japanese army was crap.

Mmm, that 'crap' army and Tarawa Atoll:

On Nov. 26 in the Battle of Buariki, the entire
Japanese force of 156 fought to the death. The Marines lost 34 killed, and 56 were wounded.

Campaign Results

Strategically, the victory at Tarawa opened the way to the Marshall Islands. Tactically, it established the amphibious assault as the method used thereafter to defeat Japan in the Pacific campaign.

Tarawa was the first major amphibious assault in the Pacific in which U.S. troops faced sustained opposition on the beach.

The American people were deeply disturbed by reports of high casualties suffered by the 2nd Marine Division (1,027 dead, 88 missing and 2,292 wounded).

The high casualties were a result of making a direct assault against a determined, well-armed and
deeply fortified enemy. Inadequate preliminary bombardment, communications problems and inexperienced boat handlers who missed their landing destinations played a part.

http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/wwii/facts/tarawa.txt

Even though the U.S. had already found out what tenacious fighters the Japanese were in the battle for Guadalcanal, they did not realize what great military engineers they also were. On Guadalcanal, the Japanese were unprepared for an invasion and fought with fluid defenses over large areas. On Tarawa they were prepared for an invasion with extensive reinforced concrete fortifications, large guns, and a sea wall around the little islet of Betio made from coral blocks, coconut logs and sand.

http://www.pacificwrecks.com/people/visitors/hinz/tarawa.html

[Drake Tungsten]

Yeah, well of course you had the Australians in New Guinea to set you such a good example.

Aussies

They can fight, unlike the British.

Can't find Burma on a map ? Haven't seen a Hollywood movie devoted to that theatre of the war ?

I don't know if Britain can claim credit for recapturing Burma, given the large amount of help America provided in the endeavor. The Brits never would've taken Burma back without Stillwell's support.

I'll be generous, though, and let you claim it. Good show by the Brits in managing to recapture Burma in the same amount of time it took the Yanks to advance all the way across the Pacific to Japan itself!

[Ecthy]

To be fair, Aussies and Finns did OK too.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

I don't know if Britain can claim credit for recapturing Burma, given the large amount of help America provided in the endeavor.

Then you don't know much, do you ?
I suppose Americans do have to talk their contributions up.

They can fight, unlike the British.

Just can't get to grips with that reading thing, can you ?
Exactly who do you think Orde Wingate and his Chindits were ?

Good show by the Brits in managing to recapture Burma in the same amount of time it took the Yanks to advance all the way across the Pacific to Japan itself!

Mmm, yes, advancing across all that empty ocean. So much more difficult than dense jungle terrain in monsoonal weather.

Of course, the British had actually been fighting the Axis powers for a few years while the U.S. was still trading with Nazi Germany.

[Tattila the Hun]

Originally posted by notyoueither
You lost too. Wusses.

No! Soviet Union won, we were a very good second.

Originally posted by notyoueither
BTW, what Commonwealth country ever fought the Finns?

Originally posted by Havak

Where and when did Finland take the field against British forces by the way???

I believe british tried to bomb an ore refinery on finnish soil, with some near-obsolete bombers. They were intercepted by Luftwaffe. No actuall ground combat ever took place. Brits, and indians can count themselves lucky.

Ah, wasn't ore, just german ships.

"Although the Continuation War was fought on the periphery of World War II and the troops engaged were relatively few, its history is intriguing as it challenges both conventional wisdom about the moral clarity of the Allied effort and the popular and academic theory that democratic countries do not wage war against each other. Britain and its dominions declared war on Finland in autumn 1941, however, the United States did not. Actually British Swordfish planes did bomb German ships in the Finnish harbor of Petsamo in the far North. Finnish radio intelligence is said to have participated effectively in German actions against British convoys to Murmansk"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuation_War

WWII history tends to be a bit one sided. Germans invade France, japanese attack Pearl Harbour, yanks invade Normandy and nuke the japanese. British isles made a good staging area. And the indigenous populace was friendly.

[Pekka]

Well, The British tried to do some bombing, that was like a wtf moment in the history but nothing much happened so it's a historical fact that only few people even know about.

The jolly tea drinkers, however, went away to do other things, like rage about football and drink beer after they got tired with us.

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Newfoundland pwned everyone.

Seriously, it did... and this was after the country went bankrupt for over-commiting to WWI. This was before we became a province of Canada in 1949.

Asher:

Its true though that the US played an essential part of the war effort before war was declared. The Lend Lease Agreement would be a good thing to look up.

[Asher]

I know about the Lend Lease agreement, but I also know they weren't actually in the war until they were attacked.

As far as I know, that is the discussion in this thread, not whether they provided economical aid or other material support but sat on their asses watching baseball.

[Lord Avalon]

Originally posted by Asher
I know about the Lend Lease agreement, but I also know they weren't actually in the war until they were attacked.

As far as I know, that is the discussion in this thread, not whether they provided economical aid or other material support but sat on their asses watching baseball.

Apparently you still fail to understand why the US didn't get involved until we were attacked (and had war declared on us). Back in those days, when presidents followed the Constitution and couldn't just do whatever, a declaration of war had to come from Congress. With a lot of pro-German sentiment and isolationism, that wasn't going to happen until Pearl Harbor and then Germany declaring war. So all FDR could do was send aid.

[Chemical Ollie]

An ad hoc squad of Norwegian REMF manned some coastal artillery batteries and eradicated a German brigade, or whatever was on board the Blücher. Then the fighting went on for months. I'd say Norway put up a good fight, considering the size of the population. But on the other hand, the terrain was to their advantage. Denmark is perfect for Blitzing.

The OP did not mention Japan at all. It took nukes to break their fighting spirit.

[Provost Harrison]

Ah, the great and invincible Americans. The only reason you could constantly churn out military is that your homeland wasn't constantly being blown up - you could fight a war in a distant land without sustaining any damage to your own.

And Ecthy - the Wehrmacht was very good and employed effective combined arms strategies in the early war. But your leader was profoundly arrogant and also thought himself invincible. And without air support, your army alone was useless. Still, in the immortal words of Bruce Forsyth, "Good game, good game"

[Kassiopeia]

Originally posted by Ecthy
To be fair, Aussies and Finns did OK too.

My work here is done.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Lord Avalon

Apparently you still fail to understand why the US didn't get involved until we were attacked (and had war declared on us). Back in those days, when presidents followed the Constitution and couldn't just do whatever, a declaration of war had to come from Congress. With a lot of pro-German sentiment and isolationism, that wasn't going to happen until Pearl Harbor and then Germany declaring war. So all FDR could do was send aid.

So what? I'm not blaming FDR.

I'm blaming the representatives that America elected that decided to be passive *****es while the Germans slaughtered millions in Europe.

Throw all the excuses you want, but I really don't care how you want to rationalize it. The US was selfish in that it recognized what was going on as being bad/evil, but didn't get their hands dirty until their own self-interests were attacked.

[Asher]

By the way, Echty, try telling the people of the Netherlands how wussy the Canadians were.

175,000 Canadian soldiers (and at times, 450,000 soldiers from other countries under Canada's command) liberated the Netherlands -- at the expense of the non-wuss Germans, who largely retreated.

[Chemical Ollie]

Didn't "Market Garden" liberate most of Netherland? At least the area south of the most strategic part, the bridge over Rhein. In what way was Canada involved in that?