History Channel vs History

[Sea Skimmer]

I love how they so "hyped" the Japanese Balloon bomb, terror weapon. I knew about it from High School, but they made it sound like it was a devestating bioweapon/explosive weapon, killing thousands. (If I recall casualties were only like a dozen or so)

Five, might have been six dead, zero wounded. A family going out for a picnic found a dud that had crashed and decided to kick it or something. That was it.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Exactly...

[Admiral Valdemar]

Truly a fearful weapon.

[Nathan F]

It COULD have possibly been used to deliver bioweapons.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Most of them didn't even cross the pacific, the few that landed did very little if any effect.

[Sea Skimmer]

It COULD have possibly been used to deliver bioweapons.

The Japanese launched something like 5,500 of those balloons, and less then a few hundred even hit the North American continent. The Japanese had poor results with there bioweapons against the Chinese. Scattering the same weapons over the US would probably have killed fewer then the shitty bombs.

I'd be more concerned about the Japanese attempting to invade by letting men on life rafts drift across the North Pacific currents to wash up along the west coast.

[RogueIce]

I love how they so "hyped" the Japanese Balloon bomb, terror weapon. I knew about it from High School, but they made it sound like it was a devestating bioweapon/explosive weapon, killing thousands. (If I recall casualties were only like a dozen or so)

Hey, to be fair, I only ever saw those featured on "History's Greatest Blunders" or something like that.

[The Yosemite Bear]

yes, that is like on of the WWII, uber weapon side show fallacies that the history channel loves to indulge in. Take a few dozen rare historical facts that were true, leave out everything that makes them unfeasable, and combine them.

Example, Maus tank wieghed 3 times that of the modern M1 Abrams, had the thickest armour in WWII, sideline to the powerful german battleship armour that could withstand far more damage against turrents and upperplates then it's allied counterparts, mention the grandfather gun project. Voila super Manji tank that nothing can stop. (of course the information that it would be physically impossible to move, the whole rest of the tank besides said turrent would be too under armoured from the sides, and the fact that the bearings would have frozen up so the damn thing couldn't traverse, or the fact that said multi ignition fire arm would have torn the tank in half firing) I think anyone can see the picture...

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

Does the American History channel have any programs on the invincible Me 262 which would have ownzed the USAF if that silly Hitler hadn't demanded a fighter-bomber first (only reason for delays) or Japaneese jets "just about" to enter service before the war ended?

They did one better with two programs on Japanese and German wonder planes. Did you know if the war had gone on for a few more months Japan would have been able to attack the USN with advanced jets launched off a super carrier?

Only one super carrier? I thought it was half a dozen with jets more advanced then those a decade later.

Or that Germany had a stealth-flying wing with the range to reach America ready to fly? And of course they brought up the Amerika sub orbital rocket bomber, a craft, which could not be built today and would have killed its pilot on launch, and said it "might have been too large a technical challenge."

Was that the bomber whose flight plan included extended periods at 20 Gs?


I've heard claims from AAM to blow away any fighter in the sky, SAMs to knock down B-17s and 600+MPH jets reaching 50 000 feet.

[Uraniun235]

What put the Wildcat ahead in the kill ratio was superior tactics and attrition. A pair of Wildcats were often able to take on superior numbers of the more fragile Zeros. And as the Japanese lost pilots they often had green newbies going up against hardened veterans.

Also part of what hurt the Japanese was that while they kept their veterans out on the front lines, losing more of them every day to the Americans, the U.S. would pull veterans out of combat duty to go back and train more pilots. The pilots coming into service would have an edge over the new Japanese pilots.

[Vympel]

This could include Discovery and Learning Channel as well at times. Many times they seem to state historical opinions yet the reality seems to be very different. For example, they love stating that British Carriers with flight deck Armor were superior to Amercan Carriers with wooden flight decks yet the US carriers had three times as many fighters in most cases to beat back attacking forces. Another is stating stating the Zero was a supoerior plane to the Wildcat yet it has a ratio of 6.9 to 1 which shows it to be in reality superior to the zero. What are other examples that people have seen?

Didn't you post the same thread on tanknet?

[jegs2]

I love the History Channel/Discovery Channel etc. Just seeing all the old footage and learning about that type of stuff is great. Plus, if I find something really cool, I can look on the net or go to the library and find out more

I'll agree with your assessment. The History Channel is a great way to whet one's appetite for history, and it opens the eyes of many to history (always my favorite subject in both HS and college). Yet you are also correct in saying one must further his or her research in the library (or on the internet), never taking all lessons from only one point of view...

[Sea Skimmer]

Was that the bomber whose flight plan included extended periods at 20 Gs?

Yes, in the unlikely event it did not disintegrate while being propelled down a several mile long launch track by a cluster of twenty-eight V-2 rocket engines.