Television Programs Thread

[Lemming]

Originally Posted by Beny

The pommies had a lot of luck...would have resulted in French Victory...

Ahh, cudda, wudda shudda! The fact is we won!

Originally Posted by Beny

I'd personaly be more interested in some of the other things such as parralell universes.

I believe that is another radical theory. String theory and wierd phenomena like parallel universes are the sorts of things which attract the general public, I suppose they must have some grounding - they are not the sorts of things you study at undergraduate level, so I haven't - but are still far from being true!

Originally Posted by Beny

Does'nt the theory [string theory] suggest that the entire universe is made up a single, stretched out 'little thing'?

I thought string theory suggests that the fundamental, most basic, building blocks of nature are infinitely thin strings of length approximately one planck length. I'm not sure you may very well be correct, this is very complicated, abstract physics which you may know more about than me if you have read enough popular science.

Originally Posted by Beny

Astronomy always fascinated me. Unfortunelty I gave up any dreams of that path once I found out you had to use maths .

Yep, unfortunately you cannot escape the requirement of maths when doing any sort of physics.

[Beny]

Their aircraft was inferior, no match for the Spitfires and the Hurricanes,and had Hitley ever managed a Bridghead, he would never have to Britain contary to what history says.

We had to many men, to many planes, to many tanks, and we could have left the far East with our huge navy, we might have lost the Empire to the Japs, but Britain would have been safe, we always had that option.

Doesent matter how good the planes were when you have that many of them. However the German planes were everybit a match for the spitfire- a somewhat overated machine. In the air both of them were equaly matched. Had the Germans kept up the battle of Brittan the English Airforce would eventualy have been whiped out, thats a fact.

The English were outgunned and outmanned. The German tanks were far supperiour to English armor, indeed anything other than a Russian tank core was no match for the monster that was the panzer or tiger tank. Never, at any time in the war, was American and British cavalry able to compete with the Germans. To be an American or English tank crewman was a death warrant. Numbers wise, had Hittler stayed out of Russia he would have had rougly 2 or 3 million men free to take on a british army that was struggling to hit the million mark. Infact it was Hittler's decision to fight in Russia which drew his attention away from England and thus save the Isles.

Ahh, cudda, wudda shudda! The fact is we won!

Agreed

[Ernest]

Beny,

The fact is Britain was short of planes, we were well outnumbered by the Germans, this was due to the stupid run down on armaments, just as Hitler was re-arming.
Peace in our time, and all that rubbish.
Although outnumbered the Spitfire and the Hurricane shot the Germans out of the sky.
The Germans came nowhere near winning the battle of Britain, they had a remote chance at the beginning, before we built up the number of fighter aircraft.
Then the battle of Britain was on, Hitler did not even come close, German losses could not be substained, and worst of all, Hitlers fighter had not the range, and always came second best in encounters when it happened.

Germany did attack Russia, that was a fact, Britain was defending an Empire that was a fact, had we brought the Far Eastern forces home, this would have evened things up.

The best Hitler could have hoped for, even had he not attacked Russia, was to maybe still have been in control of Europe, but Hitler had a problem here, what if Russia had opened up another front, there was no way out for Hitler.

The mistake of invading Russia, only hurried the end of the war, like I said, Russia would have entered Germany, if their airforce was so good, why did he have to rely on the Doodlebug?.

[Maranello]

Originally Posted by Ernest

Britain was defending an Empire that was a fact, had we brought the Far Eastern forces home, this would have evened things up.

Hardly - whilst Britain was relying mainly on soldiers from its colonies for the fighting, for instance, in North Africa, the Germans were using many of their own men. Had Britain not been fighting the Germans in these far-flung places, many German units stationed abroad could have joined the war in Europe.

The associated point about the Eastern front has more validity; whilst the Germans had an almost insurmountable hurdle on their Eastern border in the form of the Soviet Union, the British too had some resource requirements due to the war with the Japanese. However, had both of these engagements not happened, the Germans would have had a technological, material and economic edge over the British, ceteris paribus.

[Occasional Fan]

Originally Posted by Maranello

ceteris paribus.

I spy a fellow economist!

[Maranello]

Its dirty work OF, but someone has to do it!

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by Maranello

Hardly - whilst Britain was relying mainly on soldiers from its colonies for the fighting, Had Britain not been fighting the Germans in these far-flung places, many German units stationed abroad could have joined the war in Europe.

Two points here, Britain always relied on soldiers from the colonies, but is it not a fact, Britain still had these soldiers to deploy?.
Second point, it was fighting the Japanese that I meant, this took a huge resorse from the British effort after the USA fleet had been destroyed at Pearl Harbour.

Germany was already under siege by the Royal Navy on the North Sea, English Channel front, had we deployed the massive Far Eastern fleet in the Mediteranian, with all it's air power, Germany would have been throttled

Originally Posted by Maranello

the Germans would have had a technological, material and economic edge over the British, ceteris paribus.

Not an economical edge surely, the D Mark was of no use, and after the busting of the great dams, manufacturing was severely hampered, and Hitler squandered any technological edge they may have had, with relying on Pipe dreams instead of listening to his generals.
"ceteris paribus",things were never likely to remain the same.

[Lemming]

I don't know anything about the second world war, that's history again which is not my fortee! One thing I do know is which side's physicists (many of them theoretical ) were the first to develop the all-important weaponry, of course I'm speaking of the atomic bomb, and that was the allied forces. No amount of men or little tanks and guns could have competed with such power. If necessary the war (if it was still ongoing) could have been ended at any time the allied forces felt neccessary. Apparently Albert Einstein, at this point working in America on atomic power for the allied forces (he was of course Jewish), was an advocat of dropping an atomic bomb on Germany.

I think we could also give a mention to Alan Turing, the great mathematician, who was instrumental in cracking Enigma; the complex Germany code. Deciphering the code meant crippling important German operations.

One thing I have noticed on this thread is that we are really bad winners in this country (except for the ever patriotic and loyal Ern of course). OK, for a while WWII was touch and go and for a while Germany were well on top. But, good always triumphs over evil and I for one am proud that we won the war. I'm not going to play down my countries' efforts in one of the most important conflicts in history.

When it comes to sports we may lack the killer instinct, over the last millennium when it comes to defending our country we are second-to-none!

[Beny]

good always triumphs over evil

Well that depends on two things...

1. How do you define good and evil
2. The time period you feel something has to last until it's 'triumphed'.

I'd hardly call the Roman Empire 'good'. And I dare you to take a look back at British history and say that it's all 'good'.

[Beny]

Germany was already under siege by the Royal Navy on the North Sea, English Channel front, had we deployed the massive Far Eastern fleet in the Mediteranian, with all it's air power, Germany would have been throttled

Hittler Had control over the entire European mainland... He didd'nt really need too many imports. Thats not to say that the blockade was'nt effective but there was no way it would have resulted in German defeat. BTW, The Far Eastern fleet was having enough trouble trying to supply Malta and Greece.

Although outnumbered the Spitfire and the Hurricane shot the Germans out of the sky.
The Germans came nowhere near winning the battle of Britain, they had a remote chance at the beginning, before we built up the number of fighter aircraft.

No Ern, Whilst the Brittish we're winning the body count, they were still losing the war. Had Hittler not decided to concentrate on Russia then he would have been able to Invade England

Hitler squandered any technological edge they may have had, with relying on Pipe dreams instead of listening to his generals.

Hittler's scientists experimented with rockets, they produced the first Jet Fighter of the war e.c.t

It would be difficult to go on with this argument unless I did some reserch- which I can't be bothered doing. So I'll just lay dead for the momment.