MRE

[CharlesHarris]

My father served in the ETO during WW2 and complained about the cotton uniforms which were flimsy and cold when wet. The 60-40 cotton/poly ripstop fabric of Vietnam and Desert Storm was little better. At least they break the wind, but when I was in Germany in the 1980s we traded Jack Daniels sour mash for Brit wooly pullys to wear under our M65 field jackets in winter. I was lucky that my CO was from the PNW and allowed us to order Filson Mackinaw vests in forest green to wear on ops and bought a Gaylord box full to equip the battallion. Never was "official" issue but an engineer unit could get away with things which the Brasso and bootblack boys coukd not.

[harrypalmer]

"My FIL, a WW2 vet, had some insightful comments on late arrival of reinforcements several times due to finishing tea time"

My grand father had some insightful comments on being bombed by the USAF in WW2.

Wooly Pully! great jumpers, kept you warm whilst drinking your tea

MB, as you clearly know nothing about the brit army, this is a 'wooly pully' http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-Britis...WIPkSXegPg

[Mortblanc]

Yes I know what a wooly-pully is. Good to know that the best piece of gear the British Army has is a comfort item.

Our WW2 bombers were known for their efficiency and the accuracy of their bomb sites, so they were just following orders.

[harrypalmer]

No such thing as truly accurate bombing in WW2. The RAF were accurate to @ 100 yards of targets, the USAAF it was @1000 yards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_bombing

We brits have some great kit MB, don't knock things you have no knowledge of.

Some of our boys are helping your lot out
https://www.quora.com/How-do-the-US-Mari...al-Marines
http://www.stripes.com/news/british-roya...m-1.363356

The US has more personal but our lot are well trained

http://www.thetoptens.com/most-well-trai...291838.asp

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...eroes.html

[Barneyboy]

(24 November 2016, 06:29)Mortblanc Wrote: I suppose the U.S. is the largest consumer of tea, but most of what we drink is poured over ice cubes, sweetened at two cups sugar per quart and served with a big lemon wedge.

Our boys have warm clothes too but most of their warmth comes from moving around inflicting violence on the enemy rather than sitting and waiting for the water to boil.

My FIL, a WW2 vet, had some insightful comments on late arrival of reinforcements several times due to finishing tea time.

Let's not bring up late arrivals ,MB ,as it did take the USA 18 months to help us in the 2 world war .lol

[harrypalmer]

Don't mention the war BB, a lot of yanks think they were the only ones fighting.

[Mortblanc]

(25 November 2016, 09:25)Barneyboy Wrote: Let's not bring up late arrivals ,MB ,as it did take the USA 18 months to help us in the 2 world war .lol

We were not late. There was simply no support for you among our population from the man on the street to the highest levels of government.

While many of our "founding fathers" were of English descent the bulk of our population has always been Scottish, Irish and about 1/3 German. We are not part of your commonwealth and not obligated to support your bad decisions.

If Roosevelt had not been such an anglophile from his dalliances during WW1 we would have never entered. They must have provided him with one hot chick during WW1 because he was never the same!

He remained in constant fear of impeachment from office for sneaking help to the British between 1939-1941.

As it was our population declared war on Japan in response to attack and did not intend to declare on Germany.

Nearly a week after the Japanese attack Hitler declared war on the U.S. and Roosevelt was so delighted he probably peed his pants.

His instant response was to forget about Japan and start planning help for the UK and our Congress had to constantly remind him that Japan was our primary foe.

And no, we do not feel we won the war alone. More Soviet troops died at Stalingrad than all the allied troops during the entire war. And there were all the thousands of Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, South African and Indian troops that gave their lives.

And just think, if you had any balls you could have stopped it all in 1937, probably with minimal bloodshed.

[harrypalmer]

You were late in WW1 and WW2, then cocked up in Vietnam and then Tony Bland joined baby Bush in Iraq...American overseas policy is...at best...poor. Hey hoe life goes on.

The thing is MB is that your a typical chest beating American forum member, no offence meant, 'we' should fly the Jack more. GB we would not have won the war without the help of the Americans, no doubt about that; that said, we had been at war longer than the US, our cities had been bombed, and our people were to say the lease pretty peed off by the time they did join.

As for Soviet losses...they did that in WW1; how much does life cost to some planners?

Did you read the links I posted to our Special Forces and others? Not a lot of us but we are pretty blooming good

I liked working with US forces by the way

[Mortblanc]

No Harry I did not read all of the links after I got to that first sentence about British bombing being accurate to 100 yards and U.S. bombing to 1000 yards.

Since we were bombing specific targets, such as a factory in Dresden, from 30,000 feet in the daylight while under fighter attack we were able to get within 1000 yards of the target.

While the British were carpet bombing entire cities, like ALL of Dresden, at night from 10,000 feet and still had trouble getting within 100 yards of the entire town?

After that I did not think anything else would be worth the look.

I am still attempting to reason why you folks think that not intending to get involved in something at all and eventually getting tangled up in it by political manipulation constitutes being "late".

You want us out of your business but you also want us to respond to your self devised needs at the snap of your fingers.

Catch this if you can. The majority of the U.S. did not want a war with Germany and did not consider what was going on in GB or Europe any of out business.

Even the U.S. Ambassador to England, the father of a future U.S. President, warned our government that we did not need to support England in the conflict.

Building support in the U.S. to fight against Germany, during both wars, took a great deal of propaganda engineering and warmongering.

[harrypalmer]

So, you have still not read the links and your not admitting your 'accurate bombing' idea LOL

Joe Kennedy IIRC thought the UK could not survive war with GB yet we did (with American help which cost the UK a lot). American military planners said we could not send a task force 6000 miles to the Falklands and win, yet we did and we did win.

You need to read the links, do more research and climb off your high horse if you wish to maintain any credibility chap... I like Americans, I have true American friends but sadly your slipping down the road of being one of the 'blinkered' yanks; take off the blinkers, research, think, then post...here or on other forums.

That said I'm off to a radio ham QRP contest and look forward to the 'chill' for a couple of days