Well you can see it anyway you want but the fact is… families and communities aren’t cohesive anymore… reserve units stayed on rotary through much of the bush administration and while those reservists civilian jobs were protected, many had to be replaced because of reoccurring deployment and involuntary extensions. When communities are no longer impacted, particularly in urban areas, the disappearance of the ‘local’ mechanic or doctor was just not as impactful as reserve callups were during Korea or even Vietnam. I didn’t move the goal post… society did and the way and frequency with which government uses the military did…
Given that much of the Russian military was still on horseback I would suggest that their ability to jump up and compete was pretty slim.
Total wartime production numbers in million metric tons (Ellis)
| Item | US | USSR |
|---|---|---|
| Coal | 2,149.7 | 590.8 |
| Iron | 396.9 | 71.3 |
| Oil | 833.2 | 110.6 |
| Steel | 334.5 | 57.7 |
Munitions production by year, in billions of 1944 dollars (Rockoff)
| xxx | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USA | 1.5 | 4.5 | 20.0 | 38.0 | 42.0 |
| USSR | 5.0 | 8.5 | 11.5 | 14.0 | 16.0 |
| Germany | 12.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 8.5 | 13.5 |
US increase its munitions production 28 fold… Russia 3
Beyond that, the US far exceeded the USSR in basic food production… lets not forget the famine of 1946-47 from which they had a hard time recovering because of a shortage of farm machinery and the decimation of the horse population during the war
Britain was bankrupt… So much so that even the expense of Britians post war occupation responsibilities in Germany were a large burden. It took a long time for private industry to recapitalize and switch to not war production. My mother in law remembers rationing that continued into the early 50’s on many items… While its war production might have expanded, its post war production was very much still in decline as it was before the war.
Besides the fact that half of Tokyo and Kofu were firebombed to ashes, and the decimation of two industrial hubs… yeah… you are right… all was right with the rest of the industrialized world.
You’re treading water in a lead suit, just quit.
There is turnover in every unit particularly below the rank of E-6. Over 80% of enlistees serve one tour and get out.
The Active Duty Component of the Army has to recruit 70-80,000 new troops every year just to keep from going backwards. Between all the services that number totals over 110,000 annually.
Now do the math, 17 years times 110,000. That comes out to roughly 1.87 Million in addition to all of those currently serving at any given time.
The fact remains, just as I said, you have to look pretty hard to find someone who doesn’t know or isn’t related to someone serving or a veteran.
You’re both flailing and failing.
Most of Russia wasn’t industrialized in 1940 and most of their war production was far to the east of Moscow far out of range of the Germans.
Their armored vehicle, self propelled, and towed guns all increased in production throughout the war along with combat aircraft.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_combat_vehicle_production_during_World_War_II
https://ww2-weapons.com/russian-arms-production/
We also kept them well supplied and created their modern mobility with a railroad from Iran all the way into central and eastern Russia as well as food, uniforms, weapons, munitions, and more than a hundred thousand 2.5 ton Studebaker trucks.
Those trucks along with the SP guns created the mobile anti tank capability they’d never had which then decimated Hitler’s armor. Additionally those trucks gave them a mobile rocket platform and the ability to keep a constant logistics train running to keep their forces supplied.
They also produced the best medium and heavy tanks of the war which cut Hitler’s Panzers to shreds.
Japan had more than 30 large industrial centers which is why they were able to rejoin the first world very shortly after the end of the war.
The firebombing of Kyoto and Tokyo was not aimed at destroying their industry, most of which was in modern masonry buildings it was to terrorize the populations and destroy their homes almost all of which were built from highly flammable woods such as bamboo.
We left more than half of Japan’s infrastructure and Industry intact.
And yet Russians couldn’t create a post war economy and ended up starving a good portion of their population… As far as Japan goes, either they had to spend a considerable amount of time rebuilding the infrastructure that was destroyed or their business model was such that they could not compete in any measurable way. It wasn’t until the 1980’s… and the easy sellout of US technology that Japan hit its stride. Their is more to an industrial base than the buildings and I stand by what I said… the US had the only viable infrastructure standing after WWII…
Again… 9 days later… is your uptake really that slow… but come on… give us your next comment and I will leave it at that.
What is this thread about?