Posted by Jon D on September 15, 2001 at 02:08:09:
In Reply to: sounds like the real thing was similar to the subsequent training posted by CalAbDiver on September 14, 2001 at 17:18:55:
Karl,
Just a couple of points where your historical narrative needs correction:
"[If amphibious warfare] becomes a lost art, then it was never meant to be immortal anyway, invented by the French Navy to take back their own country in the 1940s."
There was no such thing as the French navy in the 1940s. The Vichy government surrendered it to the Germans in 1940 and the fleet was sunk later that year at Oran by the RAF to prevent the ships being commissioned by the Kriegsmarine. There were Free French forces led by Charles DeGalle, but I?ve never heard of them being credited with "inventing" amphibious assault.
Also, the concept of amphibious assault pre-dates WWII, e.g. Gallipoli, 1915. (Not a successful assault, but an amphibious one nonetheless.)
"Stragetic warfare against civilians was only comparatively recently invented by the Nazis in their blitzkrieg against the British in the 1940s."
Blitzkrieg (lightning war) was a strategy practiced by German panzer regiments under Gen. Heinz Guderian in Poland, the Low Countries, France and Russia 1939-1941.
I presume you are referring to the Blitz, which was the British-coined phrase for the Luftwaffe?s bombing of London.
"Before that, soldiers did not attack civilians, they limited their combat only to other soldiers. Hitler hated England so much that he bombed their cities too. That was unheard of before then."
In World War I, Zeppelins bombed British cities and the German navy shelled towns along the coast of southern England.
Furthermore, the first German bombing of London in WWII was an accident ? a stray night bomber ditching its bomb load before heading home. The Luftwaffe was under orders not to bomb civilian targets in Britain during the early part of the war, when Hitler expected the British to sue for terms. In retaliation for the bombing of London, the RAF bombed Berlin and Hitler lifted restrictions on the targeting of cities.