RE: [OT] Sea Leopard

At 10:18 AM -0700 4/22/02, Brian Bilderback wrote:
>Yeah, and China and Korea had HUGE tank forces - it takes 2 to 
>tango, remember.  Besides, Not I said MOST of the terrain.  I was 
>thinking of the island campaigns, Burma, etc.... If I had said ALL 
>the terrain they fought in, then ytou'd have a point.	MOST and ALL 
>are not the same thing.

Properly employed, you don't have to have armor on the other side for 
your tanks to be useful. Tanks in the purest sense are excellent for 
exploiting breaches in the line and making good on gains. They are 
the modern cavalry in every sense. So just because the Chinese didn't 
have anything heavier than run down WWI era armored cars doesn't mean 
that tanks weren't useful.

The US and the British brought tanks with them on a number of the 
island hopping fights where they were quite useful for dealing with 
bunkers and other fortifications. This is where tanks are also useful.

Tanks are and always will be excellent infantry support platforms 
when used correctly. Sometimes I wonder if the British practice of 
two types of tanks wasn't such an incorrect method given the uses 
that some tanks were put into when dealing with entrenched opponents. 
Flame Thrower tanks were the best example of useful against 
fortifications. But really anything with a good HE round was better 
than a guy with a Bazooka or a squad rushing the MG with grenades.

>*RANT MODE ON*
>
>this is actually a minor irritation of mine on the list, and I'm not 
>sure if it bugs anyone else or if I'm just sensitive, but here goes. 
>I've noticed that when someone makes a statement about a 
>generalization, people immediately cite a given exception to the 
>generalization, and present that as a refutation

It wasn't just a little generalization, it was a massive sweeping 
blanket statement that really doesn't hold water better than a sieve. 
The Japanese didn't build good tanks just like the Germans never 
built a long range strategic bomber. Not because they didn't have a 
use for it, but because the powers that be never made it so.

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