World War 2 Naval History
On John Batchelor's most recent show (at 20:00) he interviewed Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, the author of Danger's Hour: The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot Who Crippled Her.
The interview is mostly focused on the U.S. Navy, especially toward the end of WW2.
One interesting fact that was also revealed was that throughout the entire Cold War the USSR failed to build even one aircraft carrier "because it was too complicated". That should speak volumes to everyone about why ingenuity rarely comes out of the public sector, yet if a poll were done today I doubt that many would be immediately cognizant of this fact.
Labels:
America,
boats,
Russia,
technology,
war,
World War 2
2 comments:
Sorry, but I have to say that the public sector had nothing to do with the USSR's failure to construct aircraft carriers during WWII.
Rather, it had everything to do with culture and geography...Russia simply has been and continues to be a land power, not a sea power. With it's coasts spread so far apart (Arctic/Atlantic, Baltic, Black, Pacific), no two fleets in those bodies of water can mutually support each other.
The same can be said of Germany and it failure to complete it's sole carrier during WWII. And you can't say that the Germans didn't know their engineering...they even went to Japan to see how it can be done.
It's simply because Germany is not a sea power, and it's naval doctrine was based on the use of submarines anyway.
Meanwhile, nations that depend on sea power like the UK, USA, and Japan found little difficulty in getting aircraft carriers into service.
1. I was just echoing what the author said in the interview.
2. Did you listen to the interview?
3. What great technological inventions has the public sector come up with?
As per your answer to #3, it is immediately invalid if any private sector firms were employed.
I will concede that the USSR did build a nuclear bomb though one has to wonder how much of that technology was stolen.
Also, they did excel at space exploration though many of the scientists were "recruited" from Germany after the war. Recruited with a gun to their head, that is.
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