March 2013 Mailbag
Senior OnLine Editor, Gerald Swick, holds the July 2011 issue of Armchair General during a visit to Pembroke Castle, Pembroke, Wales. The castle is the birthplace of Harri Tudur, the future King Henry VII, the first monarch of the Tudor line. It is believed that is the reason Oliver Cromwell did not destroy the castle after a successful siege.
I would like to see a “what if” article concerning what would have happened if Hitler had not attacked Russia in 1941. I am sure that we would not have been able to invade Normandy in 1944 or ever if most of the German army was not being tied up in Russia.
Thanks very much for your comment. Since the vast bulk of the German army was indeed tied up on the Eastern Front 1941-45, what you have noted about the possible success or failure of the Normandy invasion in 1944 seems a valid point. A “what if’ article about Hitler not invading the Soviet Union in 1941 is a good idea for a future issue at some point. Thanks for reading ACG and thanks for your comments!
I was thinking that armchair general, should publish a book that consists of nothing but interactive games (combat decision games). I love your magazine, and I promise that I would love your book. Also it would be nice if you had a CDG on the napoleonic era and or the renaissance era.
Here’s an “What If?” idea; suppose Adna R. Chaffee, Jr., had survived his bout with cancer in 1941, remained at the head of the US Army’s Armored Force and in 1942 was stationed at the Pentagon, close to General Marshall’s office to co-ordinate Armored offenses? And what if a visit by General De Gaulle had convinced both Chaffee and the US military that a restructured M6 Heavy tank(90 mm main gun, better interior) could be used in Europe, via North Africa? And suppose Chaffee had sent Patton instead of Fredendall to Tunisia?
Your Dispatch on The Man Without a Gun struck a chord with me. I remember my mother – a WAC company commander in WWII on an atoll in the South Pacific – telling us that when Japanese wounded started shooting our medics who tried to treat them we started arming the medics to defend themselves. The ladies in her unit’s censure platoon were told to take their razor blades and cut out of the sampling of letters going home any words to the effedct “Well, mom, they finally gave us a gun.” We did not want that message getting out.
Twentify-five years later I found myself as a cav platoon leader in RVN with an unarmed CO as my platoon medic. He was one of the bravest men I’ve ever known. More than once I had to use my high school football defensive back tackling skills to stop him from rushing to the wounded in a not-yet-cleared ambush site.
Thanks for your thoughtful portrayal of true heroes who will never be unsung to those of us privileged to have served with them.