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Greatest white elephants of military history

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  • #16
    10 or 11 iirc

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    • #17
      Originally posted by sappersgt View Post
      Wow! That is a monster! How many crew?
      11 no more no less.

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      • #18
        Sgt. York anti-air system

        Originally posted by GraniteForge View Post
        The Maginot Line did the job it was designed to do. The failure to execute the rest of the French strategic defense plan is what led to their collapse.
        Maginot line was an enormous success. Germans never breached it.
        "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

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        • #19
          Originally posted by gunnut View Post
          Sgt. York anti-air system



          Maginot line was an enormous success. Germans never breached it.

          They just went around it.

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          • #20
            Then there was the German K-Vehicle of WW I. The engines were between the tracks and the crew compartments were outside the tracks in sponsons. Crew total of 22 with 11 on each side.

            Like the 2 Maus tanks near the end of WW II, only 2 K-Vehicles were built near the end of WW I. Also, like the Maus (or was it the Maus like the K?) only one of each was operational with the other one(s) still unfinished in the shops.
            Attached Files
            Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

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            • #21
              Originally posted by gunnut View Post

              Maginot line was an enormous success. Germans never breached it.
              Yes, they only took the petite ouvrage at La Ferté, at the very end of the Line. And, technically, that was part of the later Maginot Extension and not part of the Line proper, and not built to the same standards.

              AE, the Maginot Line was not intended to be an impregnable wall behind which the French would hide. The French planned to use their overall superiority in numbers and technology of armor and other equipment to defeat the German invasion in the field. The Maginot Line was intended as a sheild that would protect the flank of their army as it manuvered.

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              • #22
                Originally posted by RustyBattleship View Post
                Then there was the German K-Vehicle of WW I. The engines were between the tracks and the crew compartments were outside the tracks in sponsons. Crew total of 22 with 11 on each side.

                Like the 2 Maus tanks near the end of WW II, only 2 K-Vehicles were built near the end of WW I. Also, like the Maus (or was it the Maus like the K?) only one of each was operational with the other one(s) still unfinished in the shops.
                As I recall, two Maus prototypes were finished, but only one had a working turret. That was used at Zossen, and I think the example with a dummy turret was working up at Kummersdorf when captured. It was the other super-heavy tank, the E-100, that was unfinished in the shops when captured.

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                • #23
                  Already mentioned, but my votes would go to

                  Yamato-class battleships

                  The Krupp superguns of World War I and II -
                  The Paris Gun, Schwerer Gustav and Dora
                  “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

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                  • #24
                    Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
                    The Paris Gun

                    I wouldn't go as far to call the Paris Gun a white elephant. It had a effect on moral and was a powerful psychological weapon.

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                    • #25
                      Originally posted by GraniteForge View Post
                      As I recall, two Maus prototypes were finished, but only one had a working turret. That was used at Zossen, and I think the example with a dummy turret was working up at Kummersdorf when captured. It was the other super-heavy tank, the E-100, that was unfinished in the shops when captured.
                      Actually, one Maus was deployed but it sunk in a pond with a very soft muddy bottom. The Germans blew it up so the Russians wouldn't get it. Though the turret was blown off the hull, it remained intact.

                      The Russians recovered the turret and put it in their tank museum. When they took over the factory, they found the finished hull of the second one, but with no turret. So, that hull went to the museum and the two mated together and are now on display in Kubinka.
                      Attached Files
                      Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

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                      • #26
                        Originally posted by gunnut View Post
                        Maginot line was an enormous success. Germans never breached it.
                        Dead on. The Line worked magnificiently. It was the French army that failed.

                        Originally posted by American Empire
                        11 no more no less.
                        That was a huge target that was vulnerable to shorty 50mm. Poor bastards never had a chance.
                        Last edited by Triple C; 19 Jul 08,, 10:00.
                        All those who are merciful with the cruel will come to be cruel to the merciful.
                        -Talmud Kohelet Rabbah, 7:16.

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                        • #27
                          What's the historical consensus on the Great Wall? Did it really help secure China against nomadic incursions, or did the wall create a defensive mindset that doomed the successive Han Chinese dynasties?

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                          • #28
                            Is there a historical consensus on that one? Surely it can be argued that the wall instilled a passive and even defeatist mindset to the Chinese, but every emperor that contested the issue with the nomads ruined the state's finances and the expeditions often failed. Emperor Wu of Han for example.
                            All those who are merciful with the cruel will come to be cruel to the merciful.
                            -Talmud Kohelet Rabbah, 7:16.

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                            • #29
                              Originally posted by American Empire View Post
                              I wouldn't go as far to call the Paris Gun a white elephant. It had a effect on moral and was a powerful psychological weapon.
                              Have to disagree. The morale effect was mostly on Parisians and the resources it consumed could have been spent elsewhere.

                              My vote for a far more effective and far more widespread psychological weapon would be the '420s' (aka the Big Berthas).
                              “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

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                              • #30
                                Originally posted by citanon View Post
                                What's the historical consensus on the Great Wall? Did it really help secure China against nomadic incursions, or did the wall create a defensive mindset that doomed the successive Han Chinese dynasties?
                                The great wall is something I forgot to add. Thank you!

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