GOLFMK8
GOLFMK7
GOLFMK6
GOLFMKV

Volkswagen mkv designation

BlaineWasHere

I brake for apexes!
Location
NorCal
That reminds me of this old add:

I could use this instead of snow tires...
 

Aggressor

UGly
Location
Brooklawn, NJ
Send a sherman tank after a panzer, loose a sherman tank

send three sherman tanks after a panzer, loose three sherman tanks


so, by that logic, the sherman tank was the honda civic of WWII...


and yea, I'm convinced we won that war for two reasons:

1.Hitler was a tactical moron.

2.We could build more planes than anyone else.

The germans had the first Assault Rifle, first jet powered fighter, and a tank that owned the battlefield.

Of course, it's hard to build said tech when your country's being bombed 24/7. Allied Airpower FTW
 

cmdrfire

FIA World Rally Car Champion
Location
UK
The Spitfire was also labelled in Marks (and there was a MkV Spitfire!):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitfire#Specifications_.28Spitfire_Mk_Vb.29

German technology during the war - except in the crucial field of electronics - was generally superior to anything else the Allied forces could muster.

@Aggressor, I agree with points 1) and 2) you make, but don't underestimate point 3) - thanks to advances in mathematics and electronics, the Allies could break every German code and know in advance what the Axis powers were planning to do, and with the development of Radar, were able to operate with effective impunity at night and counter the German and Japanese air threat.
 

Aggressor

UGly
Location
Brooklawn, NJ
The Spitfire was also labelled in Marks (and there was a MkV Spitfire!):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitfire#Specifications_.28Spitfire_Mk_Vb.29

German technology during the war - except in the crucial field of electronics - was generally superior to anything else the Allied forces could muster.

@Aggressor, I agree with points 1) and 2) you make, but don't underestimate point 3) - thanks to advances in mathematics and electronics, the Allies could break every German code and know in advance what the Axis powers were planning to do, and with the development of Radar, were able to operate with effective impunity at night and counter the German and Japanese air threat.

I forgot about the spitfire, another example of a best-in-class machine that used the Mark system :thumbsup:

and I agree that radar was also a major factor. But what truly gave the U.S. (and to a lesser extent, England) impunity was geography. Having a major body of water between you and your enemy, and having the fighting take place on the enemy's soil, is a critical tactical advantage.

and as far as code cracking, it helps when you capture an enemy submarine, complete with a working example of their current encoding machinery. And the enemy never knows it.

But I think we can all agree, the Germans should have just stuck to building cars...
 

gman32888

stick noobie
Send a sherman tank after a panzer, loose a sherman tank

send three sherman tanks after a panzer, loose three sherman tanks


so, by that logic, the sherman tank was the honda civic of WWII...


and yea, I'm convinced we won that war for two reasons:

1.Hitler was a tactical moron.

2.We could build more planes than anyone else.

The germans had the first Assault Rifle, first jet powered fighter, and a tank that owned the battlefield.

Of course, it's hard to build said tech when your country's being bombed 24/7. Allied Airpower FTW

Atom Bomb> Anything
 

F37150

orange crush
Location
Toronto
Car(s)
Fahrenheit GTI
Mk (mark) is just another way of saying "version". A lot of things use the MK designation, just like the Spitfire mentioned above. But it does feel like our cars are built like tanks, and after seeing a number of roll over pics, it makes that all the more believable. lol

Atom Bomb> Anything
Yeah but the US didn't use the atom bomb in the ETO. Hitler's downfall was that he built a fortress without a roof.
 

pitbull592

Go Kart Champion
Location
PA
Haha, I knew this would become a WW2 discussion. I just thought it was funny that panzer's had the same mark designation we do with our dubs.

I consider myself something of a amatuer history buff. I like the study of WW2/WW1 I'm more into medievel history , but this is interesting too. Especially being german & a veteran I like military studies. My thoughts on germany & their defeat are simple.

-You can't fight a global war without a powerful surface fleet period. Hitler had told his admirals war would not begin until 1945. Carrier groups etc... where planned, but never brought to fruition due to the 6 year jump.

-Hitler could've won the battle of britain if he persisited, but in his heart he wanted the british as a allie against russia

-Hitler being a corporal & WW1 veteran was very old school in his thoughts on warfare. He actually repressed all the technology that showed up on the battlefield later on in the war when it was too late. This technology such as the sturmgewehr 44, me-109, and so on could've been seen much earlier if not for his meddling. What do you expect when you have a corporal in charge of the army?

-Germany was doomed when they invaded russia. It was not the right time for this, and it was a fouled plan.

-The main reaon I felt Germany lost was the nazi parties obssesion with Jewish persecution/extermination. This took a huge toll in man power & resources. If the jews would have been allowed to fight as was the case in WW1, the war would have been much different imo. Hitler didn't learn from history. Every great nation that have persecuted Isreal & the jewish people have been destroyed. Egypt, canaanites, Hittites, philistines, Assyrians, babylonians, romans etc...

-These points can be debated forever, that's why WW2 is such a popular subject of interest to this day. Just look at the history channel.
 
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cmdrfire

FIA World Rally Car Champion
Location
UK
I forgot about the spitfire, another example of a best-in-class machine that used the Mark system :thumbsup:

and I agree that radar was also a major factor. But what truly gave the U.S. (and to a lesser extent, England) impunity was geography. Having a major body of water between you and your enemy, and having the fighting take place on the enemy's soil, is a critical tactical advantage.

and as far as code cracking, it helps when you capture an enemy submarine, complete with a working example of their current encoding machinery. And the enemy never knows it.

But I think we can all agree, the Germans should have just stuck to building cars...

The Enigma cipher was actually cracked by the Polish prior to the war (with a mixture of espionage and good luck, they were able to reverse engineer the Enigma machine, determine the layout of the rotors, and thereby developed mechanical deciphering devices called "bombes" which aided considerably in the quick decipherment). When Enigma was made more complicated just at the start of the war, the British were able to almost keep up with the added complexity of most forms of Enigma by developing further some of the Polish methods (particularly the "bombes") and using "cribs", common structures used by the Wermacht and German Intelligence in their Enigma transmissions.

The complex Naval 4-rotor version "Dolphin" was cracked through a) determining through previous decryptions the wiring layout in advance, b) cribs, and c) the Colossus computing machine.

The submarine(s) you mention was (were) U-110 and U-559; what was actually captured were code books containing weather codes which were used to crack an earlier naval Enigma, the 3-rotor "Triton".

Knowing what the enemy is going to do beforehand is invaluable in war. Arguably the battle of the Atlantic was only won because of codebreaking efforts allowing the penetration of "Triton" and "Dolphin".

Though I do agree with you on the geography thing; apart from futile German efforts to bring Mexico into the war, the Atlantic and the Pacific meant that US factories could work all out without fear of aerial bombing.

pitbull592 also makes some good points - especially that Hitler had promised his armed forces no war until 1945, and then went into war in 1939. A delayed start to the war would've changed things considerably.
 
My great grandpa was a fighter pilot, he flew Il-2. Too bad i never got to see him because he died right before I was born, but i was named after him.
 

Aggressor

UGly
Location
Brooklawn, NJ
Il-2 was one hell of a bird. Bet he would have had some stories to tell.


and good points all around by cmdrfire, I wasn't aware the enigma was cracked so quickly.

and a delayed start would have been interesting. At that point, the wild card would be Japan. If the pacific theater was played out (most likely ending with a US invasion of the mainland), it would have given the US the advantage of focusing its industrial might on one theater at a time. Bad for the Axis, Good for the Allies
 
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