From:	caelric@****.com caelric@****.com
Subject:	Second Hand
Date:	Tue, 07 Sep 1999 05:00:03 -0700

At 01:57 PM 9/7/99 +0200, you wrote:
>And finally, abortion_engine expressed himself by writing:
>
><snip>
>
>
>You don't really need a rifle for everybody. Back in WW2,
>the russians charged german positions with a rifle for every
>fifth man. When he died, the one behind him took the rifle
>and so on. When the last man took it, he was near enough to
>the enemy to actually fight...
>And as china has IIRC close to 2 billion people now, and
>a lot more men than women, they could mobilize a _lot_ of
>soldiers and would even have no decrease of the birth rate.

In WW2, we didn't have automatic machinegun style grenade launchers, ala
Mk19, which is aapprox 200 rpm 40mm grenade launcher...thats 200 rouns per
minute of high explosive grenades.

>
>> In addition, the Chinese military has no countermeasures
>> whatsoever for much
>> of our hardware. Technologically, they simply cannot keep up
>> with the United
>> States.
>
>Tech doesn't really help when you positions are attacked by
>forces with a multiple of your own manpower. Back in the korean
>war, when chinese forces attacked the UN units, they drove them
>back to the southern coast. I doubt that they had _any_ tech
>besides some tanks and rifles... sheer numbers aren't that bad.
>

As I was trying to say by the Mk19 example, tech does matter. Sure, the
human wave strategy still has some usefulness, but as technology increases,
it's usefulness decreases. I would wager we could acheive air superiority
vs the Chinese Air Force w/o too many losses. Then, w/o resorting to
nuclear, close air support could take care of most human wave attacks. Or,
fuel air explosives, very effective against personnel.


><snip>
>
>> Good point about supply lines, though. Most people underestimate the need
>> for support personnel and strategy, simply comparing things like
>> number of
>> men under arms. Bravo.
>
>As you say, this is chinas greatest advantage. I doubt a war
>between the US and china would be fought in America
>

True, but....in any US vs China war, Taiwan is most likely going to be a
very close staging point, with Okinawa not too far away, either.

Yes, supply lines are a problem, but trust me, we (the US) have learned
alot from Desert Storm, the last large scale war on the other side of the
world.


Dave, a guy who used to work in military intelligence (yes, there is such
a thing)