What can one man with a rifle do?

[MinnMooney]

The "Power of the Pen" and what "One Man with a Rifle" can do are both awesome but it takes an exceptional man behind either.

 

[CWL]

You can "win" battle after battle but still lose the war.

Yokel, why start a political argument in a discussion about single determined men and their ability with a rifle?

FYI, the Finns lost their war too. They also lost the Continuation war that followed.

 

[Cosmoline]

The Finns were incredibly good, but they weren't miraculous.

Finland still existed at the end of the day, which qualifies as a miracle in my book. Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia were absorbed into the USSR and put under the direct control of Moscow for generations before being liberated. The ultimate Finnish loss had more to do with larger events than anything else. Finland was forced into alliance with the losers, and ended up paying the price for that. If Roosevelt had more backbone and fewer commie sympathizers to deal with, he could have forced Stalin out of Karelia and brought Finland back to at least neutral status.

Think of it this way. The modern version would be if Georgia suddenly turned the tables and inflicted huge losses on Putin's war machine. Obviously that hasn't happened. But if it had, we'd all be picking our jaws up off the floor. That's what happened in 39/40.

My obscure War knowledge is a book called "The Thousand Mile War"

There's another chapter of WWII that deserves to be remembered! Most Americans don't even know Japan invaded and occupied US soil and bombed North American towns. It wasn't covered up exactly, but it was buried and underplayed. The ensuing battles were small but very intense and brutal.

The salt on the wounds for vets has been Japan's titanium star monument, which was placed directly on the spot where Japan's finest slaughtered dozens of American wounded during a counter offensive. There's a documentary from last year called "Red, White, Black & Blue" that explores the controversy and memories of war. Remind yourself, THIS IS AMERICA:

 

[OOOXOOO]

What no Full Metal Jacket reference?

 

[offthepaper]

Think of it this way. The modern version would be if Georgia suddenly turned the tables and inflicted huge losses on Putin's war machine. Obviously that hasn't happened. But if it had, we'd all be picking our jaws up off the floor. That's what happened in 39/40.

Kind of like the American colonists, rag-taged, under-supplied, over-matched, and outnumbered, did to the British. Who were the pre-eminent world power of that time period.
Or to be a bit biblical, David giving Goliath a good butt kicking.
You have to respect the fight that was in these men/women.

 

[Savage Shooter]

Carlos Hathcock has two books out that I know of I have read them both they are AWSOME I would recomend them to anyone who likes a good story. It is a good account of his life. a must read for any shooter or war buff

 

[yokel]

Quote:
You can "win" battle after battle but still lose the war.

Yokel, why start a political argument in a discussion about single determined men and their ability with a rifle?

FYI, the Finns lost their war too. They also lost the Continuation war that followed.

It is because war is an extension of politics by other means that this political objective is always paramount.

The military provides the violent physical means necessary to prosecute the war and thereby extend politics by other means.

The political/diplomatic context in which the war is set determines the conflict’s characteristics far more than the theoretical or actual military capabilities possessed by the participants.

Persistence may very well be more important than speed in wars, where resolve and the tangible commitment of boots on the ground are more important commodities than the application of lots of small scale, precision firepower.

 

[eclarsen]

Gunkids Wheelbarrow asks for casualties of Germans and Russians resulting from Hiltler's Operation Barbarosa (or some such name).

Germans lost around 5 million troops.

Russians lost approximately 10 million troops, 10 million civilians.

Those latter figures are considered at least part of the reason Russia/Soviet Union wanted a huge buffer of countries around their borders to protect them from unforeseen future invasions.

Could also be the current reason Russia/Putin is incredibly angry at inclusion of former Iron Curtain countries joining NATO or gaining missle defense systems (e.g., Georgia and Poland, respectively).

 

[Poor East Texan]

The war in the Aluetions (sp?) was HARD on Flyers too!

 

[quaqor]

IIRC, I once read that the late Mr. Jim Clark, founder of Clark Custom Guns, shot more than 30 Japanese one afternoon with an M1, might have been an '03.

 

[Connecticut Yankee]

Interarmco Sten Guns in the Fifties Made Russia Pause

What they are doing is exactly what Stalin did to Finland,
During the four-month long Finnish Talvisota [Winter War, which the Soviets called the Belya Smyert, white death] the Soviet sent in a million men initially, with another half-million added in after initial losses. The Finns had fewer than 250,000 men with which to resist them, mostly ill-equipped and hastily-trained Civil Guardsment.

Four months later, at least a quarter-million of the invaders were either KIA or seriously enough wounded that they were no longer militarily useful: with missing limbs, badly burned, or, often, lungshot. Most of the Soviet casualties froze to death or bled out awaiting medical treatment that never came, having initially worn summer uniforms to what they had been told would be a short fight followed by occupation duty. Instead they got -30º temperatures of the coldest winter in 40 years, and the 20-hour long cold nights of the Arctic circle. Kruschev once stated that the Red Army hads taken a million casualties in Finland, and there's a fair chance that it was the Finnish success in repelling the Soviet visitors that convinced Hitler that if the Finns could do so well, the German Army could roll over the Red Army even easier...and so Hitler invaded Russia. But the Finns had taught the Soviets how to fight using the weather as a weapon, and the German effort failed. In 1959, the Soviets had put down uprisings of independence in East Germany and Hungary in '56, and again looked at Finland. Finland had no great army, and no massive budget, but they took their surplus and obsolete military weapons from their arsenals, including much of the foreign aid sent them during their Winter War and the equipment captured from the Soviets, and peddled it off to the American arms company Interarms, then called Interarmco. In nreturm the Finns got 250,000 WWII British 9mm Sten Guns, a quarter-million automatic weapons, enough for every Finnish soldier, reservist and civilian volunteer.

The Soviet Union's leadership decided that another visit to Finland would be just a little too expensive. And possibly, another MAJOR embarassment.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2061838/posts

N.B. This was posted by 'archy' on FR. I just cut and pasted his post; I trust that he won't mind my cross posting it as I have credited him and sourced it.

 

[106rr]

A couple of points --
One resistance fighter in the Netherlands fired a 6.5 mm MS through the windshield of a German staff car and hit a General in the skull. He was not killed but was disabled. During his convalecense (sp) many of the Dutch jews escaped to freedom. the one shot delayed the implementation of the final solution in the Netherlands.
Also Does anyone know the true top sniper of the Vietnam war? I can't remember his full name but his first name was Herman. A US Army sniper.

 

[SUWANNEE MAN]

one man can...

wreak havok... or feed his family, or both. given the situation, either could be applicable.

 

[Tokugawa]

Side notes- The highest casualty rate (proportionally) for American troops in WWII was in the Aleutians- higher even than Iwo Jima.
And Finns seem to have a high regard for accurate weapons- I had a Kalashnikov (Valmet) that would put 25 rounds of 5.56 into a quarter size group at 50 yards.

 

[packn_rn]

I just finished that book a couple of months ago, what a force multiplier combat engineers were...

From a former 12b's perspective anyways

 

[tiders]

The Finns made a pretty decent film about the winter war. It's called Talvisota. It’s gritty and pretty realistic in my opinion. It’s not a "the Hero saves the day" kind of film and well worth the price.

It's in Finnish of course, but the Finns are not prone to chit-chat so the few subtitles you'll have to read shouldn't bother you...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098437/

The trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ELfMprEbrI

 

[yesit'sloaded]

Very good chance this gun fired some bullets that killed Russians.

A rifle shot will ruin an aircraft on the ground if you know where to aim, it will also cripple a tanks visibility, stop a truck, and generally ruin any piece of equipment.

 

[Dave R]

The power of the pen still rules.

This is true in the public discourse.

But don't bring a pen to a gun fight.

 

[myrockfight]

I always wondered why you never saw anything about Japanese snipers. My Great Uncle and his buddy, when stationed in the South Pacific, would take out a couple of rifles and go hunting for snipers. He said they would shoot them out of the trees around the base after checking some rifles out of the base's armory.

Does anyone know of any famous Japanese snipers? Are we just out of the loop? Or were there snipers not lauded to the degree ours are?

The war in the Aluetions (sp?) was HARD on Flyers too!

My Great Uncle flew in the Pacific at the time and your comment reminded me of an article in which my Uncle was mentioned. I don't know anybody personally who did any such feats, as Hayha, Hathcock, and others. But I do know what one man with a Nordon Bombsight and a 500lb. bomb can do. Sorry to hijack, but I have to brag about his service. You don't get the opportunity to do it much.

Jap Destroyer Bagged By Ralph Pitman, Mayfield

Following is a dispatch from General Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters in the far Pacific in which Lieut. Ralph Pitman, Mayfield, a bombardier is credited with bagging a Jap destroyer.
Lieut. Pitman, a graduate of the Mayfield High School, was a star in football and basket ball at the high school and at Western Teachers College, Bowling Green.
The account follows:
The Navy reported yesterday that American fliers bombed the Japanese on Kiska, eight times in a sigle day in the most sustained “dawn to dusk” assault yet launched to blast the enemy from the Aleutians.
Formations of Liberator heavy bombers, Mitchell medium bombers and Lighting fighters carried out the assaults, which took place April 2. Hits were observed in the target area as the Americans plastered the Jap positions with high explosives.
All the U.S. planes returned safely from their “round the clock” pounding of the enemy.
An Associated Press Dispatch from “somewhere in Papua New Guinea” yesterday described the sinking by Flying Fortresses of two Japanese cruisers and a destroyer and damaging of four other destroyers at Kavieng, New Ireland, which had been reported briefly by General MacArthur’s headquarters in Australia earlier in the day.
MacArthur’s air force swept virtually every major point of Japanese strength from Dutch New Guinea to Kavieng, except Rabual, in the twenty-four hours of operations covered by yesterday’s communiqué.
Second Lieut. Ralph Pitman of Mayfield, Ky., a bombardier, was credited with leaving one destroyer in a sinking condition in the attack at Kavieng.
The eight attacks on Kiska reported yesterday brought to a total of forty-eight the number of aerial assaults within approximately one month’s time – an average of more than one a day.
Only Saturday the Navy announced that four heavy bombing attacks had been carried out against the Japs in the Aleutians on April 1.
In the South Pacific, the Navy disclosed that eighteen Japanese Zero planes were shot down by U.S. Fliers northwest of Guadalacanal on April 1, instead of the sixteen previously announced.
While the Japanese in the fog-shrouded Aleuthians, a U.S. reconnaissance plane encountered a Japanese seaplane west of the New Georgia Islands. An air duel followed, in which the enemy plane was shot out of the sky.

God Bless all those who have served and are currently serving as well as their families.

P.S. I know there are spelling errors, but I wanted to transcribe the original article exactly the way it was originally printed.