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Post by AztecWilliam on Oct 23, 2020 17:55:48 GMT -8
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Post by aztecmusician on Nov 1, 2020 16:04:16 GMT -8
If the charge was made 50 years earlier, in the Napoleonic Era, it would have probably succeeded with bayonets. The Minne Ball that Civil War Rifles fired was devastating and changed warfare forever. These bullets were accurate at distances of 250+yards and could take an arm clean off. The American Civil War was one of the first wars to use the Minne Ball, so the tactics hadn’t compensated to the weaponry. Many Generals still lined their boys up muzzle to muzzle, and at 100 yards it was target practice. Even the best generals fell victim to this hard reality, Lee (Gettysburg), Grant (Cold Harbor) Burnside (Fredericksburg) all sent troops into a hail of Minnie Ball fire only to have their men slaughtered.
I don’t really see the comparison between Stalingrad and Gettysburg, other than it being a tide turning battle. Gettysburg was over in 3 days, Stalingrad took months. Gettysburg was in the heat of Summer, Stalingrad was a Winter battle. Lee and The Army of Northern Virginia escaped relatively intact, Paulus and his formidable German 6th Army were eventually surrounded and obliterated.
Paulus should have ignored Hitler’s orders and broke out while he was still supplied. It is conceivable they could have linked up with the German Southern Army Group and eventually defeated Zuchov in the South. Stalingrad was never an important stragic target and probably should have left alone, Hitler’s major strategic blunder probably cost him the war in the East.
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Post by Fishn'Aztec on Nov 16, 2020 16:28:14 GMT -8
Didn't the Union infantry also have Sharps or Spencer rifles??
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Post by aztecmusician on Nov 20, 2020 21:06:45 GMT -8
I think most of the infantry on both sides still had muzzle loading rifles. Occasionally cavalry had the brand newer breach loading repeating rifles, they were a recent invention and probably prohibitively expensive.
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