A tactical history of the War.

Dinter

A tactical history of the War.

Ok, so I’ve been thinking about this since this forum got up and running and I think it could be a good idea? (Well I’ll see from feedback!!)

Basically it strikes me that there are a lot of knowledgeable people on here with a real interest in the war. While I would consider myself to have a fairly strong grasp of the strategic course of the War it amazes me the amount of little nuggets of tactical insight I’ve picked up from other people’s posts. As such I was thinking that we should do a monster thread that traces WWII from the beginning to the end. Pan theatre and pan combatants.

However rather than simply “June 6th Operation Overlord, Allies gain beachhead” we could put a much more detailed entry about, for example, the Rangers gaining the Heights on Omaha. The same day could have an entry about the Battle for St Mere Eglise? We would be much more concentrated on battles than strategies so everyone could showcase the little facts knocking around at the back of their brains.

I’m not sure if it’s even worth mentioning the strategic implications of what we describe although it might be an idea to put in a “conclusion” paragraph.

I know it’ll be hard to implement but I think I’ve a way around that. If we run two threads, one for our polished, finished entries and another thread where we can put up previews and discuss them. I’ll add one entry every so often to the “polished” thread so we shouldn’t start getting too far into the future.

Could a moderator could answer the following for me:

1) Is it possible to insert a post into a thread that’s already running?

2) Is it possible to set up another account purely for this and I’ll share login details with any other interested parties so the “polished” thread will be the result of the Forum’s effort not just mine.

It’s just lately the Forum has slowed a little bit and I think that something big like this could get us moving again. I mean there’s a thread running that aims to count to a million. In the WWII forum I expect we can do something with just as much longevity!

Any comments or whatever would be welcomed.

Although an interesting idea , I feel that it would generally be too messy to keep organised with people throwing posts up randomly.

Hope I am wrong though as I said it is an interesting idea.

Dinter

Yeah I'm thinking of having one thread that would be just a mess and a second thread for everything that seems finished.

It is probably impossible to do but I thought I'd just throw it out there!

marcsignal

i think it's an interesting idea. i've also picked up some great info on this forum, and found different posters insights into the war interesting too, because of where they're from/posting from.

It would be great if all of this info were chronologically structured in some way because, as you say, there are a lot of posters that have really detailed knowledge of their favourite area of interest. If all this information could be pooled in some way it might also make it an interesting resource for students.

i've no idea what form it would take tho, unless a sticky thread, called 'GHQ' or something where it could be compiled. Or a 'sub-forum like' reference thread ?

motherfunker

How about starting up several posts and naming each one, i.e. Jan 1940, Feb 1940, Mar 1940 etc, then when someone has something to add they just quote the month and year at the start of their post, then all the Jan 1940 posts can be sorted out into the polished thread you mentioned.

Dinter

motherfunker wrote: »

How about starting up several posts and naming each one, i.e. Jan 1940, Feb 1940, Mar 1940 etc, then when someone has something to add they just quote the month and year at the start of their post, then all the Jan 1940 posts can be sorted out into the polished thread you mentioned.

Ok that's a great idea. I'd no idea how to sort it like that but it would definitely make it easier to read. Also that way it could be edited to add stuff to.

As marcsignal said it could be a pretty interesting resource for students but also for people to just dip in and out of. All going well we'll have students on nicking posts for the LC special project!!

Actually feeling a bit more optimistic about it myself now.

Thanks for the feedback.

motherfunker

motherfunker wrote: »

How about starting up several posts and naming each one, i.e. Jan 1940, Feb 1940, Mar 1940 etc, then when someone has something to add they just quote the month and year at the start of their post, then all the Jan 1940 posts can be sorted out into the polished thread you mentioned.

That's a really good idea. What we could do actually is we could make a thread and people who would be interested just vote in a public poll. Then we do the chronology from the very start and people are given a month each to write about & then when everyone has done the first round we do it again?

Could be really interesting

Dinter

Sounds like a good idea to me. I like the thought of it crawling forward month by month. Plus it'll be good to get out of my comfort zone and try and discover something interesting about, say, the Phoney war.

Indeed,
What you could do is make a poll and link this thread. I'd enjoy doing my month . Would be nice looking up all the info etc.

motherfunker

I dont really understand the idea about the poll, what exactly do you mean by it?. About giving people a month to do, would that not stop people throwing in random entries when they come across something new and interesting. I suppose somebody could take on a certain month and put the main events in it and then others could add to that base.

Dinter

The poll is just to register your interest in taking part I think.

Then start a thread with just a list of months starting in 39 and ending I dunno, round VJ day or maybe a couple of standalones like Nuremburg?

Then I'd be happy enough for people to just throw in entries in the thread that's running alongside and I'll stick them into the main thread (credited to motherfunker / KaG etc as appropriate of course. ) or as a quote?

Or we could just start a thread and do the months in rotation and whatever ones we get we work on. I post August 1939, the next person posts September 1939 as the case may be. That way it's equal accreditation. This would be good too as you'd have no idea of what you'll get etc but lets be honest, something exciting happened every day!! If posters, outside of the originals, see it later and become interested and want to take part we can credit them and throw it into the right month. I'd be happy enough to have like 70 or 80 posts running even if they're nothing more than the date so people can add to theirs whenever they want.

Tbh if someone gets a month and another poster wants to add something I'd say we could edit it in as a quote maybe?

Or to be completely fair I might pm kickoutthejams and see about setting up an alt account, the login details of which we'll share, and the alt can run the whole thread.

Dinter

Dinter wrote: »

The poll is just to register your interest in taking part I think.

Then start a thread with just a list of months starting in 39 and ending I dunno, round VJ day or maybe a couple of standalones like Nuremburg?

Then I'd be happy enough for people to just throw in entries in the thread that's running alongside and I'll stick them into the main thread (credited to motherfunker / KaG etc as appropriate of course. ) or as a quote?

Or we could just start a thread and do the months in rotation and whatever ones we get we work on. I post August 1939, the next person posts September 1939 as the case may be. That way it's equal accreditation. This would be good too as you'd have no idea of what you'll get etc but lets be honest, something exciting happened every day!! If posters, outside of the originals, see it later and become interested and want to take part we can credit them and throw it into the right month. I'd be happy enough to have like 70 or 80 posts running even if they're nothing more than the date so people can add to theirs whenever they want.

Tbh if someone gets a month and another poster wants to add something I'd say we could edit it in as a quote maybe?

Or to be completely fair I might pm kickoutthejams and see about setting up an alt account, the login details of which we'll share, and the alt can run the whole thread.

Grand mate,
Let me know when you have this started. I may be a degenerate in AH but I do take my history seriously (So there will be no mention of Mary Harney )

Hagar

I've been thinking about this and it seems like a good project. There are a couple of obstacles to consider first.

Sharing accounts and logins, while not forbidden, is a minefield. Anybody could go off the rails with the shared account and spoil it for everyone. I would not be in favour of that.

Is breaking the calendar into months too detailed? Would seasons be better such as Spring 41, Summer 41, Autumn 41, Winter 41/42, Spring 42? Does the vagueness of seasons better suit the campaigns as they were fought?

It is not possible to insert posts or change post order. The only thing I can suggest is that I create the "polished" thread with a series of blank posts and edit them later. The content of the working thread could be finalised bit by bit and PMed to me, I would then edit it into the correct post in the polished thread. The theatre of battle, say "Eastern Front - Stalingrad", would be in bold preceeding each entry in a post.

I've mocked up a post below, dates could be added to specific actions if required although I would expect some date in the body of the article.

Comments, suggestions?

Hagar

Eastern Front - Stalingrad

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Donec sollicitudin libero id elit. Sed euismod nonummy neque. Nam dignissim urna vel urna. Nunc aliquet. Nunc vel dui mattis magna varius condimentum. Etiam lacus enim, aliquam ultricies, luctus ut, placerat id, lectus. Vestibulum laoreet commodo tortor. Nunc eget urna. Suspendisse ac orci. Vivamus quis tortor facilisis velit interdum blandit. Mauris euismod convallis diam. Quisque turpis metus, aliquam sed, euismod sit amet, mollis a, ligula. Maecenas ultricies turpis vitae augue. Suspendisse potenti. Etiam hendrerit cursus eros.

North Africa - El Alemein

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Donec sollicitudin libero id elit. Sed euismod nonummy neque. Nam dignissim urna vel urna. Nunc aliquet. Nunc vel dui mattis magna varius condimentum. Etiam lacus enim, aliquam ultricies, luctus ut, placerat id, lectus. Vestibulum laoreet commodo tortor. Nunc eget urna. Suspendisse ac orci. Vivamus quis tortor facilisis velit interdum blandit. Mauris euismod convallis diam. Quisque turpis metus, aliquam sed, euismod sit amet, mollis a, ligula. Maecenas ultricies turpis vitae augue. Suspendisse potenti. Etiam hendrerit cursus eros.

Pacific - Gualacanal

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Donec sollicitudin libero id elit. Sed euismod nonummy neque. Nam dignissim urna vel urna. Nunc aliquet. Nunc vel dui mattis magna varius condimentum. Etiam lacus enim, aliquam ultricies, luctus ut, placerat id, lectus. Vestibulum laoreet commodo tortor. Nunc eget urna. Suspendisse ac orci. Vivamus quis tortor facilisis velit interdum blandit. Mauris euismod convallis diam. Quisque turpis metus, aliquam sed, euismod sit amet, mollis a, ligula. Maecenas ultricies turpis vitae augue. Suspendisse potenti. Etiam hendrerit cursus eros.

Hagar

Hagar wrote: »

I've been thinking about this and it seems like a good project. There are a couple of obstacles to consider first.

Sharing accounts and logins, while not forbidden, is a minefield. Anybody could go off the rails with the shared account and spoil it for everyone. I would not be in favour of that.

Is breaking the calendar into months too detailed? Would seasons be better such as Spring 41, Summer 41, Autumn 41, Winter 41/42, Spring 42? Does the vagueness of seasons better suit the campaigns as they were fought?

It is not possible to insert posts or change post order. The only thing I can suggest is that I create the "polished" thread with a series of blank posts and edit them later. The content of the working thread could be finalised bit by bit and PMed to me, I would then edit it into the correct post in the polished thread. The theatre of battle, say "Eastern Front - Stalingrad", would be in bold preceeding each entry in a post.

Comments, suggestions?

Yeah that sounds like a good idea Hagar. May I suggest this though, if you are willing . You could create the sections in this polished post while obviously locking it until it's done and then you could PM each person with the section they have been assigned. We'll need to make a public poll or something with the people that want to get involved. You could maybe give people 2-3 days to complete it or even a week?

Totally up to yourself. I like the idea of the seasons as we know that the type of warfare differed greatly from season to season. Whoever get's winter 1944 is in for a long ride!

Hagar

Sounds good to me.

I'd be inclined to let people volunteer to do sections as they may well be very interested in a particular theatre and so would possibly make a better contribution. The left over campaigns could be offered/assigned as people complete their initial projects. I'd suggest a week per project to allow people to research properly and give it their best shot.

I'd also suggest imageshack for hosting any maps, photos etc.

arnhem44

I've just been reading through this and it sounds like a good idea,would it not be better to simplfy this and just start six new threads naming each one by year,1939,1940 and so on,then cover each month of each year and give a time scale to do so,say two weeks for each month for example,once that month is finished move on to the next,the mods could be in charge of any misplaced posts for wrong entries and for the changing of each month at there dicression.Also leave each person post individually as they do normally thus keeping everyone interested rather than having to wait and see what one individual would post up,the only reason for this and I don't mean to offend anyone but everyones ways of expressing themselves varies so if everyone adds the momentum can stay going,also it would be vital to stay on topic.I would also agree with Hagar on the use of imageshack,it would be a nice addition to see maps of battlefields or combat photos but ask each poster to limit the amont used just to stay focused on the actual topic of the thread,this of course is just my ten pence worth so whatever way this thread may go it would be nice to see it up and running