Most interesting theater in World War II
- Thread starter Hangfan91
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MG1962a
Ad Honorem
- Mar 2019
- 2,196
- Kansas
- Sep 2016
- 1,330
- Georgia
The Iberian Theater. Yes I know this wasn't a theater of war. That's why it's so interesting. In Lisbon German and British officers in uniform walked on the same streets and often ate in the same restaurants. I understand servers carried notes between the British and German tables. I wonder what they said.
Macau was a similar hot spot for intrigue, due to it being a neutral Portuguese colony that the Japanese never took over. Pro-Allied and Pro-Axis agents constantly running behind each other's backs, and consuls working overtime trying to pick up intel to send to the home govt.
- Feb 2019
- 1,023
- Serbia
For me, the European theatre (Eastern Front and the Mediterranean.) with North Africa coming in second. I like the Eastern Front because of the sheer scale of it. It was larger and arguably more complex than anything ever seen before. The other 2 are due to the heavy British involvement in them.
Futurist
Ad Honoris
- May 2014
- 22,750
- SoCal
Europe due to the greater intensity of the war there. The outcome of the war with Japan was never in doubt but I've previously heard that the USSR might have been on the verge of collapse in 1941-1942 and that only Lend-Lease and the liberation of Ukraine might have saved them.
Kevinmeath
Ad Honoris
- May 2011
- 14,076
- Navan, Ireland
Very good choice read this
fascinating stuff, SAS based themselves upon them.
Even better one thing I loved was their most effective tactic wasn't driving around shooting everything up but just to infiltrate, sit silently and count everything passing.
Kevinmeath
Ad Honoris
- May 2011
- 14,076
- Navan, Ireland
I can not honestly answer because I find all theatres fascinating, I have at times loved reading about Arnhem or D-Day or as a young man the Eastern Front. Naval war especially the Battle of the Atlantic is great and how could you not find Dunkirk/Battle of Britain not intriguing?
But at the moment I am fascinated by Burma and a bit by the Aussies in New Guinea including the fate of the POW's. Not sure why perhaps because unlike Europe where it became increasingly massive and mechanised in battles like Kohima individual battalions and even soldiers made a difference and fighting was still deeply personnel -- a Welsh conscript holding a vital fox hole with just his shovel --Freddy Spencer Chapman operating for years behind Japanese lines in Malaya.
Perhaps it was that the environment was as much a hindrance as the enemy, perhaps it was the development of the British whom the Japanese totally out soldiered in Malaya to perhaps the reverse by the end. And the no holds bared nature of the fighting-- the British learnt to fight in the jungle but for instance with the Chindts wounded were often left to their own devices-- sat on a track a bag of food and a weapon, suicide or fight it out. Recently read of one young officer shot in both legs left as such decide either he was not going to die or would at least die trying-- he crawled to Burma!
So many great stories but you can say that of every theatre.
But at the moment I am fascinated by Burma and a bit by the Aussies in New Guinea including the fate of the POW's. Not sure why perhaps because unlike Europe where it became increasingly massive and mechanised in battles like Kohima individual battalions and even soldiers made a difference and fighting was still deeply personnel -- a Welsh conscript holding a vital fox hole with just his shovel --Freddy Spencer Chapman operating for years behind Japanese lines in Malaya.
Perhaps it was that the environment was as much a hindrance as the enemy, perhaps it was the development of the British whom the Japanese totally out soldiered in Malaya to perhaps the reverse by the end. And the no holds bared nature of the fighting-- the British learnt to fight in the jungle but for instance with the Chindts wounded were often left to their own devices-- sat on a track a bag of food and a weapon, suicide or fight it out. Recently read of one young officer shot in both legs left as such decide either he was not going to die or would at least die trying-- he crawled to Burma!
So many great stories but you can say that of every theatre.