Conflicts in history......

[RoadkingLarry]

Or Rosie Odonnell stuffed with explosives and mounted on a radio control, reinforced vehicle.

We can dream....

Now I have a dream

 

[The Annoyed Man]

There are a series of books written on this fantasy.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court?

 

[DFW1911]

The Revolution, specifically 1776 when the Redcoats were trapped in Boston and we held the Heights.

I'd arm my guys with M14s and .45s. For bigger targets - like ships - maybe a Javelin. For formations a SAW might be nice.

We'd have the whole thing wrapped up in no time flat!

 

[Doc Savage]

Anyone else here enjoy Harry Turtledove's "Guns of the South"?

Excellent read.

Loved the book. Very interesting study. I was superised with some of the thoughts on the direction the north went.

Robert

 

[kamagong]

I'd want to be transported back to 1565 when the Spanish invaded the Philippines, being Filipino and all. The Spanish had all the technological advantages. I can only imagine the looks on their faces when they realized that their horses, armor, muskets, and swords were no longer cutting edge compared to Garands and 1911s. We'd throw them back into the sea, and then I'd be king!

 

[Tommygunn]

I would like to go back to June 25th, 1876 and find out just exactly went down with Custer's five troops of 7th Cavalry along Battle Ridge after the trooper left with the note to Benteen to bring more packs quickly. Was Custer shot trying to cross the Little Bighorn River, as some historians suggest was possible? Or was he shot atop Custer Hill (at the end of "Battle Ridge") at the "mythical" last stand, as some movies and novelists would prefer to have us believe?

And, anyway . . just what was Custer thinking ... anyway?????

 

[OAKVILLE SHOOTER]

Anyone else here enjoy Harry Turtledove's "Guns of the South"?

Excellent read.

I read it about 10 years ago. Quite entertaining.

 

[bluestarlizzard]

hmmmmm...... well, i'll admit it. i read regancy period romance novels all the time. in my defence, i can and will read a full length novel in about 2 hours so i need bulk reading material.
so i guess i would go fight napolean and meet old hooky (wellington). maybe find me some english lord to sweep me off my feet a la julia quin heros.

 

[Working Man]

I always wanted to go back to the time when cavemen ruled the earth with a bic lighter....

Now thats funny. It is amazing the things we take for granted.

 

[modifiedbrowning]

I'd sure like to take an F-18 back to WWI and tangle with the Red Baron.

Packman, I have read an account of an American jet attempting to shoot down a North Korean biplane and actually stalling and crashing trying to lose enough airspeed to line up a shot. I'll see if a can find a link.

 

[mustanger98]

And, anyway . . just what was Custer thinking ... anyway?????

Custer had been a Gen. in the Union Army and led a good many charges without injury. Either he wasn't thinking, or he was thinking of how he was going to go home and read of his exploits in the newspaper like the egotistical idiot he was. BTW, on several occassions around my area, I've seen bumper stickers and t-shirts that read "Custer Had It Coming".

 

[Tommygunn]

BTW, on several occassions around my area, I've seen bumper stickers and t-shirts that read "Custer Had It Coming".

Union County, Georgia, huh? "Custer had it coming."????
Yes .... I have read several Custer biographies -- including his own "My Life on the Plains." The charge of egotism is accurate, but Custer was hardly unique; a good many people of Custer's rank were equally egotistical and nearly as insufferable.
Actually, the comment "what was he thinking" was more of a snide little joke. He was thinking about achieving a significant victory at the Little Bighorn ... and some believe the PR might have proplled him onward toward a run at the presidency.
What really isn't known is what exactly happened to those 5 companies of 7th Cav. after Trooper Giovanni Martini left with that note to Benteen. A number of historians have brought up several theories, all of which have a good argument to them ... but no one REALLY knows.
Custer was an interesting historical character, with an interesting personal history and some quirky foibles for a military man, who is supposed to fit in to a quite regimented and ordered lifestyle. Yes he was an egotist but he was more complicated than just that.
Did he have it coming? Well .... he rode hard and fought hard, and had a number of close calls in the Civil War, as well as rather stupid gaffs which could have turned out badly, but didn't ... and atleast one of those in the early Plains Indian Wars stage of his career.
Given who he was and how he lived, his luck was bound to run out sooner or later, and it did in a way that assured his place in the history books.

 

[enfield303]

And managed to take a damn good Cav unit with him... It would have been a whole lot better if he had decided to recon the village on his own and gotten caught by the Souix. They coulda made that party last a LONG time.

 

[wuluf]

confederate states of america

Civil war I suppose.I'd be curious to see what the country (or countries) would be like if the south had won.Would there be North United
States and South United states? Would we eventually have become 1 country again? Would the south have stopped at just being and independant country, or gone on a decide to conquer the north, with the new U.S. in say Atlanta? Would we have become 2 countries that were fairly open and friendly like the U.S. and Canada, or would we have continued to drift apart, and now barely tolerate each other at best, or even continue to be bitter enemies? How would this have affected WWI or WWII? Soem very interesting possibilities......

There's a movie that postulates this very thing. Made as a BBC mockumentary. it's hilarious, in a weird, racist kinda way..


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389828/

Available through netflix.

 

[Itegorm]

Although it's not quite on topic, an historian once noted that there's no real example of where the 'South' beat the 'North' (eg Korea, Vietnam, US) throughout history! If anyone knows of a real example, I'm sure someone on this forum would know.

How about...
The French and Indian War; English (southern in NA) beat the French (Northern in NA).
The Jacobite Rebellions 1715 and 1745; The Scots were beat by the English both times.
The Crimean War; The Russians were beat by the Brits and French

Those are just a couple off the top of my head...

 

[Rachen]

Actually there is one example where the South beat the North. In 1911, a Chinese patriot named Sun Zhongsang led a revolt against the Qing Dynasty. The fighting started in Guangdong and moved up through Hunan and by the second day, Hangzhou, Wuhan, and Ningbo has fallen to the Nationalists.
By the 3rd day, the Beiyang Army in Nanjing revolted, followed by another rebellion by another Qing banner unit in Beijing. By the end of the month, the rebels were threatening to sack Shenyang, the ancient capital of the Manchus.
Manchu power was disposed of almost overnight, and the last dynasty ever to rule the Middle Kingdom was toppled.

Although the Nationalists soon proved to be very unpopular with the people, and in 1947, Comrade Marshal Lin Biao lead the 38th Army on a terrific sweep from Manchuria all the way to Hainan Dao, completing the second phase of Sun Zhongsang's Proletarian Revolution. In two more years, the PLA entered Beijing and the 5 starred flag of the PRC was raised over Tiananmen Square. Thus Mao Zedong completed Sun Zhongsan's revolution. Thus a revolution started in the south was completed by 1949.

If I can return to any conflict, I will go right to the War Of Northern Aggression.
There are only few Chinese who served in the Confederate army during the war. I would enlist every single emigrant from Guangzhou, Fujian, Wuhan, etc....... who were living in the South at that time and were fence-sitters. Then I would equip each young man with a Da Dao. The fearsome broadsword that has an extremely wide blade and tremendous cutting power. Each man would have to undergo the martial arts training of Wushu and the swordfighting tactics of Commander Qi Ji Guang. Within 6 months, this unit would be ready for combat. Gray uniform, gray cap, and red flag with hammer and sickle and the characters "8th Route Army"

You can imagine the rest.
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This is what the Chinese troops armed with broadswords did to the Japanese imperialists during the 1933 Manchukuo War. Imagine what would happen if the Yankees encounter this unit in combat. Yankees would be falling like autumn leaves in a winter wind.

 

[Werewolf]

I've always thought it would be fun to take on a Roman legion or two with an M1A1 tank.

Or tell ole George Picket and the two divisions supporting his to just take a seat in the woods and watch the fun as I rolled up to the Union lines on Cemetary Hill on the 3rd day of the Battle of Gettysburg with an M1A1 tank.

 

[Ske1etor]

Another quick one...

Revolutionary war

and just show up with a AC-130 Spectre Gunship...

 

[Ske1etor]

oops... double post.

 

[ARKIESTEEL]

What is all that coming out of that plane??

 

[Ske1etor]

Flares. The AC-130 isn't very maneuverable and has to deploy flares to attract incoming heat seeking missiles. They can also launch chaff which causes disruptions with radar.

Here is a cool video of it in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAFCudNNG30

 

[FourNineFoxtrot]

Another book that deals with the topic: 1632, by Eric Flint. There are a number of sequels now, I think.

Personally, I'd be tempted to go back to Scotland, maybe during the wars of Scottish Independence. I would have had some kinfolk in Clan Gordon, although the genealogy is a bit fuzzy. I don't know if I could conquer the whole island, but I might give it a shot. I'd probably have to beef up my collection first, though; 3 rifles, 3 pistols, and a fubar shotgun (and no more than about 1000 rounds of ammo total) probably wouldn't do the trick, and no matter how well armed you are, one man alone has to sleep sometime. What I'd prefer to do is go back with a dozen or so friends, each armed and outfitted with a u-haul truck full of supplies, weapons, modern tools, and so on.

Another option, albeit an expensive one, is outfitting a ship to run on steam power, using coal or wood or whatever in the furnace (instead of any petroleum variant). Might also be nice to mount a small-ish, modern-ish naval gun, if possible. Preferably something easy enough to use without intensive training, but enough to overmatch any ordnance of the day. Something old enough not to need advanced computer fire control, but modern enough to have good rate of fire and accuracy. I'd like to take a ship like that back in time to the 17th century, and do a bit of pirating on the Spanish Main. Maybe I'd get my own entry in Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates. This whole idea is kinda cheating, though, since I obviously have neither a steam ship nor naval cannon in my firearm collection.

Seriously, though, there's no way I'd voluntarily go back in time in any permanent fashion, unless I could bring my standard of living with me.

I like toilet paper.

I need toilet paper.

 

[mustanger98]

I'd probably have to beef up my collection first, though; 3 rifles, 3 pistols, and a fubar shotgun (and no more than about 1000 rounds of ammo total) probably wouldn't do the trick, and no matter how well armed you are, one man alone has to sleep sometime. What I'd prefer to do is go back with a dozen or so friends, each armed and outfitted with a u-haul truck full of supplies, weapons, modern tools, and so on.

1Krds wouldn't be near enough to suit me. A dozen or so friends is squad strength. What size U-Haul truck?

...is outfitting a ship to run on steam power, using coal or wood or whatever in the furnace (instead of any petroleum variant). Might also be nice to mount a small-ish, modern-ish naval gun, if possible. Preferably something easy enough to use without intensive training, but enough to overmatch any ordnance of the day. Something old enough not to need advanced computer fire control, but modern enough to have good rate of fire and accuracy.

For raking the deck, I think I'd rather have two or four Gatling guns than to have the naval guns of the day. I never was much for the idea of reciprocating broadsides. Also, I'd want to bring along plenty of components to reload all the .45-70 brass instead of shovelling it all overboard.

 

[Caimlas]

The greatest impact could have been made in the revolution, however. Imagine being on the bridge one fine April morning with an AR. Several hundred rounds pre-loaded in mags, the entire british force marching in formation. Or even a scoped .308. You could be making killing shots before you were even in range of volley fire. Once they finally closed, a handgun makes a much better weapon than a bayonet or cutlass.

Hell, a pistol with high-capacity magazines would've been almost as effective as using a cannon with small ball shot, I imagine. A 1911 with high-cap magazines would've been almost as accurate (more accurate?) than the smooth bore muskets of the day. (You can make a 'kill area' shot with a 1911 @100 yards, for instance - iirc, 100 yards was considered 'volley' range back then).

Personally, I'd have gone back to Virginia, to stand next to the likes of Stonewall Jackson circa the opening days of the Civil War. I'd probably pick the time to step in after First Manassas, but before the battle of Seven Pines: I'd want the war to be about state rights versus the union, moreso than the cause of slavery itself, and that'd probably be the best time to make such a move. From there, march on DC and end it fairly swiftly.

One AR (of any type) in the hands of even a mediocre marksman would likely have turned almost any battle at that point in the war - if only on the basis that you'd have vastly superior long-range firepower, and could take care of any/all officers and snipers/marksmen before they were within range. Deployed correctly, a single rifle could probably and that war, whereas the Revolutionary War would unlikely be ended as swiftly, even with the full 'arsenal' of any one THR member (due to the foreign control of the aggression). Though, if you were to kill enough officers fast enough...

However, in a war like the Civil War/WBTS, the biggest benefit you could give either side would be 1) foreknowledge of events , and 2) modern tactical knowledge. Granted, some tactical knowledge would fly in the face of the contemporary (at the time) cultural standards of honor and what an officer is supposed to do.

 

[Caimlas]

Civil war I suppose.I'd be curious to see what the country (or countries) would be like if the south had won.Would there be North United
States and South United states? Would we eventually have become 1 country again? Would the south have stopped at just being and independant country, or gone on a decide to conquer the north, with the new U.S. in say Atlanta? Would we have become 2 countries that were fairly open and friendly like the U.S. and Canada, or would we have continued to drift apart, and now barely tolerate each other at best, or even continue to be bitter enemies? How would this have affected WWI or WWII? Soem very interesting possibilities......

My theory is that, had the Confederates pushed to DC early on to sue for peace and a cease in aggression, we might have been able to both preserve the union, and see an end to slavery before the end of what was the Reconstruction.

Part of the social problem was that the south was being bullied around a bit by the beginnings of Industrialism in the north. Financially, the South couldn't compete with slaves against machines, which were more efficient. Granted, their crops and produce were different, but the South was fighting the change: it woudl've completely changed their whole culture, and what in the world would they do with all those black people?

So, my theory is that slavery would have ended itself sooner than later, simply on the basis of economics. The arguments for slavery itself were, at their core, purely economical in justification. Remove that motivation, and while a legacy of racism may have prevailed for a short while, the consciences of the citizens would, I believe, have been relieved somewhat when they were a) able to do with fewer slaves, and b) able to do without slaves entirely due to the increased efficiency of machinery. I believe it'd have been cheaper to let the slaves go and then pay them to work the machines (competing amongst themselves and with other unskilled white people), than it would have been to keep slaves in an industrial situation.