WW2 Weapons Platforms: What accomplished the most with the least?

[KRonn]

Nobody liked my escort carrier suggestion?

Hmm... that is probably a decent idea, now that I think about it. Those carriers were cheap, easily built or adapted on to other hulls. Small and just carried a few aircraft but that was enough for patrols alongside convoys, or to provide air support for ground troops during island invasions, or what ever. And many of carriers were easily/quickly produced.

[Viking]

liberty ships?

[Razgovory]

Nobody liked my escort carrier suggestion?

While good for morale developing specially designed vehicles for the transport of prostitutes is probably wasteful.

[dps]

NOT AMUSED! DOGS ARE PEOPLE TOO!

Uh, it's not a joke, Norgy.  The Soviets actually did use mine dogs.  Or tried them, at least.

[jimmy olsen]

Nobody liked my escort carrier suggestion?

While good for morale developing specially designed vehicles for the transport of prostitutes is probably wasteful.

Nice

[Viking]

NOT AMUSED! DOGS ARE PEOPLE TOO!

Uh, it's not a joke, Norgy.  The Soviets actually did use mine dogs.  Or tried them, at least.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog

[KRonn]

liberty ships?

Oh yeah, Liberty ships were a huge factor! They certainly could do a lot with the least - very cheaply and quickly built. Shipyards had contests on building them in record time. A few days or so in many cases. Used pre-fab parts. Astonished the allies with the speed of building and how important a factor it was to obtain all that shipping space, let alone the axis who could only look on in disappointment. Those huge numbers of ships meant that much more war material getting to the fronts.

[Razgovory]

That's a well trained dog to just stand there in a glass case all day.

[derspiess]

Pz III variants.  Conquered France and half of Russia with a 50 mm gun.  No points for beating up the Brits in North Africa.

The Pzkw III's in the 1940 France campaign had 37mm guns

[Admiral Yi]

Nobody liked my escort carrier suggestion?

Not all that much.  I have yet to read anything that suggests that close air support was as important a factor in the Pacific as it was in Europe.

[Admiral Yi]

The Pzkw III's in the 1940 France campaign had 37mm guns

Not if you amass enough victory points in the Polish campaign to upgrade.

[grumbler]

Nobody liked my escort carrier suggestion?

They are not a bad suggestion, though the Brits had a lot less luck with them in their primary role (convoy escort) than the US did in the Pacific.

I think it pretty easy to overestimate their effectiveness, though; after building half a dozen on an oiler hull, the US decided that building the ships as oilers was the better option.

[grumbler]

Oh yeah, Liberty ships were a huge factor! They certainly could do a lot with the least - very cheaply and quickly built. Shipyards had contests on building them in record time. A few days or so in many cases. Used pre-fab parts. Astonished the allies with the speed of building and how important a factor it was to obtain all that shipping space, let alone the axis who could only look on in disappointment. Those huge numbers of ships meant that much more war material getting to the fronts.

Disagree that Liberty ships were ships with "the least."  They were not cheap (in fact, they were more expensive on a tonnage basis than standard ships) and their sole real edge was that they could be made quickly.  Other than that, they were just slow, medium-sized freighters remarkable for numbers more than capabilities.

Had the Victory design been adopted instead (as it later was), then maybe an argument could be made.  As it was, I think the LST design was more important among the "less capable" ship designs than was the Liberty ship (and would note for our Anglophiles that both were British conceptions).

[Razgovory]

Pz III variants.  Conquered France and half of Russia with a 50 mm gun.  No points for beating up the Brits in North Africa.

The Pzkw III's in the 1940 France campaign had 37mm guns

I totally beat you to it.  Alot of them used the old 37s in Russia as well.

[Razgovory]

Oh yeah, Liberty ships were a huge factor! They certainly could do a lot with the least - very cheaply and quickly built. Shipyards had contests on building them in record time. A few days or so in many cases. Used pre-fab parts. Astonished the allies with the speed of building and how important a factor it was to obtain all that shipping space, let alone the axis who could only look on in disappointment. Those huge numbers of ships meant that much more war material getting to the fronts.

Disagree that Liberty ships were ships with "the least."  They were not cheap (in fact, they were more expensive on a tonnage basis than standard ships) and their sole real edge was that they could be made quickly.  Other than that, they were just slow, medium-sized freighters remarkable for numbers more than capabilities.

Had the Victory design been adopted instead (as it later was), then maybe an argument could be made.  As it was, I think the LST design was more important among the "less capable" ship designs than was the Liberty ship (and would note for our Anglophiles that both were British conceptions).

They were remarkable in that they had a very short expected life.