Saturday, August 3, 2019

I overlook the French

And at my detriment.

When I think of great engineering feats in history I think of Germany and Scotland and America. 

My engineering school had OODLES of looted war-booty from WWII in the library.  Stacks and stacks of engineering books written in German.  German engineering is and was important.

But the French were no slouches.  I think the language barrier is a big obstacle for the French stuff.  German less so because we were motivated to translate a lot of that library.

Sometime the French had a problem with timing or follow through.  The Lebel rifle for example.  Way ahead of it's time when introduced.  But then they didn't keep at it.  Improving or upgrading... if they kept their advantage and were diligent can you imagine the advanced weapon they COULD have entered WWI with?  Maybe the MAS-49, but 40 years earlier.  Wouldn't that have been something?
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1 comment:

  1. Murphy's LawAugust 10, 2019 at 6:28 PM

    If the French has designed and fielded the best small arms in 1939, that just means that the Germans would have wound up with almost all of them. The French actually built nice tanks. The Germans made fine use of them.

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