History WeHaveReserves / RealLife

* The point of the WWI strategy of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attrition_warfare attrition warfare]] was "we have '''more''' reserves than them!"
** It has been argued that America's greatest contribution to the war was just the threat that the Americans could provide the Allies with fresh reserves while the powers in the war had run out men that could fight, pushing Germany to make a desperation attack in the Spring to knock France out of the war before the Americans could arrive in mass.

* Luigi Cadorna's controversial strategy for the Italian Army was based on this: knowing that his army was underequipped but most of the Austro-Hungarian forces were tied up fighting the Russians, he launched assault after pointless assault on the Isonzo (There were ''twelve'' [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_the_Isonzo Battles of the Isonzo River]] ) to drain the enemy reserves while Italy's industry produced enough guns to properly equip his troops. Eventually he succeeded in draining the Austro-Hungarian reserves, but before he could break through the Russians collapsed and the newly freed enemy forces were redeployed to Italy with some German reinforcements, resulting in the catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Caporetto. In the end he was sacked but still somewhat succeeded, as the Austro-Hungarians ''still'' had no reserves left while Italy could use their last reserves to ''fill the losses of the battle and then some'', now led well by Cadorna's replacement Armando Diaz properly equipped, with Italy's shortage of machine guns filled in large part by American and French supplies.

** Even more for Lee than Grant. Lee acted as if he had unlimited reserves; he lost more men than his opponent in the 2nd Battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, and even Chancellorsville. In each case, he took extreme casualties in an offensive or counteroffensive. He may have won at 2nd Bull Run and Chancellorsville, but it cost him more than the enemy, and he lost more men than any other general, North or South, even though he was on the defensive and led less men in the field at any given time than Grant. The CSA were already outnumbered and had to be careful with their reserves, but Lee effectively bled the South white.

* When the bombings of Berlin escalated, the allied forces did all they could to provoke the Luftwaffe into attacking them. This caused large losses for both sides, but while the allies could replace the lost planes and crews fairly easily the Germans could not - German air crews that weren't killed were usually parachuting into British territory and became POWs as a result. It was one of the factors that eventually allowed the allies to gain air superiority first and air supremacy later.

** Even more for Lee than Grant. He acted as if he had unlimited reserves. He lost more men than his opponent in 2nd Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, and even Chancellorsville. In each case he lost in an offensive or counteroffensive. He may have won at 2nd Bull Run and Chancellorsville but it cost him more than the enemy. He lost more men than any other general North or South even though he was on the defensive and led less men than Grant. When you are outnumbered as badly as the CSA you have to be careful with the lives of your men but Lee bled the South white.

** Though it's worth noting from a strategic perspective this makes little sense, given the Italian army was smaller and worse equipped than the Austro-Hungarian army at the outset of the war, and Cadorna cared more for capturing Trieste, a town that based the Austro-Hungarian fleet, a fleet that did basically nothing, and was not captured by Italy until after the war. Cadorna seems to have successfully pulled off this strategy by accident by most accounts, having executed and convicted more of his men than any other WWI commander and having inflicted more casualties than he took in two of the twelve battles of on the Isonzo, and by margins that nowhere near made up for the other ten. The only reason his successor was able to successfully call up and equip those reserves was due to Ferdinand Foch sending six divisions to prevent Venice from being captured, with Cadorna fired as a condition. As well, Italy lost over 2,500 pieces of artillery in the retreat, more than ten times the 180(!) they started with.

** Though it's worth noting from a strategic perspective this makes little sense, given the Italian army was smaller and worse equipped than the Austro-Hungarian army at the outset of the war, and Cadorna cared more for capturing Trieste, a town that based the Austro-Hungarian fleet, a fleet that did basically nothing, and was not captured by Italy until after the war. Cadorna seems to have successfully pulled off this strategy by accident by most accounts, having executed and convicted more of his men than any other WWI commander and having inflicted more casualties than he took in two of the eleven battles of on the Isonzo, and by margins that nowhere near made up for the other nine.

* In nature, reproductive strategies are split between animals that have a small number of young and raise them carefully, and ones that have lots of young (or, typically, lay lots of eggs) and don't care for them at all, trusting that there are enough that ''some'' will survive. The latter strategy is a lot less energy-intensive and is generally used by more basic and short-lived species, while the former is particularly common among some birds and nearly all the larger mammals. Some kinds of rodents have and raise frequent large litters, leading to exponential population growth over a very short time if conditions are favorable.

** The Roman reaction to the disastrous battle of Cannae, the bloodiest day in Roman history to that point, with virtually the entire Roman army annihilated. They raised another army and outlawed even speaking the word ''pax'' (''peace''). Interestingly, Hannibal, the winner of Cannae, '' knew'' it, and his entire strategy in the [[UsefulNotes/PunicWars Second Punic War]] was a [[ExploitedTrope well-thought attempt at working around this]]: knowing that the Romans' numerical superiority mostly came from the troops provided by their allies in Italy, he invaded Italy with a small but well-trained and ''magnificently'' led army and started inflicting crushing defeats after crushing defeats in the attempt to scare and impress the Italian population in defecting to his side, thus ''stealing away Rome's numerical superiority''. While partially effective, this strategy didn't cause enough defections, to the point that, right after Cannae, the Romans could effectively keep ''six'' armies in the field: one facing Hannibal and [[DeathOfAThousandCuts launching raids to slowly destroy his army]], one in Northern Italy facing his Gaulish allies, one in Southern Italy facing the Samnites and the other populations who had defected from the alliance with Rome (this one would also occasionally fight Hannibal because most of the time he was in the area), one in ''Spain'' to attack Hannibal's base of operation, one in ''the Balkans'' to face the Macedons (who had entered the war because, after Cannae, they had figured the Romans were too weak to defend their allies in Greece), and ''the survivors of Cannae'' [[TheDogBitesBack destroying the Sicilian cities that had defected to Hannibal]]. His situation only grew worse from that: the Carthaginians managed to destroy the army deployed in Spain, but by that point Hannibal's allies in Sicily had been destroyed or cowed into defecting back to Rome, the Gauls were broken as an effective fighting force and the Macedons [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere had realized what was happening and sued for peace]], meaning the survivors of Cannae could go to Spain and finish the job, the army of Northern Italy could pick off the Carthaginian troops that had escaped Spain and were trying to join Hannibal, and the forces of the army of the Balkans had been divided between the Northern and the Southern Italy armies to allow them to finish their job faster. ''Then'' the survivors of Cannae [[UpToEleven raised reinforcements in Spain and Sicily]] and invaded Africa, where they [[{{Irony}} successfully stole Carthage's main ally]].

* At the Battle of Crecy in 1346, the French king Philip VI opened the battle by deploying Genoese mercenary crossbowmen and ordered them to begin firing on the English encamped at the top of the hill. The Genoese commander informed Philip that his troops were very fatigued from marching through rain and mud, did not have their pavises (anti-arrow shields) and that their bowstrings were wet from rain, which reduced their range. Philip insisted that they attack anyway which predictably ended with a catastrophe against the fast-firing English archers. Annoyed that his mercenaries had the audacity to die because of his idiotic order, Philip reached the high point of his stupidity and brutality by ordering his cavalry to charge through the Genoese to get to the English. The French knights deliberately ''[[LeeroyJenkins chopped their way through their own crossbowmen]]'' to try and attack the English.
** [[ForegoneConclusion And the result was that the longbowmen promptly shot all of the knights too]].

* An attitude similar to this served the Romans well during their expansion. While they were perhaps not as callous about it as many other examples of this trope, they were willing and able to sustain casualties that would cripple any rival state. It didn't work so well against the Germanic tribes, though.

** The Axis forces relied on the German built Kriegslokomotive classes, which had over 7700 produced in the most popular class alone. The Kriegsloks were so heavily produced [[SteamNeverDies some of them are still in service in 2022]], switching [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH96yjd6BKU coal mines in Bosnia]].

** The Axis forces relied on the German built Kriegslokomotive classes, which had over 7700 produced in the most popular class alone.

* Not to mention the Liberty Ship's equivalents on rails, the many US built steam locomotives pushed into service during the war. The USATC S160 locomotive had 2,120 examples built, and were shipped to all allied fronts of the war. There were some [[JustTrainWrong issues]] particularly when British rail crews not familiar with American water glasses accidentally caused a few of the engines to explode during service. Despite this the engines ended up in Africa, Europe, Asia; with some returning to the Americas as well. While the S160 is perhaps the most successful of the classes, but others such as the S100 or the narrow gauge S118 also bolstered wartime rail efforts.
** The Axis forces relied on the German built Kriegslokomotive classes had over 7700 produced in the most popular class.

* There was a similar example with the M4 Sherman. While by 1944 it was destroyed relatively easy by German anti-tank guns, it was more mechanically reliable and produced in far greater numbers than German tanks: knocked-out Shermans would be either repaired or replaced almost instantly. Things got even better once the more durable Easy Eight and Jumbo variants were deployed, as well as the British Firefly variant[[note]]This lacked the enhanced armour protection of the Jumbo- itself a lashed-up field expedient using extra armour cannibalised from dead tanks - but carried a gun capable to taking on the Panther on its own terms[[/note]].
* The cargo carrying Liberty ships were the best example of this. Designed to be built fast and in huge numbers, it was said if one carried a single load of war material across the Atlantic it had paid for itself. So much emphasis was put on building them ''quickly'', that it wasn't unheard of for welds in the hulls (welding was used in place of riveting because it was faster) to split open in bad weather even without the aid of the enemy. It was calculated the lifespan of a Liberty ship would be 20 Atlantic crossings, so once having made one she had paid herself and the rest 19 would be net profits. Amazingly, many Liberty ships still served in revenue transportation in the 1970's. Two of them are still functional as museum/training ships.
* Similarly to the Liberty Ships were the Escort Carriers, small, cheap aircraft carriers that could be built in mass quantities. The US built over 120 of these ships, which were used for various duties (anti-sub patrol, convoy escort, air support for amphibious forces, etc.) to free up the less numerous and far more capable Fleet carriers such as the Essex class (of which the US fielded "only" 24) to focus on other things (such as hunting down the dwindling numbers of Japanese carriers). For the Escort Carriers, ruggedness was not a high priority, earning them the nickname "Combustible, Vulnerable, Expendable" [[FunWithAcronyms in reference to]] their "CVE" hull classification.
** There were also the surviving American battleships. The USS Texas was built before WWI and quite slow when compared to the newer fast battleships. She did quite well and is now a museum ship and the only pre-WWI dreadnaught still afloat.
* When the bombings of Berlin escalated, the allied forces did all they could to provoke the Luftwaffe into attacking them. This caused large losses for both sides, but while the allies could replace the lost planes and crews fairly easily the Germans could not. It was one of the factors that eventually allowed the allies to gain air superiority first and air supremacy later.
* The American daylight bombing campaign proved to be staggeringly expensive in terms of human life lost. The Eighth Air Force, which gets most of the spotlight for the air war over Europe, suffered 46,000 casualties, including more than 26,000 airmen killed in action (more lives lost than the entire [[SemperFi US Marine Corps in that war]], although in contrast to the Airmen, the Marines didn't charge en mass into enemy artillery fire as a matter of course). In addition to the 8th AF, the less-famous Fifteenth Air Force, operating out of Italy, also suffered severe casualties pressing their daylight bombing campaign in Southern and Eastern Europe throughout the war.

* In 1943 and early 1944 Soviet T-34-76 suffered terrible losses from German Panthers and, especially, Tigers. Soviet commanders had to rely on "quantity over quality" tactics until T-34-85, IS tank family and SU sef-propelld tank destroyer family appeared in 1944.

* During the First Gulf War, the United States' one-time Cold War ally-turned-enemy UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein believed that a lesson from the Vietnam War was that the US (who formed the backbone of the U.N. taskforce to force him back from The Kingdom Of Kuwait) wouldn't support a war that would cost them 10,000 casualties. He, meanwhile had hundreds of thousands to spare and none of his subjects could protest the attrition. For one thing he thought that the U.N. would obey the letter of international law and seek to only engage him in Kuwait (they attacked Iraq itself, outflanking his forces and trapping them in Kuwait). For another, he seems to have forgotten the basics of force multipliers - i.e. his troops were catastrophically outmatched, so the enemy could be expected to take minimal losses (the greater the enemy's advantage, the fewer their losses). Thus, while the U.N. killed some 30k Iraqi troops they only lost 392 people.

* During the First Gulf War, the United States' one-time Cold War ally-turned-enemy UsefulNotes/Saddam Hussein believed that a lesson from the Vietnam War was that the US (who formed the backbone of the U.N. taskforce to force him back from The Kingdom Of Kuwait) wouldn't support a war that would cost them 10,000 casualties. He, meanwhile had hundreds of thousands to spare and none of his subjects could protest the attrition. For one thing he thought that the U.N. would obey the letter of international law and seek to only engage him in Kuwait (they attacked Iraq itself, outflanking his forces and trapping them in Kuwait). For another, he seems to have forgotten the basics of force multipliers - i.e. his troops were catastrophically outmatched, so the enemy could be expected to take minimal losses (the greater the enemy's advantage, the fewer their losses). Thus, while the U.N. killed some 30k Iraqi troops they only lost 392 people.

!!!The USSR and the Allies

* During the First Gulf War, the United States one-time (Cold-War) Ally Generalissimo Saddam Hussein believed that a lesson from the Vietnam War was that the US (who formed the backbone of the U.N. taskforce to force him back from The Kingdom Of Kuwait) wouldn't support a war that would cost them 10,000 casualties. He, meanwhile had hundreds of thousands to spare and none of his subjects could protest the attrition. For one thing he thought that the U.N. would obey the letter of international law and seek to only engage him in Kuwait (they attacked Iraq itself, outflanking his forces and trapping them in Kuwait). For another, he seems to have forgotten the basics of force multipliers - i.e. his troops were catastrophically outmatched, so the enemy could be expected to take minimal losses (the greater the enemy's advantage, the fewer their losses). Thus, while the U.N. killed some 30k Iraqi troops they only lost 392 people.

* Predatory pricing is a business version of this. Basically, a large company with smaller local competition will lower it's prices in an area to the point it actively loses money, dragging away customers from the local competition or forcing the local competitors to lose money trying to keep up. Then when the local competition has all gone out of business, the large company will be a monopoly that can raise up prices.