Discussion Main / WeHaveReserves

Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: RealLife examples may be a bad idea..., started by Grobi on Jul 2nd 2011 at 5:55:17 PM

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Deleted the following Natter that violated Example Indentation from the Film Gallipoli example:

• Based on a real battle; however, in real life, there was a fourth wave of men sent.

Edited by 72.197.237.11

Jesus, I know alot of people dislike conscription but do we REALLY have to portray it in the worst light possible all the friggin time?

T-34 worship is both tiring and rather pointless, I decided to switch to a more sober view of this blind brute.

Anyone disagreeing, please don't start an edit war, take it here.

Okay, just wandered by, but this example is complete and utter nonsense . . .

"The US did a kind of this in World War 2 where they sent out stupid amounts of SHIPS, as quoted "the US built more ships than japan could sink" which was meant ''literally' and the crews were pulled out of the water and sent to a new battleship/destroyer/whatever they were in. This variant of the trope was FAR less reprehensible than others, though many sailors DID die."

Looks like it was written by a ten-year old.

Caveat for all real-life examples: attrition is a standard part of modern warfare, where armies and navies are so large that the outcome of a war cannot be decided in a single day. Leaders who understood this won victories. Those who did not lost and their men were slaughtered uselessly. The Americans had a nasty learning curve in the Pacific in 1942-1943, but it was actually the Japanese who kept sending tens of thousands of soldiers, sailors and airmen to their deaths because their leaders were too callous or narcissistic or stupid to try something else.

Can I change the laconic entry? It's getting me a bit tongue-tied.

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Elaborating on the World War II Soviet forces regarding 'we have reserves':

1. This pretty much saved the Red Army during the first two years of Soviet-German War (1941 - 1942). First of all, the German war plan did not take the Soviet mobilization potential into consideration. They pretty much assumed that the Soviets were going to fold once the Red Army west of Dnepr River were destroyed. While most of Red Army units were hastily put together and brittle compared to their German counterparts, they had to be dealt with and gradually attrited the Germans. Not to mention, their presence enabled the Soviets to spoil the German time tables.

2. Having reserves became a very big issue during the Battle of Stalingrad. What happened before the street fighting portion of the battle turned out to be crucial. The Soviets launched wave after wave of counterattacks along the German northern flank. While this failed to stop the Germans, it had two effects: a) Prevented the Germans from providing adequate armored support for the infantry storming the city; b) attrited and thus weakened the Germans before they even set foot inside the city. However, being able to attrit the Germans in this manner was not a particularly pleasant experience; a typical Red Army division fighting for Stalingrad would not last beyond a couple of weeks or worse due to appalling losses.

3. On the flip side of the coin, the Germans became a bit too self-absorbed with their own superiority to such an extent that they did not have a second thought about how to manage wartime economy until after the disaster at Stalingrad. Until then, they did not feel a need to engage in all-out mobilization across the board, unlike the Soviets who were much more ruthless in this regard from the beginning of the hostility. But in a way, this makes a sence, when trying to understand the German way of waging war: Run quick and swift campaigns while avoiding wars of attrition which they could ill-afford. Unfortunately, they started running into problems once the scale of war became too large and no longer able to accomodate quick and swift campaigns.

Dropping this quote: it's not enough to indicate there are causalities, we need to have callous commanders and a brutal utilitarian disregard for life and limb over objectives.

Does it count as a justified, invoked, or some other playing with a trope method of an Evil Overlord purposefully uses Zerg Rush tactics knowing that he has a Lost Superweapon that is powered by the souls of the dead?

"Think like a man of action, act like a man of thinking, and don't be a dumbass."