Hi everyone.
This is a series of blogs that I've been thinking about writing for a while now. It takes its name from a 1984 sci-fi film based on the World War II urban legend of the same name. In that film, contemporary technology intermingles with that of the past.
As someone who's kinda big time into World War II era history, I also have to admit that I'm also interested in modern armed forces technology, and how both compare and stack up. Namely, most of us know how Nazi Germany overran most of continental Europe, and Imperial Japan dominated the Pacific until the Allies retaliated and gained the initiative following the Battle of Midway. Also, Soviet Russia/the Soviet Union was also bent on expanding its influence at the time, and seized several eastern European countries, such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and, for a time, parts of Poland. The Soviets also tried to take over Finland, and succeeded (albeit at heavy costs) at annexing some relatively small parts of Finland into their territory.
It was actually the Finnish/Russian conflict that got me thinking about this topic. Namely, how would these major powers of the World War II era stack up against some of the territories that they conquered back then, but if they were confronted by those countries modern armed forces?
I also found two videos posted by the French Army on their Armee de Terre (French: Army of the Land) YouTube channel that commemorated World War I where in which the technology of over 100 years ago is compared to what's in use today.
The first that I found is the newer of the two, were the M1886 Lebel rifle (one of several the French used in World War I, and even to an extent in World War II) is compared to the present day Heckler & Koch HK416F, a version of the 416 created for the French Army to replace the long serving and long out of production FAMAS rifle. Also, compare and contrast the overall kit from 1918 vs 2018:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oyGo0_GNV4
The other is a comparison between the World War I St. Chamond tank and the modern day Leclerc main battle tank. As with the rifles and soldier kit, armored vehicle tech has clearly moved on leaps and bounds over the past century:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKJYE6N9rTg
The point being is I don't think that the land grabbing political empires of the World War II era would have such and easy time if they came up against modern armed forces with modern technology and equipment. Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and even the Soviets would have all kinds of trouble taking over the countries they so easily overran back in that time if they tried to conquer them today, or were facing their modern armed forces back then.
I'll also link to lists and articles, so as to not make my own posts overly long, but I'll still delve into details of each side's strengths and weaknesses and what advantages and difficulties they'd have.
I hope you enjoy.
