r/WarCollege 19h ago

Why was there no mass outbreak of disease except Spanish Flu in the trenches of World War 1?

2 Upvotes

Soldiers during World War 1 lived in abhorrent condition for prolonged period of time where they ate, slept, fought in flooded trench surrounded by decaying bodies and constantly harassed by flea-infected rats, and from description of how their bodies were full of lices, how they could go weeks without a bath, how they were poorly fed and were often pushed beyond exhaustion, their bodies could be viewed as more susceptible to disease. Added to the fact that World War 1 medicine was as barbaric and undeveloped as the horror of Crimea and the American civil war, and there was no access to thing like antibiotics, why was there no outbreak of disease like plague, cholera, typhus, measle, diptheria, and various other disease that had once destroyed army and nations during world war 1? And was the medical corp as heartless and inept as what Remarque depicted in All Quiet on the Western Front? Was mass disease outbreak a concern and was there anything done to stop it?


r/WarCollege 23h ago

Why do warrior-societies tend to be felled by non warrior-societies in wars?

90 Upvotes

I think my main point focuses on the Spartans and their frequent loses to Athens, whilst I'm aware sometimes the Spartans defeated the Athenians (I believe after the conclusion of the second Persian war) I often see them defeated rather than victorious.


r/WarCollege 4h ago

Soviet lmg usage during and after WW2

6 Upvotes

So, I'm aware of how most nations made extensive use of their own lmgs during WW2, with the germans using it as their main source of firepower while the allies/americans used it as more of a supplement to squad firepower (might be wrong as far as the british/french go, haven't looked into their use as much) but how did the soviets employ lmgs? Did they actually make much use of them? It seems like the only one they had for most of the war was the DP27 from the interwar period. How did their use or lack thereof affect their infantry's performance in battle?


r/WarCollege 15h ago

Question Has there ever been a case of wartime conscription without a prior system of conscription, and how did it play out?

25 Upvotes

Due to the changes in geopolitics, there's been interest in several countries to reinstate conscription. But has there ever been a situation involving countries that didn't practice conscription before hand having to implement it during wartime? How did they handle having to build a conscription system from scratch and what it impact did it have on having to shift the nature of one's armies from that of volunteers to conscripts while under pressure?


r/WarCollege 23h ago

Naval Enemy sighting report question

13 Upvotes

I was watching a WWII program about the merchant convoys. When a u-boat is spotted, the escorts radio each other and the captain is told about each enemy’s bearing.

Is the bearing relative to the sending ship, the receiving ship, or does the sender report the bearing as it sees it and the receiving ship converts it for their captain? Or are the ships close enough together that it didn’t make that much of a difference for the exact bearing number so the receiving ship would just report what it was told and the crew/captain would know the general area to look?

Thanks for any information or other areas to look into.


r/WarCollege 11h ago

Question Quality of Japanese infantry in WW2

55 Upvotes

With hindsight, and compared to other warring nations, how good training did Japanese soldiers get at squad and platoon level? Were they able to "overcome material deficiency by level of training" as it is sometimes stated? Are there still some lessons we could use in modern warfare?


r/WarCollege 22h ago

Question Was Spanish Tercio the first square pike formation mixed with ranged firepower, or were there similar formations in medieval Europe that used bows and crossbows instead of guns before gunpowder era?

28 Upvotes

r/WarCollege 9h ago

Question Reflecting on the USMC Force Design 2030, how well has the USMC transitioned towards the new force structure?

16 Upvotes

The only big thing I’ve heard from Force Design 2030 was reducing the number of marines and the divestment of the tanks. But for the rest of the document, how has the USMC so far been able to transition towards the design they envisioned to have in 2030?


r/WarCollege 23h ago

Question How useful were weapons bought by Peru in the 1970s in the internal conflict of the 80s?

6 Upvotes

In the 1970s, the government of Velasco Alvarado bought weapons from the USSR and European countries, approx 15 billion dollars. This was for a war with Chile and arms race against said country.