If you had to choose...

[matt8260]

If you had to choose to be in any conflict in history and wanted to survive which would it be?In the front of a phalanx,in the D-day invasion at normandy,a french knight at agincourt,on the confederate side during the battle of gettysburg about to charge the union line,or a japenese pilot during the marianas turkey shoot?

[anymapkoku]

Well the D-day invasion was a slaughter in MOH, and looked bad when watching Saving Private Ryan, but in the movie it said there were like 30 casualties? Or 100? 70 maybe? Not sure. We'll assume 100 though casualties were actually lower than expected. I'm sure there were atleast a few thousand soldiers who took part in the landing, but we'll assume there were 400. Your chances of dying were then 100/400. Pretty decent odds when compared to Pickett's Charge in the movie Gettysburg. Pickett said he had no division left atferwards, when it had numbered 15,000 before. We'll assume a large portion of his division was left, let's say 5,000. So your odds of dying were 10,000/15,000. Very bad odds considering that the survival rate was not that high and probably only a few hundred actually lived.
I don't know anything about the Japanese at Marianas but perhaps being in a Phalanx was not such as bad idea as many people would tell you. Assuming you lost the fight, you probably would die, however most kills were a result of losing and running rather than fighting and dieing. Maybe a 50% survivability rate overall if you lost. Still better than Gettsyburg and perhaps better than a turkey shoot. I don't really know anything abotu agincourt though, but I'm sure atleast 100/400 french knights died so that would put D-Day below it.

[Kraxis]

anymap he meant in front of the phalanx... you know like the Persians were. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

I would go for the D-Day, as long as I was not the first man in the first landingcraft. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif But I would take it anytime if I was at Sword, Juno or Gold, a little less at Utah and a big perhaps at Omaha (some 50% of the Allies losses that day was there I think).

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BTW, Danish Crusades are true to history.

You may not care about war, but war cares about you!

[Spino]

You wacko, what kind of hypothetical question is that? http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif

Most Japanese pilots during the Marianas Turkey Shoot were either fresh out of flight school or 'one way ticket' kamikazes. During the latter half of WWII the casualty rates for Japanese pilots were appalling. This is the worst scenario of the three you have suggested. No thank you!

The French knights at Agincourt really had a bad time of it (although many deserved such a miserable fate because of their impetuousness and arrogance). Muddy ground and obstacles negated the speed and impact of their charge. A frontal assault along a narrow front with no room for maneuver further exacerbated their situation. Add to the mix the rain of bodkin tipped arrows fired by thousands of highly trained longbowmen and you have a recipe for disaster. Third runner up.

Since most armies of the time could not stand up to a well ordered phalanx a wild, bloody rout in the face of such a resolute and well ordered formation was not uncommon. And it is when men rout that the bloodbath really increases in intensity. Second runner up.

Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. Those poor Southern boys had to march quite a distance while under intense cannon and rifle fire. However, when not trying to shoot each other relations between northern and southern troops were pretty good. Often doctors would treat the captured wounded of the other side and civility between victor and vanquished was not uncommon. First runner up.

The casualties for the D-Day invasion were a mixed bag. In Saving Private Ryan they show the worst beachhead of the D-Day invasion, Dog Green sector (as part of the Omaha beachhead). Apparently the first wave to hit Dog Green was virtually wiped out (some units suffered 95% casualties) so the movie was not exaggerating with respect to that specific area of the invasion. The other beachheads had it rough but none even came close to the carnage on Omaha. Of the three German divisions defending the beachheads at Normandy Omaha had the best of the lot, the 352nd Infantry division. The casualties sustained at Omaha (4,500+) were in stark contrast to the landings at Utah beach where only 197 out of 23,000 Americans were listed as casualties! Utah was by far the easiest of all the allied landings that day. Since you didn't specify which beachhead on D-Day I will take Utah, making this the smartest choice!

[This message has been edited by Spino (edited 11-02-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Spino (edited 11-02-2002).]