| Title: | The American Civil War |
| Notice: | Please read all replies 1.* before writing here. |
| Moderator: | SMURF::BINDER |
| Created: | Mon Jul 15 1991 |
| Last Modified: | Tue Apr 08 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 141 |
| Total number of notes: | 2129 |
Most of us here have probably heard of, or read, MacKinlay Kantor's
speculative novel _IF the South Had Won the War_. If not, hie thee
down to a used book store and get a copy!
Anyway, just this weekend I came across what promises to be another
excellent piece of alternative history, a novel by Harry Turtledove,
who is well known for his alternative history stuff. This one is
titled _The Guns of the South_ and it introduces time travel into the
ACW in a most intriguing way. Just suppose for a minute that someone
in today's time were to go back to January 1964 and offer to General
Lee a hundred thousand rifles. What kind of rifles? AK-47 rifles.
Sure, it's jiggered. But it's a good read so far, and it dishes out a
fair serving of serious historical perspective.
-dick
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 120.1 | Does He Cover All The Bases? | NEMAIL::RASKOB | Mike Raskob at OFO | Tue Mar 29 1994 11:37 | 28 |
RE .0:
An interesting idea! Has the author covered the two obvious
problems with this idea? Problem #1: the rifles are no good without
ammunition, which could not have been manufactured by the _North_ at
that period, let alone the South; so how much ammunition gets sent back
to Lee, where does he store it, how fast does it get used up, etc. ?
Problem #2: who is going to train the ANV in use of the AK-47? I
know it is a simple weapon, by modern standards, but the average
soldier of 1864 would need some training to know how to load it, fire
it, and clean it when it got wet or muddy. They would _especially_
need training in how to handle "climbing" on full automatic, or else
95% of their shots would kill sky. If you keep them on semi-auto, they
still need training in how to use the sights, or they are not likely to
do much better than they did with muzzle loaders. In any case, this is
not something to be handled in a two-hour orientation talk.
One of the great things about Kantor's novel was its "plausibility"
- he stayed within the confines of the period, and chose to make only
two small, entirely possible changes in events to initiate his
"alternate path". I have no objection to the time-travel concept, but
if the author is going to meet the "plausibility" test, he has to deal
with the _real_ problems an infusion of advanced technology would
encounter.
MikeR
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| 120.2 | Its worth reading... | TNKSYS::RMUMFORD | Tue Mar 29 1994 12:09 | 11 | |
In the book, a substantial group of advisors comes back with the
weapons, also bringing trainloads of ammo. Don't want to give away too
much, its a good book. Read it, if only for fun....
BTW, I "read" this book via the 'Radio reader' on Public radio, during
lunch break.
Later,
RM
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| 120.3 | Works when soiled. | BUSY::BOWIE | Combat Cook | Tue Mar 29 1994 16:06 | 5 |
As I recall the AK, cleaning it after a stay in the mud was not
necessarily a must. Good weapon.
Grins
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