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A date which will live in infamy


Uncle Punk
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But you ride a Ducati. Weren't they also pretty bad during WWII?

 

i sold that piece of fascist italian garbage a while ago

 

(but still own 2 nazi cars and 3 socialist japanese bikes)

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America bombed the shit out of the factory because it was balls to the walls making military gear. They were bigger than they ever were and ever have been with over 10,000 emoloyees making shit to kill Ameeicans.

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Most of the countries that are world leaders in modern heavy manufacturing were involved in WW2.  For example...what countries today are the major manufacturers of automobiles?  Pretty much all of them were major players in WW2.  The most notable exception would be S Korea, who was involved in their own Korean war.  

 

Nothing causes manufacturing technology & capacity to advance like a war...unfortunately. 

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Ducati makes motorcycles because America bombed the shit out of the factories in Italy. They used to make radio parts, but since they're entire economy was decimated, they needed cheap transportation. The Ducati Cucciolo (little puppy) was born...

Glad that the sound hasn't changed much haha.

Wonder how much those are worth now a days.

Sent from my iPhone.

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Well, yeah. We didn't bomb the building because it had radio parts inside. I wasn't aware the Italians were responsible for turning the factories into weapons facilities. I'd like to read up on that. Have a source? 

 

"During World War II (WWII) the Ducati factory was involved in producing products for the Army – bullets, machine-gun parts and military radios. Because of this on Oct. 12, 1944 the state of the art Ducati facility was targeted by the Allies as a weapons factory. "Operation Pancake" bombed and destroyed the factory."

 

https://ultimatemotorcycling.com/2009/12/21/ducati_wwii_history/

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There were many reasons that the Allies prevailed in Europe.  One of the most notable was the development of the P-51 Mustang.  Besides being a formidable fighter, it had the range to escort bombers the full distance of their bombing runs.  That fact led to the destruction of the Luftwaffe and gave the Allies control of European skies.  After that it was just a matter of time until Allied bombers destroyed Nazi manufacturing & supply lines.  Nazi tanks ran out of fuel.  Nazi troops ran out of food and ammunition.  Germany could no longer support their war effort.  VE     

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shoot, my 919 is designed in Japan, and manufactured in Italy. The stupid bike is bullet proof.

 

Don't forget the Spanish Civil War. 1936-1939 Facists vs Socialists. Germany and Italy supporting one side, and the Soviet Union and Mexico supporting the other. It should have been a big clue about what would possibly happen in Europe's future. One thing noticed was the advent of the dive bomber in combat. Ju-87 Stuka. Which oddly enough was in part developed from interest in the Curtiss Wright SB2C Helldiver built in Columbus Ohio. It was seen in airshows in Europe, and from what I understand, German military actually visited the aircraft plant here in the US for a closer look. The US Navy moved on to the SBD Dauntless, a better dive bomber.

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I almost want to say Russia is up there in the casualties. 

Right.  Russia suffered the most casualties as a result of WW2.  Around 25 million people, which was something like 15% of their population.  

 

They were poorly equipped and not always well trained, but they broke the will of the crack German soldiers they were fighting. 

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Right.  Russia suffered the most casualties as a result of WW2.  Around 25 million people, which was something like 15% of their population.  

 

They were poorly equipped and not always well trained, but they broke the will of the crack German soldiers they were fighting. 

 

They knew how to survive the winter! The Germans had a rougher time I believe. (It sucked for both sides.) I used to be a big WWII history buff, mostly the aviation side though.

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In the US, we don't seem to remember much about China's role in WW2, but something like 14 million Chinese died fighting Japan.  US attention was obviously focused elsewhere.  China's defense was actually important to our war with Japan.  Japan is resource poor.  If they would have gained access to China's resources many, many more Americans would have died.

 

 

About 3% of the entire world's population died as a result of WW2.  75-80 million people died.  Over half were civilians.   Think about that.     

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