Quote:
Originally Posted by Tegyrius
Bringing this thread back from the grave, and back to some of its original discussions... the LSOZI blog recently ran an article on French WWII ground combat units composed of naval volunteers. In a sign of the times, or perhaps a sign of the tech base of the day:
While the skill sets might not map as well in the Twilight War, it's an interesting point to consider.
A US Navy ground unit formed post-'97 would be pretty unlikely to receive front-line US Army equipment. However, I can see a collection of machinist's mates, electrician's mates, and gunner's mates being handed the keys to a compound full of salvaged Warsaw Pact equipment and being told, "good luck, you're on your own." Depending on timing, an enterprising CO or SNCO of a newly-formed scratch unit might also have a way to arrange delivery of a batch of equipment off one of the last resupply convoys. I'm having visions of a naval mechanized task force mounted on Cadillac Gage products - Stingrays for light armor, V-series armored cars in lieu of APCs. All hastily repainted haze grey, naturally.
- C. |
By the closing year of World War 2 Great Britain was running surplus RN personnel through training and sending them as replacements; "marginal" U.S. Army units like AAA were being disbanded and sent as replacements to combat formations.
For the Twilight War, sailors for whom there were no more ships and excess USAF personnel could be run through a 4 - 8 week course with the "parent" unit they were being assigned to; a quick infantry basic course, some familiarization with heavy weapons and the like.
Forming them into combat units directly would probably work poorly like the Luftwaffe Field Divisions during World War 2.