Excellent TIL. A really interesting figure on wikipedia also says the Prussians had a bigger actual peak mobilised figure which tells the tale of why artillery is so effective too. They massacred the French and so they had to mobilise more people

How many more men do you think you would need to overturn a 10:1 artillery advantage then?

All good arguments for artillery win battles. I’m glad you agree. Would a side without any artillery win a war against those without? Well, you could ask that about air support, or intelligence, or tanks, or machine guns, or UAVs now. And the answer would be no to all of them. I’m not saying artillery isn’t essential either.

How about instead, what would happen in a war of 2 million men with 1k artillery pieces vs 1 million men with 10k artillery pieces? I’m pretty sure the 2m men would still manage to over-run the 1m, artillery be damned. Costs would be high, but 2:1 men on the battlefield would negate a 10:1 artillery advantage I’m pretty sure

And yet, did the weight of men not decide the day? I fully appreciate the roll of artillery and think Starmer’s latest investment frankly baffling when shell production is the one thing that could actually help Ukraine too. But artillery don’t win wars, men do

Has there ever been a war where the army with the fewer troops has won the war?

I think you need to go back and revisit to Sun Tzu. Without troops no war can be won. Now I’m not saying Artillery isn’t important, but Artillery alone will not win a war. Is there any war where a numerically inferior army has won? And I don’t mean individual battles, of which there are most certainly examples, a full campaign. The closest I can find is the https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War which it should be noted the Red Army got want it fought for, just at enourmous cost

Never let a good line get in the way of statistics

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1342260/wwii-mobilization-by-country/

The Red Army was double the Germans, who had to fight on two fronts. Troops win wars. Artillery wins battles.

Shells win battles. Troops win wars

I did, but now I’m sad the UK still exists too :(

Dissapointing to see the UK all together

Verdun in ww1 say almost 50million shells. We’re gonna need more shells to actually win

Old habits die hard. But the most teenager comment I have seen on lemmy needed a rebuttal

Sure, loads of sewage. But it also had smaller settlements, less people, and human waste was recycled more in times gone by too. Far more water was far more drinkable even 150 years ago

Lol, we definitely have had clean drinking water for far longer than we have had dirty drinking water, thank the industrial revolution for that. And try skipping a shower for a day - you’ll be fine. Soap also has a long history https://www.soaphistory.net/soap-history/ over 4000 years

So literally wrong on all three points. Perhaps you need to read more instead of doom scrolling and swapping nudes on your smartphone

Any surfers think they could actually surf on these?

Sony apparently has your back still

No SD card, no 3.5mm connector, no purchase

Cold showers build character. Warm showers are for bitches

Build resilience: take the cold shower after a sauna

Dunno about found. I think that requires intent. This is a happy little accident

IRC!