Evaluating War Experience

[Ron Goldstein]

Brian

You say "As usual Ron, I agree with you, but on a "overall " view, I would add this. In the Field Companies RE. Let me rephrase that... (In our field Companies RE) We had a great deal to do with the infantry. Very often a few Sappers would go out on fighting or reconnaissance patrols with the infantry."

You, of course (as usual) are quite correct.

The REs, by the very nature of their extremely dangerous work, would invariably be working with other front-line units and therefore would have become pretty experienced in other military skills.

When I replied to Owen "On your second point" , "Would a sapper, tankie, driver, gunner, pilot etc know what an infantryman's war was like?" you are on much safer ground and I must agree with you 100%. "
I was speaking purely about my own experience as a wireless op .

However , thinking about it now, as a Driver/Op in Light Ack Ack I had two areas of expertise, namely transport & communications.
As a newcomer to the RAC and subsequent Loader/Op in the 4th QOH I had to learn and use other skills namely ordnance.

Sorry Owen........ I'm going to take back my earlier remark about "you are on much safer ground and I must agree with you 100%." and ammend it to "I agree with you 50% of the time"

Cheers

Ron

[sapper]

I dont know about you Ron my old sausage.There cannot be to many old Vets capable of writing on a computer, and at our age?

Tell you what Ron..We are cleverer than we thought we were......HUGE GRIN.
Sapperb

[dbf]

Marc,

Expert: somebody skilled or knowledgeable: somebody with a great deal of knowledge about, or skill, training, or experience in, a particular field or activity

Pundit: somebody who expresses opinion: a critic or authority on a subject, especially in the media.

Think this says it all. There are always those who have an opinion, very few are knowledgeable…

Experience and skill, that those of Ron and Sapper and my father count for a great deal in my opinion.

My father tells me of his experiences, but when I ask why, he says, read this book.

Those who sit in judgement on TV fool some of us, but they are put forward by the media, as experts in their area. It was ever thus. Surely not all of us are too dumb to know the difference…

D

[Owen]

Originally Posted by sapper

I dont know about you Ron my old sausage.There cannot be to many old Vets capable of writing on a computer, and at our age?

Tell you what Ron..We are cleverer than we thought we were......HUGE GRIN.
Sapperb

I'd go along with that, I'm so glad that you are.
I must admit to getting out my wooden spoon now and then.
It produces some good posts.

Ron.
Sorry Owen........ I'm going to take back my earlier remark about "you are on much safer ground and I must agree with you 100%." and ammend it to "I agree with you 50% of the time"

Ron, I'm amazed you agree with me even that much.
Me just being a nerdy-enthusiast.

As for an Army learning new modes of operating, does it have to do it the hard way from bitterly learnt lessons, or can it learn from manuals & intelligence reports?