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> > On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 09:24:19AM -0500, H-War Editor David > Silbey wrote: Thank you all for your replies about WW I > Cruiser terms and Janes/Conways. But, I have a question about > them and that is how accurate do you think they are? I can't > image a country giving out info on its warships so potential > enemies could evaluate who they may have to fight someday. > Carl Barna The pre-1914 world was rather different in many ways -- it was very common, for instance, for military attaches or attached observers to be present along with the fighting forces. (For instance, Phil Sheridan of the US was an observer during the Franco-Prussian war.) Also note that most of the major details of weapons systems as expensive as ships were made publically available in Parliamentary debates. Not all the technical details, obviously, but things like weapon caliber were pretty well-known. As they are even today. The thing about having thousands of soldiers or sailors or airmen learning to use weapons is that you really _can't_ keep the broad details, or a lot of the small ones, secret, if you are to train lots of people to make use of them. Tony Z Tony Zbaraschuk <tonyz@eskimo.com> ----- For subscription help, go to: http://www.h-net.org/lists/help/ To change your subscription settings, go to http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=h-war -----
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