Laud the Americans

How about a "thank you" for developing the nuclear reactor propulsion system for the Brit's subs?

We also developed the SLBMs in use in their SSBNs.
 
So far no one as mentioned the Lend Lease Act. I think that deserves a little credit since a good portion of the WWII war effort was being entirely supported by the US economy. Oh, and Nylon, you can thank us for that too.
 
Helped out in WW1

Very very late into it, yes. More US soldiers died of flu than in battle. The Battle of Britain saved us, but it's good the US finally were peruaded to help out by the Japanese.

It was all a long long time ago now.
 
Very very late into it, yes. More US soldiers died of flu than in battle. The Battle of Britain saved us, but it's good the US finally were peruaded to help out by the Japanese.

It was all a long long time ago now.

Did you combine two different wars or what? Also, more US soldiers died in WW2 than British.
 
we supported our allies with funds and supplies long before we actually sent our armies to europe. the same goes for ww2 as well.

and read up on all the money we gave or loaned to britain, and about the several deferred payments due to financial turmoil after the war.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4757181.stm
So in a time when debt relief for Third World nations is recurrently in the news, the UK still has a slew of unresolved loans from a war that finished 88 years ago.

...Nor is HM Treasury able to say why the UK never repaid its WWI debts - even though, at the time, many Americans took a dim view of repayments being suspended, for they had bought bonds which stood little chance of showing a return on their investment.

..."In a 1945 state department survey on the US public's attitudes to its wartime allies, Britain was one of the least trusted countries," says Dr Clavin.

During the crisis years of the 1930s, only one nation continued to pay in full - Finland. Perhaps a conscious effort to foster a good reputation with an increasingly influential power, Finland's actions generated thousands of positive stories in the American media at the time. Nor has it been forgotten; the Finns celebrated this achievement in an exhibition last year.

But for the UK, a reputation for reliability has taken longer to restore.
good job, finland!
 
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Very very late into it, yes. More US soldiers died of flu than in battle. The Battle of Britain saved us, but it's good the US finally were peruaded to help out by the Japanese.

It was all a long long time ago now.

It was not that long ago. Also the US was very active prior to Pearl Harbor. We had blockaded ports, supplied both raw materials and war goods to England and Russia, we were actively engaging the Germans and Italians on the high seas and were reinforcing the Brits with our own volunteer pilots.

As for WW1 - we lost fewer men partially because we entered later, but our entrance convinced the Germans to sue for peace. Also we were not dumb enough to keep charging over the top into the wire and machine guns.
 
Oops, I was a bit tired writing that before and mixed two wars. The first sentence was WW1, the second WW2.

And what's the difference between jumping over a trench into machine guns and jumping off boats into machine guns?
 
We have to admit that we could have handled Vietnam more effectively. I recently read "How We Lost the Vietnam War" by Nguyen C. Ky, who was the prime minister of S. Vietnam during the war. Very insightful book indeed. Things could have turned out much differently.....

I guess this could go in the flame thread, but since we're talking about war here.
 
Oops, I was a bit tired writing that before and mixed two wars. The first sentence was WW1, the second WW2.

And what's the difference between jumping over a trench into machine guns and jumping off boats into machine guns?

You only jump off the boat once, not every day for several years.
 
A few you forgot...

Extremely long list.


You're Welcome

You sure about all of them?
I'll just pick out a random one.
You say revolver, which is traditionally said to have been invented by Samuel Colt, but he actually stole the idea off us. He happened to visit Britain, shortly before coming up with his idea, at the same time as James Puckle was showing off his gun with a revolving cyclinder. I think you can see how he came up with his idea.
 
the East Coast
California
fast cars (shut up I know they're crap, I said fast)
great TV/movies/music
baseball

we used to know how to build things, you know.. be productive and whatnot, I'm sure thats still around somewhere :|
 
Oh hang on, I'll stop flaming and say well done America for developing that guided missile that can hit the exact centre of a big red cross.

And some damn good music.
 
You sure about all of them?
I'll just pick out a random one.
You say revolver, which is traditionally said to have been invented by Samuel Colt, but he actually stole the idea off us. He happened to visit Britain, shortly before coming up with his idea, at the same time as James Puckle was showing off his gun with a revolving cyclinder. I think you can see how he came up with his idea.

If I recall, the Puckle gun was a tripod mounted 9 shot flintlock rifle. While both had revolving cylinders, that is where the similarities end. Colt was the first to produce a practical revolver. Like every inventor he took the work of those who came before him and took the next step.
 
Let's not forget aviation and aerospace. :)
Invented the plane.
Boeing. (Brought air travel to common people.)
We broke the freaking sound barrier.
Most of the world's light aircraft come from here.
NASA and all they've done.

Special mention: the SR-71 8)
 
Invented the plane.

Not according to wikipedia.... (this is actually news to me as well, i was looking up something unrelated)

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fixed-wing_aircraft&oldid=108984966

Self-powered aircraft were designed and constructed by Cl?ment Ader. On October 9, 1890, Ader attempted to fly the ?ole, which succeeded in taking off and flying a distance of approximately 50 meters before witnesses. In August 1892 the Avion II flew for a distance of 200 metres, and on October 14, 1897, Avion III flew a distance of more than 300 metres. Richard Pearse made a poorly documented uncontrolled flight on March 31, 1903 in Waitohi, New Zealand, and on August 28, 1903 in Hanover, the German Karl Jatho made his first flight.

The Wright Brothers are commonly credited with the invention of the aircraft[1], but like Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, theirs was rather the first sustainable and well documented attempt. They made their first successful test flights on December 17, 1903 and by 1905 Flyer III was capable of fully controllable, stable flight for substantial periods. Strictly speaking, the Flyer's wings were not completely fixed, as it depended for stability on a flexing mechanism named wing warping. This was later superseded by the development of ailerons, devices which performed a similar function but were attached to an otherwise rigid wing. This was the first manned flight.
 
Also, Wikipedia is not always the most accurate. The stuff about the Frenchman is undocumented and conjecture. There are photographs and film of the Wright Brothers flying in controlled and sustainable flight, the French supposedly had 13 years from their first flight to the Wright Brothers' flight - and there was narry a peep out of them about flight in that time. In only two years the Wright Brothers went from the Flyer to the Flyer III. Even if the French did make it off the ground first, they didn't do anything with that development and have no documentation to show it happened. No press were notified until after the Wright Brothers' flight 13 years later. It just doesn't add up. Everyone in the world was chasing heavier than air powered flight and attempts were well documented in the world press - if someone did create an aircraft that was capable of sustainable controlled and replicable powered flight they would have been out flying and developing the design for over a decade.

Sorry, but I smell someone who's jealous with a liberal dose of bullshit. I've heard all this information before but no historian has ever been able to find anything to support the claim. Not one photograph or film, no newspaper accounts, no aircraft.
 
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