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LargeSlowTarget -> RE: R&D (8/13/2006 6:28:43 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Fishbed
Didn't know there were so many german troops in Pacific theater! I can't believe CHS overlooked that...[:'(]
Well, we all know that in WWII there were no German troops in the PTO, apart from some subs and armed merchant raiders - but some people might not be aware that a large part of the WitP map shows former German colonies:
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Land on the North-Eastern coast of Papua-New Guinea (Aitape - Salamaua area), the Bismark Archipel (Rabaul & Kavieng), Bougainville, Nauru, a part of Samoa (Upulo & Savai'i), the Marshall Islands, the Caroline Islands (Ponape - Palau) and the Marianas (except Guam), and Tsingtao in China (well known due to the local brewery founded by German missionaries).
Most of this territory had been purchased from the Spanish after these had lost the war of 1898 against the US and wanted to get rid off what territories remained after the US took possession of the PI and Guam. In 1914 Germany lost everything in the Pacific, there were no German military forces except some native policemen and a handful of white police officers (and famous Admiral Graf Spee with his squadron of armoured cruisers). In fact, the German South Sea colonies were sort of a haven for Germans who didn't like the growing militarism in the fatherland. The Versailles Treaty resp. the League of Nations then divided the former German colonies in the Pacific between the Japanese, Britain and Australia.*
So, no wonder there are so many Germans playing WitP - we are a bunch of territorial revisionists! [;)]
* For those of you who read German and are interested in this part of history, you may want to read: Die deutsche Südsee 1884-1914. Hermann Joseph Hiery (ed.), Paderborn 2001, 854 p.
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