Dismantling an Ameriwank

[CDurham]

After having read numerous threads about Harry Harrison's Stars and Stripes books I went down to the local Books a Million for a few hours just to see if it was as crappy as everyone says (no way was I gonna buy it)

It didn't seem all that bad until the British attack on the Gulf Coast... while I could see the British POSSIBLY making a navigational error in the dark I had several major problems:

1. Attacking the Confederate outpost, the British PFC's (or whatever they are called) may not know what the Confederate flags looked like, but their officers damm sure would have known and been able to identify, possibly some of their noncoms as well

2. The British soldiers going apeshit and raping the local women. The problem is that while such behavior may have been... ignored towards Indians and Africans, these people are white folks, and such behavior would probably be intolerable to even a low ranking soldier.

That and the fact that the women are Confederates (even IF the Union was occupying the area) and therefore apparant allies to be helped.

There are numerous other issues, such as firing grapeshot from a mile away and having a significant impact... aside from the fact that I don't think cannons of the time could accuratly hit a target that far, grapeshot is like shotgun shells, it spreads out. At a mile you aren't gonna hit anything.

 

[67th Tigers]

2. The British soldiers going apeshit and raping the local women. The problem is that while such behavior may have been... ignored towards Indians and Africans, these people are white folks, and such behavior would probably be intolerable to even a low ranking soldier.

There are numerous other issues, such as firing grapeshot from a mile away and having a significant impact... aside from the fact that I don't think cannons of the time could accuratly hit a target that far, grapeshot is like shotgun shells, it spreads out. At a mile you aren't gonna hit anything.

There are documented cases in storming operations of British troops getting drunk and going on the rampage, but only after storming fortresses. The storming parties were pretty drunk to begin with, and were the picked worst scum of the army, who no one minded suffering ridiculous casualties. None of these circumstances applied in this case.

Grapeshot at a mile is silly, at that range Spherical Case (i.e. Shrapnel) shells were used.

Although I came accross a possible corroboration to his "incendery shells" recently. The British apparently were experimenting with Phosphorous Sulfide shells, a liquid which degrades to White Phosphorous in the air and is generally unpleasent. No one ever fielded these weapons though. The British lumped them in with Cyanide shells etc. as immoral weapons.

 

[Riain]

Is this the book where the US builds a 15 knot battleship in 1861 or so, and then goes on to invade Britain and does a Blitzkreig using trains?

 

[Glen]

Agree with all the below so far. I also found the very quick turn-around in attitudes to form the Re-United States of America unlikely.

I enjoyed the Ameriwank aspects of the book (while realizing they were just that) but not the British slams.

Anyway, one thing I have been thinking is that while the premises behind the plot of Harrison's books are too implausible, some of the same ideas might apply to The Oregon War thread I have going.

 

[David bar Elias]

Let's not forget some of the other insane aspects of that series....

Like William Tecumsah Sherman being portrayed early on as a staunch abolitionist...when in fact, Sherman was a racist who had no problems with slavery...just with treason.

Or during the battles in upstate New York, when General Grant orders a retreat...Grant never retreated...it literally went against his nature, and he would have simply tried to find a different way around the British.

Or how Queen Victoria is portrayed giving a massive hissy-fit in every other scene she has; now, I don't know much about Victoria's personality, but I seriously doubt it was like that.

Or the Ghurkas getting defeated in close combat with Mexican guerillas; just the opposite would have happened.

As Chris pointed out on another thread, I believe, the British wasting all that time building a road through Mexico makes no sense, when they could have landed in California instead.

And of course, there are plenty of other things wrong with that series...making it hard to believe that Harry Harrison of all people actually wrote them...

 

[Redem]

Maybe a list of every mistake (for all the serie) should be made