User blog comment:Tybaltcapulet/Bernard Montgomery vs Douglas MacArthur:The Sequel/@comment-3189283-20191004101245

Let’s see shall we

Melee

There isn’t a whole lot to separate these two knives, the Fairbairn-Sykes has a slightly longer blade but the M3 is slightly longer in overall length. I could get into more detail of usage and what not but in all honestly these weapons aren’t going to make the slightest bit of difference in a massive army battle like this so for the purposes of this match-up they’re basically the same.

Edge: Even

Pistol

Got to side with the M1911. The only thing the Webley really has going for it is the more powerful round with the M1911 having a further range, larger magazine and easier reloading system.

Edge: Douglas MacArthur

Rifle

The old Bolt Action vs Semi-Auto Debate. The Lee Enfield has a further effective range and a more powerful round which isn’t surprising when you consider it was often used as a sniper. What’s more unusual is that it has more rounds, with a Garand’s standard clip size being about seven rounds. The Garand obviously fires quicker because you don’t have to chamber the round when firing but with a smaller clip size it would appear all this achieves is running out of ammo quicker. So, despite having the less modern firing mechanism I’m actually going to give this to the Lee Enfield as it has more significant advantages.

Edge: Bernard Montgomery 

SMG

The Lanchester has all the advantages that you would want from an SMG; faster rate of fire and larger magazine size and also comes with a 60m range advantage to boot. The M3 was seemingly an alternative to the Thompson and while it retains the stopping power of its predecessor it also has its lack of range and sacrifices it’s rate of fire for more accuracy. However, we’re talking about trained soldiers here who can probably manage a higher rate of fire and maintain accuracy so that advantage isn’t really as pronounced.

Edge: Bernard Montgomery

Machine Gun

The Vickers has the vastly superior range, even if you only take the shortest possible effective range and also a slightly larger round so it can do more damage from a further distance. The Browning is better suited for a closer range with a larger ROF and being easier to move around, needing at maximum a four man team to operate whereas the Vickers needs at least six, probably eight to be on the safe side. Depending on where the battle takes place either one could be more effective, the Vickers will be better initially due to its range but the Browning will become more effective the closer the fighting gets. Edge: Even

Explosives 

I’ll split this into three for an easier comparison. Starting with the Grenades and I’m giving my edge to the Mills grenade for its larger blast radius, although the MK2 is lighter so could probably be thrown further which might help negate this advantage. Mortars I’m giving to the M2 because of the larger size of its mortar and the much further firing range. The ML3 can admittedly fire more rapidly but that doesn’t help much when the M2 can bombard them safely out of range. However, the most interesting comparison here is between the Bofors and the Bazooka. The Bofors quite clearly has the further range as well as being able to pump out more rounds a minute. The obvious disadvantage is that it would be stationary and so would be an obvious target for opposing aircraft and tanks. The Bazooka has a more powerful explosive round and is considerably more manoeuvrable so the user could move to better positions should the need arise and also target the weaker areas of the Tanks.

Both of the Bofors and the Bazooka suffer from being unsuited to taking on heavily armoured tanks and this is a problem in this battle especially for the Bazooka as Montgomery is bringing a heavily armoured Tank in the Churchill whereas MacArthur is exclusively using light or medium tanks. The Bazooka also suffers from only really being an anti-vehicle explosive whereas the Bofors could also be used as an anti-infantry weapon. Bearing this in mind I’m going to give the advantage to the Bofors. So, in conclusion I give the edge to Montgomery for having the better grenade and ant-tank explosive, losing out only in the mortar category.

Edge: Bernard Montgomery

Aircraft

Again, I’m going to split this into two and compare the Bombers and the Fighters separately. Starting with the Bombers and we’ve got two very different approaches here. The Hawker is a hybrid of both a fighter and a bomber as you can see by its very fast top speed and single pilot design so it can fulfil both roles if necessary. The Boeing B-17 is a more traditional bomber, being about 120mph slower than the Hawker but carrying a much bigger explosive payload and having a much further range. It also comes very heavily armed but I assume this was mostly for defence rather than offence. Ultimately as this is a comparison of their bombing capabilities, I’m giving the edge to the Boeing B-17.

Moving onto the fighters and this one is a bit clearer cut in favour of the Mosquito. It has the greater max speed, a further flying range and is fitted with more weaponry when you combine the machine guns and cannons, the latter giving them more punch to their attack. The Warhawk does have one advantage over the Mosquito however and that it can be used also for attacking infantry due to it’s 2,000lbs worth of bombs. Nevertheless, I feel the Mosquito is the better fighter which is what this comparison is for.

This is sort of difficult to give an edge to because of the dual purposes of the Hawker and Warhawk. In a terms of a straight air fight I’d say Montgomery has the edge because all his planes can be used for aerial combat whereas a third of MacArthur’s are purely ground attacking bombers. However, on the flip side MacArthur has the edge in terms of ground attacking because all of his planes can do that to some degree whereas Montgomery can only use a third of his planes to do that. This is also an important advantage because the majority of the battle takes place with ground troops. Then again having more fighters they can harass the bombers to put them off their bombing run. I’m going to take the cowards way out and call it even as it depends on too many factors to give a definitive edge.

Edge: Even