Talk:Military deception

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[edit] Soviet maskirovka

The privacy notice of the website that contains the quoted article on Soviet Maskirovka says:

Information presented on the Maxwell Web Site is considered public information and may be distributed or copied. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested.

Therefore this article is a free game. However its usage must not be brainless cut and paste, but rather a summary, because the author himself goes to great lenghts to explain that the main issue here is the linguistic one: the untranslatability of the word: cross-overlapping the meanings of russian terms "maskirovka"/"kamuflyazh"/etc. with english terms camouflage/concealment/etc. `'mikka 03:43, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Large scale examples

Someone wrote: "On the day of Barbarossa, two-thirds of the Soviet ground forces were in the Soviet Far East preparing against attack by Japan. The military deception was so successful that the Germans would likely have taken Moscow, consolidated Europe and won the war, if not for the extraordinary logistical skill of Zhukov."

I find that factually doubtful and overly speculative. At the very least it needs a good source. There isn't one so I have removed the text.

Agreed, not only is it overly speculative and somewhat sensationlist, it is unrealistic. Two thirds of the Soviet Army, fractions is one of those things that doesn't actually convey anything useful in such cases. How many hundreds of thousands if not millions did a third of the Soviet army comprise? Furthermore, won the war? Even if they had of pushed right over the Urals it seems unlikely that they would win, over 10 million Russians died fighting, I've never heard of anything to suggest that they would not accept 20 million to win, then there is the trouble of trying to hold a piece of land larger than the continent of Europe with a hostile populace, none of which changes the Western part, Normandy still would of happened. Nothing would of changed the Germans inabilitiy to launch a proper offensive against Britain or the Americas (with their weak Kriegsmarine) which would put them up against a stronger and completely undamaged industry. With the Brits sending away alot of children to the colonies and such it seems unlikely they could of bombed Britain into submission, worst case scenerio British Government in Exile in Canada down the street from some Scandinavian Royalty. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.137.207.191 (talk) 00:19, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Debate"

There is no debate whatever as to the value of military deception. I have removed the text to that effect, which in addition seemed internally inconsistent. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.245.182.232 (talk) 22:56, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

How can anyone claim to know that there is no debate whatever? Wouldn't that require omniscience? I certainly have read discussion about this in the Royal Swedish Military Academy Magazine. John Keegan's book certainly seemed like part of an ongoing debate. Still, the debate on this issue might be a lot less prevalent and international than I originally thought. In that case: thank you for correcting me. I have changed the article so that it says there is a difference of opinion on the value of military deception among military pundits. If you doubt that there is a significant difference of opinion on the value of military deception, please read the sources referenced. -Sensemaker