Hi All,
Totally sci-fi but just use your imagination.
Your country (and only your country) has found a way to travel back in time to September 1939, You have volunteered to go and you can take one thing (a truck full of stuff would count as one thing if you catch my drift) with you that isn't radioactive (It mucks up the doofer in the thingamie and stops everything working)
What would you take?
M1A1 Abrams maybe, Challenger II, AK47 or M16,Tow 2 missile, Kevlar; a Paveway II.

Your choice. Anything you want. But choose wisely.

TTFN
Tom

HMMM ok, Nothing with a Turbine for an engine.... (repairs would be difficult at best)................... So if it was a Tank... it'd have to be a Diesel............

Matt,
What tank?
Once you've used all your ammo on board what then?
Throw stones?
Tom

I think a Leopard 2A6 can do the job. It has the diesel engine, the same 125 mm smoothbore gun as the M1 ( or rather, the M1 has the same gun as the leo ), and with a Balkenkreuz on it, it may confuse the Germans just long enough to take advantage of it.

Off course, Holland was attacked in multiple ways in 1940, so other measurements have to be taken aswell

The Diary of Anne Frank.

2 sets of good history books.One for Churchill,one for Roosevelt..let them know what getting too close to Stalin will lead to..Though Churchill did have his number early on but nobody listened..

That's the biggest part... you're limited to what Ammo you have........... I'm not so sure I'd pack a Tank...................

Nice idea, but once the Germans are defeated, you have to immediately take on the Russians in an open "hot" war. And if you take the war to the Russians, you face the same obstacle that Napoleon and Hitler faced, Mother Russia herself.

Perhaps the best thing would be a highly skilled sniper with a high end scoped rifle. Take out Hitler and his top aids.

But then, things get dicey withthe law of unintended consequences. Does Russia assume its ally was offed by the Brits and launch against her? Does Russia just steamrole across Europe to the Atlantic then invade England? Does the US enter the war at all?

I think the risk of changing history would be too great. Isn't that called the "butterfly effect"? Lets say you stop the Germans in 39-40, but the Russian take over...or blah blah...But that risk aside...I would take back some modern medical / surgical equipment and some bulletproof vests for our soldiers. I figure any weapon would eventually break or run out of ammo, so these thing would hopefully save some lives.

Sean

You can't go back and change anything. Say for example you go back in time to kill Hitler before WWII. Then when you kill him, your future self no longer has any reason to go back in time, and you wouldn't be there at all.


It's enough to boggle the mind.

thats funny

You mentioned a "truck load" so keeping in mind 1939 technology I would bring design drawings and/or technical printouts (no computer discs) for:

AK - 47
Kevlar
M-19 40mm grenade launcher
M-79 40mm "blooper" gun
the 40mm grenade
M-60 machine gun
M-14 Rifle
hand held solar powered calculator
LAW Rocket
RPG-7
The Detroit Diesel powerplant

Ahhhh

That'll be the paradox then!!

My first thought was a history book, but i think Henk has hit the nail on the head, paradox aside. The Diary of Anne Frank - a very moving book.

Andy

My thoughts on time travel.
Paradoxes caused by time travel are inherent due to the concept of time. Time being a subjective thought, makes any idea of its changing hard to grasp. First think of space, infinite space. What does it not include? Nothing? No, if it is infinite it includes nothing as well- now that seems like even more of a paradox. Really it is not though, that is what makes it infinite, and all things possible, including time travel.

Now should you travel in time, you introduce an element to history foreign to that time, that continuum will have a different history from the one that did the time traveling. Nothing has changed though other than a “new” continuum has been set up. The other two (future and historical) remain the same. This is why time travel is possible and yet never seen. The time traveler does not travel through time as it is thought of but rather through different continuums.

I would be curios to see what things would be like with better communication and information, so I would go with the information to develop those technologies, and a list of persons whose thoughts would further understanding and enlighten those who will shape the future as well as those who will live in it.

aaaaaaahhhhhhh I think I need another beer.

Harry

My weird fantasy has always been to get a couple of guns & uniforms off the dead whilst being unseen - if I go back into time and take the stg. 44 then it happened back then so I changed nothing.

Are you sure you didn't change anything? In removing the uniforms and the gun, you HAVE changed something. Perhaps a GI would have picked up the Stg and taken out some German who now goes one to do some heinous act, perhaps killing Ike changing the tenor of the 50's in the US, such as NOT supporting desegregation in 1954 with the National Guard.

A good read is Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder, but you must avoid the recent movie at ALL costs, it's a travesty. I remember seeing this in a comic book in my father's car in the early to mid 50's and was struck by the concept. The story had been re-printed in full on a website but had to be removed due to copyright issues.

If I go back into time who's to say that I was not supposed to go? Maybe not going would be the detrimental factor.

I like the idea about taking plans for weapons with you. Of course you would have to take plans for weapons you could make with 1939 tech.

I wonder if it would be better to try and stop Hitler and his Nazi gooms. Or to help Germany beat Russia and stop Stalin before her murders 20-30 million of his own people.

Of course there is also maybe stopping Mao from taking over in China and stopping his slaughter and purges.

It is an interesting thing to think about. Would I tell the Navy Japan was getting ready to attack Pearl Harbor? Would you show the world what a MESS Europe becomes during the cold war. Would you stop Castro and Chavez before they get started?

THe debate could rage forever about this sone. But it can be fun to think about it.

Could be a bit dodgy taking your Chally, Leo, Abrams of whatever in for a service.
"I'll have to order the parts," says the mechanic, "Should be here in sixty-five years."
Who knows,
Perhaps this is how advances in technology really happen
Someone nips back in time and gives Hawker Siddley a set of drawing for an aircraft "..I was thinking of calling it the Typhoon. Oh, and don't worry about the engine. Rolls Royce will have it sorted in a couple of months." Then off to RR. "Just some upgrades for your Merlin engine. Hawker Siddley're planning a new fighter that needs a little extra oompf."
Nip over to see the plans for the future Centurion tank "Looks good. It'd look better with the front all sloped though."
Maybe somewhen in the future it's someones job to do this.

TTFN
Tom