Of course, the first answer would be the innocent lives lost. However, what else would you have saved to put in a museum? Are there any tanks, planes, ships, vehicles, weapons, or documents that are no longer around that you would like to have seen saved? Just off the top of my head, I would like to have saved: USS Enterprise CV-6 HMS Rodney A Japanese I 400 class submarine Any Japanese battleship that survived (like Nagato) Marc Mitscher’s personal papers
King tiger, Kv-2/85,T-34/85/Panther,and a jagtiger Doolittles B-25? Hitlers staff car Rommel's dog tags HMS Hood and the Bismark Admiral Yamamoto's sword Admin Edit: Seven posts to answer one question? This does not include the ridiculous one I removed. I've merged them all into one post. Next time they get dumped.
I think there are exmples of all of those in museums. If you search: Aberdeen Armor Museum Military Vehicle Technology Foundation There are also a couple of large Armor museums in the former Soviet Union that have examples on display as well.
USS Enterprise CV-6 USS Saratoga CV-3 USS Washington USS California USS Heermann IJN Haruna KM Tirpitz (Hell of a salvage job though)
Splattered all over a mountain in China. Nothing to save. However, it would have been great to get York's B-25B back from the Russians.
How about Robert Capa's D-Day photos that were lost due to bad handling in the dark room? Only like 10 photos survived I think.
Capa's photos would have been wonderful. Added to my list: HMS King George V HMS Victorious HMS Norfolk
I'm going to add HMS Warspite to the list, having a service that spanned from the Battle of Jutland to D-Day.
Plus you can remake both ships with whats left of them............. Neapoleans horse Hannibal's sword
I'll add a plane myself: The Akutan/ Koga Zero fighter - The first crashed zero that was found intact to take back to the U.S. to study and make flyable again. They found it on the Alaskan Island of Akutan after it raided Dutch Harbor, its pilot (Koga) dead from a broken neck. It was destroyed in a training accident during the end of the war.
Wait, what was that about Yamamoto's sword? I thought that was recovered when the Japanese recovered his body? hmmmm...
It should be on the top of the list.... Or Illustrious, for launching the first major carrier strike on "Taranto". As for Aircraft- Whirlwind DeHavilland Hornet Whit V Hampden (a re-construction underway, but non-flyable)
The bulk of German Military, social, technical, & political, records. Paperwork's worth much more than artifacts in the long run. (Though the Grosstraktors that stood at Wunsdorf barracks would've looked rather nice at Bovington.) ~A
However generic, Rommel would be one of mine. I think that he would have served as a great figurehead for the the new German army as a symbol of national pride and could have also been a great motivational speaker as he was more or less a national hero.