Strange Creature <strangecreature7@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in news:ea78f842-
cfe2-479b-a7f0-3d88dd1983f4@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Basically the strategy of Japan seems to be to destroy the
> U.S. fleet in the Pacific so that they can drive them out of the
> Phillipines and then destroy the U.S. bases in the Hawaiian islands
> and perhaps establish a few there themselves so that the U.S. would
> require a long journey without resupply to reach Japan and east Asia.
> One question about execution might have been whether to attack both
> Midway and Pearl Harbor simultaneously. If the question, however, is
> one of exerting maximum damage on resources in a first strike, how
> feasible would it have been to sail a few carrier groups entirely
> across the Pacific and attack the West Coast and Panama without being
> detected before attacking?
Probably not. They're moving from the relatively lightly traveled waters
between Japan and Hawaii to the much heavier traveled ones between Hawaii
and the Americas - and the massively heavier ones that are within a few
hundred miles of the American coast.
Worse, they have to have *two* groups doing this - one to the west coast,
and one to Panama. Detection chances have just doubled - or more so,
given how many ****ps they'll run into heading for the canal.
Sneaking up pretty much has gone out the window.
> If the purpose of the two missions were to 1. Destroy the Panama
> Canal, and 2., to destroy as many naval construction ****pyards and as
> many ****ps and aircraft as possible before sailing away,
That's where it all falls to the ground. At that "sailing away" bit. By
the time they reach the Americas, they're pretty much out of gas, with
little chance they can manage the logistics to refuel.
Worse, the west coast of the U.S. is dotted with literally dozens of
military bases - with a lot of them of the Naval or Air variety. If they
get close enough for a "sneak" attack, they'll be more than close enough
for a sh*t-load of bombers, fighters, Navy ****ps, etc. to pound away at
them for the next several thousand miles.
And even worse, the remnants of the fleet, now pretty much out of ammo
even if they have the magic fuel tanks required, now has to sail past
Hawaii to get home...a Hawaii with a nicely intact Pearl Harbor based
fleet and *lots* of warning time.
This is a plan called "how to lose the war are very first action..."
> could the Japanese navy have been more successful at the goal of
> destroying the U.S. navy in the Pacific
No.
> and getting a more complete retreat from the Phillipines with a more
> long distance assault than that on Hawaii?
Double no. Lose the war in a day, yes. Be more successful...only if the
entire fleet sinks on the way there so the U.S. *isn't* attacked and thus
doesn't go to war with Japan.
David
--
_______________________________________________________________________
David Johnson home.earthlink.net/~trolleyfan
"So many of you come time and time again to watch this final end of
everything which I think is really wonderful and then to return home to
your own eras and raise families and strive for new and better societies
and fight terrible wars for what you know is right, it gives one real
hope for the whole future of lifekind...
....Except of course we know it hasn't got one."
|
