Re: What IF: ... Japan had more Oilers for Dec.7'41 ?

dabrob <dabrob@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in news:c86bd832-e1d5-4a4f-8fce-
bc938f7d045b@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Why do the Philipines really need to be taken at all ?
 
Because until they are they are essentially a 300,000 square kilometer 
combined aircraft carrier and naval base, sitting right smack in the 
middle of *all* the Japanese ****pping lanes to that oil they needed - and 
started the war for.

They have no way of blocking the entire island complex from American 
planes landing (and taking off) there - to say nothing of stopping small 
torpedo boats or subs from basing there - unless they basically have 
boots on the ground all over the islands. And they know this.

Even if "broken," the U.S. can still move small quantities of aircraft 
and ****ps and supplies to the islands as long as they're still held by 
the U.S. And even if they have a *hideously* bad success rate at sinking 
tankers, well, it doesn't take a *lot* of sinkings when your tanker fleet 
is as small as Japan's was to much up their plans big time.

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."